Marka Ragnos

Old close friends of mine ... They started the band as a kind of joke "goth" sort of Love & Rockets act, tbh, but have turned out to enjoy themselves.

I hear you. I understand. It's football. But I'm going to let my heart be free and breakable. How many times have we been able to embrace such incredible possibilities as Villa supporters? I don't want to look back and feel like I let a glum outlook seal me off what the excitement of others, even at the risk of looking a fool (which I do anyway everyday). It's only football.

Any Championship or PL clubs whose style or recent form reminds you of Lille? Crystal Palace?

Totally encapsulates the Man United fan mentality. Entitled to an extreme, ignorant, immature. "That's the biggest ****-ing injustice I've ever seen!" That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Give yourself more credit than that, mate. That level of entitlement is something one must cultivate for years. I've never met a Villa fan like that in my life. Never. Partly why I'm AVFCTID.

I enjoy reading oppositional perspectives on VT. Not saying I agree, but you and the @Delphinho123 etc of VT keep it interesting. I thought Emery was taking a pretty radical approach to the lineup that did make sense to me. It was an awful situation. I don't think Martinez was malingering, I really don't. I don't think he's like that.

Seems such a reasonable point, esp. when looking at the whole Villa context 360°. Too, as I've said elsewhere, giving some of the younger players prime time in a big game probably increases their market value, too. My guess is that goal by Jhon last night will give him about £3m-£4m in increased market value, a factor we can't afford to ignore.

Ugh. Not a fan of them, but ironic given Zaniolo's un-wonder wall performance.

What was it?

This is deeply interesting to me -- almost seems to prefigure the Oasis vs. Blur wars of the 90s. I felt the same about Radiohead, personally. I liked them until I felt like I was supposed to like them, and then I found them not only unlistenable, but almost physically painful to experience.

It's so funny to hear this. The way Squeeze was marketed in the USA was just so different and just very minimal, and not a soul -- not even music critics -- would have had recognized any of those objections. Love all this talk. Thank you for sharing.

It would have derailed his career, but I honestly thought he was going to clatter Pep yesterday. You could feel it coming on.

Well, I'm glad the Viking Destroyer is all riled up with something to prove. Thanks, Roy Keane. Just what we need -- Angry Erling.

Do you feel it's a personal thing? Not at all to pry, but it does deal with a painful subject, and of course, we only get the bloke's flippant point of view, and not the view of the mother or daughter.

I remember, as a teenager, parking the car late at night in the country with a few friends, closing the windows, filling the car with the smoke of several select herbal products, and listening to this album again and again in a state of abject and helpless awe. "I understand everything on earth now! I get it all!" Sound of a few beers being opened. "Pass that bong around again."

****-ing AMAZING. I forgot all about them.

Was thinking exactly the same. I guess hell really does have the occasional cold day or two.

I love this Unai quote: " ... I want good attitude you are showing now." Tells you a lot about Zanny. He's a character, for sure, and he's extremely ambitious, and still growing up, too. No good coach is going to use that kind of positive reinforcement if there wasn't an underlying tendency towards an unhelpful attitude, but I think in the end, Zanniolo is going to find his place at Villa. He seems like the kind of player who takes it hard when he doesn't do as well as he'd hoped and gets a dark attitude when that happens. He's got to learn to bounce back. Look at all the other players at Villa who have done just that, sometimes several times? He's obviously a very intelligent player, too, perhaps a bit underrated in that area. I feel like in this English interview from three months ago after Sheffield you get a clear sense of his canniness and self-awareness:

I don't disagree. I hope we can at least do a bit of man-marking, too, although I also worry about knee injuries. Staying glued to an opposition forward is hard on the ACLs. Marking Haaland really seems to fluster him.

Omari? I also wish we'd been able to keep Philogene in the mix this year. Always thought there was something about him, but no use crying over it. He brought in some needed funds, presumably.

We are hurtin'. No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK ARG Emiliano Martínez(vice-captain) 2 DF POL Matty Cash 3 DF BRA Diego Carlos (vice-captain) 4 DF ENG Ezri Konsa 5 DF ENG Tyrone Mings 6 MF BRA Douglas Luiz 7 MF SCO John McGinn(captain) 8 MF BEL Youri Tielemans 10 MF ARG Emiliano Buendía 11 FW ENG Ollie Watkins 12 DF FRA Lucas Digne 14 DF ESP Pau Torres 15 DF ESP Àlex Moreno 16 DF ENG Calum Chambers No. Pos. Nation Player 17 DF FRA Clément Lenglet (on loan from Barcelona) 18 GK AUS Joe Gauci 19 MF FRA Moussa Diaby 22 MF ITA Nicolò Zaniolo (on loan from Galatasaray) 24 FW COL Jhon Durán 25 GK SWE Robin Olsen 27 FW ENG Morgan Rogers 29 DF ENG Kaine Kesler-Hayden 30 DF ENG Kortney Hause 31 MF JAM Leon Bailey 41 MF ENG Jacob Ramsey 44 MF FRA Boubacar Kamara 47 MF ENG Tim Iroegbunam

Some hot takes from the Bluemoon forum today, FWIW. I always like to lurk and take a peek at what the opp are saying. I won't say this is consensus, but I think it gives a snapshot.

That's exactly how I see it, too. We have the tactics, we have the will to win -- but probably not the personnel this week. I mean, Ødegaard and Rice were superb, fully matured midfielders, I thought, and when we have Kamara and McGinn, we can create a similar if different style of indefatigable, dogged midfield, but without them, well, Tielemans and Tim just don't have that intensity and experience. Dougie is great, so there's that. I don't think we're equipped to do an "Arsenal" midfield, but you'd think that Unai is wise enough not to try. He'll work with the tools we have not the ones we don't..

Nowhere I could find. It's sounding so far like a "grade 1" hamstring injury, I gather? Typically takes between a few days to a few weeks to heal. It's good he came off when he did.

They played “bad” only in wishful minds — and in their own players’ ambitions, which is understandable. Arsenal did an incredible job of acting fast off the ball and pressing. I understand why as Villa fans we don’t want to be in awe of anyone, but I have no question that Unai will be studying that city-arse match top to bottom, like he’s preparing for his calculus A-levels.