Villa Park once represented one of the most intimidating grounds in the country.
It still has its moments. of course, particularly when Birmingham City are in attendance. However, it has seemingly lost some of its passion over the past few years, which may have seen referees give them the benefit of the doubt over 50-50 decisions, as they did in the 90s and early noughties.
Having watched the Villa over the past few years it is hard not to feel that the club gets the wrong end of the deal with contentious decisions these days, apart from an obvious one behind closed doors on Wednesday night.
Whilst historically it is believed that referees and linesmen tend to favour the big clubs, the lack of consistency is incredibly frustrating and even with VAR intervention, there still doesn’t appear to be parity with big calls within the game. Conspiracy? Who knows?
So, which referees really have it in for Aston Villa and who dishes out the most cards against them? The good people at TOFFS have compiled some top-line research that analyses the data from officials and gives football fans a definitive overview of which refs have it in for their clubs.
Will the Villa be surprised at the results?
You can see the full report compiled by Abbey Green at TOFFS here.