danceoftheshamen

The ref was (As is always the case against the scummy 6) biased beyond belief. One rule for them, another for us for identical challenges all the way through the game. Thought we applied ourselves well but the usual issues reared their heads again, as in giving the ball away far too often, defensive awkward moments and rubbish finishing.

Delighted with this if/when it is finalised. I remember us being interested in him in his pre-Liverpool days when he was a youngster, can't remember who was the manager at the time? Anyone remember?

I too was very impressed with him when he came on. Hope he signs.

Was at the game in the home end. It was a very good result although we do still keep making poor mistakes at the back. Konsa especially guilty of it. A few times they could easily have scored nearly all of those chances due to stupid, lax defending. Some very good play on occasion from us though and decent game management once ahead with a lot of time wasting / game killing dark arts going on. That was extremely annoying to the home crowd but then we all know how that feels (Don't we Brentford & co!) Side Note; If Ollie Watkins could learn how to spot a pass he would be a much better player. He was such a handful to the Burnley defence but had numerous opportunities to play someone in and each time wasted it. Good goal though and good pressing.

My mate managed to get me 2 tickets for the home end for this so going to my 1st away day in quite some time. Bout time we beat this lot but not hopeful tbh although I rarely am with Villa

So as was obviously going to happen with the corrupt scummy 6 clubs, who of course recently had their shocking 'European Super League Breakaway" Quashed by a huge fan revolt globally. Uefa have and the Premier League have now re-jigged it all and are slipping it in via the back door. As you will read in the below article they secretly had a plan all along to effectively cave in to those scummy, super greedy, anti-football club owners who want nothing more than to hoover up all the £££$$$$'s and likely destroy the spirit of the game, which they care nothing about, en route! So basically the FA cup winners will be allowed access to the "Champions" (I know laughable as the vast majority are not actually champions) League but only if they have recently, I.E over the last 10 years (Not historically as claimed) done well in the competition. So effectively if we, Palace, Southampton or Wolves / West Ham won it we would not qualify but if Chelsea, Liverpool or any of the other scummy 6 won it they would! Shocking and a disgrace if you ask me.... Oh & there is more too =, Have a read of this despicable article. CLICKY

Maybe the delay is due to us not actually knowing for certain which division we'll be in yet? I reckon it'll get announced once safety is confirmed.

Exactly this! This is why I think he'll maybe decide to go elsewhere. He could do nothing more in that game (Mainly 1st half). Created so much & was let down time after time by his blank firing teammates.

I don't think he'll stay personally, especially after our alarming slide. Would agree it has Newcastle written all over it, just the type of player their Zillionaire owners will want to "show off" their financial muscle. They need a big marquee signing (or three) and i reckon he'll be a target. As for FFP? Well it only seems to affect the not quite so rich clubs rather than the real ones it is meant to target such as Man City & now Newcastle. It appears if you are that rich it doesn't count. Chelsea is another, however they were fortunate to do most of their huge spending prior to FFP so they largely got away with it. I see us as a bit like a Chelsea but coming in after the horse has bolted so having to do things more carefully / gradually.

Well that Burnley result has effectively killed our draw against Leicester & means the gap is now only 6 points and they have to play us twice plus have the easier fixtures either side of that. Our season appears to be resting on a double header with a rejuvenated Burnley who are up for a real scrap as i can see them getting the other 6 points they need more than I can see us getting 6 from our other fixtures. We really need an Everton loss today as it's looking like a nasty end to the season with us having Liverpool & Man City so effectively two games (Norwich & Palace) to escape a shootout with Burnley.

That was a very important point today I feel. Still need a few more to be sure of course but at least that run of defeats has been stopped and we've started to put the brakes on our rapid slide down the table. Now we need a couple of wins from the Two Burnley games + Palace & Norwich at home. That would put us on 43 points. I think 43 - 47 is looking do-able.

A big game tonight for Burnley (v Southampton). I Hope of course for a Southampton win or at worst a draw. We need Burnley to drop 11 /12 points from their 7 remaining games to be pretty much (barring a Watford miracle) assured of safety. We have 6 of those in our own hands of course when we play them although 1 win against them in our two meetings effectively means they then could only drop another 5 points, and for that we would have to lose every other game.

Well put and exactly the same view of things I have at present. Listen Stevie G is new to managing in the Prem. I do feel he's tried a few things which in Scotland he'd have gotten away with and still won the game but the Prem is so unforgiving & ruthless he you simply don't get away with anywhere near as much. He'll learn from this I'm sure and I actually like him as a guy & manager. However we need to avoid defeat against Burnley still so I am still a little concerned until we pass that guaranteed safety line. Burnley's run in is full of points if they hit a bit of form & a draw at West Ham is a darn good result. If they beat Southampton later my concern will increase until we can pick up a couple of wins somewhere at least. As for Leeds & Everton, now the only other two teams between us & Burnley, they both have enough points to play for to overtake us should we keep losing.

It's been a horrid season, such a let down after so much bluster & hype about how ambitious the owners are. I am sure they are but my goodness me what a mess on the pitch with a shocking number of defeats. Started with an awful pre-season and predictable poor start as a result (Losing in pathetic fashion away at Watford) only to then offer false hope momentarily on a few occasions but to then be let down time after time despite signing the likes of Coutinho etc. The team looks decent in flashes but we have lost both of our better qualities since SG came in which were nearly always being able to score goals and being pretty resolute defensively (last season at least) Now it looks like our strikers are cumbersome & slow both mentally & physically whilst our defence is just all over the place... Even Martinez has looked a shadow.

This is exactly the point i've been making to my daughter! He seemed to solve the issues and we went on a good run, then we hit the winter break or whatever it was and he tried to go back to the system which had seen us repeatedly fail. Bizarre quite frankly! We had a top half finish if not Europe in our sights and that persistence in trying to shoehorn the players into his system has seriously backfired to the point i am dreading each visit to Villa Park at present as another lame defeat is almost certain. The number of defeats this season with the players we have is nothing short of embarrassing.

Burnley do Worry me i have to say especially as they may now get a new manager bounce. They have several very winnable games and our 2 against them are critical. We must not lose both of those games. Two draws or A loss & win would be ok but two losses most definately not and a loss & a draw would not be good either. You can see up to 14 / 15 points for them from their remaining games if they hit a bit of form and that's without any "shocks" (Although would mean them doing the double over us of course) If by some horrow story they did beat us twice we could be right in trouble. Liverpool & Man City is almost definatley 0 points for us so that leaves Leicester (a) Palace at home (very tough as they are flying away from home whilst we are attrocious at home) and Norwich! If all those games go to form we are looking at just the Norwich and Burnley games we would expect to get something from. So again IF we got 0 or 1 point from those we really could be in trouble as that would mean the likes of Everton, Newcastle & Leeds would naturally overtake us as they all have a couple of wins in them,

I had a few choice word to Romero after that and he deffo heard me as he looked straight at me in the eyes.

So having digested the game for a couple of days here's my take... I thought in general play between the penatly area's in the first half we were actually really good, quite possibly the best I have seen us for many a year. Even the Spurs fans were silent (aside of course from the goal) as they knew they were being schooled for that half. The only song they mustered was "come on you spurs" as they were totally being out played. I thought the first spurs goal was somewhat fortuitous as on virtually their only attack of the half, the ball rebounded freakishly right into their strikers path (albeit a good strike from Son). Other than that we completely dominated the whole half and should have had at least a goal if not two by half time. That I feel would have changed the game totally and forced them to open up more rather than have the ease of sitting in and countering us... a thing they excel at as we saw. So the all important 1st goal is what killed us but despite this we should have gone in at least level...then it's a different game second half. The second half was basically a master class from Spurs in how to counter attack at pace and literally every strike they had seemed to find the net low to Martinez' right (which appears to be his blind spot I have to say and I think Spurs knew it) Our heads dropped and the scoreline took on an embarrassing look in the end. It was our play in the penalty area's which disappointed me. Watkins & Ings were as they have been most of the season sadly & that's wasteful & sluggish. Neither look sharp, Ings you can understand to a point due to a lack of game time and Watkins is well, just Watkins. Coutinho also was wasteful when shooting as were Ramsey & Cash all not capitalising on the chances they had albeit Cash & Ramsey's efforts being well saved though too close to their keeper. On another day we win that game but Spurs are in irresistable form in front of goal at present & that was the main difference. As for our defending mind..ahem

We are diabolical for large parts of games currently and occasionally have a good 20 mins. That is not enough to avoid a comfortable defeat against Spurs i fear. The scary thing is they are strongest where we are weakest although you would hope 3 defeats in a row (again) will fire us up on Saturday..... even then i can only see a defeat in this one. Oh well it's an evening out i suppose.

Getting really fed up with this shocking number of defeats we have to keep enduring. It's actually getting a bit embarrassing now. Didn't really know what to expect today apart from we are always poor after international breaks so i called the 1-2 scoreline bizarrely. This losing mentality needs to stop. Dreading next two games now.

I really don't know what to think from this game. If we start with Coutinho & Beundia then i'd say we'll simply see another inept Watford/Newcastle/Arsenal toothless performance & loss with barely a shot on target. If we don't set up like that then i havn't a clue. We are so inconsistent and worryingly we are normally awful after an international break. If i was going to guess i'd say a 0-2 loss but here's hoping.

Saka is a joke with his constant diving & rolling around. Ref was as is normal against a scummy 6 team... totally biased to the point of being corrupt.

As for the wingers point you made, i think we did look very slightly better when Bailey came on although of course Buendia was sacrificed at that point so unsure how that would or could have worked with 2 x 10's? (Not so sure about Traore although he did get the chance to score but his header was woeful and he is so hit & miss regardless) So it's all a bit like having the pieces from two or three jigsaws and trying to force them together at the mo. Of course we need to give SG time to sort this which will not be possible until summer.

Well for me they are just too small as a combo and therefore we surrender any high balls and the physical battle (& thus a lot of possession) immediately. Neither are very quick either. It would be ok maybe if they had a tough general backing them up, that midfield enforcer which i know you long for Tro (& i agree wholeheartedly). I just think it doesn't suit anyones game up front either. Watkins is not able to shirk 3 markers as his game is more about physicality than speed so he simply gets bogged down in that system making us toothless.

It was down to that ridiculous two number 10's formation in my view. Buendia & Coutinho are tiny so we immediately lose any duels in the air plus lose the physical battle in the middle, especially with Ramsey having a poor game too. So we effectively were chasing shadows in midfield and then when they did get possession you only have Watkins up top to hit who was surrounded by three or four players all game. With no wingers either and Digne missing we were completely toothless with the only threat coming from set pieces.