ozvillafan

Great result considering some baffling rulings during the game.

3 things I learned:

• Cash is not as bad as he's made out on here. Excellent today
• VAR sucks the joy out of football and has negligible benefit in return. Get rid
• Ollie Watkins is a special, special talent.

9 minutes ago, TRO said:

but we still could have won 1-0

In the 3 games at home we have lost.....Newcastle, Chelsea and Man U........We have scored.

Conceding more than we score, is the problem.....but we all seem to know why that is.

I don't.

Their first goal came from Watkins switching off at a corner and leaving Rasmus onside.

The ones from Chelsea (at least the first 2) came from horrible turnovers by Kamara

The ones from Newcastle (at least the first 2) came from horrible set piece defending from corners

Newcastle aside - it's not the central defenders who are culpable.

I remember 1 poor pass from Lenglet.

Apart from that, I thought he was ok. In fact, I thought our defense was good. Caught them offside plenty of times.

Didn't help that we let in an early goal from a corner - but that is on Watkins for being slow getting out and playing Rasmus onside.

I'm not a fan. I had question marks before his injury - but that was really early in his PL career.

Thought he was good against ManUre, though. I don't remember them getting much joy out of him. Not to blame for either goal and some good passing.

Gave him MOTM.

Yeah - he needs to find his shooting boots again, and some composure in the box (that break away where Bailey played him in - he just blew it, sadly).

But he made the difference in midfield compared to our last 2 home games and is a large reason we played so well in comparison - even if the result didn't go our way.

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

For those that watched on TV and have seen replays, how bad was this challenge, it was a good fifty yards from me but my first thought was that Fernandes could go off for it, I then thought probably not as this ref would bottle that and just give him a yellow - I should have realised there was more chance of him giving him a hand job and he settled for a nice chat. Anyways, was it a potential red? It looked two footed, off the ground and out of control.

It looked bad and he lunged, but not enough for a red. A yellow? Yep.

More concerning, though, was when Maguire had McGinn bailed up on the sideline. All over him, but McGinn turns and is away - despite Maguire literally grabbing both arms to haul him back.

Ref gives a free kick (advantage would have been better - McGinn was filthy at the decision!) and a stern talking to.

Laughable.

Sometimes I wake up and I forget: We are Villa. We can't have nice things.

3 things I learned:

• If we want to win at home, we really need to score first
• Nobody engages Martinez when he stands on the ball. Seeing as we were behind - what's the point?
• 23 shots, 10 on target and 1 goal. Our finishing cost us.

3 hours ago, Ouchmefoot said:

We'll win this by 2+ goals. I'm buzzing for it

I pray your intuition is better than mine.

It's ManUre. We aren't in great form. We have injury concerns and a short bench. Ref will give them everything.

Not looking forward to this one.

To borrow a quote from Fry out of Futurama:

"I used to think Saudi football was real, like professional wrestling...

... turns out it's fake, like professional boxing"

For the last 2 home games it feels like all 4 midfielders are trying to play the same role - and all failing.

Could use a Ramsay/Bailey/Zaniolo/Rogers/Buendia to mix it up a bit.

Could have done with exiting the competition without the replay, to be honest.

Irog on for 3 minutes. Could he have done any worse than Kamara for the entirety of the 2nd half?

What's the point of 3 mins?

Can't remember our midfield looking so poor. Luiz, Tielemens, McGinn and Kamara, listed in order of horribleness.

Kamara looks like a park footballer. I've seen witches hats have more presence.

Our midfield is pants. Kamara is stinking up the place

57 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

77% chance of 5th spot currently

So it's a 50/50 thing, then?

If Maguire plays, my money is on a Watkins hat-trick

Is Mainoo from ManUre Macheda in disguise?

Is it just me, or does he look a bit like Matt Targett?

First time I have ever given Emery a very poor rating. 

It doesn't take a lot of research to know that our victory against them last year was largely due to McGinn and Buendia making life hell for Dan Burn. He was so badly worked over in that game that they replaced him after 60 minutes.

This game was made for Bailey with an overlapping Cash. 

Instead, an out of form Diaby and 4 largely static central midfielders across the middle made the starting line-up. 

Reminded me of Dean Smith and his 5-3-2 experiment - all the attacking responsibility on the fullbacks. 

Played perfectly into the hands of a Newcastle side that can press and man-mark in midfield. 

Poor. 

I bet Dan Burn still has nightmares of being hounded here by McGinn and Buendia last season.

I would have hoped Emery started Bailey against him - he'd have a field day with Cash overlapping

Geeez, Martin Tyler is getting on. For our game against Newcastle:

"Bailey and Watkins lead the line" - errr, that's a photo of Diaby. It even has his name.

"Isak has scored in the last 3 outings for Liverpool and they haven't won any of those games." Say what?

We haven't even kicked off yet!

Still stand by my signature below at the time the majority on here wanted his head.

We lost 1 of the last 7 games, including wins against Arsenal and Liverpool - which people unbelievably attributed to McAllistar - to finish 9th despite flirting with relegation through most of the season.

Sadly, he never got the chance to prove me right or wrong.