Micah Richards has been charged with improper conduct by the FA following an incident at the end of Aston Villa’s 2-1 home defeat to Swansea. The plastic tunnel was seen to be shaking from side to side after the teams entered it at the final whistle with the Villa captain still angry following a clash with Federico Fernández.
The FA studied the initial incident and decided not to take any action as the panel did not find either player had committed an act of violent conduct. However, Richards will face action after continuing the argument in the tunnel.
It is another blow to bottom-club Villa, who sacked Tim Sherwood on Sunday after a sixth consecutive defeat.
Richards has until 6pm on Thursday to reply to his charge. Villa travel to Southampton in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday and are at Tottenham on Monday. The under-21 team manager, Kevin MacDonald, is in caretaker charge and has a fully fit squad.
Sherwood’s predecessor, Paul Lambert, has said expectation levels at Villa are too high. “The expectancy level outweighs the realism at the club at the minute,” he told BBC Sport. “It was very hard for me from day one, everyone knew that Randy [Lerner] wanted to sell the football club.
“The most I ever spent was on Christian Benteke. I spoke to some really top players but we just couldn’t do it. The players I wanted to bring to Aston Villa were big players – I spoke to [Romelu] Lukaku and [Wilfried] Bony when I was there. That’s what I had to work with. It’s still a great club, but it should never be bottom of the Premier League.”