Annoyman

The reaction speed and resourcefulness in some of those situations to not only keep possession but go past the player and further up the pitch is insane. He loves a meg doesn't he, megging a dude by rolling the ball with your studs, yeesh

We really do live in the weirdest timeline. If you'd told me straight after the win at Old Trafford in September that Steven Gerrard would sign Philippe Coutinho at Villa at the start of the January window I would quite simply have attempted to drill a small hole in your skull

I mean he's expensive and not currently at his best so who knows, but it's a hell of a step up from only ever being linked with players Gerrard just managed at rangers

After 10 1/2 years, Gary McAllister's 100% record as Villa manager finally ends

Incredible assist from Ollie. One in the eye for the haters

Mings is taking a risk by putting his arms across him but the more I watch the more obvious it seems that Salah sticking his foot across Mings to block him off is what sets the whole motion off and it's a free kick?

Watching back the Liverpool pen Salah leads into Mings with his leg and causes him to fall into him so yeah it was a bit of a crock

Mings had a great game other than his mistake for the pen but a lot of defenders would eventually end up conceding one faced with that many waves of attacks spearheaded by Salah tbh, can't really hate Targett v good and committed; Buendia looks fitter, or more clear on what he's being asked to do, or something Kind of maddening for Cash to take so long prepping a long throw with 20 seconds to go, you're not going to get time added on for that as if it was a corner Idk about our pen shout tbh, not gonna bother watching the two disinterested replays it gets on MOTD. Theirs definitely was, no point kicking off over it Glad this bastard of a run is over without too much damage to morale or goal difference, would have taken three wins from five at the start of Gerrard's reign no problem. This was our least enjoyable and impressive performance under him so far, but you have to factor in the opposition as Liverpool were strong in possession and were hardly at any point there for the taking like City were in the second half at VP

Love that even Salah in this Liverpool doesn't always disprove the idea that 3 on 1 breaks always somehow break down into nothing

Incredible feet from Watkins hahaha Good little spell finally

Can't believe how tense this is given I had little expectation of getting a result anyway

We look a bit too aggressive to keep 11 out there at the moment

Don't look at the table!

That was, morally, 4-1, and everyone knows it. It's still early on for Gerrard but one thing that pleased me there was that despite getting back level quickly, at 35 minutes we were clearly disorganised, we were getting overrun and sloppy in possession, and changes and a bit of a reset were going to be needed at half time - but they didn't wait til half time, they sorted themselves out, had a good spell of pressure and for all intents and purposes did enough to be ahead going into the break. Once the Ramsey goal was disallowed the atmosphere ramped up and they were never going to come out with less intensity in the second half. I will keeping voting for Marvelous Nakamba for man of the match until he gives me reason not to. Chukwemueka did exactly what he needed to do during his time on the pitch and functioned as a Grealish-like pressure release by carrying the ball out and drawing two fouls during that nervy last few minutes. Matty Cash is just mad, I don't understand his decision making Watkins was pretty good, you might say he should have scored but again he kind of already had and the decision to penalise him was pathetic. He also did a lot to get that move going. It was a good save from Schmeichel, but should he have been on the pitch to make it, or should he have died of embarrassment at half time? The disallowed goal is just kind of an overzealous application of a law that's badly formulated at the moment but I don't know what Oliver's meant to do but disallow it once VAR gets in his ear. The free kick for Evans falling over was way more egregious IMO

Cash has an obvious degree of natural talent but he's just...mad?

Absolute cringe from Schmeichel. He wanted the first one disallowed because...reasons and didn't he also randomly start a fight on one of our players last season for the crime of scoring a goal past him?

AEG's Insta story showing McGinn walking to training in his shorts with snow everywhere while Ghazi basically goes "ayo bro wtf I know you're Scottish but this is ridiculous'

Palace fans will justifably think the ref pulling them back for the Nakamba foul with Gallagher and Benteke in on goal was the most egregiously terrible decision of the game (the Luiz red at least being cleared up), but the ref let at least one clear foul go during Villa attacks in either half, the second of which eventually led to poor Emi having to make a save that nearly tore his leg out of the socket. The first one on Bailey was just obviously excessive. I haven't seen the first penalty shout back but thought Watkins probably had a case, the other two and the free kick on the edge were what they were and not really that controversial imo. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the mandate to only give penalties where the contact is really decisive and obvious if I had any faith it was going to be applied consistently elsewhere I screamed IDIOT as Luiz stood up from that challenge, expected the immediate red which duly followed, and then watched in bemusement as it turned out to be nothing and barely a yellow. I did feel for the ref having to watch it back knowing it was wrong on a monitor seemingly embedded in a pile of screaming Palace fans, but also it was hilarious when they popped for the reappearance of the red card as it was confirming the decision instead of overturning it They otherwise seemed to wind themselves up unnecessarily over obvious fouls being given when their players were just constantly flying into tackles, while meanwhile Zaha still plugs away like a snidey, aggro automaton powered entirely by resentment that he plays for Crystal Palace. Conor Gallagher was immense. Leon Bailey obviously has something, but as has been noted is kind of trying too hard to do something himself, over-elaborating and turning into blind alleys when sometimes, with that many men behind the ball, he just needs to find a pass that ensures an attack stays alive. To be fair to Buendia, this is exactly what he did for the goal during his cameo. Incredible performance from Nakamba (and McGinn's stats for the game are crazy too in addition to the Goal of the Month contender), Ashley Young has really been making himself useful lately, and whatever malaise was affecting the defence appears to have receded for the time being at least. We just need to get some of those creative attacking players integrated and functioning a bit better, though there were notably little groupings of players out there who looked like they actually knew each other today which was pleasing It'll be interesting to see Gerrard tested against some top half teams. Would be pretty delighted with 2 or 3 points out of that run, but at least we're not looking over our shoulders nervously for a while either way.

His goal in the 7-2 was the third one so it kiiiinda was the winner?

Whatever was wrong with Targett earlier in the season seems to be sorted

Goal of the month. Legend

Palace fans have lost the plot tbh

Best heel in the business

Ref having to look at a monitor surrounded by Palace fans screaming at him lol Palace fans thinking the ref waving the red to rescind it was him sending him off again lol