skarroki

Dunk

He's just outstanding. Run out of superlatives for him. There is some real stiff competition for the best central midfielder in my time following the club (Barry, Petrov, Milner, Salifou) but it's becoming harder to ignore him. Continue this consistency and stay longer and he'll be someone we look back on for decades

Zaniolo

Think I went to Primary school with their number 16 and looks like he's got younger since. Could star in a Rugrats movie

Is there any news on availability for tomorrow? Would be good for Watkins to get a rest.

Genuinely forget he's on our books until a random cup game where he's starting.

I assume I've not watched the amount of games you have when he was in Italy but from what I saw he was extremely talented and some games he ran in a way you only could if you had a football brain. He's someone who was made the focal point of a Mourinho team when he had barely finished being a teenager. I think he's got a lot to contend with. New country, new team, new language after only just adjusting to the same thing in January. He's got a lot to deal with off the field and he's also got to get used to his third completely different style of play, third position and third league since January. On top of this he's gone from a prodigal son, to a key player, to a player that just about gets into the side but will be ousted by a younger local lad as soon as injuries clear up. When you're used to most things going through you and you being a highlight reel creators dream, like Grealish, to a cog in a well defined system, there will be a drop in the quality you're capable of showing. I think he'll be the opposite of our Ross Barkley. I remember in January saying that I'd by Barkley for £20mil easily based on early season form and his linkup with the rest of the midfield. By end of the season he looked like an expensive waste of squad space. Hoping Zaniolo does the opposite. By the end of January I think people will be hoping we're looking to trigger a buy clause.

Think Ndidi has been playing much higher up the pitch this season in the championship and excelling in that new role. He might need some adjustment time to slot back into something more defensive and if he's thrown into a hectic schedule at a new club where he's not first choice or even first off the bench, he might find it tough. Already having Tielemans is a bonus though for that move, providing they get along off the pitch. They certainly clicked on the pitch together when Leicester were flying a couple years back.

Dunno if this is completely irrational but found the BBC commentator greeting Unai Emery at 4pm for an interview with "well Unai congratulations, good evening, another 3 points..." a bit unnecessary. Unai responded saying good evening perfectly. Felt like he'd plucked the courage to say something another reporter dared him too a couple seconds too late but danced back to it anyway.

We have to play 6 of the bottom 8 and the top 3 before the fixtures flip. Think we can go into Christmas top of the table based on that. Erling Haaland is due an injury, Arsenal are the new Spurs and Ange has my respect but his team have been extremely lucky in some games and I'm looking forward to turning up and really spoiling the media spunkfest. Might be sleep deprivation but I've never been so convinced by a Villa side as I am right now and it's got a foundation to it as well. Want a league and cup double bus parade around Birmingham in June, quickly passing St. Andrews and wishing them well in league one.

I think we can drop points against Luton and still win the title so for that reason strong side tomorrow pls

Someone not mentioned when the communication thing with Emery is brought up as a cheap shot. This guy is fluent in English and has been a manager for years, hundreds of games of experience, but is now dishing out the orders that Emery wants. He knows how to do it, he knows how to coach, he knows how to handle egos. If he can work on a training field with Jamie Carraghet for more than a day without giving him a black eye he has all of my respect.

I don't know why but I feel like he's also at pains to make it clear to anyone reading or listening that reporting on Villa is a job and he's not a fan. Which is absolutely fine, happens all the time and Jacob is the same. But he makes it clear whilst simultaneously refusing to outright say it or say who he does follow. Everyone knows Jacob was with Southampton before, Tim Speirs covers Spurs and supports Wolves, Matt Davies-Adams covers the lower leagues but is a big Forest fan and also works on Chelsea commentary and podcasts. It's never a problem for other people in the same sphere to say who they follow but it's like a big, badly kept secret for Gregg. Which leaves me to assume he's a bluenose because why else would you be so quiet. The last straw for me was him saying he'd been promoted by going on to cover Liverpool now (by the way still waiting for that "promotion" to kick in). I just wish there was more humility and I'd like him a lot more, it's a lot of people's dream job what he's doing, and he behaves like it's a bit of a chore and not really what he wants to do.

I don't really have a problem with that. I don't think the media outlets hold the power they used to so when people say the players and managers are being touted around, like Richards was with Grealish for example, it doesn't really bother me. It does bother me when the podcast seems to be doing gymnastics to try and praise Emery and talk of him moving on to bigger and better, whilst also saying he fails at every big club he goes to. Gregg saying he's not good enough for the likes of Arsenal and PSG whilst also saying he'll have his eyes on the Real Madrid or Barcelona jobs.

It's gone downhill massively in a year, all the best pods have been taken off the platform which is the only reason I renewed for a year at a cut price after initially cancelling. There's no point anymore listening to the pods on their app as it's really poor generally and they also spam adverts for themselves on it. TIFO and Football Clichés are two great podcasts, one is unrecognisable and the other is not on the athletic. They were quirky and unique in the saturated market but The Athletic clearly felt they needed to go more beige with their output. I think Jacob is a great addition from a Villa perspective and Ayo Akinwolere is a good host for the regular pods, alongside Adam Leventhal who's already been there ages. That's kind of where the positives end for me though. With them being bought by the NYT and you can get all their content for free through a subscription to that website now instead, I think the drop off in subscribers is going to be way more dramatic than they're anticipating

The Athletic have done a podcast on Emery after a year and there's so many things in it that wound me up it's too long to list, I'd be writing a long-form article in response to it. Adam Crafton and Gregg Evans as the people on the pod to talk about Emery seems a bad choice right off the bat, a tiny bit of pre-recorded info given by Jacob Tanswell, lots of misinformed commentary on how he's doing at the club before moving onto when Villa will sell their best players due to the financial problems and FFP (??!) And Unai Emery having one eye on his next job and where that would be. He's too good for Villa and not good enough for Arsenal or PSG so where will he go? And Gregg throws out Real Madrid or Barcelona casually as clubs he hasn't managed. Both of them mention Cash as one of our best players we might need to sell whilst the fan base argue whether we need to upgrade on him in that position.

Jhon Jader Duran (did not know about the Jader, thought I'd found his brother). He seems most active on Facebook over insta etc. Where he's been posting about Columbia since the Villa Wolves game, but none of that has been deleted. Also his cover photo is of him in a Villa kit celebrating the goal against Palace. Also his profile pic syncs to Facebook and he's just been on international duty so I guess that's why he's wearing a Columbia shirt. Also he's still following AVFC and they're following him back. Think people are giving too much credit to the photo and the potential connotations of it. If I saw that I'd just think it means focus, Bailey points both fingers to his head, Rashford does his celebration, I don't think it's worth jumping to the conclusion that he's going through a spell of really bad mental health, or there's an attitude problem, or he hates the club.

As @gwi1890 said. He finished his career at Brighton before going into the backroom team with Potter and then following him to Chelsea, where he replaced him until Lampard came in and stayed with his backroom team and then Pocchetinos too. But he was let go from Pochs team after they lost to us end of September

We are but mortals. I'm not sure I want to be exposed to the raw magnificence of Unai's mind. It could be dangerous. I think he pretends he still struggles with English slightly in order to protect the mind of journalist he's speaking with. It's why when he talks to Jonathan Pierce he speaks as though he just had a flick through English for Dummies a couple years back.

This is maybe a stretch but after reading the Unai Emery article one of the quotes that I wanted to look into, was that he met someone who played under him at Valencia a short while ago, and that guy said he'd been watching Watkins. Now initially I went to look at the squad thinking it might be an iconic striker like Morientes who is a fan of Watkins and that would be cool. But the fact he said player, not striker made me look further. Then I realised that Bruno was a Valencia player. That was significant for me because it might mean he's just had a look at Watkins in pre-match preparation, or he might have gone to watch Watkins with an eye on making a bid in January with how light they are up top. It's one position everyone is saying Chelsea need and they're happy to throw cash around. The thing is that Bruno got sacked after we beat them at the end of September, so if he was a target Bruno liked in particular, it might mean their interest lessens.

I did think this the other day, in a fever dream. What if this is the bounce, what does normal look like? Even though it's been a year I cannot admit to myself that this is sustained and normal for this team.

I don't want to credit this season entirely on the fact Gregg Evans no longer writes whatever negative, cliché article he can get away with submitting whilst still keeping his job. But it is nice to be having a good season and our The Athletic writer actually acknowledging that in a way that comes across as though he's genuinely enjoying it. I almost felt sorry for Gregg when we were winning as he had to admit we were a good side with good players and a good manager.

Incredible!! Couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo for 20 minutes then McGinn suddenly looks like he could drop a 40 yard ball on a drawpin

Villa players look like they've been promised a warm blanket and a hot choccy at the end of the game. West Ham look like they've been told they're getting airdropped into Siberia unless they score again.

Like what I've seen of Cash this half defensively. If he could hit a pass within 10yards of the teammate he's aiming for he'd be having some game.