Villa boss has a laugh

Well, we knew it was going to be competitive in the Championship this season. But not many of us expected Newcastle to be pointless after their second game yesterday.

It just goes to show, as Leicester City demonstrated so comprehensively last season, that anything is possible in football.

Aston Villa’s first weekend defeat to Sheffield Wednesday gave their fans a reality check.

It’s going to be a long season for Rafa Benitez and his Villa counterpart Roberto di Matteo, especially considering Villa’s EFL Cup defeat by Luton Town.

Toon fans will cut Rafa plenty of slack, no doubt. He’s shown enough sense of responsibilty and love of the city to stick with them and face down Mike Ashley in the transfer department.

Less understanding might come Di Matteo’s way after new owner Tony Xia announced that he expects Villa to become the top club in Europe with the highest number of fans all over the world. Talk about expectations!

At least Mr Xia appears to have a sense of humour. He responded to a fan called Emma, who tweeted him asking for a piece of free pie because she is eight months pregnant, by inviting her into his private box for yesterday’s match with Rotherham at Villa Park.

Tony took a 20-hour round trip from Beijing to watch the game and was applauded by fans who enjoy his engagement with them after the barren years with Randy Lerner.

And Villa won 3-0, their first league victory for six months. Maybe the boss knows something we don’t!