JoshVilla

It's remarkable that we're up there in the top 6 mix when we haven't really been at our best. We've been able to pull off wins when we're really yet to hit our stride, which is huge when we have ambitions of finishing in the European places again.

We will have bad losses this season (we already have). We will lose games to teams that we should be beating, as every single team in the league will (even City will likely have 1 or 2 shock defeats). But it's evident that there's something different about this Villa team under Emery. 

It really looked to me like the players thought it was going to be easy. It's disappointing, as I'm sure Unai with all of his European pedigree would have emphasised the fact that it doesn't matter if you're the stronger team in a stronger league, which is the case with any cup competition.

The first thing that you need to do in these games is match their intensity. You know that they're going to be physical and try to move the ball quickly to make up for the difference in quality. We didn't match them at all on that front. This competition isn't going to be a cakewalk by any stretch, and hopefully this game will have shown us that so we can get it right for the next 5 group games and hopefully beyond. 

I think Emery will have learned a lot tonight. The issue is, we were relying on our entire squad to see us through what is (hopefully) going to be a very busy schedule. Some of the players tonight just looked like they didn't want to be there, which is a real kick in the teeth when we were all buzzing for what was our first competitive fixture in Europe for over a decade (Yes, Hibs was Europe but I'm talking an actual competitive game on the continent).

The 2 changes in defence was a really odd decision, but I'm sure Emery will feel that his faith in that back 4 was misplaced and we'll go for a more settled defence in the next one.

He's not the kind of RB that Emery needs in his system (I'm not sure he's a RB at all to be honest. I always see him as a CB). His lack of pace was causing us no end of problems for the entire time that he was on.

Zaniolo was one of the few bright sparks for me tonight. Thunderbastard of a shot that led to the first goal. You can see that he definitely has something about him. Wasn't a perfect performance by any means, but provided one of our few attacking threats.

Well, that was a bit shit.

We were absolutely shocking, almost to a man. It's a tough one really. In hindsight, maybe it would've been best to go with a full strength starting XI that have had chance to settle already this season, and then make the changes if we have the game in the bag. In fairness though, most of us thought that our starting XI was good enough to win this, on paper. It does show that you simply can't underestimate anyone in this competition, especially away from home. 

There's plenty more games to play, and I'm sure we'll be okay in terms of getting out of the group, but it was slightly concerning how a number of players just looked like they couldn't be arsed tonight. Hopefully it'll give us a much needed kick up the arse.

That was the chance, I think. 

This is **** awful

Chambers having a rough night as he just doesn't have the pace to recover. I'd bring Cash on for sure. Be tempted to bring Diaby on too.

Seems we've woken up just in time to give us a bit of hope before inevitably handing the game back to Denver.

The Snyder years have taken their toll on me...

Stopped watching after our game, but I guarantee they'll spend a good while tossing themselves silly over the Liverpool win.

The difficult thing is that it's much more of a trial by fire when it comes to a centre half learning the trade in a new league compared to an attacking player. A mistake from a central defender is generally going to have much greater consequences than that of a forward or attacking mid, so somebody like Pau is naturally going to be under the microscope much more than the other newbies. He's under much more pressure to become acclimatised to the Premier League quickly purely due to the importance of his position (also not helped by our previous best performing CB and defensive leader getting a  season ending injury in the opening game). 

I think he'll come good.

A win is a win, and it feels much sweeter in the new post Snyder era, but my god that was ugly. How tf have Rivera and the FO allowed the O-Line to become that much of a mess? It's an all too familiar story in Washington whereby a young QB's development is hampered by an O-Line that just can't protect them. 

38 minutes ago, GarethRDR said:

Passed on seeing John Carpenter and Ryuichi Sakamoto at their respective last shows in London. I say "passed", it was more we didn't really have the money for it at the time but boy do I regret that. Spurred me to splash out the hefty sum for Brian Eno this year.

Most recently not booking a hotel overnight for The Mars Volta's show at the Troxy, ultimately meaning having to leave before the last two songs as things ran late, those two songs of course being the two I was most excited to hear (Son et Lumiere into Inertiatic ESP).

I can sympathise very much with this. I was at Uni when I went to see the Dillinger Escape Plan on their final UK tour and had to leave before the encore to get the last train back to Chester. Missed one of my absolute favourite songs (which apparently had to be abandoned midway through due to something happening in the crowd).

You can tell there's a top player there. I think his strength is something that we can improve, and I'm sure that he'll look a lot more solid once he gets more PL games and becomes more accustomed to the speed and strength of the forward players he's up against. 

Looked lively in his cameo today. It's a real shame he's not able to play on Thursday to get some more minutes (also, it's my first game at VP for quite a while and I would've liked to have seen him...). The good thing is that he looks strong, fast and has a shot on him. I think he'll be very useful.

I had no idea Jay Rodriguez was still playing.

A lot of Burnley fans predicting that they'll win this one. They might be well rested, but something can be said for match sharpness and confidence following a couple of big wins. I know that we're only 3 games into the season, but this game should give us some indicator as to how we're going to cope with the Thursday games. A tight win with no injuries would do me just fine...

Just now, mjmooney said:

Who says we can't? 

Apparently UEFA have said that he's not allowed to play until the group stages as he's already played in Europe this season.

No Lee Johnson interview?

Managed to grab a couple in the Upper North, was a nice surprise to finally get some. Will have to consider getting the membership to be honest, as I really can't see many games making it to general sale, unless they purposely hold a few thousand tickets until general sale each time? 

Glad that they're getting rid of him, but I'd love to hear their explanation of that audio recording if they reckon that he "did not commit the offences".

Feels as though they've listened to the public backlash rather than having a conscience themselves.

We did exactly what we needed to do, which was a relief after what happened last week. Everton looked very poor, but they still had players on the pitch that could have hurt us. Solid performance and the new boys looked good. It's a good job that the game went a bit flat in the second half. Wouldn't have been ideal to have 100+ minutes of high intensity when we've got another game in 3 days.

The injuries stacking up is taking the piss a bit. Can't wait to get the absentees from preseason back so we can start rotating as the fixtures congest a bit.

He was brilliant today, exactly what we needed from him.

Going to have to wait for the general sale to get my ticket for this. Can anybody with a membership see if there's still a fair few left? Sounds like there's nothing available in the Upper Holte, so hoping for Upper North or Doug Ellis.