I saw something on Twitter about Newcastle wanting Tyrone Mings and then someone saying that he's a great servant and we should be lucky to have him.
I'm not going to get into if we are lucky to have him or not, but I will say that there are no servants in football and for the money players get paid today, I'd do a lot of things and the term servant would be one of the nicest.
There are no servants in football these days. Actually scrap that, football players are no longer servants these days. They're mercenaries if anything and they will have no problem leaving the minute someone offers more money.
As for Mings, it's down to Gerrard and I'm fairly confident Gerrard wants better and it's not because me and Stevie are bessies it's because if nothing else, Steven Gerrard knows the best teams are built from the back and he's going to know that Mings makes too many mistakes and he's cost us too many points this season.
And he's our captain. Nobody in the team is looking up to Mings for his football or feeling inspired by him. Most of the time, they're breathing a sigh of relief because he cleared it. But that's enough for now, it's Burnley tonight and well, it's another one of those matches that don't mean much.
Burnley at Villa Park
What is interesting about tonight however is that if Burnley win, they are putting themselves in a really good place ahead of Sunday. Even a draw could be very good for Burnley tonight. With Newcastle at home on Sunday, they will want to be in full control and that won't happen if they don't get that point tonight. If they won tonight, they could go ahead of Everton and Leeds and that is going to make them feel good ahead of Sunday.
One thing is for sure, regardless of what happens tonight we won't know for sure until Sunday who is joining Norwich and Watford in the Championship next season but if Everton win tonight, they will be safe and it will either be Burnley or Leeds and that is why even a point for Burnley could be huge.
Me, I'd like to see Crystal Palace win tonight, just to make the last day of the season more interesting, but that's just me.
Either way, it's an interesting night of football. And finally on Tyrone Mings, he won't mind anything I've written above, because I'm not questioning his passion or desire, it's just my opinion of him as a player and he doesn't care what I think because he's getting paid and he knows it, so why should anyone else? Truth be told, it's just he's as bad as he is good but we'd all like to be in his shoes.
Time for more beer.
Match facts from the BBC
Head-to-head
- Aston Villa are vying to complete a league double over Burnley for the first time since the 1925-26 campaign. They won the home fixture 10-0 that season, their joint biggest margin of victory in a league game.
- Burnley have only lost one of their past seven away league games against Villa (W3, D3), and are unbeaten in their last three trips to Villa Park.
Aston Villa
- Aston Villa have won their final home league fixture in each of the past two seasons, beating Arsenal 1-0 in 2019-20 and Chelsea 2-1 last term.
- They have gone seven midweek Premier League home matches without a victory since defeating Arsenal in July 2020.
- Villa have claimed just two victories in their 10 most recent home games under Steven Gerrard (D3, L5).
- Gerrard's side have opened the scoring in four successive top-flight fixtures but failed to win either of the last two, losing 2-1 against Liverpool and drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace.
- Ollie Watkins has scored three goals in his last four top-flight games, as many as he had in his previous 14 league appearances.
- Danny Ings has scored in each of his four most recent Premier League appearances against Burnley.
Burnley
- Burnley have lost their final away league fixture in four of the past five seasons, winning the other against already relegated Norwich City in 2019-20.
- The Clarets have won 38% of their Premier League games on Thursdays (three out of eight), their best win rate on a single day of the week.
- Those three wins have come in their last five such matches, with the Clarets also keeping four clean sheets in that run.
- They have failed to score in 16 top-flight fixtures this season, a total exceeded only by Norwich and Watford, with 21 and 18 respectively.