Escape was not all luck, says Smith

DEAN SMITH believes divine intervention may have kept Aston Villa in the Premier League as he reflected on the lucky escape they had against tonight’s opponents Sheffield United. When the sides met at Villa Park in June, the Blades were denied a goal because Hawk-Eye failed to spot that Oliver Norwood’s free-kick had been carried over the goalline by Orjan Nyland. As a result, referee Michael Oliver received no alert to his watch or earpiece. The game ended 0-0 and Villa eventually stayed up by a point. Smith’s father Ron, a lifelong fan who worked as a steward at Villa Park, died in May aged 79 after contracting Covid-19, and the Villa boss revealed: ‘I am not really one for religion or anything like that but my dad had just passed away. His old steward’s jacket was in the Holte End and he had a thing about watches. So maybe he just wanted to play a bit of a trick that day. ‘It is one of those one in a million things. It had never failed before. People can say what they want about the goal but we stayed up on merit and there were many goals chalked off which shouldn’t have been. VAR was certainly contentious for Villa last season.’ Since avoiding relegation, Villa have brought in four players and tied captain Jack Grealish to a new five-year contract. One of the arrivals, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, is expected to make his debut tonight after joining the club from Arsenal for an initial £16million. Smith said: ‘He’s a player who finished the season well with Arsenal. He wanted a fresh challenge and we’ve got a situation where Tom Heaton isn’t fit for the start of the season.’