briny_ear

Welcome Ross. (Again)

Looks like our Jhon wasted a lot of time cosying up to Poch.

Ah, so sad to hear he has gone. Absolutely adored this guy - he was so speedy and so skilful. Loved standing on the Holte End chanting "Chico-o, Chico-o". He played a massive role in dragging us up from the doldrums of division 3 to the mid-70s where we were competitive in the top flight again. RIP mate, a real hero for me.

I have been very impressed with how Barkley played for Luton this season, prompting me to ask more than once “Why couldn’t he play like this for us?” Maybe Unai can do it for us…

I think this is the first time I have rated this thread in any depth. Tell you what, there is some mad stuff here!

I’m not wildly interested in prolonging this but this is not a straightforward issue of “facts”. You are taking some data and slanting them to support a gloomy point of view. It is possible to take the same data and present a more optimistic point of view. If ever there was a time for a Villa fan to be optimistic in the last 30 years, it is now. But I am struck that our success this season has been underpinned by a narrative from some of failure, decline and future peril. And the 0-5 was particularly disappointing because it does give a renewed platform for all this doom and gloom so shortly after the excitement and optimism of Tuesday night. I doubt if we had played out a boring 0-0 draw there would be so much negative talk.

This is that type of statistic that looks really significant at first but when you think about it is perhaps a bit misleading. First, it is notable that we actually ended up in 4th despite being “9th” for the second half of the season, so that shows our 2024 performance was good enough to fend off those who were challenging us for fourth, which was all we needed to do, and what Emery very skilfully steered an increasingly depleted and exhausted squad to do, while also trying for the Conference League final. I am amazed he managed to keep us fourth and I do not really think we should be drawing any negatives from that. Second, when you look at actual performance in the second half of the season there was a very tight group of six teams from 4-10 (the ones you name above minus Chelsea) separated by two points. If we had needed to get something from Palace there is a good chance with a stronger squad and proper motivation (and maybe an earlier bedtime on Tuesday evening) we probably could have done, which would have placed us at the top end of that group - so 4th in the first half of the season and fifth in the second half doesn’t sound so bad does i? Third - and this is where you do have a point - the fourth best team in the second half of the season by a long way was Chelsea. Their form once Pochettino got them playing was remarkable and a full season like that would see them challenging strongly for top four, which is not perhaps surprising when you think of the amazing amounts they have invested in their squad. We may find it harder to compete for fourth next season and may have to fight for a Europa League place instead. But that is all for the future. For the moment we have secured Champion’s League football so let’s see how far we can get in that competition while trying to stay competitive in the premier league. Exciting times ahead!

Worth repeating1

The thing that annoyed me most about this result is that, after a fantastic season of achievement way above anything that has been seen for the past 20 years at least, it gave a free pass to the gloomsters, the “we’ve been punching above our weight”, “it will all fall to pieces next season, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs Man U, even Palace, will outdo us (like they were slated to do this season BTW)”, I love Emery BUT…” type of commentators, to come out in full force and cast a dark shadow over the whole of the summer. I really hoped the actual reality of achieving fourth place - on absolute and undisputed merit, as the Guardian commented - would have allowed such commentators to have a good restful snooze this summer but no, the stupid sods only had to go and lose 0-5 in a meaningless match when they were no doubt still badly hung over if not pissed. Thus the theory of disintegration and decay has been given a fresh impetus. Thanks a bunch guys.

Yah, I think Man C have a slightly different business model from the one that was proposed above for “teams on the rise”.

Are you suggesting we didn’t earn every one of our 68 points on merit? Could you explain how “overperformance “ is measured and identify the specific matches in which we “overperformed”?

Who knows? But almost certainly the only team to do that and qualify for Champions League football in between.

So Palace have been absolutely flying and in their last 6 games had 16 goals and 16 points. By contrast we saw the Villa squad getting pissed out of their minds on Tuesday, having thrown nearly every last ounce of energy into the 3-3 draw against Liverpool. So I guess it was quite likely we would lose this but 0-5 is painful and embarrassing. Well done to Palace for getting top half. It will be interesting to see how far they can go next season. As for our prospects next season, dare I suggest that those who are foreseeing abject failure in the Champions League and descent down the PL, based on this result, are maybe getting things a little out of proportion?

I’ve never claimed to understand or see any point to xG but doesn’t that mean it’s actually worse than it looks?

Even with this poor result today our defence as it stands is 7th best in the premier league.We have now conceded as many goals as Spurs, which I guess is bad.