Zhan_Zhuang

Beat Spuds and Villa get fourth I think...

A draw or defeat and then it's open fight between them and us...

I hope fifth is enough for CL.

Good movie with Michael Dudikoff from 1986 'Avenging Force'

10 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

Ah fair enough, I remember going to this game back in 2008, but I don’t remember how he played. My memory of him is generally poor though, but glad he had a decent game then.

I do agree with you, I think overall he wasn't good for us.

On 25/02/2024 at 18:35, alreadyexists said:

This is how we lined up last time we faced them… that’s not a bad line up to be fair!! (With the exception of Nicky Shorey )

If you watch the highlights of the game Shorey was actually decent and heavily involved in one of our goals.

Emery and Villa seem to be a match made in heaven at the moment...

I hope that continues and we continue to see improvement; if we do that means trophies.

1 hour ago, jayEm said:

Guy on Claret and Blue podcast reckoned that if we beat Luton, and United lose to City, provided we just win 5 of our 11 remaining fixtures (a lower PPG than we've ever managed under Emery at 'just' 1.36) United need to win 9 out of 11 to overtake us.

There's some ifs in there, but it helped put it in perspective.

Yeah Villa could be ELEVEN points ahead of them if all goes to plan this weekend...

I think it's Spurs who are our most dangerous threat...

Just realised they've fallen to tenth place and Wolves are better...

Likely Chelsea will finish above them too, maybe if they hover around eleventh or twelfth then the knives will be out for Howe's head? Chop, Chop, Chop.

Yup, Bailey has been class this season...

I must admit I criticised him and wondered if he had a future here but in hindsight I know he was struggling with injuries and Villa had an imbecile in charge.

Yes I agree, he looked good.

Seems a nice guy.

59 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

This is ours. Would like to see Diaby given a start on LW. I think he could cause real trouble for Forest there. They wouldn't be ready for it. I do think we need to be a little more willing to take very measured and plausible risks like this. Diaby has proven he's positionally versatile and his right foot can be dangerous. Forest are expecting Bailey to be a handful, but with Watkins AND Diaby, we have a better chance of overrunning them in a manner similar to Almiron, Isak, Gordon. Ramsey has been off, and Zanny too slow. Full disclosure: I like to see the Leon-Moussa partnership in action when it works. I feel confidence in them when they're together and given some flexibility. 
 

........................Martinez.........................

Cash......Lenglet.........Pau...........Digne

................Luiz............McGinn...............

Bailey............Tielemans..............Diaby

........................Watkins.........................

 

3-1 W

It's a great idea and at home against a struggling team I think we would absolutely destroy them.

On 18/02/2024 at 12:19, Tom13 said:

Up to seven goal contributions in all comps

That's good, in 21 appearances too.

18 hours ago, wishywashy said:

He plays Pereira like a fiddle at least eight times in this comp. Poor guy's gonna be having nightmares for weeks.

Beautiful to watch, looked quite quick I thought at times when defending...although maybe their players aren't that quick?

Pau Torres reminds me of an NFL Quarterback, someone like Joe Montana. 

Torres dictates the play, you can see the opposition (Fulham) almost in awe of him, they don't know what to do and they aren't closing him down so fast as the game went on.

That save was epic, it is now becoming his trademark.

Of course none of the media will talk about it at all, not to mention he's been producing moments like that ALL season.

2 hours ago, MaVilla said:

nerd time.

Emery after 50 games in the PL.

 

This is incredible, it looks like Villa are on course for 70-75 points.

Surely that's fourth?

1 hour ago, Mantis said:

I do agree with you but in fairness, there was some horrendous refereeing decision in that Sheffield United game. In most of the games we've not won this season the refereeing wasn't really decisive but in that game it definitely was.

Agree with this, it's a game Villa should have won and the officials completely screwed us.

Imagine the confidence in the team to be top at Christmas, I think it would have been a powerful motivation.

But we are fourth which is still brilliant...

Great to see him back, played well...but he's likely a little rusty.

Hopefully his fitness is okay and will get even better for the remainder of the season.

Just wondering about aligning this with the recovery of Diego Carlos when he had his bad injury, albeit different injuries.

Carlos was back training with the ball for quite awhile perhaps up to four weeks, then for a few weeks he had behind doors and training matches with the U21's.

It's possible if all goes well Mings might make an appearance around April, would be great to see and what a bonus to have him back in the squad/team.

The gift that keeps on giving....

I'd really like to see Ramsey start and hopefully Torres too.

Ramsey can be so direct with the ball at his feet and Villa have lacked this aspect recently.

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

It's down to our failure to deal with the structured press. Kamara goal came from us playing out from back and their press forcing a mistake. We saw the same against Newcastle and the first game against Chelsea.

Lack of having Pau is a factor as he is so skilled at getting out. Plus losing Konsa has a stellar pass success rate was also a factor last night.

The game for me hinged on the first goal. They got it and got confidence. If we had scored first they might have dropped the heads. 

I think all of the issues we've seen are fixable. Ideally we'd have Digne and Pau back for Sunday to help us with our playing out from the back. 

We have bounced back to win our next match following a defeat 7 times this season and in 6 of those scored 3+ goals in process. We saw how we lost three in bounce last February and went in a run after.

If we perform against United we won't have a press to play against as good as Chelsea Newcastle and United when we play Fulham, Forest and Luton after.

We have it all to play for. A good performance and at least a point on Sunday. Get a couple of wins after that and we will get through this bumpy patch 

Took me a few pages of searching but finally some sense on VT.

Bravo @CVByrne

20 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Really stalled his career playing 90 minutes in the final and winning the champions league. 

 

I think the point is what is happening now, is he content to not be involved as he does seem surplus to requirements.

He doesn't fit the current remit for an Emery player at all, throw in the Monchi dynamic and I just don't think Villa would go for him at all.

Besides he's a different player now; seems to have had the player coached out of him.

Losing Konsa is a blow yet words like disaster are not accurate.

Lenglet and Carlos have to step-up in much the same way Konsa did when Mings was out. It's possible we (Villa) see them grasp the opportunity.

Villa have a great goalscoring record for the majority of the season and I'm sure we'll see a tweak in tactics to work on potentially out-scoring the opposition.

Pau Torres back in the next couple of games will help immensely too.

21 hours ago, VillaChris said:

I've given Buendia plenty of stick over last two years but goodness me I'd have him in the team every day of the week over Zaniolo.

Hopefully he can get back to contribute from April.

Yeah me too.

I'd imagine Zaniolo's days are numbered?

Diaby benched please...

This won't be easy because Villa make it difficult, also Sheff Utd will be up for this.

Archer will score.

1-1 draw