The blues, Fenerbahçe tonight and match facts from the BBC

Wouldn't it be nice if we could win every game and not have the lows, or the highs for that matter. I mean, it's a simple game and we've spent a fair bit of cash, we should be beating Everton. Losing to Everton was a low and I quite liked it.

Not losing to Everton, I wanted to win. But the feeling made it seem real. It started to put things into perspective. Football isn't supposed to be easy. It's not just about the money spent. It's about a season of 38 matches and not knowing, but wanting. Football is about desire, passion and above all else not knowing what is going to happen.

And it's the little things that matter. Sometimes the big things, but mostly the little things. But when you put all these little things together, they become big. McGinn going off and not having Kamara or Onana was why we lost against Everton. Some might even say not having Malen had a part to play. 

But it's what happens in football. And we're still seven points ahead of the team behind us and and it's a great place to be. But some might also be saying we have 16 games left and a lot can happen in that time. And they wouldn't be wrong and with the loss of Kamara for the season, an unknown amount of time without McGinn and no backup for Ollie now, it does feel a little like we are not on solid ground.

And that ground isn't controlled by anyone at the Club. It's the rules put in place to support the larger clubs. That written, rules are meant to be broken, or at the very least pushed to the absolute limit. How about we just go and break 115 of them in one go and see what happens?

On that for a moment I want to write it so I can reference it, Manchester City are not breaking rules at the moment because they have the revenue and success now. But if they didn't break the rules in the first place, they wouldn't have what they have now. I'm sure this is the reason why the decision to relegate them to League Two is taking so long but it has to be factored in.

But, enough. We have to move on and tonight it's Fenerbahçe and it's not really tonight, more later this afternoon as kick off is early again. But this is an important match, as they all are now, but it's important because Fenerbahçe are within touching distance of the top eight. If they win tonight, the chances are they will be in it and you want to finish in the top eight if you can.

That's why it's a big match. And I trust the manager will do what he has to and I believe the players will give it their all. They know better than us what tonight means and for some, it might be a way to claim a place or make it harder for the manager to drop them when players are back or maybe if we see a new player or two arrive.

A win tonight and we'll all feel a little better after Everton at the weekend. But then we have to go prepare for Newcastle on Sunday and I have a feeling that is going to be a tough game. But we need to get back on the horse and we need to demonstrate that last weekend was just a freak. Or there will be some writing we look tired and our squad is too thin. And writing like that tends to spread and have people believing it.

Right, I'm back later. Someone said something about work.

Match facts from the BBC

• Fenerbahçe have lost both of their previous major European meetings with Aston Villa, losing 4-0 in the first leg and 2-0 in the second leg of the first round of the 1977-78 UEFA Cup.

• Aston Villa’s last European match against a side from Türkiye saw them beat Trabzonspor 2-1 in the UEFA Cup in November 1994, although they were eliminated on away goals rule in that tie after a 2-2 draw on aggregate.

• Across MD5 and MD6 of this season’s UEFA Europa League, no player scored more goals than Fenerbahçe’s Talisca (4). He’d only scored two goals in 13 Europa League games before this.

• This will be Aston Villa manager Unai Emery’s 100th match in the UEFA Europa League (since 2009-10), becoming the first manager to reach that milestone. Indeed, the nearest manager to Emery in terms of games in the competition is Jorge Jesus on 68.

• Among players to play 20+ matches in the UEFA Europa League (since 2009-10), Victor Lindelöf has the best passing accuracy (93.1%); the Swede has only misplaced 13 of 271 passes in this season’s competition for Aston Villa (95.3% accuracy).