Aston Villa were 3-1 up after 43 minutes but were made to sweat for their first win of the season, emerging victorious from an entertaining Champions League opener with Club Brugge. John McGinn, who struck the only goal when Villa belatedly got their season up and running last September against Bologna, opened the scoring before Emi Buendía and a first goal for Nicolas Jackson in claret and blue appeared to put Villa out of sight at half-time.The Belgian side have become familiar foes since Villa returned to the big time, the glitziest club competition of them all; a freakish Tyrone Mings handball gifted the hosts a penalty, and subsequently victory, in 2024-25 and on this occasion Aaron Wan-Bissaka conceded a second-half penalty to plunge a seesawing contest back into the balance. Continue reading...
Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!♫ ♪ The champions ♫ ♪ ! Bigger Cup is back, baby! Red-hot action from the world’s premier club competition across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Bigger Vase and Tin Pot clubs must wait for their slice of European action until after an international break almost as long as the Geopolitics World Cup itself. Rather like Gianni Infantino’s North American investment roadshow, Bigger Cup, with its revolving Swiss system, 36 teams reduced to 24 following 114 matches, has become baggier than MC Hammer’s trousers [now there’s a reference for the young readers – Football Daily Ed]. Back in Clive Tyldesley’s ITV pomp, ties such as Liverpool v Atlético, Napoli v Arsenal, and Real Madrid v Inter moved the dial, filling boozers and column inches.Should Mauricio Pochettino play Russell Crowe in his biopic or should it be the other way around?” – Krishna Moorthy.Following up on the very entertaining game between Arsenal and Chelsea, there was one piece of tactical brilliance by Xabi Alonso that didn’t get the credit it deserved. Everyone knows how dangerous Arsenal have been at corners causing chaos by saturating numbers in the opposition penalty area but Chelsea’s plan of keeping their four front men in Arsenal’s half removed a lot of the threat. Why hasn’t someone done this before and why didn’t Chelsea continue with this excellent plan?” – Nigel Sanders.Three weeks ago Hearts Women won 5-0 away against Motherwell. Two weeks ago they won 6-0 at home against Aberdeen. At the weekend they won 7-0 away at Montrose. NOW That’s What I Call Goal Difference! I’m just trying to work out when, if this sequence continues, they might set a new record football match score in the UK, beating the Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, which took place on 12 September 1885. A goal every two and-a-half minutes! The Mike Dean of that match probably didn’t have had to leave the centre circle for the entire game” – Ken Muir.Let me be the first of 1,057 USA USA USA-based readers to congratulate Jamie Carragher on his honesty. It is patently clear he doesn’t give a monkeys. The b@nter-filled, social media-chasing CBS Bigger Cup coverage is an absolute trainwreck. They should leave the comedy to actual comedians. As a Spurs fan I’d rather watch Arsenal win another league title than suffer through another CBS half-time production. And if you don’t believe me just ask anyone in the States … it makes you wish for the wit and wisdom of Alexi Lalas!” – Chris Brown.José Mourinho’s blathering about ‘we won what we won and lost what we lost’ (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is just meaningless jibber-jabber. It’s right up there with the mindless ‘it is what it is’. I challenge the Football Daily pedant community: what isn’t what it is? What has a club not won what it won? When does a team not lose what it’s lost? Is there a plausible weeklong riff here? Or is that not what it is?” – Mike Wilner. Continue reading...
Ollie Watkins' departure to Al-Hilal - which lurched between acrimonious and emotional - has left Aston Villa without their best attacking outlet. Despite just one goal in his first 13 top-flight games last season, he ended up netting 16, leaving him on 91 Premier League goals - a club record. Nicolas Jackson was brought in as Watkins' direct replacement and was a priority signing for Unai Emery, having worked together at Villarreal.
Tap a headline to view metadata and excerpt fields in Sportra, then use the article website button to continue on the original publisher page.
/https%3A%2F%2Fsportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F09%2Ficonsport-373795-0099-6aa06e8f40437445170006.jpg)
