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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Daniel Harris

The sweaty weight of expectation that comes with wearing the Aston Villa shirt

Leon Bailey in a heavy Aston Villa shirt
To be fair, we wouldn’t want to wear that. Photograph: Andrzej Iwańczuk/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

TOP HEAVY

We all love an excuse – so much so that some have become popular idioms, meaning something beyond the literal. Consider, for example, “The dog ate my homework”, which now describes any exculpatory tall story; “the wrong type of snow”, used to reference official failings which extend far beyond non-running trains; or “I’m left-handed and flat-footed”, shorthand for all kinds of indolent incompetence, not just DIY avoidance. OK, that one’s particular to the Daily, but you get our drift.

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