{"id":9958,"date":"2024-08-23T16:05:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T15:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9958"},"modified":"2024-08-25T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-25T08:33:18","slug":"two-scores-to-settle-in-game-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9958","title":{"rendered":"Two Scores to Settle in Game 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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And so to Villa Park for Saturday’s early ebening game (17:30 kick-off) against Unai Emery’s Villans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villa celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Yet, our first trip to Villa Park, then Aston Park, was a mere 120 years ago, on Boxing Day, 1904, during our first season in the old First Division. I had expected to turn up a cup encounter in Victorian times, but no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we were the first southern side to play in the First Division, none of our side that day was born south of Liverpool, and eight were of the Scottish persuasion. The press billed the encounter as the match of the day. Despite bitter cold, it attracted a full house of 40,000, three times the average attendance at a Division One game that season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previewing the match, the Morning Leader observed that ‘there is a dash of romance, a precocity of youth, about the Arsenal which cannot fail to magnetise the people’. Thus, it ever was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, having beaten Villa 1-0 at the Manor Ground, Plumstead, in early October, there was to be no festive cheer in Brum. We were 1-0 down within ten minutes. ‘Following an exciting scrimmage in front of goal [Charlie] Satterthwaite equalised with a pretty screw shot’, The Sportsman reported, but after that, we were indebted to Jimmy Ashcroft, arguably the first in the line of our truly distinguished goalkeepers, for keeping the final score down to 3-1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our defence, which had conceded just 13 goals in its previous 16 games, was missing its lynchpin, centre-half Percy Sands, rested for the following day’s game in Nottingham and the one the day after in Sheffield. We played five league games between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve; workload? Pah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final historical note: like the home of our opponents last week (the one Molly knew!), Villa’s was built on what had been the grounds of a large house that had become a Victorian amusement park. Aston Park was an oddly ovaloid venue to accommodate a steeply banked cement cycling track that ran through the terraces behind each goal. The track lasted until the redevelopment of the ground as Villa Park after the First World War to the designs of Archibald Leitch, whose work arguably reached its apogee with Highbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unai Emery, formerly of this parish, has got Villa back into Europe and, this season, the Champions League, having finished fourth in the PL last term. CL football may come to weigh on their PL performances, but that will not be a factor this early in the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UEFA\u2019s financial rules, and the PL\u2019s, have influenced Villa\u2019s summer transfer business. The club sold a couple of youngsters that Emery would have preferred to keep \u2014 Tim Iroegbunam to Everton and Omari Kellyman to Chelsea. Nonetheless, so far, Villa has spent 30 million euros more than it has reaped from sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline departures were Moussa Diaby to Al-Ittihad and Douglas Luiz to Juventus for a combined 111.5 million euros. Those sales funded the arrivals of the burly midfielder Amadou Onana from Everton and combative Dutch left-back Ian Maatsen from Chelsea for a combined 103.85 million euros. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far less expensively, Jaden Philogene has been re-signed from Hull and will compete with Leon Bailey for the right-wing berth. Sam Iling-Junior has arrived from Juventus and will do the same with the similarly aged and just as promising Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey on the left. Philogene, Illing-Junior, Rogers and Ramsey are all in their early 20s, which indicates Villa’s intent to lower the average age of a side that was the seventh oldest in the league last season. Yet the Basque’s bargain buy may be 30-year-old Ross Barkley, picked up from relegated Luton Town for 5.9 million euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their 2-1 opening-weekend win at West Ham last Saturday, Villa looked like a team rebuilding and yet to settle in their new faces. Nonetheless, we can expect to see the familiar one of Emilio Martinez between the sticks, fresh from signing a new long-term contract. Defender Tyrone Mings remains a long-term injury absentee, and another of our old boys, Calum Chambers, has joined Cardiff on a free. So, a back four of Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa and either Lucas Digne or new boy Maatsen is likely. Maatsen’s arrival blocked the path of another of our alums, Lino Sousa; the 19-year-old has been sent on loan to Bristol Rovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villa lined up in a 4-2-3-1 against the Hammers with Onana and Youri Tielemans as a double pivot behind Bailey, skipper John McGinn and Rogers. Last season, Emery tended to go with a compressed 4-4-1-1 at home to counter teams that like to invert a full-back to create a box of four to make an overload in midfield. I expect him to do the same again or even use a 4-1-4-1 to provide further insurance against Mikel Arteta\u2019s inventiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emery has plenty of midfield options off the bench in Barkley, Ramsey, Philogene, Enzo Barrenechea and Emi Buendia, the Argentine international who missed last season with injury, but Boubacar Kamara remains a long-term injury absentee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ollie Watkins provides the firepower up front for a side that likes to break on the counter. The 20-year-old Colombia striker Jhon Duran is his understudy, with Cameron Archer sold to Southampton. Now that Chelsea has dashed Emery’s hopes of bringing in Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid and, to rub it in, has offered Villa Raheem Sterling, there are reports that another of our old boys, Donyell Malen, is in Emery\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emery has lost only one of the seven games he has managed against us for Villa, Villareal and PSG. That was our 4-2 win at Villa Park two seasons ago when we scored two in added time (the first a Martinez og, you may remember). His head-to-head record against Arteta is Won 3, Drawn 1, Lost 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our 2-0 win against Wolves last weekend was more run-of-the-mill than rousing but resulted in a clean sheet and three points. With no fresh reports of injuries \u2014 Toni and KT3 remain off games, and Vieira is iffy (in so many ways) \u2014 the only change from last week’s starting XI may be at left-back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season, Bailey stretched Zinchenko in both games, and two of Villa’s three goals came from that side. I had pencilled in Jurrien Timber for Zinchenko, but in his pre-match press conference, Arteta threw some doubt on the Dutchman’s readiness to start. Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jacob Kiwior are possible alternatives, but more likely from the bench. Calafiori may also be needed elsewhere if Declan Rice’s cramps return. Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey, \u00d8degaard, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems ridiculous to say this in only the second week of the season, but every game is a must-win from here on in. Villa did the double over us last season. We failed to score in either game, despite an xG of 3.2, and the April defeat at the Ems did for our title bid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday’s will be a tough battle: Villa are a good team with a top coach. It may come down to who wins the tactical battle in midfield, which could turn on Arteta working out how to stop Villa’s two tight blocks of four stifling Martin \u00d8degaard’s creativity as they did last season. Putting the ball in their net would help, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are scores to be settled, demons to be vanquished and, most importantly, three points to be secured. Predictions of this being a high-scoring game are off the mark, methinks; 1-0 to the Arsenal has a reassuring ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game ‘holics, near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to Villa Park for Saturday’s early ebening game (17:30 kick-off) against Unai Emery’s Villans. Villa celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Yet, our first trip to Villa Park, then Aston Park, was a mere 120 years ago, on Boxing Day, 1904, during our first season in the old First Division. I had expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9958"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9971,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9958\/revisions\/9971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}