Aston Villa wins UEFA Conference League, faces Manchester City test

Aston Villa celebrated winning the UEFA Conference League on Wednesday, ending a 30-year trophy drought with a 3-0 victory over Freiburg in Istanbul. The triumph, secured with relative ease, marked manager Unai Emery’s fifth title in the competition with three different clubs, each featuring the word ‘Villa’ in their names. Ozzy Osbourne, whose song ‘Crazy Train’ serves as Villa’s entrance anthem, died last summer and was not present for the milestone.

Midfielder Matty Cash credited the team’s game plan to a figure he referred to as ‘the king,’ apparently overlooking that the heir to the British throne was among the celebrity fans in attendance. Freiburg coach Julian Schuster lamented his team’s defeat, saying, ‘Right now, there is no happiness. We lost a final. That hurts. I said before the game, we came into this believing we could win. For 40 minutes we did well and then it changed.’ Freiburg, aiming for their first trophy, were outclassed by a Premier League side with a significantly higher wage bill.

After the match, Villa players including John McGinn celebrated with family, while Emery was carried on the shoulders of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. Emery remained measured, stating, ‘It’s really something fantastic. My dream when I arrived here was to play in Europe and play for trophies. This is the first one we are achieving and it confirms how we are progressing.’ He described the victory as a platform for future success.

Villa now turn their attention to Sunday’s Premier League match at Manchester City. A loss could allow Bournemouth or Brighton to overtake them for a UEFA Champions League spot on the final day. Despite the celebrations, Emery’s squad faces a challenge to recover physically and mentally in time for kickoff. Cash told reporters, ‘I’m going to party for the next however long, the next couple of days,’ before an early flight back to Birmingham for a victory parade.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta recounted watching his team’s title triumph from his garden, not viewing any of the match. He said, ‘It was their moment to be together… I went home, went outside to the garden, started to build some fire and started to do some barbecue. I didn’t watch any of it. I was just hearing noises in the background and the living room. Then the magic happened. My oldest son opened the garden door, ran towards me, started to cry, gave me a hug and said: ‘We’re champions, Daddy.” The anecdote reflects Arteta’s attempt to avoid stealing the spotlight.

In a reader letter regarding VAR delays, Adrian Bradshaw suggested playing Public Image Ltd’s ‘Rise’ with its repeated line ‘I could be wrong I could be right.’ John Nielsen-Gammon proposed using Johnny Cash’s ‘I hear the trainer coming!’ when a player goes down, humorously mishearing the lyric.

Another letter from Noble Francis praised Unai Emery for winning the UEFA Emery League—a nickname for the Conference League—and achieving promotion to Spain’s third tier with Real Unión, the club he owns since 2021, where his father and grandfather played.

Dan J. Levy quipped about Steve McClaren’s new role at Rotherham United, suggesting he might have confused the job with Rotterdam due to accent similarities.

Letters can be sent to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter winner is John Nielsen-Gammon.

Southampton’s appeal against their expulsion from the Championship playoffs for spying on Middlesbrough’s training session has been dismissed by an English Football League arbitration panel. Despite Southampton providing footage of their own training to prove no material advantage, the ban stands. Middlesbrough will face Hull City in Saturday’s final, but several clubs are contesting. Wrexham and Millwall have sought legal reviews of EFL rules, while Hull’s owner Acun Ilicali wants direct promotion for his team. The outcome remains uncertain.

Listen to the latest Football Weekly podcast with Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Archie Rhind-Tutt, Lars Sivertsen, and Dan Bardell discussing Villa’s triumph and the Premier League relegation battle.

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