[NoSkillz]

Sat. April 26, 2025

Barclays Premier League
Aston Villa (9-7-18, 34 points, 16th) vs. Dover (24-5-5, 77 points, 2nd)
Villa Park, Birmingham, England

Betting Odds: Aston Villa: 4-1 Draw: 5-2 Dover: 4-7 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 7W 2D 6L

Villa have traditionally been a tough win for us and we just got over .500 against them for the first time with a 2-0 win at home earlier in the year. It’s been a horrific season for Villa and they are in 16th place in the league but with a 12 point advantage over 18th placed Blackpool, they should avoid the drop. Striker Mohamed Messaoudi leads the club with only 8 goals.

We have a very relaxing finish to our season, with only five games remaining and all of them are spaced out nicely. That said, I want to start giving a bit of playing time to some of the younger kids, seeing that we are highly unlikely to challenge United for the league lead but have a Champions League spot wrapped up. With nothing major to play for beyond the FA Cup final, we can see what we have with the youngsters. So today, I will play young defender Mwemere Mutesa and wonderkids Rafinha and Emmerson Harvey. We’ll go with a one striker formation, with Andy Broomes alone up front. Getting the day off are Jose, Claudio Contreras and Chiquinho - none of those three will even dress today.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Rafinha, M. Mutesa, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - E. Harvey, B. Raab
AM - M. Pedersen, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes
Bench - C. Guzman, S. Nasri, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, F. Hernandez, G. Allan, M. Lugo

Villa are in a flat 4-4-2 with Messaoudi and Antonio up front and Antonio Kraljevic in goal. Reece Butcher is an English midfielder I’ve long admired and he’s at ML today. Lets win for the travelling support today!

6’ - We’re all over them early and an Emmerson Harvey through ball into the box finds Gianluca Bolis and our star shooter from the FA Cup semi last week easily slots the ball home and we lead right away! DOVER GOAL 1-0

16’ - On a bit of a broken play, the ball comes up to Villa’s Reece Butcher, who I talked about above. He eludes a tackle from Salim Loucif and unleashes a howitzer from the edge of the area and it’s past Wilke and IN. What a shot! ASTON VILLA GOAL 1-1

26’ - We earn a corner and Benedikt Raab’s cross is to the near post and Zoltan Bardi and our attacking mid heads it home! That’s Bardi’s tenth goal of the year! DOVER GOAL 2-1

45’ - Great. Zoltan Bardi is tackled hard and needs to come out of the game. I switch to a flat 4-4-2 and bring in Manuel Lugo to play striker. DOVER INJURY: Zoltan Bardi

45’+1 - On the ensuing free kick, we gain revenge, as Raab sends a curling rocket past Kraljevic and IN!!! Great shot! DOVER GOAL 3-1

HALFTIME - We control the highlights and the scoreline but Villa held a ridiculous 62% of possession. Wow! Despite that, we outshoot them 10-5 (5-1 on target) and hold a nice lead. The switch to a flat 4-4-2 should help our possession numbers in the second half. I encourage the team in the dressing room to keep pressing.

54’ - We start a counter attack down the left side and Mads Pedersen dances to the byline before sending a glorious cross right to the foot of Manuel Lugo, who easily taps the ball into the net! Beauty and great to see our young forward Lugo score his third of the season. DOVER GOAL 4-1

58’ - Villa get a corner and the cross is headed past Wilke and in by their captain Phil Jones. Ugh. Wilke takes the blame on that one. ASTON VILLA GOAL 4-2

72’ - Rafinha got a bit banged up on a tackle so I pull him off and bring on little used Carlos Guzman.

85’ - With the game seemingly in hand, I pull out Mads Pedersen and bring in young U18 midfielder Felix Hernandez.

We’ll take the win.

Aston Villa 2 - 4 Dover
Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.7), Zoltan Bardi (7.3), Benedikt Raab (8.9), Manuel Lugo (7.4)
Assists - Benedikt Raab, Emmerson Harvey (7.5), Zoltan Bardi, Mads Pedersen (7.4)
Man of the Match - Benedikt Raab
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (5.8)
Attendance - 42,358

Villa did great with possession, holding 57% of the ball but we outshoot them 22-10 (6-2 on target). Wilke takes the blame for their second goal and is strapped with a brutal rating. Raab has been a phenomenal capture for us this year in midfield and has firmly taken over the starting position formerly held by Neil Cairney.

-- Zoltan Bardi continues his poor luck with injuries, tearing his knee ligaments and he’ll be gone for the rest of the season. DOVER INJURY: Zoltan Bardi (torn knee ligaments - 2 months)

-- Sheffield United, in a big relegation battle, are able to earn a draw against leaders Man United. United still can wrap up the division with a win in any of their last three games. In other action, Chelsea keep on our heels with a 2-0 win over Wolves, Arsenal knock off Middlesbrough 2-1, Man City and Sheffield Wednesday battle to a scoreless draw and Newcastle and Sunderland tie 1-1. Spurs also knock off Derby 5-2 to stay molten hot and that result locks up relegation for Derby, who will head back to the Championship next season.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 35 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester United - 87 points
2. Dover - 80 points
3. Chelsea - 75 points
4. Manchester City - 67 points
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5. Arsenal - 61 points
6. Tottenham - 57 points
7. Newcastle - 52 points
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8. Sheffield Wednesday - 51 points
9. Liverpool - 51 points
10. Reading - 50 points
11. Sunderland - 44 points
12. Middlesbrough - 44 points
13. Everton - 43 points
14. Wolves - 42 points
15. Huddersfield - 41 points
16. Aston Villa - 34 points
17. Sheffield United - 26 points
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18. Blackpool - 25 points
19. Burnley - 20 points
20. Derby - 16 points



Dover U18 Update

-- Stud youth striker Alberto Velazquez scores three more goals as we defeat Crawley 6-1 in U18 action. Nathan Protheroe, Ben Patterson and Freddie Laird notch singles.



Dover Injury News

-- Arsene Bamba returns to full training after missing four weeks with a sprained ankle.



Premier League Team of the Week

-- Benedikt Raab continues to pile up the accolades, earning another spot on the Premier League team of the week.



Champions League Update

-- OM, who destroyed us in the quarterfinals, draw away against Barcelona 3-3 while Olympique Lyonnais defeat Manchester United 2-1 at home.



Dover Reserves Update

-- Graham Allan scores three goals from right wing in a 4-0 reserves team win over Wolves, coincidently our next league opponent as well. Felix Hernandez scored the other goal and Alberto Velazquez notched two assists.



May Update

-- We’re getting down to the end of the season and have four games remaining, three of which are in the Premier League. We’re away against Wolves, at home to Everton and finish the season away at Arsenal. Our final game of the year is the FA Cup final against Tottenham.

-- We get positive training notices for Mwemere Mutesa, Lyubomir Kunchev and Emerson along with U18 players Edward Smith, Nathan Protheroe and Robbie Welsh. A negative report comes in for Emmerson Harvey and we have a little chat about him falling behind on his aerobic activity.



April Premier League Awards

-- Chelsea fullback Elvis Oseni wins the player of the month award.

-- Richard Brands from Man City wins young player of the month. Former Dover U18 keeper Louis Read comes in second while current Dover defender Mwemere Mutesa comes in third.

-- Tottenham manager Quique Flores wins manager of the month honours while I finish in third.



Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership of the team. Our stature increase is the main positive and our heavy Champions League quarterfinal defeat is the big disappointment and the fans “hope you can make amends”. Well then!

-- We turned a nice profit of £4.99 million in April, mostly due to prize money.



Chiquinho RALLIES THE TROOPS!

-- We get one of those fun notices that only Football Manager can provide, as Chiquinho calls on our team to beat Wolves this weekend in order to keep the pressure on Manchester United in the league race. We’ll be playing Chiquinho this weekend, that’s for sure, after seeing this.



Next Up

-- Another winnable game sees us travel to Wolverhampton.