It's important not to get carried away or drink too much at the pub watching a couple of matches and then think you can stay away on a reclining chair at the cinema. And damn, here I am at the airport bar with a couple of hours to space before my flight and a reclining chair when I board. There may be trouble ahead!
Yes, I'm using my words to make this post longer than it has to or should be. And I'm trying my best, although I'm going to do it now, to not write about the Spurs match or actually the goals. They were special.
And I saw a comment yesterday on the other post about how Spurs were not at their best, that we got lucky because of that. And I see this is a narrative quite a lot when we win, that the other side were off their game. And when we lose, we're awful.
And I know this isn't everyone, but some think we're awful or lucky. And when we don't win, we're crap. But could it not be that we made Spurs awful. Could it be that it wasn't lucky, it was a very good plan implemented well. Could it be, when we lose that it's the opposite?
Football is so much about numbers these days. It's becoming very specific and I'm fairly sure I wrote about this a while ago, but we're going to have specific players for very specific roles. Much like we're going to have managers to manage very specific sides, based on quite specific formations or squads.
Football isn't about playing beautiful football anymore, it's about fine margins and when you've only got a certain number of attributes and abilities, you have to almost gamble on what is going to be presented to you and then you don't really know what the plan is, even if you have a good idea of who is going to be playing. And then it's often too late because the plan is written.
But then it's about adapting. And adapting isn't easy for everyone. Living in beta is hard. When I try, I fall asleep.
You might even say that the beauty of the game has gone from most of football because it's all about numbers. Apart from Spurs on Sunday that is. So maybe the beauty of football is coming back? Maybe Unai has figured out that there has to be a little of that beauty back in the game.
Maybe, the beauty is the difference? Anyway, Go Ahead Eagles tomorrow night. And I'm being radically honest now when I say this, I don't think I'd heard of them before the draw this season. Maybe I have and I'd forgotten, I don't know. I've followed football my entire life, but I don't remember what I had for dinner last Friday .. but it's not a team I know anything about other than what the lovely BBC have provided below.
So on that, and seeing as this post seems to be long enough. Be happy about the wins and look for reasons to be optimistic and positive about them instead of the opposite. When we lose, take it on the chin and move on, don't look for things to point out to prove why we lost.
And maybe don't take that too much to heart .. as you all know, I was once very very opinionated.
Match facts from the BBC
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Go Ahead Eagles have never previously faced an English side in European competition. The last British side they faced was Celtic in the 1965-66 Cup Winners’ Cup (lost 6-0 at home & 1-0 away).
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Aston Villa are unbeaten in all six of their major European matches against Dutch sides (W5 D1) and have already beaten Feyenoord 2-0 on MD2 of this season’s UEFA Europa League.
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Go Ahead Eagles have averaged 70.4% possession when losing in the UEFA Europa League this season – that drops to 39.5% when drawing, and 12.3% when they’ve been winning.
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Aston Villa have won 11 of their last 15 major European group stage matches (D2 L2), winning each of their two in this season’s UEFA Europa League without conceding (1-0 v Bologna, 2-0 v Feyenoord).
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Although they have won both UEFA Europa League matches so far this season, only two sides have faced more shots than Aston Villa (36) and only five sides have attempted fewer shots than Villa (18).