There has been a major change of direction in the Premier League relegation battle this weekend, and emotions are running high.
West Ham’s 3-0 win over Brentford on Saturday opened the door for Tottenham, who accepted the invitation. Roberto De Zerbi’s side raced to a 2-0 lead against Aston Villa on Sunday before conceding a late goal.
With two consecutive wins, Spurs have moved up to 17th place, one point ahead of the Hammers with three games remaining. Tottenham were full of energy and the win was well deserved, but Villa’s flat performance and three straight defeats raised eyebrows.
Unai Emery has made seven changes to his squad as Villa remain fairly stable in fifth place and prioritize the Europa League semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest. That decision likely played into the hands of the Spurs, raising questions about the integrity of the sport for some.
So was there something wrong with the scenes at Villa Park on Sunday? Or was it simply a case of team rotation? Here Mirror Football writers give their views on the matter.
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john cross
Let me be absolutely clear: Aston Villa’s so-called ‘performance’ on Sunday night was probably the worst I have seen from a Premier League team this season. And yes, I’ve watched a lot of games. If I were Nottingham Forest or West Ham, I’d be screaming ‘stinks’.
Tottenham were great. It was the best I’ve ever seen them play. They totally deserved the victory. But Villa made things easier for them. They made seven changes. Would Spurs have won if Villa hadn’t played Stiffs? perhaps. But the truth is, you never know.
It remains to be seen whether a first-team player will be flagged offside in Sunday League fashion for a short corner routine in the second half. Or maybe he chased down a ball abandoned by Jadon Sancho. Obviously he won’t play on Thursday.
Aston Villa were seriously off the pace against Spurs (Image: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Here’s the problem. Forest, who are in danger of being relegated, have an added responsibility to get a result against Chelsea on Monday. And that’s three days before Forest’s Europa League semi-final second leg match at…you guessed it, Aston Villa. Mori cannot let his players rest. That’s why we use the word sincerity.
West Ham sank into the bottom three as Villa rested seven players. How is that correct? During the match, a contact from another club (who was not at all involved in the match) messaged me about it. It could be seen a mile away. After that, I received a call from a former player. “What about Forest?”
Those participating in the game know the score. Emery will insist he has the right to make changes. But hey, if he were the boss of the forest, I’m sure he’d be groaning. That’s not correct.
Jeremy Cross
Unai Emery is the manager of Aston Villa. That means he can choose any side he wants in any match he wants. He is paid a lot of money to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team.
And if he thinks resting some of his star players will improve Villa’s chances of beating Nottingham Forest in this week’s Europa League semi-final, so be it. Because if Villa can continue to win the Europa League, it will be a much bigger achievement than just finishing in the top four.
Villa will go on to win another European trophy, not to mention qualifying for the Champions League. Emery is selfish. This makes all those complaining that he has damaged the health of the Premier League one of the biggest ironies. Because when it comes to the top flight of English football, every club will protect itself at all costs.
Unai Emery is a Europa League expert (Image: MICHAEL SOHN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Andy Dunn
The Premier League allows players to be loaned between clubs, and there are regulations that prohibit certain players from appearing in certain matches. In the Premier League, TV companies are allowed to decide the schedule. The Premier League brought 115 charges against Manchester City more than three years ago, but no results have yet been released.
Stop talking about integrity.
Unai Emery was well within his rights to lead a team that saw seven changes from last Thursday night’s game at the City Ground. After all, Villa were pretty poor in that first leg. He is allowed to drop some. While the performance level of the players he brought in for the game against Spurs may have been unacceptable, his decision was unacceptable.
He had every right to make that decision, but it backfired badly. This Villa team will go into the second leg lacking confidence. Still, at least Emery did Spurs a favor.
james whaling
The villa was terrible. no way. It happens. But the fact that they made 7 changes seems to make things even worse. Unai Emery has chosen a squad full of international players who are more than capable of defeating a Spurs side languishing in the bottom of the table.
Those who probably didn’t play as much as they wanted this season had a chance to stake their claim and squandered it. Emery knows what he’s doing. He has won the Europa League four times so far and Villa are favorites to give him a fifth.
Perhaps the broader discussion should be about the saturation in football that led Emery to believe he needed to make such radical changes. This came into greater focus as it affected Spurs and their goal of staying in the division and avoiding relegation, the biggest in Premier League history.
Emery definitely did them a favor. But he doesn’t have to answer to anyone.
Connor Mummery
This is not the first time a team has been changed in a Premier League game ahead of a big tie in Europe, and it won’t be the last. But it will be the first time a team given the chance to have a huge impact on relegating Tottenham Hotspur to the Championship has done so.
West Ham fans are understandably unhappy with Emery’s choices given the result that saw them drop to the bottom three, but they were more understanding when manager David Moyes made six changes when the Hammers lost 2-1 to Leicester in 2023, 10 days before their Conference League win in Prague.
Roberto de Zerbi’s side have won back-to-back games (Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
If Aston Villa had made a similar change against Crystal Palace or Sunderland, it would have received very little attention. However, fans want Spurs to be relegated. That’s understandable. It is unprecedented for a ‘big six’ team to be in real danger of relegation from the Championship, and opposition supporters are understandably enjoying it.
Villa had as many regular starters in their lineup as the Spurs. The difference is that this decision was taken from the hands of Roberto De Zerbi, given Tottenham’s ridiculous injury crisis. If fans want to criticize Emery’s players for their perceived lack of effort and focus on Thursday’s crucial semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest, that would be a different discussion. But to question the sincerity of the Villa manager who rotated his squad four days after one of the club’s biggest matches of the modern era is disingenuous at best.
Felix Keith
Oliver Glasner has made five changes to his Crystal Palace squad to face Bournemouth on Sunday. Although they lost badly 3-0, no one seemed to care, considering that the second leg of the Conference League semi-finals against Shakhtar Donetsk was just around the corner. “Bournemouth’s semi-final was today. Our semi-final is Thursday,” Glasner admitted after the game.
In my opinion, the situation is exactly the same, it’s just that Palace weren’t playing a team in a relegation battle. But what makes it even more ridiculous is that, as Emery himself pointed out in his post-match interview, Villa had lost their last two games before facing Spurs.
After seeing back-to-back 1-0 defeats against Fulham in the league and Forest in the Europa League, why shouldn’t Emery make a change? We didn’t put out a team made up of academy players. That’s not a problem at all.
Oliver Glasner underwent a similar transformation to Unai Emery over the weekend (Image: Getty Images)
nathan ridley
I can understand why West Ham and Nottingham Forest fans would be frustrated, but Aston Villa have done nothing wrong. Unai Emery’s side have earned the right to prioritize the Europa League by resting in fifth place.
Questions will be asked if they lose to Forest on Thursday and finish outside of the Champions League places. However, this has nothing to do with the relegation battle.
Whoever Villa were scheduled to play on Sunday would have been against a rotated team. The opponent happened to be Tottenham. Just like when Brentford benefited from playing a weakened West Ham eleven in the 2023 Irons Conference League semi-final. It’s just like a cookie crumbling.
The only question West Ham and Forest supporters have is their own performance over the course of the season.
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