VILLA (AWAY)

If football is the most important of the least important things then, surely, away pubs must appear second on that list. Our beautiful game emerged relatively unscathed post lockdown (in the professional game at least), but I fear we'll start to discover the disappearance of a key element of the British away day infrastructure: away boozers.

You know them, I know them, we’ve most likely drunk in them together. Pubs that are usually shit, but you’re always made to feel welcome and, most importantly, there’s always a plastic pint pot of lager to greet you. If a stack of rolls wrapped in clingfilm is sweating away behind the bar, then you’ve really hit the jackpot.

Is the Witton Arms still standing? I guess the internet would give me the answer, but fuck the internet. Five minutes or so from the away section at Villa Park, and even with the split configuration (home fans in the part of the building that resembles a pub, away fans under a marque in the car park) it’s still a perfectly serviceable away boozer. Or covered hard standing, with a temporary bar at one end, to be more specific. I should check before I travel. No need for any extra anxieties.

It’s unsettling what a lengthy run without a victory will do to a person’s soul. Should we feel anxious about the lack of recent wins, or soothed by the excellent league position? Will the Witton Arms be open on Saturday? Are we slowly but surely, sliding back down into that bottom ten, a reversion to our Premier League mean. Or is this season different? Seventh is fabulous. Seventh. Just a win away from Europe. But I can’t help but notice the cluster of clubs looming behind us.

The Newcastle game brought back some old anxieties, ones I’d cheerfully banished across the summery first flush of this season. Great first half, lots of control, loads of lovely football, but not nearly enough to show for it. Followed by a stuttering dysfunctional second 45, once, presumably, the Newcastle managerial team had made some tactical adjustments at half-time. That was Graeme Jones I assume? Unless Eddie Howe’s mere presence alone was enough to unsettle us, the ghost of Bournemouth home catastrophes past.

I appreciate this is churlish in the extreme, and that we’re sitting seventh in the table (which is, obviously, ace), but if it was fair to wonder, during the darkest moments of last season, if GPott is great at getting teams to play lovely football, but not so great at getting teams to win football matches, do the results against Norwich and Newcastle suggest this is still a valid question? The game control is great, but it can sometimes be a little like watching Man City - cold and robotic - but mostly without the things that presumably make Man City enjoyable to follow. Lots of goals and lots of victories. Fuck knows why their fans are so chippy.

Potter is the guy who can out manage Jurgen Klopp during that superb second half at Anfield, having done him for all three points the previous season. But he’s also the guy who’s out managed by Graeme Jones at home to Newcastle. And that’s the Potter dichotomy. There’s brilliance in there, possibly genius. But some flaws too. This weekend will be Potter’s 100th game in charge of us. And I hope we get 100 more. What happens at Villa Park on Saturday won’t define the season, but the run of fixtures between Villa away on Saturday and Brentford at home on Boxing Day probably will. Are we better than last season, or not?

So first up, this weekend. If it’s unlucky to face a team with a new boss in the dugout, it should be acknowledged that it was lucky to face a Newcastle team managed by Steve Bruce’s assistant. And a Norwich team managed by dead man walking Daniel Farke. ‘We are disappointed with 17 points’ said Joel Veltman after the Newcastle game, ‘we have high expectations’, So do I Joel, so do I.

The situation with the goalkeepers is another cause of concern. Untried Dutch giant or somebody who will almost certainly flail? But as we did with Ryan (until Sanchez emerged), operating with just one viable goalkeeper in the squad will always unravel at some point. And the situation at the other end of the pitch - and I’m sure this is hot topic new news to you - is even worse.

GPott’s brilliant thrilling debut - Watford away back in August 2019 - featured four centre forwards. Murray and Locadia started, Maupay and Andone appeared off the bench. Plus, Trossard was amongst the subs and Jahanbakhsh was in the match day squad. You might consider some of those players useless, but they have all (to a greater or lesser extent) operated at Premier League level.

And now? Is playing with a false nine a tactical masterstroke or the inevitable conclusion when working with a squad that now features just one attacking player, central or wide, who hasn’t lost form, fitness or confidence?

But even without a proper goalkeeper, and just a single attacker (Trossard, although I think this weekend’s fixture is tailor-made for Maupay, he loves nothing more than needling a fanbase whose sense of entitlement far outstrips the current status of their club) we really should have enough about us to do something. The fakest of false nines should be able to take advantage of Tyrone Mings. Their trusty diving show pony has been replaced by somebody who was middling, at best, for Norwich, and somebody who looks like he’s inherited Jack Grealish’s old flat. Is Danny Ings fit? He usually scores against us, so we’ll need to score at least two goals if we're to claim more than a point.

And the new manager? Well Steven Gerrard is the man who lost out to St Johnstone not once, but twice, in the Scottish cups last season. Finishing first in a two-horse title race is fair enough. But to not even reach the finishing line in not one, but two one-horse race cup competitions (once Celtic had imploded) takes a special kind of talent. So I’m feeling okay about him being up against Potter on Saturday.

And for us, well Lamptey is now back to full fitness and looking super sharp, Bissouma is presumably available for selection once again, Cucurella hopefully won’t be too traumatised from the second half horror show against Newcastle. Moder, Dunk, Webster etc etc. There’s a lot of talent in that squad, no question. As is so often the case with us, the match may well come down to mistakes and chances. Can we, please lord, not give Villa too many chances (looking at you Jason Steele) and can we make the most of the opportunities we’ll create down the other end.

Are we better than last season, or are we not? Will the Witton Arms be open? Happy 100th game in charge Graham.