penguin

I disagree with the bolded. Advocaat changed Sunderland at half time. They came back into the game then. That's how they got the result. Sherwood changed nothing. They were always going to come sprinting out the blocks at half time being behind, we were extremely comfortable in the first half and I had no issue with Sherwood not changing things and trusting the players to continue. The only reason they scored was due to Clark's very poor defending, we then had more than enough chances to win, the Sunderland result was definitely due to the players, imo of course.

Don't forget Ivanovic, he's been an absolute liability.

Without meaning to start a debate on them, I had always thought a key pass was a pass which lead to a good goal scoring chance, obviously this would be open to interpretation but I still thought it was a good metric; almost like an assist except where the shooter has messed it up or only come close. But I've just looked and Opta record a key pass as simply a pass to someone who then shoots, certainly reduced the importance I placed on it.

I had Kone on the bench

There was never any chance he was going to give anything against Dembele, Dean was still too busy celebrating his goal.

He was playing fine today before he got assaulted, although silver lining with Ayew replacing him and having a very good game.

Players seem to be able to cut inside him far too easily; Kane today and I think it was Lens who he let past against Sunderland. Also no idea what even happened with Dembele, schoolboy defending.

HYPERBOLE!!! First full season in the premiership and the idiots are already out writing him off ffs. Saying someone is over rated isn't writing them off.

Good last half an hour. Ref needs investigating, clearly celebrated their first goal.

Who are these lot?

Does Harry Kane have some kind of jaw defect which prevents his mouth from closing? The amount of insects he must catch

Why did Amavi even get dropped?

Thought that myself, he's fist pumping ffs

Anyone know how many touches has Gabby had?

Shit clearance from Lescott

Almost no mention of Dembele cracking Westwood in the face from the commentators, sure they would if Kane/Eriksen etc had to go off

Ref had a great view of that as well the corrupt word removed

Clark is awful, let's players cut inside far too regularly

Villa fans in good voice

Yet there's nowhere near as much garbage (in every single **** thread) about any other current player. The negative isn't a response to the positive, by the way. The 'defending' of Westwood is because of the people endlessly spouting on about how crap he is - when he isn't. I think it's because he was bought from the lower leagues or something. Or perhaps some feel he isn't as good as people make out? There is definitely hyperbole on both sides, no doubt in response to each other, after almost game he plays in they'll be people in here exclaiming how he was MOTM or people in match threads every time he makes a pass stating how that won't get mentioned in the Westwood thread. It all just reinforces this two tribes mentality about him and the vicious circle continues ad nausem.

Agree with all this. Particularly the bolded, was sitting there thinking what is even happening here during that scene, it was just seemed so stupid and cringeworthy.

As doom and gloom as it is, it would be negligent of them not to. They'll have to have raised it with Garde. Apparently only four teams have survived that were in our predicament since the PL became 20 teams. Staying up is a bonus I reckon. I'm guessing that statistic is related to league position rather than points from safety? As making up 4 points on the others from 28 games is hardly praying for miracles territory.

Lambert goes down as the worst manager for me. Bailed out by the best striker we've had in recent times, plus points for buying him though of course, yet still managed to play some of the most dour negative football ive ever seen. The ridiculous run of games last season we went on without a shot on target let alone a goal will forever stick in my head.

Tough one. Time is clearly of the essence but rushing in and getting a sub-par manager cannot happen (again) or we are just as doomed and will just end up repeating ourselves.

The performances to me have said the opposite. It's been the gifts to the opposition that have cost us, the performances overall have been ok, for the most part, and in some places quite good. We just need a manager who actually has a game plan and picks the right players, in their natural positions, to achieve it.