chips'ngravy

Couple of relatively minor things that wound me up the other night at Villa Park, after my first visit for a while. 

From where I was sitting I wasn't sure who'd scored for Sheffield Utd, of course my assumption was that it would be Archer, but nevertheless would've have appreciated some confirmation. I was amazed that none was forthcoming. Is this now standard when the opposition score? If so, how petty.

And what's the deal with not announcing the attendance? It seems that they don't even release it to the media. Weird.

Oh, and one other thing. As the teams scrolled across the scoreboard at the beginning of the match they'd spelt Konsa wrong! It appeared as Konza ffs

My Arsenal supporting mate reckons they'll be quite cautious and go with Jorghino rather than Havertz in the middle. If so I can see us forcing mistakes from him if we're on it like we were on Wednesday.

13 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

sad news that he's' died of course  and  I know I'm an ignoramus  , but legendary writer and poet ??  

other than some Villa promo thing that he did , what am I missing .. and please don't say poetry cause that's  below country music and wine on things that nobody should ever give a crap about 

 

Why bother commenting if by your own admission you're completely ingnorant?

8 hours ago, Frodo said:

Front 3 of Watkins, Diaby & Bailey.

Midfield 3 of Mcginn, Dougie & Kamara.

Back 4 Cash, Konsa, Pau & Digne. 

Best goalkeeper in the world in goal, Martinez. 

This is the team I'm hoping for too. Spurs played 3 up top against them and they got some joy out of it. Diaby, Bailey and Watkins all in good form too.

4 hours ago, sharkyvilla said:

Digne was offside when Watkins flicked the header on.  Looked pretty clear cut to me.

When they first looked at it from the right hand side I was confident there was no offside. When they flipped it to the other side it looked marginally off, but then when you look at the angle they were judging it from it was very difficult to tell.

The result was a bizarre perspective to be trying to draw lines from. I'd say it was very unclear and therefore you can't give it as off.

Don't know why Emery has messed around with the defence. Seen nothing to justify Diego Carlos being a starter. Cash has his faults but we're much more balanced with him at RB and Konsa at CB

Credit where credit's due. He looked very assured with the ball at his feet tonight. Another player improved by Emery?

Qualifying for the CL in the PL is pretty much the holy grail for anyone outside of Man City, who take it as a given they'll be there. So once you're there, and in the case of Newcastle, after a 20 yr absence, and you draw some genuinely top teams yet you don't play your strongest 11. 

Truly bizarre. I honestly don't get it. They've got Bournemouth on Saturday ffs. 

Deadly Doug II 

Horrible game. Laden with fouls and stoppages

2 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

I believe it is available on Villa TV priced at £4.99, as was the Lazio match.

It's also on a free-to-air Spanish digital channel. Guess you'd need a VPN

https://www.goltelevision.com/que-es-gol-play

As some have said perhaps it was a game too far. I felt for Unai in that he knew he had to try and change things up and he did, but bringing on Chambers and Digne is probably not going to make things any better. And therein lay the issue. Nothing of comparable quality to bring off the bench. Kamara, Cash, Coutinho and Bailey all out for an extended period is what has ultimately done for us. 

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Deserved to lose after their first half showing. Better second half - robbed of a clear penalty. 
 

One of the worst refereeing performances in a long time. United shouldn’t have finished the game with 12 on the pitch. 

Corrected for you

Is this Emeryball?

Crying your eyes out because you missed a chance to close the gap to 1pt on Chelsea in 10th?

Get a grip, man!

I went to Olot v Levante a couple of weeks ago in the Spanish cup. I was thinking to myself "bloody hell, Levante have a right unit up front for them". It was only when he got closer that i saw he had 'Wesley' on his back. I couldn't believe it. He was playing up alongside Soldado but didn't score in a 4-0 win against a team in the division below. 

In the car on the way back i put the radio on and the first thing I heard was the manager defending Wesley's lack of goals. Poor old Wes.

Two poor sides but in the name of balance we've had 5 shots on target to their 0.

Always thought Luiz was a tidy player, careful in possession and able to keep things ticking over. Strange though that my recollection of many contributors on here is that he wasn't good enough to take us into Europe and we needed an upgrade. Now i see that the majority seem to be distraught at the thought of him leaving. 

It's a funny old game

5 minutes ago, Wurzel said:

Honestly after thinking about it I would take Sean Dyche. Good at operating at that relegation level, but also worked wonders at Burnley for years and deserves a club with a bit of backing to see what he can do. Certainly we wouldn't have a disappearing midfield with him.

He's an interesting one. Clearly a very good manager for what he achieved at Burnley on a shoestring for so long. Unfortunately for him he's been thrown in the same bag as Big Sam and there'll always be doubts as to whether he can adapt his style of play given more resources to play with. Would certainly be an upgrade on what we currently have but unlikely to be a Purslow choice given his attraction to star ex-players.

I like the Emery shout. I like it a lot.

Wasn't given a fair crack at Arsenal. Was always going to be tough after so many years of Wenger and he naturally struggled with the language a bit. I reckon he'd feel he had a point to prove if he came back to the Premier League.

1 hour ago, FLVillan said:

You might want to watch the two Arsenal goals again.  Let Jesus run across him on the first (after both Cash and Konsa had stood off their respective men).  On the second he did what he's been doing for three seasons now.  Stood three yards off his man (Saka), let him get it onto his strong foot and pick a pass, six yards away from our goal.  He is a terrible 1v1 defender and has been responsible for so many moments like that. Shouting and yelling and pointing can't mask it. Posting on social media doesn't make him a good 1v1 defender. 

First goal he switched off thinking the danger had gone. Not so sure about the second being poor defending on his part. I'd look more at the space Martinelli found himself in so close to goal. I was, however, concerned early on when he was favourite for a ball that Jesus was chasing (after the casual Kamara back heel into danger) but was easily shrugged off it as Jesus just got his body across him. Luckily, Saka couldn't finish a simple chance and Cash cleared.

If we can be rational for a moment and not get sucked into a culture war over the issue I'd say Gerrard's antipathy towards Mings has some legitimate basis. The problem is how he's managed the whole situation, particularly so given the options we have available in central defence.

Never understood the high praise Buendía receives on here. He's sloppy in possession and too often makes the wrong decision with his final ball. Tonight is just another example of this. He has some qualities that a good coach could exploit but his elevated status amongst the fanbase is misplaced.

Surely the biggest dis yet. The Jack Grealish thread has turned into the Eddie Howe appreciation thread.

2 hours ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

 

Jesus, is Jim White really that thick or is that just the role that TalkShite have assigned him?

10 hours ago, Chine said:

Watched Isak on Sunday v FCB , me and my lad were both saying how much we’d like him at Villa but no way was I expecting that much ££ on a developing player 

Well, Chelsea are about to spunk £60m on Gordon. In that context, Isak represents a bargain.