Annoyman

We won't beat Leeds for years imo, unless it's in some "both reserve teams" league cup tie or whatever.

The entire club is perpetually rattled by the existence of Leeds Utd. Smith, Terry, the secretaries, Edens, Sawiris, everyone

Just now, Digavilla said:

Maddison somehow just remind me of Stephen Ireland ...

Yeah his forehead is like slightly too uncannily big

Like someone was allowed to mess with the sliders on Harry Kane but somehow made him look even worse

Personally just been enjoying saying his name. You can do it like Annyong in Arrested Development

[sonson]

Traore has settled into the team nicely - really direct, positive play by him to seize on the mistake for the goal and with his chance later in the half.

Watkins is great to watch, even aside from the increasing goal return he just leads the line really intelligently and tirelessly. Disciplined performance from McGinn too, and he still managed to pop up with a good long range effort.

Is Jack suspended because of that bullshit yellow at the end?

Am I going mad or did a Southampton defender, possibly Ward-Prowse, flick the ball up in the air and then head it back to his own keeper in the last ten minutes? Should have been a yellow card and an indirect free kick

Last time I remember that happening was Younes Kaboul also getting away with it at Villa Park for Portsmouth

I give up, Leeds are fun

1 minute ago, Michelsen said:

It wasn’t a VAR decision, and it wasn’t BS. The linesman correctly flagged Ings offside. His shoulder is offside by about an inch, which is close, but it isn’t grounds to overturn the linesman’s intitial decision. 

It's shit that that's the rule, but we've been disadvantaged by it more than we've benefited from it this season, and at least Ings wasn't being fouled into an offside decision by a defender like Watkins was at West Ham

Delighted with such a hard fought win but let's be real there were two objectively abysmal refereeing decisions in that game. McGinn penalised for being fouled on halfway when nearly in, and then Southampton flicking a bouncing ball in the air and heading it back to the keeper, which is a backpass and a yellow card. Disgraceful shithousing

That's the best they've been since pretty much the first week of the season, dominant really

Yes, I think we need to overperform to keep Grealish, if it's even possible to, and that drives some anxiety

My head says staying clear of a relegation battle and pushing lower mid table is enough, heart says with the way we've been playing (not to mention the money we've spent), and the fact that Sheffield Utd finished 9th last season it'd be a shame to not push higher

That said this is a very tough month that will probably give us a realistic picture of where we'll really be

I also think we'll probably get randomly dispiritingly battered by a team that shouldn't beat us at least once more this season - it's happened to nearly everyone else and Leeds are the only team to really play us off the park so far

Don't think I've ever seen more exactly correct predictions of the outcome of a match. If we'd equalised again they'd have got another penalty.

Cash was excellent today, looked a bargain. El Ghazi looked like he's still hungry and confident. Traore less involved but at least contributing goals and assists regularly. Martinez maybe not at his best for the goal (but he was probably expecting Mings to clear) but immense otherwise including some proper decisive sweeper work.

Not the most dispiriting way for an unbeaten run to end

Yeah tbf it's not like voluntarily giving a goal away in front of your home fans is a trivial decision in any competitive fixture, and we could have ended up meeting again in the playoffs weeks later

Can't complain about that point at all, especially given that Chelsea's rotated squad was fresher and they had been bossing the midfield towards the end of the first half. Good character, and we didn't look nervy towards the end at all despite them going for it a bit.

An unbelievably energetic performance from McGinn having played a game, half of it with ten men, two days prior. Traore was mostly very tidy and efficient in possession as well; out midfield being settled and excellent at keeping the ball has made such a difference.

Those incredible efforts from Chilwell and McGinn that hit the woodwork could have decided it but a draw was fair on balance.

A really sensible, unintrusive refereeing performance as well for my money

Also nobody got suspended for Utd, right?

How many do we reckon they're winning by today then? It's all set up for it.

Gotta say, fair play to Marco Bielsa for showing Villa how to score once against Palace. Villa were then able to use that knowledge to repeat the outcome twice more in the second half. Its sort of like he "taught a man to fish", if you will. He will have allowed himself a wry smile no doubt

I think Palace fans are aggrieved that they didn't get a penalty or at least a corner, but I don't think Cash needs to play the ball for that to not be a pen, or at least not clear-cut enough for VAR to overturn. Van Aanholt also moved sideways into Cash's leg more than he moved towards the ball so he wasn't really denied much of an opportunity from what I saw

Anyway Palace were dogshit and wouldn't have scored if they were still playing now lol

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's hard to pick out individuals because every single one was really on top of their game - Martinez, the back four, the midfield, the forwards, everyone worked their socks off and got a chance to show what they're about - if you'd told me even a month ago that Traore, El Ghazi and Hause would score in the same game I'd have thought you insane, but they've all showed that they're more than capable of doing a job.

 

Yeah, it's encouraging to me that players still around from last season who were playing during the long stretches where the team looked doomed to relegation are putting in good shifts, scoring goals and fighting for places now. Suggests there's more of an actual defensive system players can slot into as required, and calms some of the nerves about how poor our strength in depth seemed to be. After some frustrations that weren't entirely their fault against Brighton and West Ham, they've managed very well without Barkley

Watkins MOTM, just a sensational performance especially with how isolated he was in the second half, but even that's harsh on Hause and Targett who were rock solid (and Traore, who looked like he was at his best and putting in dangerous balls before being hooked through no fault of his)

AEG couldn't really have responded better or more professionally to having a lengthy period out of the team and fans writing him off, there's nothing like the relief of a thunderbolt like that going in to put it beyond all doubt

Iplayer seems to be really far behind broadcast on this one, getting regularly spoiled by the thread

Just now, NurembergVillan said:

I can't be the only one thinking these kits are hard to distinguish when there's a group of players.

Yes - lots of teams seem to have worn away kits without strictly needing to this year, and yet here we are with white shorts and red/blue variant shirts

Shades of West Ham turning up to Villa Park in a blue and claret away kit and us having to wear white at home

No idea how you could sanely overturn the penalty vs Brighton and somehow insist on awarding that one

The offside call was a joke even by the existing pedantic standards

Traore turned in the performance he's occasionally threatened to. Fantastically casual finish and his Burkina Faso wristbands are flashy as hell. I can see the impact to Grealish's own direct output of not playing on the left, but when he's in the middle there are more players able to exchange the ball with him, and Traore profits from that

That was one of the least stressful wins of the season. Nice to see El Ghazi in productive form and enjoying himself after getting an unexpected run in the team

Traore seems hopelessly neurotic

He tidied up very calmly defensively a few times, but he always seems to delay or over-elaborate in attack. He never seems to really relish being 1 on 1 with a defender, just gets rid of the ball and waits until he can receive the ball in enough space to do something fancy

I really hope Watkins can just snatch a couple of proper centre forward goals in the next couple and get his confidence up