Matt Maher: Rapidly changing opinions all part of life near the top
There are very few post-match player interviews which tend to live long in the memory.
Of the dozens you conduct over the course of a season, the vast majority follow the expected line.
Very quickly last week it became clear the conversation with Matty Cash in the Villa Park mixed zone would not fall into that category. The right-back had arrived, around an hour after the full-time whistle, with something to say. The moment the tapes were switched off, around five minutes later, you knew his words were going to create a reaction.
Cash had used the time to issue a plea for supporters to get fully behind the team for the final weeks of the season, claiming it “sometimes feels like they are a little against us”.
His comments were chiefly in response to some of the criticism aimed toward Villa after the back-to-back defeats to Manchester City and Crystal Palace, which knocked some momentum out of what had been looking like a charge to the finish line from Unai Emery’s team.
The loss to Palace at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final had been particularly chastening, up there with the worst days of the Spaniard’s reign. Frustration from supporters who have become accustomed to their team being a success story was understandable.
Cash’s words, however, cut into something deeper. More than anything, they smacked of exasperation at just how quickly narratives and opinions these days seem to change. Much as it is brave for a player to aim criticism back at the fans - and much as it is equally risky for journalists to critique their readers by in part agreeing with it - you couldn’t help feel he had a point.
For a long time managers would joke they were only ever three defeats away from a crisis. Quite often now, it takes just one setback to drastically alter the mood.
A fortnight before beating Fulham, Villa had thrashed Newcastle with a performance which left many observers wondering whether they weren’t the best team in the Premier League at that point. Then, just seven days later, the story had switched to questions over whether their season was at risk of petering out?
There is, of course, a wider debate to be had here, one which will be pushed further to the fore as Villa’s final league position is confirmed.
Namely, can this season be considered a success, if Emery’s team miss out on a Champions League return?
There’s certainly a strong argument to be made that, even if they were to finish lower in the table than 12 months ago, the campaign has still been a step forward. Villa have played more matches, more intense matches than last season and won most of them. It has hardly been a year short on memorable moments.
But then so much about the modern game is now based around the destination rather than the journey. The reality of spending restrictions, the need to remain within those pesky PSR limits, can make every match feel like it is being played on a knife-edge.
Social media, of course, doesn’t do nuance. It was in that direction Cash directed much of his annoyance and it is hard not to have some sympathy. The nonsense players frequently have to put up with on that forum was, ironically, demonstrated in some of the online replies when links to the story containing the defender’s comments were posted on Sunday night.
Not every response was negative. There were a healthy number who acknowledged Cash might have a point but whether you agreed with him or not, social media tends to be the place many head to get their opinions reinforced, rather than changed.
But then Cash did not confine his comments solely to keyboard warriors. He also referenced the atmosphere in the stands and while this again might seem a risky tactic, in truth he was only echoing what some supporters have been saying all season.
It is hardly an issue exclusive to Villa. Only last month, Pep Guardiola was complaining about the lack of noise at Manchester City. Even that wasn’t enough to raise the decibel levels when Villa visited the Etihad Stadium for a match the City boss had branded a “cup final” for his team.
Those who attended the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final with Paris Saint-Germain, meanwhile, noted how things fell rather flat after the visitors had gone ahead early through Ousmane Dembele. You could not say the crowd heeded the appeal of Gunners boss Mikel Arteta to “kick every ball”.
Then again, getting in to watch these occasions is now a very expensive business. For some time now it has felt the higher up you go, the more supporters demand to be entertained.
Arteta has also experienced this week how quickly opinions can change. Some of those queuing up to praise him after the Gunners brushed aside Real Madrid in the quarter-finals are now questioning his future after the semi-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
The Spaniard, it must be said, often does not help himself by trying to tell people they have watched a very different game to the one which actually took place. Claiming his team were better than PSG over the two legs, after losing by two goals, was always going to attract ridicule.
It doesn’t change the fact they got further than any other Premier League team in the competition, or take away any of their progress under his guidance over the past few years.
But then Arsenal are a club which will always be judged by silverware, in the same way Villa are now operating under dramatically increased expectations. Criticism can often be unfair and often feel overblown. Yet in some ways, it is merely the price of success.
