VillaChris

39 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

I think it’s fair to say the standard of reffing in the conference league is even worse than the prem, and that’s saying something.

Thought he got the pen calls right but in general play he was staggeringly abysmal with his interpretations.

1 hour ago, villarule123 said:

Wow, I had no idea of the hate they have for Ange. Quite staggered really.

They really want him gone!

Just a few keyboard warriors surely. Most have enjoyed this season up to the last month and 5th is still a good finish for them compared to the expectations in August.

Like us they need more depth. Bringing on Bryan Gil with 20 minutes left when he's made little impact in the prem and they've been trying to sell him for last 18 months.

1 hour ago, omariqy said:

Free wins? Are we talking about the same Spurs? The one that has lost the last 3 games and looked absolutely awful against a sewn together Chelsea side.

Burnley at home is far from a cert anymore. If Spurs win that it will be a scrappy 2-1 imo rather than 3-4 nil.

I can't see them making up the GD either. One of Man. City/Liverpool will stick 2-3 past them and they haven't good enough about them to go to a Sheffield United and win 7 or 8 nil either.

They basically blew it when they lost 4-0 at Newcastle. Win that and they'd have been three clear of us with a game in hand and would've put huge pressure on us at Arsenal. That was the weekend we turned things around and I've been confident since and their results are getting worse.

19 minutes ago, spiezels said:

Martinez saves 2 of those. 

Yes. I don't quite subscribe to the standard view every goal Olsen lets in Emi could save in his sleep. However the second would be textbook Martinez save on a one on one I think, just getting his body to block the shot and keep it out. Fourth took a horrible deflection but it was still very close to Olsen and you feel Emi would've twisted his body quicker and deflected it away.

Goal and assist but for the positions he gets in his vision and passing isn't really that great.

Would prefer him being more in the role Bailey's had this season of cutting in from out wide and getting shots away.

1 minute ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Beat Brighton and palace somehow. We all know Liverpool will beat us. That's inevitable. 

"Somehow" I love words like that used. How on earth have we already accumulated 67 points this season.... We beat Bournemouth "somehow" 11 days ago. They're in far better form than Brighton currently.

Think Zaniolo will start this, need to be resting Bailey for the second leg.

Goes without saying Pau returns and possibly Emi aswell.

That happens and worst we do is score draw as Brighton just want the season to end currently and morphed back to their Potter days of barely scoring.

It probably isn't the worst game to give Tim a start as their midfield v Bournemouth was Gilmour, Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro as the 10 so massive downgrade on what they were putting out 12 months ago. Not sure UE will do this though.

1-1 and we're all but in CL with Spurs losing 3-1 at Liverpool.

3 minutes ago, Alakagom said:

Place your bets on Spurs! Win win at that point... 

They're generally 4/1 to win at Anfield. Likely to be even higher price to beat Man. City.

He'll start v Liverpool and Palace if our season is over by this time next week.

Up to him to make something of those games while others will be going through the motions so will be excellent test of his mentality which UE was questioning two months ago.

7 minutes ago, ozvillafan said:

Sadly, there are no excuses for not looking across the defensive line as a fullback before dropping. That's schoolboy stuff.

He wasn't alone, however. Digne did the same for their second.

Other than that blip he was largely positive and it was his hard running that lead to our opener.

Against Spurs Konsa played them all on for goals one and two IIRC.

It happens. Our offside trap is incredibly well drilled but we simply won't get it right 100% of the time.

Cash showed excellent mentality after this "error" in a way I'm afraid Douglas Luiz simply didn't after making a worse decision for the third goal.

6 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

He is just so darn slow and kills so many attacks.

Just no way Digne will be our starting FB next season

Really a shame that Moreno has fallen off a cliff post injury

I'd still keep him given his top level experience. Can't be going into CL with a squad full of players who've barely made a CL appearance between them.

The finances may disagree though unless we decide to move Moreno on instead which I think is a possibility given his injury ravaged season.

2 minutes ago, Alakagom said:

Emery literally said yesterday he's feeling good and ahead of the timeline 

Ultimately if we wrap up 4th on Sunday (and then go out next week) that's our season done. I certainly wouldn't expect him to play in two dead games when the euros are coming up which is fair enough.

Given Tim the final two and see if he can impose himself on the Liverpool game.

Just for clarification the only way Man. City win the league before playing Spurs is winning their next two and Arsenal take one point from Bournemouth at home and Man. United away.

I know Arsenal blew up in the run in last season but I think that's very unlikely given their general level this season. Title race will go to the last day.

I get the feeling as soon as this season is done (which could easily be this time next week) he'll go off and have an op or just rest up whatever is troubling him.

It's painfully obvious he's nowhere near 100% fit. Restricted in his movement when on the ball and as soon as he gets to the box he's taking way too many touches to line up a shot which is a sign he isn't fully trusting his body to go full pelt.

If we actually get through to the final I'd immediately give him the final two prem games off even if we still need to get something for 4th.

Wasted so many crosses in that last ten minutes.

Top season from him but I think he's gassed and he also picked up a knock v Chelsea late on so think Moreno would've played this if he'd been available.

We have a few limping towards the end of the season. I think if we can secure 4th on Sunday then him and Bailey won't play again this season after the second leg.

7 minutes ago, KAZZAM said:

I don't like him as a player tbh. Infact I prefer Diego(i swear he played LCB at Sevilla) 

And that's not just based on tonight's performance he's just so slow and cumbersome. 

 

I too was surprised we got the nod tonight given the sudden decision to rest Pau. Think Carlos would've been a much better fit to deal with El Kaabi's movement.

Ultimately Lenglet was a late experienced pick up to fill in for Mings so he's shown roughly the level he is. Decent but not as good as Mings or Torres. 

I thought he was excellent actually. Played a big part in the first goal by actually taking a risk and stepping forward rather than checking back and playing a safe pass.

He played throughout the game like he knew we needed to step up the tempo compared to everyone else who  decided to only do that forty minutes in.

Bit annoying he hardly saw the ball in last ten minutes compared to Digne who wasted so many crosses in that period.

Always bemuses me how much stick Cash gets on here as it doesn't really relate to what I see on the pitch most games.

We're going to need to see far more players take his attitude into next week to have any chance of turning this around.

2 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

Arsenal won't be in the title race last game of the season if they don't beat United a Old Trafford.

I can see them choking that game.

What's the point there, Man. City would still need to beat Spurs to wrap up the league in that scenario?

Are the same people who were utterly convinced Man. United would hunt us down (the points difference is now larger than it was at Xmas) are now deciding instead that Man. City will play Scott Carson and the under 12s v Spurs to fulfil their doom laden prophecies?

Spurs aren't just defending well enough in this part of the season so I think Man. City and Liverpool stick 2-3 past them no problem at all and it's not really clicking for them in attack either.

In better news I actually think we've got enough points already to finish 4th now. This Spurs is certainly losing away to Liverpool and home to Man. City.

Just very annoying it's come on the most anti-climatic night of the season.

What a shocker of a performance.

Emery was giving him an on pitch rollicking in the first half. We get back to 2-2 and he then sticks his arm up like that???!!! Missing penalties can hurt and it was certainly that sort of night for him.

We really need a monster performance from him in the second leg but it really doesn't look like based on what we've seen in the last two months where he's been too passive in these sorts of games compared to his standard in the first half of the season.

8 hours ago, ender4 said:

7th in the league will be a European place once Man City win the FA Cup. No way are Man Utd falling down to 8th.

Also, they have long term fixed sponsorship.  A year out of Europe won’t make any difference to the money they earn if they didn’t have Europe for one season.

Chelsea three points off them now.

I could easily see them finishing 8th with the fixtures they have left. Palace and Arsenal should beat them based on current form and then Newcastle will be pretty happy to get a point as they have easier game.

Chelsea will finish above them if they end the season on 55-56 points as they still have four games left themselves.

8 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

If Talksport is anything to go by I swear that ALL english clubs have been knocked out of Europe. More interested in JT and his racist spat with Anton Ferdinand and a boxer yet again failing a drug test.

They were talking about us in the first hour.

32 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

If you want a laugh BBC website have a table of what the value of each player is worth.......it's a joke, got to be or we seriously undervalued the worth of our players

Clickbait article you'd see on one of these fans sites, sad how the BBC website has decline.

Antony had two years of hardly any assists or goals and he's still worth 60m + ?!!!! I don't mind McTominay but 45m?!

Martinez has been a good signing for them so 25m for him is a strangely low valuation. Wan Bisaka would go for more than 10m aswell.

2 hours ago, Galway Lion said:

I reckon Spurs will get a win at Chelsea tomorrow. Chelsea now missing Silva and Desai meaning Gilchrist will have to start in defence. Spurs have to go for it now.

 

Can't they just move Cucerella back to RB if Colwill is fit as he's very often played at LB this season. Or could stick Chalobah at RB.

It will be a 3-2 either way tomorrow I suspect.

Edit: If Spurs lose tomorrow then whisper it quietly but we might already then have enough points for 4th as you'd then expect them with little recovery time to get anything at Anfield. And then losing at home to Man. City wouldn't be a shock at all.

22 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I have the same concern, however I do think Norwich will turn up. Whether they get a result, that’s another matter. 

But I don’t think they’ll throw the game as such.
 

As I've said before Norwich last failed to score in a match in January. SHA only scored more than one goal in a similar timeframe once.

Going purely by stats and actual ability on the pitch this is either 1-1 or 1-2 Norwich. However last 20 minutes SHA will obviously push loads forward so either Norwich just pick them off or not too bothered by narrowly losing as that still gets them a play off place.

They should be playing at least to face Southampton rather than Leeds in the play offs going by their respective records this season.