Elijah Briscoe

Striker - Aston Villa
13 Oct 2026
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Elijah Briscoe

8 Edition

The Aston Villa Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Victor Lindelöf damages knee ligaments — 99 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings

Tammy Abraham could have had three

12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

Squad

Tempers go at Aston Villa

Boubacar Kamara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Elijah Briscoe is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emiliano Martínez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Crystal Palace take the points off Aston Villa

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ollie Watkins

Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The terraces

Everybody has an opinion about Tammy Abraham

He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.

Player ratings

Pau Torres could have had three

4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

In brief