abdulaziz1

1 hour ago, DakotaVilla said:

The only positive from that was that he was hooked before full time so hopefully will be the freshest v Bournemouth as we will need a captains performance from him.

Exactly, him, Diaby, Bailey, Zaniolo (if fit), Duran, Carlos and Tim all can be good to start Sunday (atleast rotate some of them). I don’t think our regular starters will be able to keep their performances this high after a tough last week. 
Without Moreno we can’t do anything regarding left back as well so we have to rotate other areas.

Still long season, another 7 games (hopefully become 8 with winning the final in Athens). 
All in a short space of time. 
Hopefully he’s available for Sunday, wether start or from bench, we just need everyone fit. 

1 hour ago, VillaJ100 said:

Being as we keep buying Leverkusen's RW and the replacement is statistically even better if we get Frimpong I'm fully expecting them to sign the next Pele there next 

It’s not the same Leverkusen I’d assume. I don’t think clubs will be able to buy their players easily. They will probably give it a try before trying to sell. However they might sell from their squad.

His game is different to Bailey, by the time I think he’ll improve, but he will never do what Bailey does, however he’ll be more direct and add another dimension to the team. 
For now hopefully everyone can show his worth by helping us achieving our goals in the next few games.

Same as last year, we’ve focused on results, performances came from preseason onwards.

That Arsenal win was massive, I’m already nervous right now, let alone us not winning that. I’m not sure how we’ll approach Bournemouth game. After Lille we’ll need some rotation. Carlos? Or keep him for Chelsea? Then you’ve got Tim, Duran. Who else? Not sure. 
Rogers, Diaby and Bailey didn’t have full matches. Not sure what happened with Zaniolo. 
Not much to choose from to be honest. Shall we start Watkins? It’s getting too much for him. 
Tough game coming in our race, hopefully we win it. 

I don’t anyone saw him putting these performances this fast. The good thing as I mentioned before is that he’s improving while we’re being in a real tough period. Yes players not available helped him getting chances, but at the same time most of the team are getting tired, and not have Kamara is making controlling games tougher. So for Rogers to grow in the PL, I think we might have a real good player soon enough. Last season no one saw what Moreno would add but he helped us getting to Europe. Hopefully Rogers helps us to qualify to CL and win the Conference. 

13 hours ago, tinker said:

Seasons not over yet, Diaby will make a difference.

Hopefully 5th gets CL from this weekend, while we go through against Lille. I guess that would help in our performances and players who need more confidence such as Diaby. The pressure should decrease but with us still playing for 4th, without it being the CL qualifier. 

I don’t agree on selling him. We’ll be short in that area. Lenglet is our 5th CB and we’ve started him for months. Chambers (6th) played with him as well. If we hopefully went to CL, we’d definitely need his quality as we saw this season, things get tougher. Even for Europa, games will be more with the new way. Add to that cup runs..etc

Although I agree on getting young CB, possibly the new Konsa. Even during those days we bought Konsa, Mings, Engels and Hause at one summer window. 

5 hours ago, VillaChris said:

They lost to Brentford on the final day last season as they were resting players for the respective cup finals.

I think the title race will still go to the final day. Indeed Arsenal actually play twice  before Man.City play another league match so they could win them, be 4 points ahead and put pressure on Man. City to win their two spare games.

The dream scenario is this now. We beat Bournemouth and Chelsea, 9 point lead and superior GD. Spurs can't handle the pressure and lose to Arsenal and Chelsea.

We will then play Brighton before they play again so a chance to go 12 points clear. In that scenario Spurs would have to beat Liverpool and Man. City to have any hope of catching us and even then we'd just need a point from our final two games.

I think 4th is done if we beat Bournemouth and Chelsea so it's there for us.

To be honest I’m more worried right now about Lille and the Conference than 4th. That goal Lille scored made it more tough. But after Arsenal result and Luiz rest, we might be more fresh going into that game with hopefully more confidence. Also some important games in the next few days. 

If we won against Lille and hopefully 5th secured for PL, I think that would make it interesting. I don’t think Emery will surrender 4th, but the priority will be the Conference. However, it would be a great way to start playing Duran, Tim, Kellyman and Kesler. Ofcourse Rodgers should have more time with less pressure games to continue improving. We’ll need a bigger squad next season. Raising values for players or evaluating them would be very beneficial for us.

However, still tough European games could see the other way round. I’m glad we won, put us in a very good position. Which shall make our players fully focused on Lille.

As someone saud, what happened against Brentford could turn to be the best thing to happen, especially if we don’t collapse and lose at Lille. We need to prevent what happened against Brentford to happen again.

The good thing is that he’s showing his value in our worst run of the season. Missing Kamara mainly but also either with McGinn or Luiz.

He’s playing when our defensive play got worse (for many reasons), with all pressure we’re having. It’s not the best times for him, yet he’s doing really good. Imagine if we were more comfortable. 
 

Hopefully we win against Lille and qualify, with CL being sorted by 5th going through. That would give us a chance to try more players (Tim, Kellyman…etc). While pushing for 4th but without much pressure. Making the priority the Conference league. 

Great win against Arsenal, now we need to focus on Lille game. It will be tough. Hopefully Lille will start getting nervous after our win against Arsenal. 
That game might be our CL qualification game, and getting us near to our first trophy since almost 3 decades. 
To be honest I’m more worried about Lille than Bournemouth for now (despite rating them). My issue with that and Chelsea is we play both before Spurs play (could go either way). Anyway if we qualify we’ll still have another wild card to play (other than league wins. 

We’ll get Archer anyway and not sure if we’ll be able to send him on loan. In that case will we loan Duran and buy/loan another striker with Archer being around? 
lots of questions but let’s worry about it after we hopefully success in our two goals this season (trophy and CL qualification).

1 hour ago, sharkyvilla said:

As shit as Utd were, Bournemouth looked really good and we have to be at the top of our game to get 3 points next week.  I wouldn't mind Iraola being our next manager, hopefully we've still got a other 15 years of Unai first though.

 

Bournemouth are a very good team, it was always going to be a tough game. Brentford and Bournemouth are always tricky despite their form. However, especially for these games I guess us being at home is on our side, the main issue is we’re playing them without Luiz. 
Anyway I’m glad with results of this week, let’s see what happens with Arsenal then my whole focus will be on Lille. Results gave us chance to worry about the league again next week. 

2 hours ago, useless said:

I don't remember that at all, but when we beat Newcastle last season, we had seven games left to play and were only six points behind them

They were one or two games less though. 

22 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

United are shit and won’t finish 5th

If Utd fail to win at Bournemouth the. Newcastle will be a bigger threat than them.

I’m overreacting, it’s just Luiz yellow card killed tomorrow’s game, and made Bournemouth really tough one. After Bournemouth it’s going to be really tricky.

It’s not only wether they’ll catch or no, it’s the pressure they’ll put. 
Assuming the worse and we lose next two or draw with Bournemouth. While Newcastle having 6 to play, if they win it will be 8-9  points. 
amA win for Palace against them will make things easier. Same goes with Utd not winning today. 
Without Kamara we can’t be sure about a result and you know even 2-0 can change at anytime.

4 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

Amazing work!

So, to summarise (I think!) using your entirely sensible Draw/Win legs average;

If Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool or West Ham go through, add 0.5 to England's score

If they go out, add 0.125

If Bayern Munich, Leverkusen or Dortmund go through, add 0.571

If they go out, add 0.143

Villa... I'm unsure why we're different but 0.375 for a win... For a loss?

 

This is added on to;

England 16.250 and Germany 16.357.

 

So my feeling is Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool, Leverkusen, Dortmund and Villa through... 

England 16.250 + 0.125 + 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.125 + 0.375 = 17.875

Germany 16.357 + 0.143 + 0.571 + 0.571 = 17.642

 

Gonna be tight... When did football start involving so much maths?!

 

Usually Villa are part of new things. We were the first FA cup runners up not to qualify to Europe. Then we went to the League Cup final which was the first to qualify for a new tournament (UECL). 
And now we’re on the race of going to CL for the first time, yet it’s having a possibility of 5th for the first time, add to that the new format. 
Then again once we made it to Europe again, we made it in the last year of the ol format, and shall be in Europe for the new format, despite not being their for years.

15 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Or

- Qualify for Champions League

- Attain further lucrative sponsorships

- Get fees ( even if minimal ) for deadwood

- Remove millions from wage bill via deadwood

And have to do NONE of that?

Again, was/is this Ramsey sale need info ITK? Who confirmed this was the " plan "?

I think the selling which was mentioned would be needed for big transfers. I don’t think we need to buy bigger names, continue being shrewd. As we saw this season, it’s a squad game. We could go buy 40-60m player, if he’s injured then that’s it. 
I think we’ll but some younger players with huge potential. Such as Rogers, but from abroad. 
Zaniolo and Lenglet will be back to their clubs, then we’ll have to see Ramsey, Buendia and Mings. How well are they doing. Kamara as well. According do that I think we’ll act. 
I assume our main focus to begin with will be a DM. 

Every game appears to be the game of the season, but tomorrow if we win that with Spurs and Utd failing to win, we’d have done very well for our season, then a crucial week in Europe. If we can confirm everything as early as possible, we’ll then be able to increase value for Tim and Kesler, also give Kellyman more time. While Duran and Rogers can both have more starts.

Signing Rogers could be some shrewd business in the coming weeks. Zaniolo as well has some crucial weeks. If those two done their part and we success in our two goals (qualifying to CL and winning UECL), then I think we’ll have a good platform to build on for next season.

Rogers in particular seem to grow as a PL player, he came in tough circumstances but I think all of this will benefit him. 
I was hopeful for Ramsey to get back soon but better to fully recover than get rushed again. 
 

It’s not only about will Man Utd do it or not, it’s about the nerves and having a chance to be around. If we failed to beat Brentford and lost to Arsenal while Utd won against Chelsea and Bournemouth while losing to Liverpool we’d be 5/6 points from them. Having Europe as well it would make our focus less.

By Utd losing,  it give us more space to give a focus in Europe (which would help our CL hopes anyway).

Even if they didn’t make it, them being near isn’t going to help. Will put much pressure. I’m not saying we’ll lose to Brentford or Bournemouth but both are very good teams, failing to win those while going to Chelsea, Brighton and Liverpool would be risky and tough. The last thing you want is going to Palace with a chance for not being 5th (hopefully we’re confirmed 4th before then as well as 5th confirmed to qualify).

If English teams done well, and confirmed that 5th qualify while we beat Lille and qualify, we’ll be able to rotate more, focus on Europe, give some youngsters more minutes for some League games. Win against Brentford, Man Utd losing to Liverpool and hopefully Spurs fail to win against Forest. Having that before Europe games would give us more confidence about our chances.

People who say he’s like Benteke are mistaken. Both might be strong but technically Benteke is more gifted. However Duran has his own attributes, I don’t usually have confident of him keeping the ball but somehow he delivers it ok. His way of playing and running is strange, but I think he’ll be perfect for City. He’s the type of player that would make issues wether he have technique or not. More like Antonio. 
The good thing is that he’s strong while still young, other attributes he can learn (especially decision making which is already improving). 
I think he can hurt City as Mateita done with Palace. 
I just hope we put the right players, as going with an attacking side will be hard to watch. This time Tim has to start.

I think our win was massive but Utd losing points the way they did is very important to our run. I was gutted by Luton mistake which lead to Spurs goal but then and us winning might gave Utd more doubts. This can give us some space with the coming run in. 
If Utd failed to win next game as well that would be a big bonus (whatever we do at City). If both of them failed to win then that would be as if we won at City. 
We’ll still have some important European games as well. So each win will really help us rotate well. Especially that we’re going to a point where European wins could be more important than league games and easier to secure CL qualification.

7 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

No John McGinn, for this game, who was pivotal in the result against city

Nor Kamara.