switters

Yeah good cameo, nice finish (and crucially the movement to get in that position) and all-round play was good.

His big achilles heel is discipline - could easily have got 2nd yellow in injury time for throwing ball away. First yellow was a bit handbags but once you got one, you have to be smarter and this is prob part of why he doesn't get many starts. 

Karma on the handballs for Ham with the pen not given. Hate VARs taking that long, but obv glad for the reprieve. As soon as they showed the correct angle shot, it was obvious so I don't know how it took so long to get there.

Good fighting performance 2nd half, subs all did well, and a good point in the end.

7 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

There was a VAR check. Commentators on my stream thought they'd got lucky with the decision. 

VAR will never overturn ones like that because the ref clearly saw it and made the call and there's enough wiggle-room with handball rule that they can just defer to on-pitch decision. If ref hadn't seen it, might have been a different story.

for me, it is handball by the current wording of the rule because his arm is out in a way it doesn't need to be.

"touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised"

You can tell there's not the same understanding with Duran/Rogers, players don't know where to make the passes, so they slow down and cycle again. Which is making it easy for West Ham to defend. Just couple moments with  Watkins/Bailey trying to make something happen. It kind of is what is with the injuries, when you don't have McGinn/Kamara/Ramsey, we're missing a big chunk of our midfield so that's to be expected. The big disappointment was once more slack defending for a soft and easy goal similar to ones conceded against Fulham & Spurs. At 0-0 we might have grown into game, now we're chasing it and don't look like got the belief going forward to do anything.

Perfect night other than injuries. Diaby or Bailey for MOTM

Def no point appealing, they won't overturn one like that. Still I do think most times a foul like that would be given yellow, because it's not 2 footed, it's not high, it's essentially a trip  but because he went in fast and because of the intense reaction from bench it tilted ref to give red.

I'm thinking back to Tarkowski against us and I don't see a lot of difference, but he didn't even get a foul called against him, if I remember correctly.

Game with basically zero positives, dire 2nd half obviously. Think the difference of having week off and full strength team vs European away game and no DM & half-fit CBs showed in the tired and mistake-ridden 2nd half.

I do feel like the red would be given yellow 9/10 times but VAR never going to overturn - equally wouldn't have turned it red if the ref had said yellow. Van De Ven took Watkins leg in v similar way  in the box early on and nothing given because of slightest brush on the ball. 

3 minutes ago, gilbertoAVFC said:

Enjoy your two-game ban Paulinha ya turd

Annoyingly one is against Utd. We suffer him fouling all game, they get the reward of his ban.

Big performance, all about getting the points today. Other results seem to have fallen nicely too. Martinez that save at the end, as valuable as a goal. Him and McGinn were the standouts, and Watkins for the goals

Getting better in general play. But actually at fault for their winner in getting drawn to double up on Mainoo which left Dalot with space and time to pick his spot with the cross

Need at minimum 7 from next 3 now to get back on track ahead of Spurs game

Overall performance was decent but just utter failure in the crucial moments. 

We had to take this match when we equalised. Pissed away chances and let them score with first attack in ages. Emery has to take some blame because his changes did not work and it was collective failure not to win from 1-1 when they were completely there for taking. 

In a grinding  battle for 5th now and we'll be the team falling away. Feels like there will be no happiness any more this season.

Responded better to going behind than vs Newcastle and Chelsea, so there's some hope here. Feels like not getting the luck of the bounce when it's in the box.. McGinn seems more on it this week. Need to get Bailey into it more.

Obviously danger we'll just get picked off on the break now, but we have to try get a something from this match.

How little ratface isn't on a yellow is a recurring mystery. Vile excuse for a footballer.

Pretty much carbon copy of Newcastle. We absolutely have to respond against Man Utd. 

Furious to be out of the cup so softly. Nothing good in any department of the pitch and they all seemed to feed off each other's apathy and errors. Diaby Motm for a goal that makes the scoreline slightly more respectable.

Ref definitely needs a new watch. If we'd somehow snuck a 2nd from that corner to go 2-3 ~91 mins, we should have had at least 10 more mins to get a miracle. how can give 4 mins when there was 5 mins+ of subs in just the last 10 mins let alone all the other stops including him booking their GK for timewasting. like, did he have a lobotomy and miss all that? 

Chelsea just manufacture a 5 min break to kill the match as soon we show slight bit of energy for first time.

Bizarre performance by players and manager. When something is so clearly not working how can you not try to change anything until 3/4s of game gone.

absolutely no element of our game working. passing, movement, pressing, set pieces. nothing.

diabolical ref

ugh this performance. and ugh Lee Dixon.

Similar vibes  to Newcastle game, hope this isn't the new home normal.

Need to change at half time and come out with fresh intent, not wait for 0-3. I'd go Ramsey and Zaniolo on for probably McGinn and Tielemans

1 hour ago, beasley14 said:

Wasn't Chambers in the original though which means we've omitted him this time?

yeah the changes are Traore, Donk and Chambers out, Gauci, Rogers & Iroegbunam (who was previously omitted) in

Guess the decision was Tim more likely to be needed than Chambers

29 minutes ago, jackbauer24 said:

My fear is that Villa are always slightly optimistic when it comes to recovery periods. Digne and Pau both out far longer than first guessed. Ramsey's injury seemed to go on for ages too.

No Pau, Konsa or Mings is almost an untenable position to be in. Lenglet and Carlos is an incredibly weak CB pairing in the Premier League.

It's possible they are sometimes deliberately vague on returns so that teams don't know what lineup will be.

Don't agree on incredibly weak. Weaker than our first choice, sure, but I doubt anyone outside City would be able to put out a stronger pairing if they were missing their three best CBs at once.

Interesting comments from Emery. I'd forgotten about that sub on-off vs Liverpool. You could imagine other players who would've taken badly to something like that and falling out with manager (cf Sancho at Utd) but Bailey clearly reacted the right way. Demonstrates both good character of Bailey and good management of Emery.

Definitely makes sense to get new contract sorted now. We'd be foolish to risk him going cheap just as he's found the way to consistency in the league and hitting peak footballing years in age

that, Sheffield Utd, is what you get for ruining Christmas 

Really good to get back to some goalscoring form after a very dry January. Hopefully we can back this performance up against Utd next week

Spurs made two changes half time and they turn it round straight away. This was the main criticism of Emery yesterday, he had to make some kind of change at half time to what clearly wasn't working. There was no reason to go out with the same team and wait until it was 3 to change things.

If Bailey was only fit for 30 mins, then at least just Zaniolo would have shook it up a bit. 

Can only assume Bailey carrying knock as no possible reason otherwise for him not playing more of that match. He was the only real positive and i guess Olly at least ending a dry run and looking more confident after that.

Thought really back four were all off it tonight in particular. Got the line wrong a couple times to give them chances, several goals from set pieces, and from the full backs nothing good going forward. 

Truly miserable to put in such a dreck performance against rivals that will reawaken their season as much as it damages ours. 

Refs buys their yelp and roll around every single time. 2 mins killed every soft free kick