The Aston Villa Courier
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Alysson Edward runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 47. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marco Bizot decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match18 Nov 2026
Aston Villa through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Wigan Athletic, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad23 Nov 2026
John McGinn falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match21 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Aston Villa
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alysson Edward wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aston Villa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Vinnie Hayward misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Tyrone Mings
7.63, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Aston Villa had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Pau Torres gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pau Torres is on it.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Alysson Edward
- The dugout Alejandro Garnacho knocks on the manager's door
- Squad I-Lani Edwards in a row with a teammate