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We go again

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In the haze of survival and the hangover that followed, I forgot to do the closing thread to the blog. What an incredible escape my Villa pulled off. Ultimately, despite a minor scare towards the end, we saw out the draw we needed with relatively little fuss. Somehow we have evolved  from being a team that routinely allowed 20+ shots on goal per game, to one that was pretty miserly. Our XG against fell from 2+ per game to sub 1. Our shape was improved, the team press from early season was back. In short, the coaching staff had achieved exactly what us sofa bound fans had been demanding since November. And all via zoom. Kudos to that!

The final day played out almost exactly as I expected. Watford were spent and capitulated to a point of no return pretty quickly. No new manager bounce, and presumably the team and fans are all feeling fairly flat and with a very limited sense of togetherness, given the 'knives out' style of the owners. I expect them to have a tough time in the next 12 months. Bournemouth made the fist of it I feared they would against a beach-bound Everton, leaving Villa needing the draw they competently secured. In truth we put in a sound performance, only really conceding one good chance, that Antonio missed. Our own game was cautious at first, more expansive in the second half, and on balance we deserved at least that draw. Grealish got a vital and excellent goal, a nice parting gift if he goes, but I do truly hope that there is a reasonable chance that the owners can placate his need for progression by building a team in which he can progress, at the rate he needs to. 

Upon the final whistle I immediately got hold of some champagne, in a mirror image of last year's season ending playoff final. Football is a wonderful thing and this weekend was a real reminder of how the bad times just lay a path for even greater enjoyment of the good ones. 

Bravo Villa.

Another side benefit of our survival is that the "premier league wonderland" blog title can now persist. I had this embarrassing realisation that I'd need to retire it (or write about teams from another division) had we been relegated, but now I have the potential to blog my way through next season also. How pretty that will be is another story, a story that will be told from September.

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