Dart and football prodigies: fingers crossed for the outsiders

Switzerland is an exception

But even king’s football hardly gives us any rest these days. The 33 days of hibernation that the Super League entered before Christmas are a real exception. Only the Austrian Bundesliga has a longer break of two full months. Other major competitions will start again at the end of next week at the latest – or will have already made it through the holidays and New Year’s Eve anyway. First and foremost there is of course the Premier League, where matches have been scheduled almost every day over the past two weeks.

My highlight – besides the short detour to darts – was Liverpool’s 4-2 win against Newcastle on New Year’s Eve. A true fireworks display with an incredible number of great goal scenes and six goals in the second half. The Anfield Road leader underlined his role as one of the major title candidates with this impressive attack. And yet the team of the moment in England is a different one: Aston Villa.

At Aston Villa you dream

The traditional club from Birmingham is currently sensationally in second place in the rankings. Just in time for the club’s 150th anniversary, which is being celebrated this year, the dream of the title is more tangible than it has been for a long time. Because the glorious times of the Villans are far behind them. So much so that they remind me of my first student exchange as a teenager, almost forty years ago. My then exchange student Dean was a staunch supporter of ‘Claret and Blue’, as Aston Villa is also called because of the club colors wine red and light blue. Personally, I preferred Nottingham Forest in England, which allowed me to enjoy my first match in an English stadium with Dean and his father during the match between these two clubs.

That was in March 1986 – and even then the Villa fans were struggling. Five years earlier they had won the last of a total of seven championship titles (the remaining six came from the period 1894 to 1910) and a year later, in 1982, they even won the European Cup final against Bayern Munich. But within a few years the club had become candidates for relegation, which effectively ended in 1987 when they were relegated to the second division. Although Villa reached the top of the Premier League a few times in the 1990s, they were never able to fully build on the era of great success.

Emery knows how to win titles

Just over a year ago, Aston Villa were once again languishing in the relegation zone before coach Steven Gerrard was sacked in October 2022 and Spaniard Unai Emery was hired as coach. Since then, the team has undergone a miraculous transformation. The local Villa Park in particular became an impregnable fortress last year. Between February and December, Emery’s team recorded no less than fifteen home victories in a row, including an impressive display of power against champions and Champions League winners Manchester City, who were almost outplayed despite the narrow 1-0 victory. This is proven not least by the record of 22:2 shots on target, which no club has achieved against City for years.

In general, Villa under Emery shows an attacking force that guarantees a spectacle. The 53-year-old Basque has been known as a detail-obsessed tinkerer since his time at Sevilla FC, which he led to three consecutive Europa League victories between 2014 and 2016. He reportedly spends twelve hours a day on the training pitch and leaves nothing to chance. He has taken players such as Scottish captain John McGinn, Brazilian Douglas Luiz and striker Ollie Watkins, who have been at the club for years, to a new level in a short space of time. In addition, reinforcements were immediately recruited in the summer, such as national players Pau Torres (Spain), Moussa Diaby (France), Nicolo Zaniolo (Italy) and Youri Tielemans (Belgium). City coach Pep Guardiola and Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta also publicly acknowledged that Aston Villa has become a serious rival after their defeats.

Favorite against outsiders

I don’t know if Dean still regularly follows the club’s fortunes in the stadium. We haven’t been in touch for years. But I would certainly begrudge “Claret and Blue” winning the title. Not just because of the good old days, but because in sports you often choose the outsider. The favorite Humphries had the upper hand at the World Darts Championship yesterday, ultimately denying prodigy Littler the crown. The young world number two champion wouldn’t care if the Villans write their fairytale to the end; he is a Manchester United fan and the title race left there long ago this season.

At this moment something else on our behalf: In the future you will no longer receive our newsletter on Thursdays, but on Tuesdays. The next through ball will come in five days from my colleague Björn Lindroos.