It was a winnable match in a stretch of winnable matches. But in failing to get three points at Stoke on Saturday, Aston Villa fell a further two points behind Tottenham Hotspur in the race for fourth spot in the English Premier League. They also squandered a chance to pull ahead of sixth-place Liverpool. That said, it was a decent result.

There’s a simple rule for evaluating cup finals, especially those that included no small amount of controversy. Wait until Monday. Wait until the hangover goes and the emotion subsides. The best appraisal is typically a sober second thought.