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Aston Villa stand on the edge of glory. While their Champions League may have ended by PSG, Unai Emery’s side have a wonderful chance to reach a first FA Cup final since 2015.

The club have not won this competition since 1957. Indeed, they haven’t won a major honour since 1996, and it would be fitting to finally end this drought under a man who has lifted them from the doldrums.

2014/15

Liverpool

Won 2-1

2009/10

Chelsea

Lost 3-0

1999/00

Bolton

Won 4-1 on penalties

1995/96

Liverpool

Lost 3-0

1959/60

Wolves

Lost 1-0

In midweek, the Midlands side suffered a 2-1 loss to Manchester City in the Premier League. While not disastrous, it represented a chance to cement their place in the top five of the table.

Several of the starting XI failed to perform as expected, most notably Boubacar Kamara in the heart of the midfield.

Why Emery must drop Boubacar Kamara

There is no doubt Kamara has been excellent when called upon this season, but against City, he didn’t quite look himself.

He played the full 90 minutes alongside Amadou Onana for Villa and succeeded with 87% of his passes, but the Frenchman could only win one of his seven contested ground duels, along with losing possession eight times.

Kamara also failed to make a single tackle during the match and was dribbled past on two occasions. Despite his tireless shift, it wasn’t enough to see Villa take home all three points.

With an FA Cup final place at stake this weekend, Emery might just switch things up ahead of the match against Crystal Palace.

This could see Kamara dropped from the starting XI, with Youri Tielemans slotting back into a deeper role.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

If so, there is only one man who should be deployed as Villa’s number ten – Marco Asensio.

Marco Asensio must be unleashed by Aston Villa

The Spaniard has been a truly inspired signing by Emery, even if it is just on a temporary basis.

Indeed, the former Real Madrid starlet has scored eight goals and chipped in with a solitary assist for the club across 20 matches.

In the Premier League, Asensio has created one big chance, averaging 1.3 key passes and succeeding in 58% of his dribble attempts.

These statistics are made even better considering he has started only five matches in the top flight since arriving back in January.

Dubbed as “world-class” by former Arsenal and Birmingham City defender Matthew Upson in March after his exploits against Club Brugge in the Champions League.

If the club have a chance of signing him on a permanent deal, then Emery must do everything in his power to do so.

Starting him against Palace at Wembley could give Villa the best chance of reaching the final of the competition, no doubt about that, because of the attacking quality that he can provide with his ability to both score and create.

The PSG loanee has scored twice in the tournament so far, netting a double against Cardiff. If he is unleashed, expect him to conjure up some more magic for the Villa faithful.

Worth 330% more than Nypan: Aston Villa struck gold with "unstoppable" star

Aston Villa are reportedly closing in on a move to sign Sverre Nypan.

ByJoe Nuttall Apr 23, 2025

This summer transfer window is a huge one for Tottenham Hotspur if they are to rise up the Premier League next season, making amends for the dismal campaign endured in 2024/25.

The club’s bottom-half standing has led to questions being asked about Ange Postecoglou’s future at the club, with it unclear whether he’ll be in charge for 2025/26.

However, their progression into the Europa League semi-final against Bodo Glimt may save his career in North London – potentially able to end their 17-year wait for a trophy.

If the Aussie does manage to pull off such a feat over the next couple of weeks, he will need to be backed in the market by the owner to allow him to take the side to the next level.

It appears no time has been wasted ahead of the summer transfer window, already making serious moves to strengthen the side in numerous key areas.

The latest on Spurs’ pursuit for new attackers this summer

Over recent days, Spurs have been targeting reinforcements within the final third, leading to huge rumours over a move for Wolves’ star Matheus Cunha.

The Brazilian only signed a new contract in recent months, but has stated his desire to leave, with any side wanting to land him needing to trigger his £62.5m release clause inserted within his new deal.

The Lilywhites aren’t alone in their hunt for the 25-year-old, with Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Arsenal also touted with a big-money move for his signature.

The likes of Tyler Dibling and Liam Delap have also been mentioned as potential targets, but not to the extent of Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo, who’s been hugely mentioned as a summer target.

According to one Spanish outlet, Spurs are preparing a £50m bid for the Cherries attacker, who’s reportedly a supporter of North London rivals Arsenal.

Why the £50m target would be the perfect Son replacement

Winger Heung-min Son has been a tremendous servant to Spurs over the last decade, often being the shining light in their side after moving from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2015.

The South Korean international has racked up a staggering 448 appearances for the Lilywhites, scoring on 173 occasions, putting himself fifth in the club’s all-time scoring charts.

However, with the attacker being 33 come the start of next season, it’s safe to say he’s entering the final years of his career as a professional, with a plan needing to be put in place to replace him.

He’s also started to pick up more frequent injury issues, currently being sidelined with a foot issue, missing the Europa League triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt and being ruled out of Monday’s clash with Forest.

As a result, Postecoglou could turn to Semenyo as a summer target, with the Ghanaian certainly the perfect replacement for the fan-favourite during the off-season.

When comparing his stats to Son from the Premier League in 2024/25, the 25-year-old has massively outperformed him in numerous key areas, showcasing how much of a superb addition he would be.

Semenyo, who’s been labelled “world-class” by The Athletic’s Richard Amofa, has registered more goals in the league to date, whilst also managing more shots on target per game, highlighting his threat within attacking areas.

How Semenyo compares to Son in the PL (2024/25)

Statistics (per 90)

Semenyo

Son

Games played

32

28

Goals scored

8

7

Shots taken

3.7

2.4

Shots on target

1.2

1

Tackles & Interceptions

1.9

1

Take-ons completed

2.1

1.3

Aerials won

1.9

0.3

Stats via FBref

He’s also completed more take-ons per 90, along with more aerials won, offering Ange an all-round presence in the final third, playing a massive role in their potential success next campaign.

£50m may be a huge investment from the hierarchy, but it’s needed should the side return to the heights they’ve set for themselves in numerous seasons in North London.

Semenyo has demonstrated the qualities he possesses this season, with a big move needed, opening the door for a transfer to Spurs, and giving him a great platform to take his own career to the next level.

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Quick bowlers got 0.8 degrees of seam on average on the first day of the Perth Test, but Bumrah was able to do more than just that with the ball

Alagappan Muthu22-Nov-20240:47

What made Bumrah stand out?

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument made by hollowing out the limbs or even the trunks of trees. It produces a low-pitched, soulful, resonant hum. This alone makes it captivating enough but the indigenous Australian people believe this long, wooden flute, which may perhaps be the oldest instrument known to mankind, connects them to the invisible forces that shape our world. It certainly felt like it on the morning of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test. Perth Stadium – whose walls are adorned with 17 verses of indigenous Noongar prose – practically shook in tune with the music.When all this was happening, Yashasvi Jaiswal had found himself a little spot over on the other side of the ground and was taking some last-minute throwdowns, except it went way longer than that and if it hadn’t been time for the national anthems, he might have kept going.”This is the toughest challenge,” Jasprit Bumrah had said leading up to the game. “So I give this message to everyone: if you come and perform in this country then your cricket level will go up.”Related

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“This is where you make your name for yourself on one of the biggest stages in the world to play cricket,” bowling coach Morne Morkel had said. “I think that’s one of the driving forces in this group of young guys to come up here and play good, solid cricket, score five-, six-hundred runs in a series, take 19-20 wickets, and put yourself on that stage. It’s a fantastic carrot to dangle in front of Indian players.”KL Rahul certainly took this whole opening-the-batting business really seriously, but he seemed equally preoccupied with something else as well during the first half-hour of play. Gardening. He kicked the dirt off his batting crease. He marked and re-marked his guard. He patted the grass by the side of the pitch. He patted the good-length area of the pitch. He wanted to stay connected with the game. He wanted to stay plugged in. He wanted to get in that zone.On Friday, at Perth Stadium, if you weren’t in the zone, you didn’t exist.

****

Bumrah was among the first to be back out there at the change of innings. And he was letting them fly. His genius has distorted reality before and just then it seemed like he was fine working with 150 on the board. It can be the dark that makes his light shine brighter.The pace was up. At the pre-match press conference, he picked up on the words “medium-fast” and forgot about everything else that followed including the next one – “allrounder”. The question was actually about Nitish Kumar Reddy, but he fired back “150 , fast bowler ” [I bowl 150kph, call me a fast bowler please]. Misplaced indignation aside, there’s a chance he’s underselling himself there.Bumrah created four wicket-taking opportunities with his first 12 deliveries on tour. He was doing almost the same thing in the nets, but there were no stakes there.Marnus Labuschagne left a lot of balls, which wasn’t a bad thing to do with all the movement around•Associated PressNathan McSweeney was the only casualty during this period of play, out lbw to a good-length ball curved into his front pad.He could have been dismissed earlier when a back-of-a-length ball zipped past his outside edge. Marnus Labuschagne’s score – 2 off 52 – could easily have lost its curiosity value if Virat Kohli had been able to take a catch that he offered from the second ball he faced. This one was angled in and held its line.Bumrah was bowling fast – yeah, so fast bowler makes sense – but he brings people alive. A record crowd for a Test match day in Perth – 31,302 – including a very quiet Indian contingent until their captain was on a hat-trick. Then they began chanting his name. He makes the batting crease – which is usually wide open space – claustrophobic. He has his own gravity. Everybody at the ground was drawn to him when he was at the top of his mark. He makes his own rules. Pitches aren’t 22 yards long when he’s bowling.It’s about time cricket finds something else to describe him. Mitchell Starc pretty much said there’s nobody like him: “He’s obviously got a fair bit of hyperextension in that elbow and does things a lot of actions won’t let you do. So there’s no surprise he’s been a fantastic bowler across formats for a long time and again his skills were on show today as to how good he is. I’m sure there’s something in that release point that’s significant to his action. It’s something that a lot of people can’t do. I’m certainly not going to go and try it.”

****

India’s batters did the best they could. The score at lunch – 51 for 4 – and immediately afterwards, when Mitchell Marsh was taking wickets – 73 for 6 – may not have looked nice but they were facing a relentless bowling attack that was able to generate, on average, 0.8 degrees of seam movement. That’s a lot. Three of the four Tests played at Perth Stadium before this one offered much less in terms of deviation after pitching: 0.65, 0.56, 0.62.India matched their hosts with the ball. They too were able to gain 0.8 degrees of seam on average, and Harshit Rana, playing only his 11th first-class match, got almost twice that (1.36 degrees) when he dismantled Travis Head. The whole team got around him, which was good because he looked like he was ready to run straight out of the stadium. To be 22 years old and able to conjure that kind of magic on debut.Harshit Rana looked like he was ready to run straight out of the stadium after picking up his first Test wicket•Getty ImagesRana and Reddy were both told on match eve that they would be playing. Twenty-four hours later, both of them have played a significant part in India turning their fortunes around in about as dramatic a manner as there could be.”We got to know just before one day,” Reddy said after the day’s play. “We were a little excited as well. Obviously nervousness as well was there. We were having dinner and we were just keeping ourselves the way we were last week. We wanted to continue that. We wanted to take no pressure. So we had a cycle ride as well last evening and it was good.”Australia were expecting to face a very different bowling attack. They practiced hard for left-arm spin. Ravindra Jadeja got on the pitch only at lunch, to do some running drills. They have had enough run-ins with R Ashwin to be wary of him no matter the conditions. He was at the indoor nets, experimenting with legspin. They thought at least one of them would play. So did almost everybody else.India went in with a team designed to give them depth. An uncapped batting allrounder at No. 8. An uncapped bowling allrounder at No. 9. Washington Sundar, he of the no-look six from three years ago, as the lone spinner, a senior fast bowler who hasn’t had a good time of late, and him. The biggest him in the world of cricket right now.

History made, class evident, underpinned by a defiance cloaked by a Boy Next Door visage. This is Kane Williamson

Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Feb-20230:40

Fulton lauds Williamson’s ‘drive and determination’

The Barmy Army’s rendition of Jerusalem had just finished by the time the ball had bumped into the boundary sponge at midwicket. The applause around the ground had dissipated by the time the announcer switched on his microphone to commemorate the four, returning with supplementary cheers which highlighted how few people were on the banks and benches of the Basin Reserve. It was 10:35am on a Monday morning. New Zealand were now 20 behind in their follow-on innings. And Kane Williamson was now New Zealand’s all-time Test run-scorer.How did he celebrate? With a bit of gardening and a re-marking of his guard. A look around to check for any subsequent field changes rather than to survey those sending acclaim his way.About five hours later, the bat was raised and the helmet off. Though not for long: century number 26, off 226 deliveries – 78 after passing fifty – was subdued because there was work still to do. Williamson always seems to have more work to do.Related

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New Zealand had posted their highest total in a follow-on innings, though the ask for England’s fourth innings was within their recent reach. More to be done and only really one man entrusted to do it.Then came his demise for 132, which even then ended up being more about everyone else, beyond the rest of the batters to come to build on his work, which didn’t really happens. England had opened up an end from which they would take the remaining 4 more wickets for just 28 more. And even then, the identity of the wicket-taker (Harry Brook bowling what Joe Root described as “filthy seamers off the wrong foot”) and the manner of the dismissal (caught down the leg side) elicited a ground-wide guffaw that drowned out what ovation Williamson had as he walked off.History made, class evident, underpinned by a defiance cloaked by a Boy Next Door visage. Yet despite his on-the-day brilliance (which actually began the previous night), England were in pole position to successfully chase for the seventh time under Ben Stokes, with a target that will slot in as the fifth highest in that time.Williamson had the opportunity to sneak past Ross Taylor’s tally of 7,683 on Sunday evening, but resisted the urge – if he gets urges, or even has vices pertaining to self-gratification – to sleep four shy of top spot on 25 off 81 deliveries. He probably could have knocked it off last week on his home patch, but only managed 0 and 4 at the Bay Oval. Ah heck, maybe he was never going to do it among his own. Too showy. More attention was paid to Trent Boult, the Bay of Plenty resident in absentia.How good would that have been, though? For Mount Maunganui to celebrate their favourite son putting numbers behind what has been all but fact for some time – that he is New Zealand’s greatest? Back in 2014, after Williamson’s seventh Test hundred – a 161 against West Indies in Bridgetown – the late Martin Crowe said he’d be the best ever this nation produced. Which was noteworthy because saying someone is better than Martin Crowe is heresy in these parts, even if you’re Martin Crowe.Kane Williamson acknowledges the applause for his century•AFP/Getty ImagesEven being in the Mount for the 10 days around that first Test was to get a snapshot of why he is how he is. As it happens, his niece, who bears a striking resemblance, works as a waitress at one of the local restaurants. One set of diners from the UK, having cottoned on to this fact, couldn’t help ask if indeed she was a Williamson. “Yes,” she replied. “How do you know the Williamsons?” Presumably the family crest is an arrow pointing elsewhere.As far as Englishman on the field were concerned, all eyes were on the Williamson in the middle, in far less hospitable mood. He was integral in partnerships of 55, 75 and 158 with Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell, respectively, frustrating bowlers and fielders to no end in attack and defence.

“New Zealand cricket is very lucky he [Williamson] is still playing and to offer another level of leadership. He’ll possibly go down as our greatest-ever leader.”Brendon McCullum

Every boundary, aside from the back cut laced through third man that took him to three figures, seemed to be timed well enough to both make it all the way and drag a fielder along with it, convinced they could stop it. The dead-batting of anything remotely threatening he had to play was arguably worse. Williamson’s own bowlers talk about being frustrated in the nets by a bat that seemingly turns to a pillow and puts the ball to sleep, thanks mainly to wrists so soft he must have E45 mixed in with the ice coursing through his veins. At one point, Stokes employed four fielders in catching positions between square leg and midwicket who had nothing of note to do beyond retrieving balls that had already stopped and tossing it back to the bowler. Having been in the field since just before lunch on day two, it was hard to know which was under the more pressure: the England captain’s knee or the ironclad self belief he has instilled in his charges.The latter survived, and was replenished upon Williamson’s dismissal and the ensuing collapse. There is still much to do for New Zealand, and Williamson’s part in all this, beyond whatever match-turning nuggets he can pass on to his successor Tim Southee, is basically done.Has there ever been a more “I’m him” performance for one so humble and yet obviously brilliant? Monday was yet another reminder of a great hiding in plain sight. But in a New Zealand side undergoing a transitional phase following the brilliance of those he led to the World Test Championship, Williamson will become ever more visible.Should New Zealand pull off just the fourth victory for a team asked to follow on, it will elevate this day and Williamson’s part in it further. New Zealand Cricket announced Tuesday will be free entry, and all who arrive with Kiwi allegiances will arrive with the prospect of watching something truly remarkable.The last time they queued around the roundabout this ground sits upon to see something similar was nine years ago when a certain Brendon McCullum went on to become the first Blackcap to score a triple-century. That he is here on the opposing balcony adds a little extra on Williamson’s accomplishment.McCullum once explained the difference between him and Williamson was “you sit down with him for a meal and it takes him 45 minutes to finish”. Even if McCullum preaches otherwise, he must have had a wry smile as his old mate diligently chewed for 447 minutes to give this match what could be a satisfying finale.”New Zealand cricket is very lucky he’s still playing and to offer another level of leadership,” McCullum said during his first tour briefing a couple of weeks ago in Hamilton. “He’ll possibly go down as our greatest-ever leader.”Williamson already had the Blackcaps record for most Test centuries, led the team to their greatest ever success and, now, stands astride at the top as their leading run-scorer in the format. Next on his work docket are continuing as the main focal point in a batting line-up and a totem for a team recalibrating their standing in the global game.None of that is any less important but comes with fewer ground announcements, less acclaim and no title to boast about. Is there a better man for the job?

How Twitter reacted after India beat Australia in the fourth Test to win the series 2-1

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jan-2021Twitter was abuzz with congratulations from across the world for an Indian side that broke Australia’s 32-year unbeaten streak at the Gabba and made it back-to-back Test series wins down under.

This win is going in history books ! Young team beating a experienced Australian side I don’t think I was so proud while I was playing for india#Unbelievable stuff #test cricket at it’s best congratulations boys #IndiavsAustralia

— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) January 19, 2021