The only thing that matters is the three points. It feels like we have to keep telling ourselves that, because the more I watch these ‘post-lockdown’ matches, the more it becomes increasingly clear that we can read very little into them. Of course it is easy to say that having wrapped up the Premier League title, so we have nothing to play for, nothing to drive towards, other than next season and the record points total (but even the latter must be difficult when we are playing teams with actual things to play for. Anyway, that’s a long-winded way of suggesting that very little happened in this victory over Aston Villa.

The rest is for subscribers only. 

[ttt-subscribe-article]