John

Nyland MOTM! Who would have thought it? Certainly saved us throwing away 2 points near the end. Three points off the play offs and 2 points made up on Norwich. Another win on Saturday will make things look a lot brighter than they did on Sunday.

We have won 13 and drawn 3 of the 25 league games between the two clubs. We last won at their old Vetch Field ground back in 1971. That sounds a little worse than it actually is because we have only visited Swansea 7 times since then, as they have spent a fair bit of that period in a division or two below the one that we were then occupying. We beat them at Villa Park only 2 months ago so that should see us travelling to South Wales with some degree of confidence. A defeat could see us drop into the bottom half of the table but a win could possibly see us close to just 2 points away from a play off place. We pulled off great away wins at Derby and Boro recently. They currently occupy two of the four play off places whereas Swansea are currently a point behind us, so avoiding defeat should be a realistic aim even with our fragile defence. We won on our first three league and cup visits to Swansea so let's get back to winning ways there. A 3-0 or a 3-2 win would be nice.

Leeds stretched their lead over us to 15 points with their late, late winner yesterday. I can’t really see us closing that gap during the second half of the season. That would leave us with just one automatic promotion place to aim for namely the one currently occupied by Norwich who are currently 14 points ahead of us. To claim that place we must rely on Norwich not being this season’s Cardiff and, on our ability, to overtake them along with the likes of WBA and Derby. It might just come down to a winner takes all clash with Norwich at Villa Park on the final day of the season. We currently stand 11th in the league table and that doesn’t make great reading does it? We are also just 5 points away from a play off place and with half of the season left to be played I still expect us to finish sixth or better. Neither team really deserved to win this one, but we did lose it and that can be attributed to our porous defence which was a weakness to begin with and is now even more so due to injuries. Leeds won for the first time at Villa Park since 2002 yesterday and they did so having been two goals down after just 17 minutes. The lead was never a comfortable one though was it? There always lingers a doubt that we can claim a clean sheet and the third goal always looked like it might be crucial. So, it proved. Although we started the second half well and had the visitors on the back foot for the first 10 minutes of it, they claimed the third goal of the game and had drawn level 5 minutes later. It was more than cruel for their late winner to be scored in the 5th minute of stoppage time though. Had the referee decided that we would play on until they score when the 90 minutes were up? Our 7-game unbeaten run came to a sorry end yesterday and our new boss tasted defeat for the first time at Villa Park. We must now bounce back on Boxing Day in our middle of the table clash with Swansea so that we don’t give ourselves and our hopefully reinforced defence too much ground to make up in the New Year. Given we have now gone 3 home games without a win, perhaps it is to our advantage that this one will be away? My player ratings from a game that did little to lift our festive spirits and instead had us reaching for them are: Orjan Nyland – 6 – Did well to help a 22nd minute Chester back header over the bar when it might otherwise have produced a fortuitous goal for the visitors. Left too much space between his left-hand post and himself on 37 minutes and was relieved to see the free kick from Hernandez fly just wide. Did well to tip a 63rd minute Klich shot from the right-hand edge of the box over the crossbar. His poor clearance from a 67th minute Chester back pass fell dangerously to an opponent around 30 yards out. Parried a 79th minute Alioski shot away. Ahmed Elmohamady – 4 – Gift wrapped them their late winner with a tame back header that played an Alioski cross straight to a delighted Roofe inside of the box in the 95th minute who proceeded to hit the ball into the corner of the net. He had earlier made an 8th minute challenge on Harrison that prevented him making contact with a Roofe cross at close range. James Chester - 6 – The best of our defenders yesterday which is not saying a great deal. Nobody went with Jannson as he headed in his 61st minute equalizer having ran in between James and Hutton to glance the ball in. James Bree – 5 – Needed to try to make a move towards Clarke as he ran all too easily past Elmo inside the box before hitting their first into the far corner of the net. Playing out of position through necessity. Must be worth a shot starting in his natural position. Alan Hutton – 5 – He really isn’t a left back, is he? Glenn Whelan – 6 – Started well enough. John McGinn – 8 – Had another impressive game and gave everything he had. Why does he get booked so often when opponents who do the same or worse to him escape punishment so often by the way? We need to get up this season to keep him. Conor Hourihane – 7 – Hit our 17th minute second with a sweetly placed left foot shot from outside of the box after Kodjia had done so well to make room for himself on the edge of the box before playing the ball inside to him. Yannick Bolasie – 6 – a nice back heel by Whelan led to the ball cannoning off Kodjia and running on to him on the edge of the box but Jansson’s 47th minute challenge averted the danger just as he was about to pull the trigger. Produced one superb piece of Cruyff-like skill out wide on 51 minutes that left 2 defenders bamboozled. Jonathan Kodjia – 6 – Headed a 13th minute Hourihane corner wide of the far post. Won the ball on the edge of the area and flashed a shot just over on 48 minutes. Tammy Abraham – 8 – MOTM – Tammy really didn’t deserve to end up on the losing side yesterday. He back heeled the ball to Hourihane on the edge of the box who in turn played it inside of the box for McGinn the loose ball was behind Tammy but he stretched his leg to make good contact with it and hit home his 9th goal in 8 matches on the 5th minute. Worked very hard throughout. Substitutes: Anwar El Ghazi - 5 – Replaced Kodjia on 62 minutes and made no positive impression on the game. Birkir Bjarnason - 6 – Came on for Whelan on 73 minutes. A welcome return following his injury lay off. His 85th minute corner almost produced a third, but a fine reflex stop by Peacock-Farrell spared Forshaw conceding an own goal. Will need a couple of outings to build full match fitness. Scott Hogan – Replaced Bolasie on 83 minutes. Not on long enough to earn any rating. Up the Villa and Happy Christmas & 2019 to all Villa Talkers! John Lewis

Leeds stretched their lead over us to 15 points with their late, late winner yesterday. I can’t really see us closing that gap during the second half of the season. That would leave us with just one automatic promotion place to aim for namely the one currently occupied by Norwich who are currently 14 points ahead of us. To claim that place we must rely on Norwich not being this season’s Cardiff and, on our ability, to overtake them along with the likes of WBA and Derby. It might just come down to a winner takes all clash with Norwich at Villa Park on the final day of the season. We currently stand 11th in the league table and that doesn’t make great reading does it? We are also just 5 points away from a play off place and with half of the season left to be played I still expect us to finish sixth or better. Neither team really deserved to win this one, but we did lose it and that can be attributed to our porous defence which was a weakness to begin with and is now even more so due to injuries. Leeds won for the first time at Villa Park since 2002 yesterday and they did so having been two goals down after just 17 minutes. The lead was never a comfortable one though was it? There always lingers a doubt that we can claim a clean sheet and the third goal always looked like it might be crucial. So, it proved. Although we started the second half well and had the visitors on the back foot for the first 10 minutes of it, they claimed the third goal of the game and had drawn level 5 minutes later. It was more than cruel for their late winner to be scored in the 5th minute of stoppage time though. Had the referee decided that we would play on until they score when the 90 minutes were up? Our 7-game unbeaten run came to a sorry end yesterday and our new boss tasted defeat for the first time at Villa Park. We must now bounce back on Boxing Day in our middle of the table clash with Swansea so that we don’t give ourselves and our hopefully reinforced defence too much ground to make up in the New Year. Given we have now gone 3 home games without a win, perhaps it is to our advantage that this one will be away? My player ratings from a game that did little to lift our festive spirits and instead had us reaching for them are: Orjan Nyland – 6 – Did well to help a 22nd minute Chester back header over the bar when it might otherwise have produced a fortuitous goal for the visitors. Left too much space between his left-hand post and himself on 37 minutes and was relieved to see the free kick from Hernandez fly just wide. Did well to tip a 63rd minute Klich shot from the right-hand edge of the box over the crossbar. His poor clearance from a 67th minute Chester back pass fell dangerously to an opponent around 30 yards out. Parried a 79th minute Alioski shot away. Ahmed Elmohamady – 4 – Gift wrapped them their late winner with a tame back header that played an Alioski cross straight to a delighted Roofe inside of the box in the 95th minute who proceeded to hit the ball into the corner of the net. He had earlier made an 8th minute challenge on Harrison that prevented him making contact with a Roofe cross at close range. James Chester - 6 – The best of our defenders yesterday which is not saying a great deal. Nobody went with Jannson as he headed in his 61st minute equalizer having ran in between James and Hutton to glance the ball in. James Bree – 5 – Needed to try to make a move towards Clarke as he ran all too easily past Elmo inside the box before hitting their first into the far corner of the net. Playing out of position through necessity. Must be worth a shot starting in his natural position. Alan Hutton – 5 – He really isn’t a left back, is he? Glenn Whelan – 6 – Started well enough. John McGinn – 8 – Had another impressive game and gave everything he had. Why does he get booked so often when opponents who do the same or worse to him escape punishment so often by the way? We need to get up this season to keep him. Conor Hourihane – 7 – Hit our 17th minute second with a sweetly placed left foot shot from outside of the box after Kodjia had done so well to make room for himself on the edge of the box before playing the ball inside to him. Yannick Bolasie – 6 – a nice back heel by Whelan led to the ball cannoning off Kodjia and running on to him on the edge of the box but Jansson’s 47th minute challenge averted the danger just as he was about to pull the trigger. Produced one superb piece of Cruyff-like skill out wide on 51 minutes that left 2 defenders bamboozled. Jonathan Kodjia – 6 – Headed a 13th minute Hourihane corner wide of the far post. Won the ball on the edge of the area and flashed a shot just over on 48 minutes. Tammy Abraham – 8 – MOTM – Tammy really didn’t deserve to end up on the losing side yesterday. He back heeled the ball to Hourihane on the edge of the box who in turn played it inside of the box for McGinn the loose ball was behind Tammy but he stretched his leg to make good contact with it and hit home his 9th goal in 8 matches on the 5th minute. Worked very hard throughout. Substitutes: Anwar El Ghazi - 5 – Replaced Kodjia on 62 minutes and made no positive impression on the game. Birkir Bjarnason - 6 – Came on for Whelan on 73 minutes. A welcome return following his injury lay off. His 85th minute corner almost produced a third, but a fine reflex stop by Peacock-Farrell spared Forshaw conceding an own goal. Will need a couple of outings to build full match fitness. Scott Hogan – Replaced Bolasie on 83 minutes. Not on long enough to earn any rating. Up the Villa and Happy Christmas & 2019 to all Villa Talkers! John Lewis

Depends who Dean is looking to buy to an extent. For me, I would be looking to bring in "the best centre back we can" so we have three top quality central defenders to choose from.for the rest of the season. In my opinion, Elphick does not represent adequate back up so I would leave him where he is.

A Flavor Flav perhaps?

I never thought that I would see the once dreaded "amortisation" word used positively in relation to our football club's transfer dealings. Well done sir!

Another central defender would add to our options rather than replace one of the two that we currently have available. We need cover for injury and suspension that we currently lack in the same way and as urgently as until very recently we had needed a reliable goalkeeper.

The 2018 play-off game and our last manager are in the past, let's leave them there for now. Let's look forward to a winning future instead and to our new signings in the New Year. I would Lovre a central defender and a left back to rock up at Villa Park in early January.

You have to feel for him. Fair play James!

This looks like a top of the table clash to me and I think that is how the return fixture will be being described in April. Leeds top the table and we really could use a win to cut the gap between the two clubs down to 9 points. This looks as tough a home game as did the visit of table-topping Wolves last season. Hopefully the same sort of performance can give us the same result. We have played Leeds United a total of 84 times in the league. We have won 28, drawn 28 and have lost 28 so this uncanny symmetry will be broken by this game. They last won at Villa Park 16 years ago. Past games that I recall fondly between the two clubs are our 3-2 FA Cup win in 2000 and our 3-0 LCF win in 1996. We will not be facing the Leeds of the early 70s with the likes of Terry Cooper, Jack Charlton, Norman Hunter, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, Peter Lorimer, Allan Clarke and Eddie Gray. In the same way, they will not be playing the Villa team of a decade later. They currently have quality players such as Peacock-Farrell, Jansson and Douglas. We can put the likes of McGinn, Abraham and hopefully Jack up against them. We have both experienced hard times of late but we are both promotion contenders now and both clubs and sets of fans might just find themselves back in the top flight again next season. May the best team win on Sunday as long as it is us!

I hope not, but I don't think that we can be seen to be splashing out £30m+ in the coming window because it might well draw undue attention to our FFP situation, whatever that position might currently be.

I suspect Chelsea would be unlikely to sell Tammy to anyone just yet. If someone bids around £25m that might tempt them but I would anticipate him seeing out the season with us. Should we clinch promotion, I would guess that we would have as good a chance as any club of signing him permanently should Chelsea then decide to sell rather than loan him out to us again or hold onto him themselves to give him the odd game next season off the bench and in cup ties.

Let's end his Spurs hell and sign him up!

Tammy is scoring goals for fun here and gaining in confidence. Why would be of Chelsea want to take him off us now and risk him having another setback at Palace of Cardiff of the sort he experienced at Swansea?

We should be having or may already have had conversations with other clubs about bringing in their players. Nothing appears concrete yet, but I hope we will be able to do some business at the start of the coming transfer window because our defence is in need of reinforcements post-haste. Looking forward to some excellent presents this year. The best such previous present that I recall was reading in the Birmingham Evening Mail of our signing of Dennis Mortimer just before Christmas 1975! A couple of signings that make half the impact on our club that he did would be more than acceptable.

We extended our unbeaten run to 7 games yesterday and Stoke’s own unbeaten run now stands at 9. The deluge in which the game was played was not conducive to flowing football and both teams cancelled each other out in the first half. The goals like the weather were not going to dry up though and the second half rained goals. I had feared that the visitors might extend their run of victories at Villa Park to 4 each time they went ahead but we are made of sterner stuff than we once were, now aren’t we? A draw was a fair result on a day that we were not able to reproduce the level of performances that we have been producing of late, in a game during which we so clearly missed Jack’s invention in and around the visitor’s box. The visitors started strongly, were well organised, gave us little space and were allowed to make several uncompromising challenges in order to break up our forward movement. They came to stifle us and to get a point. They might have taken all three had we not battled back twice from a goal behind. This was a point that may well prove crucial when the season reaches its conclusion against a team that unlike us currently, have both a solid goalkeeper and a solid defence. We now face a second tough home game against the current league leaders on Sunday. They are currently 12 points ahead of us and we could do with a win to bring that gap down to single figures and to leave us with realistic ambitions of finishing the season above them in one of the automatic places. My player ratings from a game that kept us two points ahead of our fellow promotion chasers from the Potteries are: Orjan Nyland – 6 – Saved well from Allen low at his left-hand post on 6 minutes. Parried away an 11th minute shot from McLean from a Martina cross and Chester hooked the resultant loose ball clear. For some reason dropped a knee when Allen put Stoke ahead on 47 minutes and the ball flew over his outstretched arm into the net. Went the right way for Afobe’s well hit 78th minute penalty but the ball was destined for the left-hand corner of his net. Ahmed Elmohamady – 5 – Allowed McLean to run inside him and then unnecessarily brought him down inside the box with Kodjia covering the run ahead of the forward. James Chester - 6 – Solid enough and looked nearer to his reliable best. Axel Tuanzebe – 6 – Becoming more familiar with and showing signs of growing into the role alongside Chester. Alan Hutton – 6 – Lost possession on the edge of the box to McLean whose cross was hit home by Allen for the visitor’s first. Looked better when moving forward than when under pressure at the back from Ince. He’s got to start on the right whenever possible. Glenn Whelan – 6 – Did all that can be expected of him. He is not a like for like replacement for Jack, but he did put in a shift. Anwar El Ghazi – 4 – So disappointing following his display last week. Had little of the ball and did little with it on those rare occasions that he did have it. Was unable to force home a Hutton cross on 55 minutes from close range that Butland gathered gratefully. Conor Hourihane – 6 – Butland helped Conor’s 24th minute free-kick from just outside of the area over the bar. John McGinn – 7 – Got stuck in and was our stand out player until the arrival of Jonny Danger. Missed the space that opponent’s double teaming and focus on Jack normally provides as did others. Yannick Bolasie – 6 – Blasted the ball harmlessly over the bar on 80 minutes when a cross seemed a much better option. Hit a shot wide of the post on 61 minutes from inside of the box. Claimed an assist with a nice cross for our second and it was nice to see him playing a full game. Tammy Abraham – 7 – Had a 55th minute shot from the edge of the area saved low by Butland at a post. Was made to wait a long time to take our 73rd minute penalty but he coolly slotted it home sending Butland the wrong way in the process. Substitutes: Jonathan Kodjia – 8 – MOTM - Replaced El Ghazi on 65 minutes and what a difference he made! Was pulled back inside the box by Pieters as he moved to Elmo’s ball to him which resulted in our penalty. Headed home our second equalizer on 84 minutes when he headed a Bolasie cross pat Butland and into the left-hand corner of his net. Scott Hogan – Replaced Whelan on 85 minutes. Not on long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa & A Merry Christmas to all Villa Talkers! John Lewis

We extended our unbeaten run to 7 games yesterday and Stoke’s own unbeaten run now stands at 9. The deluge in which the game was played was not conducive to flowing football and both teams cancelled each other out in the first half. The goals like the weather were not going to dry up though and the second half rained goals. I had feared that the visitors might extend their run of victories at Villa Park to 4 each time they went ahead but we are made of sterner stuff than we once were, now aren’t we? A draw was a fair result on a day that we were not able to reproduce the level of performances that we have been producing of late, in a game during which we so clearly missed Jack’s invention in and around the visitor’s box. The visitors started strongly, were well organised, gave us little space and were allowed to make several uncompromising challenges in order to break up our forward movement. They came to stifle us and to get a point. They might have taken all three had we not battled back twice from a goal behind. This was a point that may well prove crucial when the season reaches its conclusion against a team that unlike us currently, have both a solid goalkeeper and a solid defence. We now face a second tough home game against the current league leaders on Sunday. They are currently 12 points ahead of us and we could do with a win to bring that gap down to single figures and to leave us with realistic ambitions of finishing the season above them in one of the automatic places. My player ratings from a game that kept us two points ahead of our fellow promotion chasers from the Potteries are: Orjan Nyland – 6 – Saved well from Allen low at his left-hand post on 6 minutes. Parried away an 11th minute shot from McLean from a Martina cross and Chester hooked the resultant loose ball clear. For some reason dropped a knee when Allen put Stoke ahead on 47 minutes and the ball flew over his outstretched arm into the net. Went the right way for Afobe’s well hit 78th minute penalty but the ball was destined for the left-hand corner of his net. Ahmed Elmohamady – 5 – Allowed McLean to run inside him and then unnecessarily brought him down inside the box with Kodjia covering the run ahead of the forward. James Chester - 6 – Solid enough and looked nearer to his reliable best. Axel Tuanzebe – 6 – Becoming more familiar with and showing signs of growing into the role alongside Chester. Alan Hutton – 6 – Lost possession on the edge of the box to McLean whose cross was hit home by Allen for the visitor’s first. Looked better when moving forward than when under pressure at the back from Ince. He’s got to start on the right whenever possible. Glenn Whelan – 6 – Did all that can be expected of him. He is not a like for like replacement for Jack, but he did put in a shift. Anwar El Ghazi – 4 – So disappointing following his display last week. Had little of the ball and did little with it on those rare occasions that he did have it. Was unable to force home a Hutton cross on 55 minutes from close range that Butland gathered gratefully. Conor Hourihane – 6 – Butland helped Conor’s 24th minute free-kick from just outside of the area over the bar. John McGinn – 7 – Got stuck in and was our stand out player until the arrival of Jonny Danger. Missed the space that opponent’s double teaming and focus on Jack normally provides as did others. Yannick Bolasie – 6 – Blasted the ball harmlessly over the bar on 80 minutes when a cross seemed a much better option. Hit a shot wide of the post on 61 minutes from inside of the box. Claimed an assist with a nice cross for our second and it was nice to see him playing a full game. Tammy Abraham – 7 – Had a 55th minute shot from the edge of the area saved low by Butland at a post. Was made to wait a long time to take our 73rd minute penalty but he coolly slotted it home sending Butland the wrong way in the process. Substitutes: Jonathan Kodjia – 8 – MOTM - Replaced El Ghazi on 65 minutes and what a difference he made! Was pulled back inside the box by Pieters as he moved to Elmo’s ball to him which resulted in our penalty. Headed home our second equalizer on 84 minutes when he headed a Bolasie cross pat Butland and into the left-hand corner of his net. Scott Hogan – Replaced Whelan on 85 minutes. Not on long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa & A Merry Christmas to all Villa Talkers! John Lewis

We have lost our last three home games against Stoke and last beat them at Villa Park 9 years ago. Overall we have won 47 and drawn 26 of the 104 league games between the two clubs. They were promotion favourites before a ball had been kicked this season but took a while to get used to their new status and will start Saturday's game 2 points behind us. A win will see us move closer to the top six and it is high time that we beat them at Villa Park! I can see them getting into the playoff positions by the end of the season but hopefully that will be no concern of ours by then as we will be in the two automatic places. This will not be an easy game particularly if we start it without Jack but we need a win to keep our upward momentum going. A clean sheet and a minimum of two goals for us would suit me just fine.

From the penalty spot?

I agree that it might be worth having a last look at him as long as having him back at the club wouldn't potentially have a negative impact on the rest of the squad. He obviously had issues at the time of the gate fiasco. Hopefully he has taken advice or had treatment for those issues and they are now in the past. Players can go off the rails or find things difficult to cope with and they may need an arm around their shoulder and someone to listen to them rather than a big stick. Time can heal whether it can in this case to the extent that he can play a role again at Villa Park is open to question. I wish him well in the future wherever his future in football may be.

At his best, I would agree 110% but I don't think he would be up to coming back to us and I think Dean has other more pressing priorities given we are scoring goals for fun at the moment.

Where is this talk coming from? I can't see him wanting to drop a division to come back to us in any case. Players are seldom as good as they were first time round and I doubt we will be finding out if this applies to Benteke with us later this season. I think we had the best of him and he soon found out that the grass was not greener elsewhere after all. He found that getting what you want is sometimes not what you need.

Well I am all for doing something to make them happy. He was voted goalkeeper of the year at the 2017/18 London Football Awards. I did see him have a game earlier this season when he didn't look near his best but I would rather have him between the sticks than our current first choice and we might be able to get him at a more realistic price than we would have needed to pay for him in August. One to consider alongside Heaton for me.

I wonder if Dean might consider buying Daniel Bentley from his old club next month?