Alex Ferguson raves about Aston Villa despite their opening weekend thrashing

"I can't believe the scoreline."

Sir Alex Ferguson made a rare TV interview where he raved about Aston Villa's performance against Newcastle despite being thrashed 5-1 by them. Man United's legendary manager rarely appears on TV to share his opinions since he retired from the sport, but is often seen at Old Trafford and is still clearly very in touch with the game. When you are the best manager in the history of the Premier League, then people tend to listen whenever you share your opinion. https://twitter.com/AVFCStatto/status/1691362344675266560 Speaking on the USA's coverage of Man United vs Wolves, Ferguson was asked what team has impressed him the most in the opening weekend of the league.

"To be honest with you, I watched Aston Villa and I can't believe the scoreline," he said. "Honestly Aston Villa played fantastic football and just lost to bad goals. "Newcastle are going to be very difficult to beat, in their own ground in particular, and their manager has done a great job there. It's a surprising game, football. You can play teams off the pitch and not score - that's what Aston Villa did."

Of course to the naked eye, or anyone who just seen the scoreline, you would imagine that Newcastle put in a dominant performance that coincided with Aston Villa representing themselves poorly. However, as Ferguson pointed out, Unai Emery's team were actually very good and looked like they had even made some improvements since last season. Of course any team that concedes five goals has its issues, but Villa are in a unique situation where it isn't quite the panic stations that you would have thought after such a poor result in their opening game. Related links:

• Gary Neville compares Jurgen Klopp and FSG to Alex Ferguson and Glazers
• Gary Neville rips into Casemiro after Man United's narrow win over Wolves
• "This is not on the owners" Jamie Carragher gives interesting take on Liverpool's transfer mess