Aston Villa lose again: what a difference a year makes

A year ago to the day, Aston Villa’s 2024-25 Bigger Cup adventure – one that would take them to a mesmeric quarter-final with eventual winners PSG – started with a 3-0 victory over Young Boys, a performance with more fluidity than a Jamie Carragher drive-by and the Birmingham side’s first game back in Europe’s elite club competition in 41 years. In the next round of Bigger Cup fixtures, Bayern Munich were duly dispatched by Villa in a performance with more fluidity than a Bavarian title parade. Unai Emery could seemingly do no wrong and had everything from Jhon Durán’s left foot to John McGinn’s backside marching to the beat of his drum, with his team and tactics looking more fluid in the season’s early stages than Ozzy Osbourne’s long locks gently rocking in the soft Birmingham breeze (OK, that’s enough – Football Daily Ed).

Fast forward to September 2025 and while most of our attention on Tuesday night was on the bright lights of Bigger Cup, a few savvy onlookers may have noticed Villa scrapping at a bus stop in Hounslow, as Emery’s side continued their dreadful start to this season by going out of Fizzy Cup with a whimper after a penalty shootout defeat at Brentford. On the plus side, Villa did actually score a goal – which is more than can be said for the other four games this season – even if Harvey Elliott’s opener had less to do with dynamic, incisive play and more to do with a botched Brentford backpass and a goalkeeper howler. But after becoming the latest victims of the long throw’s renaissance, with Aaron Hickey bringing the Bees level in the second half, a strong Villa side that featured nearly all of their best players were left to lick their wounds, exiting a very winnable competition in the second round and leaving Emery in something of a pickle.

“I think we’re getting better – there’s still work to do and we’re going to practice,” roared Emery after the Brentford defeat, somewhat reassuringly. “We used in the starting XI some players who joined us in the last moments of the transfer window. They need minutes to get confidence and feel comfortable in our structure, trying to adapt as soon as possible. The press we did with McGinn was really fantastic, and then in 90 minutes we created three or four clear chances and even hit the post with Jadon Sancho.” Which is a very positive way of saying nine other outfield Villa players did not press and certainly a good way to put a shine on a Sancho miss that should have been a simple back-post tap-into an empty net rather than a careful sidefoot on to the outside of Brentford’s post.

Villa fans have not yet resorted to smuggling large arrows into the away end and pointing them at the opposition’s goal, but another blank at Sunderland on Sunday will certainly turn the pressure up on Emery. What a difference a year makes.

Join Simon Burnton at 8pm (all times BST) for Bigger Cup updates on Liverpool 3-1 Atlético Madrid, while Luke McLaughlin will be on hand at the same time for Bayern Munich 1-1 Chelsea.

I don’t want to talk about a single player but of course if you sub somebody at half-time you are not pleased with his performance. I will talk to him in person and then it’s up to him to show improvement. That’s it” – Oliver Glasner, there, not wanting to single out Romain Esse for criticism yet somehow managing to magnify his ruthless half-time hooking of his new Crystal Palace midfielder in the Milk Cup win (on penalties) over Millwall.

Qarabag ‘whipping-boy chaff’ (yesterday’s Football Daily). Funny, Bruno Lage thought so too” – Richie Philpott.

Has it ever occurred to my learned friends at Football Daily (OK, our sarcasm antennae is really starting to twitch now – Football Daily Ed) that perhaps one of the reasons three dozen teams are playing a dozen-dozen games in Bigger Cup’s first stage and some people still turn up to watch, is because they actually like football. Whether a particular fixture confirms their own team as crowned champions of Europe is maybe for most fans not of great import. I presume most followers of the ‘whipping-boy chaff’ go for the love of their team and some maybe even for the love of the game. Whilst no doubt generating a fat load of dosh, Uefa’s ‘Swiss Model’ also allows fans to watch more football and see their team play more other teams. Is this such a bad thing? Even if this means enduring ‘meaningless’ fixtures such as last night’s mind-numbing dead-rubber between Juventus and Borussia Dortmund. I also presume that the legendary Algerian goalkeeper Albert Camus enjoyed playing in goal for Racing Universitaire d’Alger, even though he was convinced that life was entirely devoid of meaning” – John Waugh.

Kevin Mac Allister (aka Alexis Mac Allister’s brother) scoring the winner for Union Saint-Gilloise away at PSV gives me the excuse to bring out one of my favourite, pointless pieces of trivia. He is named after the Kevin McCallister character in Home Alone played by Macaulay Culkin but he wasn’t aware of it and used to joke about the coincidence whenever it was mentioned, until he found out from his parents when he was 18 that he actually was named after him. To quote the great Philip Larkin, ‘They mess* you up, your mum and dad.’ The language has been changed as the original is far too rude, but Larkin was bang on …” – Noble Francis.

Re: ‘There’s a tradition in the Mediterranean, especially in Greece and Cyprus, of doing some olive oil really early in the season. It’s not new. It’s thousands of years old’ (Tuesday’s breakout section – full email edition). That endless Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta was sparked by a disputed offside call, it turns out” – Mike Slattery

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Richie Philpott, who wins some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here. 

José Mourinho is in hot chats about a return to Benfica after the Portuguese club confirmed they had booted Wolves legend Bruno Lage through the door marked Do One after their Bigger Cup humbling by Qarabag (see above). “I believe this is the time for a change, precisely to avoid compromising the season. And, consequently, the coach who comes in must be a winning coach,” thundered Benfica president Rui Costa. “A coach representing a club of this size must be one with the ability to bring this team to the levels we demand and give us the titles we desire.” Mourinho was fired by Fenerbahce last month having failed to give them the title they desired.

Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to five counts and one count of sexual assault. The Villarreal and former Arsenal midfielder’s trial is set to start in November 2026.

In Tuesday’s £uropean $uper League Bigger Cup action, Gabriel Martinelli’s impact-sub heroics, opening the scoring within a minute of coming on in Arsenal’s 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao, had Mikel Arteta cooing. “I adore Gabriel,’” he gushed, “his attitude, his commitment, his positivity, what he’s willing to do for the team.” Spurs also got off to a winning start against Villarreal, but required an early clanger from the visitors’ goalkeeper Luiz Júnior to bag a 1-0 victory.

Manchester United trousered a record £666.5m in the last financial year but still lost £33m overall, despite Big Sir Jim’s canteen staff cull and other measures. “To have generated record revenues during such a challenging year for the club demonstrates the resilience which is a hallmark of Manchester United,” blathered chief suit Omar Berrada.

Marc Skinner has likened his in-form Manchester United striker Melvine Malard’s persona to that of Eric Cantona. “She has that personality. She can carry pressure moments and do it with a smile,” he soothed. “And I think that psychology is what stands her apart this season.”

Elsewhere, there was much craziness in Turin as free-scoring and free-conceding Juventus scored twice in injury-time to salvage a 4-4 draw against Dortmund, in a match that was 0-0 at half-time. At the Bernabéu, Real Madrid squeaked past Marseille with two Kylian Mbappé penalties but lost two right-backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold with hamstring-twang and Dani Carvajal for invoking the spirit of Sergio Ramos to earn a red card.

As for Wednesday’s action, Arne Slot says Alexander Isak could make his Liverpool debut after being included in the squad for the match against Atlético Madrid.

And in news from the highly functional USA USA USA, FBI henchman Kash Patel showed up for a fiery Senate hearing in a Liverpool tie.

Bayern want to weaponise a jilted Nicolas Jackson, writes our man on the ground in Munich, Jacob Steinberg.

Ready for some deeply nerdy footie facts? This week, The Knowledge takes on XG and GA but not in the way you might expect.

Before facing Liverpool at Anfield, Diego Simeone celebrated a first league win of the season with more exuberance than usual and Sid Lowe was there to see it.

And one for your bookmarks: our Premier League top scorers page is live, live, live!

Liverpool and Atlético Madrid’s best-known link is Fernando Torres, who upped sticks and left for Anfield for a fee of £20m in the summer of 2007. Here he is apparently handing his shirt back to the club in a farewell press conference. Fans were unhappy about the sale at the time, but Atlético have only gotten stronger since then.