It’s been far too nice a day to sit in front of the telly watching football, so I didn’t see much of Aston Villa’s pathetic capitulation at the hands of Chelsea. My God, though: from what I did see, Villa appeared to be the worst team ever to disgrace the Premier League. I looked at their line up, their highly paid line-up of has beens and never weres, and I couldn’t see one player who looked good enough to play at that level. Have a look at this team and tell me otherwise:
Guzan
Hutton
Richards
Lescott
Cissokho
Gueye
Sánchez
Westwood
Gil
Gestede
Ayew
I mean, that’s pretty grim, isn’t it? I doubt that any of those players would get another team in the Premier League, but I’ll bet they’re all on a decent wedge at Villa Park.
Few of the players looked like they were remotely interested in playing football, but in the last few minutes some of the Villa players were very interested in kicking lumps out of the Chelsea players. It was as if they had completely lost their heads and Alan Hutton definitely lost his when he got a second yellow for an X certificate assault on Chelsea’s Loftus Cheek. And then something totally ridiculous happened. Hutton could and should have had a straight red, rather than a second yellow, but instead the remaining Villa fans gave him a standing ovation as he left the pitch, an ovation he acknowledged with a cheery wave as he went down the tunnel. You do not need to be a genius to work out that Villa are going down. In normal circumstances, I have a soft spot for Villa and their loyal fans, but I had to take a rain check on that one after this.
I wasn’t there, I don’t know, but perhaps the Villa faithful were pleased that at least one player was interested. Football can be an irrational game at the best of times and anyway his subsequent suspension will barely make a difference to a team that’s headed for the Championship. Quite why you would wildly applaud a play for an act of serious foul play is utterly beyond me.
31,000 people paid to watch that rubbish and at least some of them, the Chelsea fans, will have enjoyed it. For Villa, the road to redemption is not even round the corner. On the basis of what I saw, Villa richly deserve their relegation and of the supporters you usually end up with the club you deserve.
