The Holy Trinity: Aston Villa conclusions from loss v Manchester United

Villa's shortcomings were exacerbated by a devastating failure of refereeing protocol that cost them a Champions League place

It was a tale of lessons learned the hard way and a scandalous injustice with disastrous consequences.

Aston Villa ended the Premier League season with a catastrophic implosion. There have been many like it at Old Trafford but this one was ours. Manchester United have stung Villa plenty of times before but they don’t have it in them anymore. This was Villa’s own doing.

The damage was immediate. In the end, a draw would have been enough to take Villa back into the Champions League. They should have been in the lead late in the game but the margins should never have been so fine.

Villa were lucky not to concede in the first half an hour and there’s no case to be made that they were the better side. They were dreadful. But football doesn’t care what teams deserve and it never has.

The actions of referee Thomas Bramall can and will be addressed another time. Villa have made an official complaint about his appointment and stayed just about the right side of wetting the bed. There are big questions to ask and I will be asking them soon.

For now, let’s get into the Holy Trinity of match conclusions from Sunday’s loss against Manchester United.