This week’s My Old Man Said podcast opens with the Lovers Walk Unlimited Orchestra summing up the Villa week in song, before the show dives straight into the fallout from a chaotic few days. From David’s Dublin airport delay courtesy of Zelensky, to a Brighton game that veered from disaster to delirium, it has been peak Villa in every imaginable way.

The show pulls apart the Brighton match first. Emery’s rage in the dugout. A tactical plan that looked too respectful. A comeback powered by firepower off the bench. Questions about the squad answered by Onana bullying back posts, Watkins waking up again and Marlon emerging as a genuine asset. Emery’s long-range revolution gets dissected too. The pundits are baffled, the xG merchants are twitching, but Villa are simply doing what good teams do. Take the right shot when it is on.

From there the episode moves into the Arsenal preview. A match that could tilt the entire narrative of the season. Beat Arsenal and suddenly the door creaks open to something bigger. As MOMS say, the T-word is banned until further notice, but the implications are impossible to ignore.

There is also Villa News: Barkley’s injury setback, Martinez disappearing again in the warm-up, Young Boys away-end arrests, merch-line overload and the progress of the North Stand redevelopment. Emery’s Clipboard returns with a forensic look at Martinez’s numbers, Bizot’s impact, and how fine margins in goalkeeping shape the entire season. The Villa Engine gets a nod with the under-18s hammering Fulham.

Then there is the bigger picture. The Football Supporters’ Association “Stop Exploiting Loyalty” campaign gains parliamentary backing. BBC research highlights the rise of abusive posts aimed at managers. And Juan Sebastián Verón gets banned for refusing a guard of honour in Argentina.

It is a sprawling, funny, chaotic and insight-packed episode that captures Villa’s strange reality this season. Emery’s side are grinding, exploding, wobbling and rising again, often in the space of a single match. And as the show suggests, if Villa beat Arsenal, things might get very interesting indeed.

A proper bumper edition. Listen. Strap in. And avoid airports whenever world leaders land.

UTV

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Chris Budd - @BUDD_music

Phillip Shaw - @prsgame

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