Football news - The Warm-Up: What a strange game football is - Aston Villa are off to Wembley

We don’t have any scientific evidence for this, but it does feel like a thing, right? A team in the thick of relegation trouble somehow manages to barrel through one of the cups, despite the fact that both competitions feature mostly the same opponents. What a strange game football is.

Aston Villa are the latest beneficiaries of this giddy tradition, striking deep into injury time to rob Brendan Rodgers of his cup final and the watching nation of their penalty shootout. Not that they’ll care. Leicester are 23 points ahead in the league table, and Villa didn’t care about that either.

Cracker of a goal, too. A big booming cross from Ahmed Elmohamady was met with a precise swing of the foot from Trézéguet, and howls of despair from the Leicester defenders. Substitute to substitute. Well played Dean Smith.

Leicester and Rodgers will be able to take a little comfort from the balance of the tie — they outshot Villa 43-12 over both legs — though equally, they’ll be concerned that only two of those actually went in. Or, if they prefer, they could get righteously upset about the penalty that wasn’t given against Marvelous Nakamba.

Nobody understands the handball rule any more, so who’s to say what the right decision was? And Villa certainly won’t care about that, either. Congrats to them.

Things are less jubilant over at one of Villa’s possible opponents, Manchester United. While the Glazer’s regime has never been popular, over the last few weeks there seems to have been a general and pointed rise in public dissatisfaction.

To widespread condemnation, a section of United’s support have reworked their traditional “Build a bonfire” song repurposed to cast Ed Woodward and the Glazer family as the fuel. And now a video has appeared that apparently shows fans outside Woodward’s house, announcing his death and chucking a smoke bomb over the gates.

Woodward and his family weren’t at home, which is probably a blessing for everybody concerned. United have condemned the incident and promised that anybody identified will receive a lifetime ban from the club.

This isn’t the first time United-supporting protestors have gone directly to the homes of their targets: both Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney were visited by the balaclava-d “Manchester Education Committee” at delicate moments in their contract negotiations, and back in 2004 former director Maurice Watkins’ car was covered in red paint.

However, on the off-chance that the protestors were specifically concerned with United’s handling of the Bruno Fernandes transfer — “Pay the add-on/Pay the add-on/Put a sell-on fee on top” — there seems to be some positive news there. Nothing official yet, but various reporters seem to think that there’s been a breakthrough and United may yet get one of those midfielders they could really do with.

No pressure, lad.

Finally to the Championship, where the top of the table is getting extra squeaky. Leeds were two goals down within an hour away at Millwall, but Marcelo Bielsa’s lot flipped the usual strong-start, limp-end script around and roared back to win 3-2. Patrick Bamford at the double, as they say.

That may only be Leeds’ second win in eight games, but it was enough to move them to the top of the table: West Brom, fresh from knocking West Ham out of the FA Cup, got turned over by Cardiff City. That’s seven games without a win for the Baggies. Stuttering, as they say.

And who’s that coming up on the inside rail? Why, it’s only Nottingham Forest.

Forest haven’t lost a league game since last year … okay, okay, that’s only a month. But still. West Brom have taken four points from their last seven league games; Forest, by contrast, have taken 19. That’s loads more. You can always rely on the Championship.

We’re happy to assume that both Ashley Young and Antonio Conte have very strong opinions on Marmite. For both of their sakes, we just hope that they agree.

We’re going to stay with Inter’s wonderful social media presence because, well, just look at Christian Eriksen here. Is he signing for a football club? Is he launching a fragrance? Or a surprise Presidential bid? Would you like to buy his lounge LP: Eriksen Sings The Great Arias? It’d make a lovely Christmas present for your nan.

Funny things, brains. All it takes is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to say “youse” in a press conference, and the mind flashes back to Juan Sebastián Verón. No, the Argentine wasn’t the player for Manchester United that Alex Ferguson hoped he could be. But he still managed to do some beautiful things in a red shirt. And you can kind of see what the idea was, can’t you?

Making a steaming mess of the transfer window. Fans boiling on the edge of mutiny. Best player knackered. And, of course, 3-1 and a humiliation down from the first leg. What a time for Manchester United to be heading to Manchester City.

Also you know that game in hand that Liverpool have, that would be very important in any other title race? That’s happening tonight as well. Best of luck, West Ham.