VillaAlex

Shouldn't Tarkowski get booked for drawing blood? 

17 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Nkunku missing today, he's potentially their best player 

You'd be crazy to bet on them, for or against, they could sneak Europe 

Depends when he's back seems to have the Jack Grealish injury prognosis where he's initially out for what seems a small amount of time but every time the manager is asked he's unsure.

I've said it before James Trafford is far too inexperienced for this league. He has no command of the area and if he didn't make such a bizarre decision to come out they wouldn't have scored anyway.

He was nowhere near, it's the last minute of the game if you're not 100% sure you're going to get it stay on your line and trust your defenders.

Looking at replay didn't watch the game, Trafford was in no man's land and nowhere near the ball. If Adebayo didn't block him Morris would have still scored. For that reason I think it's the correct decision. 

Wonder if he's another Emery appointment via the recommendation of David Villa. 

Don't mind Wrexham but would love to avoid the media circus around drawing them. 

Saka has had a mare this second half. 

11 hours ago, useless said:

No it's not bloody downbeat, I don't expect great analysis from TV pundits, it shouldn't be expected in the time they have, if you don't like it then just watch the game instead of taking notice of what they say.

People on twitter have more time to take in the game, so of course if they know what they're taking about they can offer greater analysis, but if you put them on the spot during game or moments after it's finished their input wouldn't be as interesting.

The people on the TV are essentially there to offer the most basic of description and to be entertaining in some way

You are wrong there is plenty of good analysis on channels abroad in the same amount of time. 

I think Werner will be a good signing to be fair. Better than Richarlison anyway. 

Bailey has been great but he's not even played half the minutes of some players. His return is excellent but some players have played near 1800 minutes to his 800 and barely put a foot wrong. He's definitely the form player at the moment though.

Probably expected he also has experience at this level before we signed him and that was a few years ago. 

I'd say Konsa. Played the most minutes, played out of position, generally super consistent.

Bailey has been excellent in several games though as has McGinn, Watkins and Luiz. 

12 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Think we *should* get another 8 wins this season.

Bit worried we seem to be tensing up now. As said before they're going to be far more high stakes games in the closing months of the season compared to today and Boxing day so we need to get the resilient mentality back when leading as too easy for teams we're playing to get back in the game. Today should've been over when they went down to 10 men so have to win it in 90th minute was a little concern imo for the long run.

Still get another 8 wins and that takes the team to 66 points and so 4 more draws and that's 70 points and I really can't see top 4 being denied with that haul.

The promising thing is get injured players back for mid January and sign a couple of new ones at the end of the month and we can still do better than that.

I think it's more tiredness. Feels like we put everything into the City and Arsenal games. Every match since we've looked leggy which is no surprise given the schedule, travelling and general lack of rotation. 

We also seem to be setting the gears in each match to preserve energy. This was particularly apparent in the matches Vs Zrinski and Sheff Utd where we really played with little tempo.

I think as mentioned the January schedule came at a great time, we might get embarrassed in the FA Cup again, and we have a tough game Vs Everton but we really need to kick on then before we are back in Europe. Then Unai may need to make a decision on priorities as it's going to be super difficult to handle a deep run in the Conference League and the schedule we have in April particularly. 

He's looked so tired these past few games since we played Man City. Hopefully can get some good rest now.

I'd say Liverpool are favourites right now.

They are 1st, they've played most of the top half away, except Arsenal, Man Utd and ourselves. They're currently the toughest side to beat. The one game they lost was due to a major VAR error. The only real bad result they've had is drawing away to Luton.

They're also in a European competition they'd happily drop in favour of prioritising the title. Arsenal and Man City won't do that. 

Probably see what they're made of most when Salah goes to the AFCON but I still think they have more goals throughout their frontline, compared to the impact of Arsenal losing Saka, or us losing Watkins. 

I think how much of a threat West Jam will be will depend on how far they get in Europe. They really struggle to balance the two. 

Both times we lost to these last season Cassmiro had a great game. Glad he's not around today. 

Coverage is good other than the pundits. Better than Sky and Bt Sport

Stunning own goal 

The referee made a good decision there, Sheff Utd trying to get away with conceding again. 

4 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

If we win thats 13 points clear of 7th place Newcastle and 14 points clear of 8th place Manure by 10pm. 

Hugee game for us.

I knew Newcastle would fall over when I said it'd be an easy win for them.

Expecting Man Utd under new extended ownership to smash us tonight now. 

Weongbthread 

The same type of challenge had been made multiple times on Watkins without a penalty being given. 

Just now, Dale said:

Atrocious dive. Penalty. 

His spinning motion makes the contact seem much bigger than it was.