Marked for Tammy Abraham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Aston Villa's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aston Villa has to find a result from somewhere.
Market28 Dec 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ronnie Hollingshead is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of John McGinn at his very best
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aston Villa.
Match28 Dec 2026
Halfway: Aston Villa sit in position 13
20 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Match26 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Timothy Jones was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Aston Villa dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Dec 2026
Leon Goretzka wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Dec 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Jackson, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zion Suzuki and Aston Villa agree another 4 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Haji Mnoga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
17 appearances at Crystal Palace and the goals keep coming. Aston Villa are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Oct 2026
Lincoln City go through and Aston Villa go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Alysson Edward, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market2 Nov 2026
Boubacar Kamara wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Nov 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Aston Villa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match31 Oct 2026
Sunderland made Aston Villa work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markie Meade, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Leon Goretzka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Aston Villa
A 0‑6 beating by Arsenal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match17 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Aston Villa and Arsenal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Tammy Abraham
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market19 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Gomes wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Beaten 6 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Aston Villa dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑6 Timothy Jones left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aston Villa can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Aston Villa
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aston Villa are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Sep 2026
Leon Goretzka wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alysson Edward, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Boubacar Kamara’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.