ozvillafan

57 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Brighton have ridiculous fixture schedule and worse injury/depth issues than us

Aye. There's reason to believe for every fixture:

• Manure - defence of Macguire and Lindelhof
• Wolves - on the beach. Unlikely to be in the relegation scrap and nothing else to play for
• Spuds - in free-fall. Could have a 4th manager this year when they play us?
• Liverpool - beatable with the simplest of game plans: Get Moreno running at TAA
• Brighton - massive fixture pile up, with some tough games.

Fulham are playing scared.

We are in second gear and in total control

Mings has been excellent.

2 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Except in 2-0 win away to Spurs

We count spurs now?

I don't think he's ever kept a clean sheet and clearly not comfortable with the ball at his feet, doesn't command his area and doesn't leave his box. That completely stiffles the way Emery wants us to play. We need an upgrade.

Here's a shout: Matthew Ryan

• Aussie international
• Premier league experience
• Currently playing in the Netherlands
• Knows how to play with his feet and be a sweeper

umm... an uncovered outdoor area?

You're in England. You play games in winter. It's always raining.

Can't see that getting much use.

20 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Postecoglu is now on the Chelsea shortlist

Aye - but I doubt he's stupid enough to take that job

I don't think we can under estimate how big an influence losing Martinez was.

Not just because he was in good form, but the keeper now plays an important part in how we build and defend.

Since Olsen is not likely to be a "sweeper keeper", we could no longer hold a high line. Since his ball skills and distribution is not as good as Martinez, we struggled to play out. That meant Brentford had a good 20 minutes of total control.

And even then, they only scored off a mistake and with a few substitutions we got a deserved equalizer as we punished their decision to sit back. We could have even won it if the communication between Buendia and Watkins was better - in fact, that was the tale of the game. Had those 2 been on the same page, it may have even been a comfortable win.

I'll take that point. We need to be able to compete regardless of the opposition and the situation we find ourselves in - and I thought we did just that.

2 minutes ago, Mantis said:

I fail to see how he wasn't? Olsen looks worse despite being behind a significantly better defence.

... wasn't Nyland playing behind Konsa and Mings?

Slated by a few in the match thread.

I'm not sure what he's supposed to do when the rest of the players are clearly struggling around him - but he still got an assist.

How is it that a player heads the ball while another raises a boot and catches him in the face drawing blood....

... and it doesn't even get called a foul, let alone a yellow card?

Olsen not to blame for the goal, but we can't play out at the back with him between the sticks - and every player on the pitch knew it.

Case in point: Mings has the ball facing his own goal about 10 yards out of our penalty area. Without any pressure on him, he plays a (successful) skewed ball to Konsa, rather than the easy tap back to the keeper.

Credit Brentford - they took advantage of that to pile on the pressure and found a napping Young to capitalize. We need Martinez back.

We looked better with the substitutions, particularly the crossing from both Digne and Chambers. Might even have knicked all 3 points at the end.

Martinez off, Olsen on.

Our chances of a result just took a dive.

I don't think we are playing badly - I just think Brentford have done their homework.

It's not quite sticking but that's largely because we aren't finding the kind of space we did against Newcastle at home.

Still promising.

1 minute ago, Nigel said:

If its not a stupid thing to say we have been lucky with our injuries. 

I dunno

- Bailey

- Carlos

- Cash

- Kamara

- Coutinho

Most of those are starters. I wouldn't say that was lucky

@chappy @dubbs We share a birthday!

I can't think of a better present than a Villa win

I'm too hardened a Villa fan to ever think the wins can keep on coming.

0-0 draw today.

3 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

The confidence is absolutely oozing out of him in the presser.

He's in rare air at the moment:

- He knows what he wants and how he wants his team to play

- He has a squad that is eager to learn and improve, and who play for each other

4 hours ago, MaVilla said:

Maguire and Lindelof are their central defenders until the end of the season (both Varane and Martinez out for season arent they?)

those pair can be got at.

Even I'd fancy my chances against those 2. Watkins must be salivating at the thought.

30 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

If we are looking at a no2 behind Martinez from relegation threatened teams Navas at Forest please.

If Wet Spam go down, then Fabianski

8 hours ago, KAZZAM said:

Pep tried that with Cancelo and he was brilliant for a bit now he seems to have totally sacked him off. 

He cancelled Cancelo

8 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Lost against Bournemouth, drew against a shit Chelsea, drew against a bottling Arsenal, so did Wet Spam, an Madrid ain't in the Prem  They ain't all that, we shouldn't be worried about our game anyways, their defence will get ripped a new one with Watkin's and Moreno on fire.

Moreno just tore an in-form Trippier a new one.....

.... Imagine what he will do to the defensively suspect TAA

2 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Was hoping for something from Forest and Leeds but they are probably the 2 worst teams in the league right now

Nah.

One of those 2 is Chelsea

The reality is that we won't win all of the next 7 games. It took us something like 26 years to repeat our now 5 game winning run.

But that is also true of our rivals for Europe. Since we are behind on points and just about every other metric (goals scored, goals against, goal difference) our aim is simply to win more than our rivals over the next 7 games.

So, who are our likely rivals?

- Brighton. Playing great football but with fixture congestion looming large

- Tottenham. On form, the worst performing team in the top 5 and a run of big games coming up (Newcastle, ManUre, Liverpool)

- Liverpool. In shocking form at the moment and with problems across their squad, but seem to turn up for the bigger games and can still hurt teams. Have an easy run in.

Beyond that (Newcastle, ManUre and a CL place) probably requires one of those 2 to drop the ball. As much as I'd like that to happen (particularly for ManUre) it seems unlikely.

I suspect we can, should and will get 5th place.

Bwahahahahahaha spuds