Nine years ago, Aston Villa lived in a different world.
It was monochrome and miserable. The club was being excavated. They were directionless on the pitch and in flux in the boardroom. On April 16, 2016, Villa were relegated from the Premier League.
The cold, hard facts were atrocious. A 1-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford meant a ninth straight loss, with more managers (four) than total wins (three) and still four matches to play.
Villa were a shell of what they were and, most pitifully, of what they could be. Their history was rich — the fifth-most decorated side in English football at the time — and for nearly three decades, an integral part of the Premier League’s furniture.
A fresh-faced Marcus Rashford scored the only goal on that harrowing afternoon. A considerable number of the 1,500 away supporters stayed stoically to protest at full time, with banners unfurled and created through any means, be it graffitied bedsheets, Villa-logo placards or coloured prints. It was a vignette of equal sorrow and anger, enraged by how American billionaire Randy Lerner was running the club.
Villa fans protest at Old Trafford (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
For Villa to go from there to the stage they now play on is startling.
Cynicism has turned into unerring optimism. The dreary scenes at Old Trafford and the increasingly empty seats at Villa Park — where supporters voted with their feet — have now transformed into a colourful, vibrant picture.
A 15-minute frenzy in the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain saw Villa touch levels they had not reached in a generation. They won 3-2 on the night but ultimately fell to a 5-4 defeat on aggregate after threatening the most unlikely of comebacks.
It felt fitting that John McGinn’s goal, Villa’s longest-serving player and the figure who most characterises their dramatic progress, lit the fuse.
The noise bellowing from Villa Park was ear-splitting. PSG were caught in a daze and on the ropes. Rashford, the forward who sealed Villa’s fate nine years ago and now on loan from Manchester United, appeared most captivated by the sudden shift in feeling.
PSG refused to take a backwards step, so Villa went toe-to-toe. Manager Unai Emery implored Rashford to start centrally and make runs into the left channel, where Achraf Hakimi continued to leave space.
Rashford looked buoyed, quicker and more purposeful in his actions. Three minutes after McGinn’s goal, he chased onto Amadou Onana’s hook down the line, isolating Willian Pacho in the position he used to love at his peak.
Cutting inside, jinking past Pacho before then shifting the ball away from Marquinhos, he wound up his shot, with a familiar high back lift and honed in on the far corner.
There was no stuttering nor hesitation — Villa were confident and in flow and so was he. Gianluigi Donnarumma dived to excellently turn the ball over the crossbar and, almost in the realisation of how big a save it could be, let out a roar.
Rashford raced to the far corner, intent on taking the corner quickly and refused to let such unforeseen momentum subside.
This was a player who, like Villa in recent years, was suddenly reinvigorated, having been partly at fault for PSG’s first goal. His loose touch allowed PSG to break and, in turn, magnified Emery’s decision to start him ahead of Ollie Watkins for a third successive match.
Rashford’s time at Villa has been in fits and spurts — flashes of excellence but hardly spectacular. Truthfully, he has lacked in his all-round game and the goodwill extending from Villa supporters to the coaching staff has afforded him patience, even if Watkins’ increasingly frustrated shadow looms.
Declarations that Rashford is back to his best are greatly premature, yet he continues to be talked about and assessed — among supporters, media and coaches — in the hope he can, over a sustained period, rediscover what he promised in Manchester.
Rashford’s skill in creating Ezri Konsa’s goal was, for Emery, affirmation of his belief in the 27-year-old.
Rashford’s resulting corner from Donnarumma’s save was cleared, but the ball found its way to him again.
He stepped inside a rushing Fabian Ruiz, who could not slow down soon enough, and drove into the box with full throttle, sweeping the ball past Vitinha to reach the byline and cut a cross back for Konsa to score.
Belief surged through Villa and Rashford’s veins. For so long, he had carried the look of a wearied figure, inhibited and stifled of confidence. For 15 minutes, he had been swept up by the sheer exuberance of a second half that threatened a comeback.
Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Marco Asensio all had opportunities to level the tie before PSG regathered themselves to some extent. Rashford’s swashbuckling running was now less frequent, though Villa’s attacking threat noticeably lessened when he was substituted for Watkins in the 76th minute.
Emery collapsed to the floor twice more as Villa went close. This was a team and a stadium beyond recognition compared to nine years earlier. At full time, Emery walked down the tunnel, his stare fixed on the floor and visibly devastated. He had pushed his players to the maximum, convinced they could do what seemed unthinkable at the break.
Once emotions subsided, Villa’s manager could see the bigger picture.
“He (Rashford) played a fantastic match,” he told Amazon Prime. “He is happy. And if he is happy, we are happy.”
Undoubtedly, Rashford will be a talking point as long as he is at Villa. His performance against PSG proved a microcosm for this peculiar stage of his career. He often drifts through parts of games but, like the 15-minute spell where Villa ripped apart arguably Europe’s best team, he can flick a switch and produce sensational moments. It is what makes judging his loan at Villa so tricky, perhaps even frustrating.
Rashford has now moved to the Midlands. In an environment requiring ultra professionalism and acceptance that Emery and his coaching staff, footballing obsessives, will monitor every part of a player’s life. Emery has lately warned his squad against travelling long distances during days off, preferring they rest at home and channel all their energy on football.
Emery’s tone shifted from disappointment to pride at full time. He repeated how satisfied he was with players “executing the gameplan” but admitted that if Villa want to raise their levels further, constant improvement is needed.
It is the same message being shared with Rashford. For both himself and his team-mates, the challenge now is to recapture that brief passage that almost broke PSG.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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