Unai Emery and Aston Villa director of football operations Damian Vidagany have been whining about the schedule ahead of Tuesday’s match away to Arsenal.
Arsenal are due to face Aston Villa on Tuesday night, for the second time in less than a month.
The match is the 19th of 38 for each side, the halfway point of the season, leading Unai Emery to ask why his team aren’t facing the only club they haven’t played against so far – Nottingham Forest.
“The only thing I don’t understand is why we are playing after Arsenal, Nottingham Forest at home,” Emery said. “The day 19 is not against Forest, which is the first half of the season. This is the only thing I don’t understand.”
Following those comments, Aston Villa’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany got involved, going on a social media rant about the fact they have to play two consecutive away games and face Arsenal twice in the first half of the season.
“Totally understand our manager,” Vidagany responded. “Why [the Premier League] brings a match day from second half of season before matchday 19 has not a clear explanation. I asked to [Premier League] people and they didn’t tell us. So it is a mystery.
“The fact is that willing or not this makes more convenient the fixtures for certain clubs that are not travelling on this very busy Christmas period. I let you take a look which clubs are playing home both last and next match.
“To make us play 2 away games in less than 72 hours will be never an excuse but we agree that is much better on the recovery side [to] play twice at home and not travel.
“We are not, for sure, as it is obvious, having any influence. It would be a disgrace if the fixtures become a political territory.”
The fact that it’s Villa complaining about the fixture list ahead of the Arsenal game is somewhat amusing, given the Gunners are the team coming into the match on the back of three games in 10 days.
Villa have played just twice during that same period, and you have to go back 16 days to find a third match.
It’s true that Villa have had to play two consecutive away games (as every team does on many occasions during a normal season). But the two-and-a-half-hour journeys to Stamford Bridge and the Emirates Stadium are hardly the most taxing travel routes.
As a reminder, last month Arsenal had to travel to Burnley, Prague, and Sunderland in the space of seven days. All journeys of four hours or more. It’s something all title-chasing teams face at some stage.
As for the fact Villa play Arsenal a matter of days before Nottingham Forest, who cares? Every team plays every other team twice, would it really make a significant difference if these two matches in the same week were swapped?
It certainly seems as though Villa are getting their excuses in early over the most minor of inconveniences.