Author: John Townley
While Aston Villa’s second season back in the Premier League hasn’t quite hit the heights many expected after making a record-breaking start to the league campaign back in September, the club have benefited from knowing exactly what league they’ll be competing in next year. That might seem odd considering the chatter of a European football next season, but come the end of this campaign, Villa would have only played 11 top-flight games since the start of the 2010-11 season knowing they were mathematically safe from relegation. Aston Villa Football Club finds itself in a completely unfamiliar position. On the beach,…
Ross Barkley will part ways with Aston Villa following a loan spell that failed to get going after a hamstring injury seemingly ended the impressive form he was showing at the start of the Premier League season. The on-loan Chelsea man has shown both sides of his game at Villa this season – and now the midfielder is facing an intriguing summer. Barkley’s future seems highly unlikely to lie at Villa after disappointing upon his return from a hamstring issue in January. Before picking up the injury in a home loss to Brighton in November, Villa fans were ruining a…
Ahmed Elmohamady and Neil Taylor will both be leaving Aston Villa in the summer with their contracts unlikely to be renewed at the club. The full-back pair joined the club as Villa were plotting their route of the Championship and they both became staple members of Steve Bruce’s and later Dean Smith’s first XI’s. Between the two oldest members of the Villa squad, they’ve featured in 229 Villa games combined with many of those games seeing the full-back duo spread high and wide as Villa made a fist of promotion out of the Championship. Welsh international Taylor penned a four…
Kortney Hause has spent nearly 200 days on the treatment table since initially joining Aston Villa on loan in 2019. The former Wolves centre-back – who’d later join Villa on a permanent deal after helping the club restore its Premier League status – has struggled to find a consistent run in Dean Smith’s side after struggling with injuries throughout his time with the club. Now 25-years-old despite only starting 21 Premier League games in his career, Hause has reached the heights he was tipped to by his former Wycombe Wanderers gaffer, Gareth Ainsworth in 2012. Born in Goodmayes in North…
Aston Villa have been hunting down more clean sheets after registering 14 of them from the first 26 Premier League games of the season, following a goalless draw against Wolves at the start of March. After recording a sixth shut-out during a ten-game run in which Dean Smith’s side would lose their influential skipper Jack Grealish, at that point in the season, Villa still had one eye in Europe after keeping clean sheets in more than half of the Premier League games they had played. Though, after winning just three of the last 12, Villa have found goals hard to…
Anwar El Ghazi’s eighth goal of the Premier League season against Everton has once again reaffirmed that the Dutchman has a vital role to play in Aston Villa’s bid for European football next year. So far this Premier League campaign, El Ghazi’s goals have won a total of 10 points for Villa, with three match-winning goals against Wolves, Leeds United and now Everton coming in between a goal at Stamford Bridge that won Villa a solid point on the road in December. The winger has also scored three goals against West Bromwich Albion this season and his goal against Crystal…
Matt Targett has to be considered as Aston Villa’s player of the season only months after being subjected to criticism for his performances before the end of Project Restart. While Villa secured their Premier League status on the final day of the 2019-2020 campaign at the London Stadium, it was only until the final four games of the season that Dean Smith’s side looked in contention to beat the drop. Fast-forward eight months and talk of prioritising a new left-back in the transfer market has been swept under the carpet with Targett coming into his own this term. Having played…
Brazilian flair, samba football and South American skills had rarely graced the many boggy pitches across the United Kingdom let alone Villa Park, until on a chill February night in 1972 when Santos FC travelled to the second city with some global icons on show for the 55,000 in attendance. 70p was the admittance fee to watch the greatest player on Earth in the flesh in what was a once in a lifetime opportunity to marvel at the cosmic talent of Pele. Greeted on the Villa Park turf with a few hard-hitting tackles from Charlie Aitken and Chris Nicholl, the…
When Aston Villa found themselves seven points adrift with only four games left to play during Project Restart last season, mid-table mediocrity was a dream prospect with the club installed as relegation certainties. Eight months on and as West Bromwich Albion travelled to Villa Park to play out an end of season dead rubber, the game was only one of five in the top-flight since the start of the 2010-11 season that Villa played while mathematically safe from relegation. Aston Villa Football Club finds itself in a completely unnatural position. On the beach, coasting along, wanting the season to end…
Jack Grealish has been absent from Aston Villa’s matchday squad since the start of February and while his return to action is scheduled for before the end of the Premier League season, Villa’s skipper has been a major miss. With losses to Leicester City, rock-borrow club Sheffield United and an out of sorts Tottenham side all suffered in the weeks that followed Grealish’s injury at the Amex Stadium, Dean Smith’s side have waved goodbye to their hopes of European football this term. Grealish’s talismanic performances earlier in the season had tempted Villa fans into believing that this Premier League season…