My Old Man Said - An Aston Villa Podcast

Some games are not about flair. They are about control.

As Everton arrive at Villa Park, this main show looks past form lines and reputations to focus on why Aston Villa are structurally well suited to matches like this. Patient play, physical resistance, limited space, and an opponent built to frustrate rather than entertain.

The discussion centres on Emery’s evolving approach. Positional discipline, intelligent rotation, an...

This one had everything a cup tie should.

Noise, needle, moments of quality, moments of chaos, and a sense that one team understood the occasion far better than the other. Aston Villa went to Tottenham, took the FA Cup seriously, and left having knocked Spurs out for the second season running.

This post-mortem doesn’t run chronologically. It picks out the moments that defined the day. Villa’s control in the first half. Two ex...

What does Aston Villa actually play like?

It’s a question people keep trying to answer with labels. Possession-based. Pragmatic. Ruthless. Transitional. And it’s a question that keeps missing the point.

This main show uses the goalless draw at Crystal Palace, the looming FA Cup trip to Spurs, and Villa’s broader winter form to step back and assess the current questions. Not just results, but method. Not just systems...

A new year, the same authority.

After the winning run ended at Arsenal, Aston Villa returned to Villa Park and did exactly what mature sides do. They took control, strangled transitions, and dealt with Nottingham Forest without drama.

Forest pulled one back, but it never felt like a turning point. Villa remained composed, dictated the tempo, and reasserted themselves through midfield dominance, intelligent pressing, and c...

The winning run had to end somewhere. Unfortunately, it ended at the hardest place in the league to do anything at all.

Villa went to the Emirates chasing history and left with a 4–1 defeat that looks brutal on paper, but tells a far more nuanced story when you strip it back. A controlled first half, big chances missed, then everything pivots on one moment: Onana off at half-time and the midfield grip disappearing instantly.

...

Aston Villa were bullied, outplayed, and offered nothing for an hour at Stamford Bridge. Twenty-nine percent possession. No shots. One goal down. Seasoned Villa fans were already bracing themselves.

Then Unai Emery changed everything.

On this My Old Man Said post-mortem show, we dissect one of the most revealing wins of the season. A game that looked dead and buried until a triple substitution flipped the script, Ol...

The Manchester United post-mortem usually involves burying Villa’s latest trauma and promising not to speak of it again until the next time. Not this time.

On this episode of My Old Man Said, Villa are resurrected. Unai Emery finally gets his second win over United, Christmas is officially saved, and Morgan Rogers announces himself properly with two moments that decide a game Villa did not fully control but absolutely deser...

Aston Villa arrive at Christmas in form, winning ugly, and climbing quietly. The league table looks healthy. The mood should be festive. And yet Manchester United turn up again, dragging decades of baggage with them.

On this week’s My Old Man Said, we ask the only question that matters. Is this finally an Emery Christmas, or are Villa about to be visited once more by the ghosts of United past?

We strip away the noise aro...

Villa go behind. Again. Villa wobble. Again. Villa win. Again.

This post-mortem from the London Stadium digs into a game that should have been a banana skin and nearly was. West Ham had momentum, Jarrod Bowen was running the show, Villa looked leggy after Europe and yet somehow, once noses were in front, the door slammed shut.

We get forensic on the turning point. Digne on, Bowen gone. Control reclaimed. Emery-ball reasserted...

Villa Park erupted. What looked like a hard-earned point turned into a afternoon of strangers hugging, tears in the Holte, and a goalmouth scramble that bent time. In the chaos of stoppage time, Emi Buendia stepped through the noise and curled in a winner that crushed Arsenal and brought Villa within three points of their visitors and... gave them the title of Linear Unofficial World Club Champions for the forty seventh t...

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 ta...

Aston Villa’s derby win over Wolves was a tale of two halves. The first was everything you expect in this fixture. Wolves flying into tackles, Larsen bullying the back line, and Villa drifting through the opening forty minutes with an air of casualness. The turning point arrived when Emi Martinez produced a double save to keep the game level and stop Wolves gaining a foothold.

The second half belonged to Villa. Kamara’s top-corn...

Aston Villa return from a Europa League win against Young Boys with plenty to argue about. The xG police have spent the week sounding alarms, but MOMS explains why the conversation around underperformance is nonsense. Villa are evolving, not chancing their luck. Emery has shifted his side toward controlled mid-range and long-range shooting patterns, and the data heads have not caught up yet.

The episode also looks back at the Yo...

Aston Villa went to Elland Road expecting a fight, and that is exactly what they got. Leeds were physical and up for it, and the game swung on two long VAR checks that are worth discussion. Unai Emery made the decisive halftime changes, flipping the pace and shape of the attack with Donyell Marlen and Ian Maatsen. Rogers took over from there - a sharp finish for the first, and a cultured free kick for the second, becoming the first...

Aston Villa entered the latest international break in style, smashing Bournemouth 4-0 at Villa Park.

In this week’s My Old Man Said podcast, David Michael, Chris Budd and Phil Shaw unpack a dominant display built on Buendia’s brilliance, Martinez’s penalty heroics, and Emery’s evolving system finally clicking again.

From Cash’s Plan B assist to Barkley’s clever cameo, the show breaks down every moment - including th...

After a wild week that swung from European frustration to domestic delight, Aston Villa head to Anfield to face Liverpool in what feels like the “final boss” test, after beating Spurs and Manchester City in recent weeks.

In this episode, we look at Villa’s evolving mentality under Unai Emery, the re-engineering of Matty Cash into a right-back goal machine, and whether Villa’s defence can stand up to Liverpool’s bruised but dange...

Villa Park witnessed another Unai Emery masterclass as Aston Villa produced a performance of tactical brilliance to beat Manchester City for the third consecutive time at Villa Park.

In this week’s My Old Man Said, David Michael, Chris Budd and Phil Shaw break down how Villa controlled the champions, ghosted Haaland, and played out from the back with Harlem Globetrotter-level confidence.

From Matty Cash’s grass-cutting f...

After five straight wins, Aston Villa’s European dream hit turbulence in Deventer - as Go Ahead Eagles clipped the Villans’ wings.

In this Something for the Weekend edition of My Old Man Said, David Michael and Chris Budd dissect how Villa managed to make a mess of a winnable tie and what it tells us ahead of Manchester City’s visit to Villa Park.

From the strange lethargy in Holland to Emery’s squad rotation g...

After a fifth straight win, the My Old Man Said crew bask in the glory of Villa’s gritty away triumph at Spurs - or as one listener put it, “Stoke City in a spaceship.”

We dissect the new blue-collar Spurs, Buendía’s resurrection arc, and Emery’s latest tactical masterclass - while also diving headfirst into the off-pitch chaos that’s gripped Villa Park: from the political circus around the Maccabi Tel Aviv away fan ban to the w...