andymac12345

Has he played a single minute in pre-season yet?

I have a mate who's a Palace fan and watched us lose 2-1 at their place last season. He was absolutely astounded at how good Grealish looked that day and said to me, the problem with Villa is, 'they have too many Gabby Agbonlahors and not enough Grealishes'. This was a pretty nice write up of him the other week: http://villatillidie.co.uk/2016/07/14/jack-the-lad-or-jack-the-man/ Good to see he's reigned it in with the mental holidays too: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/revealed-what-aston-villas-jack-11533827

don't judge players after one season. Nobody thought KEA was a good signing last season but he has done well this year. Vice versa with Lowton Fair point actually he has improved a lot over the last season - I hope they can show the same kind of improvement. Sylla on the other hand has gone from average to flippin' terrible.

Good battling draw, probably just about deserved a point as Saints didn't do much with their possession except in the first five minutes when Lambert came close twice. Albrighton easily MOTM, he had Luke Shaw in his back pocket although Luke Shaw also had a decent game going forward which made the battle between them two interesting to watch. I said after the win against Chelsea that we'd made progress on last season. With my tail between my legs I take that statement back, we've stayed the same and I think that is solely down to Lambert's poor dealings in the transfer market. Only Leandro Bacuna and Betrand have looked good signings (not including Okore who probably would have been good) whilst the rest such as Tonev and Helenius have been a complete waste of time. Having said that, I still have faith in Lambert and am a believer of continuity. There's no manager out there right now who could do a better job so we should stick with him as I still see potential in this team.

Fair enough, each to their own. It was a good team performance regardless and everyone did well. Baker only a 7 because he lost his man a few times which could have cost us. Delph defo a 9 as you said. Weimann and Gabby 6s as I didnt really see them do anything but 6 is still above average assuming a 5 is average

Guzan - 7/10 - Rarely tested but looked assured when called into action Bacuna - 8/10 Didnt think he would cut it at RB but he keeps proving me wrong! Vlaar - 8/10 Solid as ever Baker - 7/10 - Improved a lot this season, overall fine although caught out of position a couple of times Bennet - 7/10 - considering all the stick he gets, he played really well tonight. Better than Luna IMO. Westwood - 7/10 - another good game, really looking like a Prem player now El Ahmadi - 8/10 - Most improved Villa player this year, looked lost last season but his energy is terrific Delph - 9/10 MOTM - foot and legs like a traction engine, caused Chelsea no end of problems and a world class goal to boot Weimann - 6/10 - A bit quiet tonight but did what was asked of him Benteke - 7/10 - some lovely touches, couple of stellar efforts although perhaps could have passed instead of shooting at the end Agbonlahor - 6/10 - See Weimann Albrighton - 7/10 - best crosser of the ball for Villa IMO, came on and caused problems with his good deliveries

To think, people wanted Lambert sacked two months ago. Pathetic. Great result, definitely progress on last season is evident. UTV

Yep and Harewood was absolutely magnificent. aaaah my bad thought it was 3-2, here's the highlights http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1090939/newcastle_united_1_aston_villa_4_feb_09_2008/

Didn't we come from two down against Newcastle in 2007 when Carew scored a hat trick?

Would have gone for a Villa win with Gabby playing but we look very toothless without him, a draw banker IMO. 1-1

I wouldn't say it means nothing. But it is a very overrated stat - I would think the amount of time you are in the opponents half more meaningful. I think everyone would agree we aren't a great team at the moment - Lets hope lambert came improve things over the coming months Opta Stat - Aston Villa have won every game where they've had less than 37% possession. Efficient.

Overall a decent performance. We looked dangerous in the second half and the fact we're moaning about squandering chances means we're actually creating chances which is good. Having Vlaar back was evident although I don't think Clark and Baker have been that bad in recent weeks. Lowton was solid, Luna all over the shop again - he's one player I'm confident isn't good enough for the Prem. Bacuna was good, seems to be our only real creative spark. Westy was okay, Delph was poor by his standards. Benteke showed what he could do in flashes - really wish that goal had gone in, would have done his confidence a world of good. Gabby worked tirelessly and took his goal well. He's actually turned into a half decent footballer now as opposed to being effectively a sprinter who would run onto through balls in the MON days. His hold up play is good and he makes the right runs, think he's been our stand out performer so far this season along with Delphoid and Guzan. Now a little thought on the possession thing. It seems to me that Lambert is choosing consciously that we only have a small amount of the ball during the game as part of his tactics. It seems efficiency, getting men behind the ball and countering is what he's aiming for and despite a couple of lucky wins, we're 11th in the table...a position we're expected to be at this stage in the season. Kinda makes the whole Lambert out nonsense look stupid eh? Great 3 points, UTV

Toothless. Gutless. Heartless. Clueless...anything else? My thoughts... Bacuna isn't a right back Westwood isn't good enough Benteke needs to find his shooting boots soon Weimann has really gone off the boil Delph had an usually poor game Gabby, Herd, Baker and Clark are the only ones to come out with any credit Puzzled as to how we let a team like Fulham dominate us in the manner they did - forget referee decisions, we were absolute toilet and didn't deserve anything from that game. What we need: A CDM in the Mulumbu mould how can do the dirty work and make things happen - Westwood has got nothing on him so far A creative midfielder Not to play Bacuna at right back Big fan of Lambert and what he's trying to do but to say we won't be in a relegation fight this season is very premature based on that performance - there's a long way to go and if we continue to play like that we'll get sucked into the mire in no time.

Does anyone watch 'sport authority' on oddschecker? The idiots saying Hull were going to win easily as we don't have Weimann playing. Don't know where the hell they've got that information from!? Idiots.

I really think one Hatem Ben Arfa type player who can open up defences is all we need. Think we should have signed one of those instead of someone like Helenius (especially as we now have Kozak too)