Aston Villa v Manchester City buildup, Premier League news, WSL, and more – matchday live

⚽ All the latest as we build up to Saturday’s games ⚽ Ten things to look out for | Fixtures | Mail David Just under three hours to go before Villa Park witnesses people defiantly waving inflatable bananas while being called cheats. Taha Hashim looks at Aston Villa v Man City in t

⚽ All the latest as we build up to Saturday’s games ⚽ Ten things to look out for | Fixtures | Mail David Just under three hours to go before Villa Park witnesses people defiantly waving inflatable bananas while being called cheats. Taha Hashim looks at Aston Villa v Man City in the second entry of this week’s, count ‘em, ‘10 Things’. “It was five months ago but it feels a lot longer.

When these two sides met in May to finish the season, the contest doubled as Pep Guardiola’s leaving party after 10 years in the job and twice as many trophies, an era now laden with asterisks. It must be surreal for Aston Villa supporters, too. Their 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium, inspired by two goals from Ollie Watkins to complete a league double over City, came only four days after their Europa League triumph in Istanbul, where Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía were the scorers.

Buendía is the only one left in claret and blue as Unai Emery builds a new side.” Jamie Jackson’s latest piece listing supposed solutions for MUFC fails to mention the only one that will really work long term. Relegation, preferably “doing a Leicester”, in order to finally get rid of the Glazers. As long as they are there, nothing will meaningfully change.

Even if we never got back to being “elite”, at least I might be able to love my club once again. Continue reading...