HKP90

Nah, it’s a good metric, perhaps the best available. You just have to figure out what it’s telling you about your team. Today as a one off it shows what I think was fairly obvious- that our forwards (ahem Trez) didn’t take our chances, but that we created enough chances to win. Similarly it shows that Brighton were not only clinical, but as they not only met but exceeded their xG, probably a bit lucky.

Lamptey is quality, regardless of the card(s).

Also, I think it’s pretty clear that we really need Ross

Just like the Soton game, i’d be willing to bet that our xG today was much higher than theirs.

Still feel like we’ll get at least a draw here.

Come on!!!! We can hammer these buggers now.

Am I watching the same game as some of you? Defensively poor and unable to finish, but we’ve been the better side overall. 1-1 would have been harsh imo. A couple of decent finishes and we’d be laughing. Cos of errors at the back we’re one down. We score early doors in the second half and we’ll win this 3-1

We all thought he was going to be the nineties equivalent of Messi.

I’m old enough to remember a Lamptey in the Villa squad.

Wow, that is a great article. Even as a Villa fan I’m astonished by how he’s progressed. We are blessed with a world footballer. He’s tearing up the stats. Highest in the league in expected assists. Most forward carries. Etc etc. This is the Premier League! Man United must be crazy to think they could get him, even if he wanted to leave. If he does go in the future, it will be to Madrid or Barca.

Ashamed to say it, but I was quite down with the idea when it was put forward. Sometimes I can use a right good ass kicking, i’ll tell you.

You are right there. Still think we were rubbish against Leeds, but Southampton’s xG showed they were crazy lucky. All set pieces, which we should be able to deal with. I reckon we’ll do better against the good sides this season. The ones that don't sit back, and that allow us to counter. Wouldn’t surprise me if we have a season of incredible results, followed by some real head scratchers.

The vision of some of Ross’s passes yesterday was sublime. We scored a couple of goals on the break, but also showed great patience on the edge of the box for the first. RB and Jack give us the ability to exert pressure in those areas because they are both so great on the ball and can recycle it effectively. I’m delighted we have Ross, I think he was the missing piece in midfield we weren’t sure we needed.

This. I think we will drop off toward the end of the season simply because of the depth issues. That’s where we’re a WIP. It was always going to take time to transition a Championship squad to a Premier squad. Just hope fans don’t overreact when that inevitably happens, cos I think we’re on the way to building something quite special here.

I have a lot of time for Hendrie.

He’s a Chelsea fan too. You’d think there would be no love lost with Arse.

I can never tell if Souness is a really bad pundit or he’s taking the piss. Could be Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest creation.

Shame, though. He was one of my favourite players growing up. His work rate was incredible.

On the basis of that xG we should have won.

We did. We got beat by Stoke’s reserves. Seriously, though, this is a recruitment issue. I think we all thought during the window that we needed a few extra bods in. For whatever reason that didn’t happen. Now I’m not going to be overly critical, because I’m pretty certain even as a layman that player procurement is not easy. At all. But it’s certainly something that needs to be addressed in the medium term. Look, the objective for this year had to have been to get a first team that will comfortably survive the drop. That would be progress. Assuming that is what we now have, the next step is to ensure our stay in the nosebleeds by developing a solid squad. That either comes through recruitment, or more organically through development of youth. Thanks to FFP, though, neither is likely over the short term. We’ve made a great start, but we’re still at the moment an (at best) competitive mid-table side. That is a huge achievement after last year, and hopefully we’ll continue to make solid steady progress. I dislike Leeds and Bamford as much as the next man, but in the long run that result is meaningless. UTV!

Bloody Leeds. There’ll be no living with them after this.

You mean the first person to wave a hand within 10m of his general vicinity so he thinks he’s been crippled?

Astonishingly Lawro predicts we’ll lose. I’m acting surprised! Actually that’s a good sign we’ll win! UTV!!!

Were they great, or are they now notorious?