JPAngel

It would be the most Southgate thing ever to take Ollie to the Euros and only bring him on for 10 minutes (as we're on the brink of defeat against someone like Croatia in the knockouts) only to play him on the left wing and keep Kane up top.

We want our club to be a brand that appeals to fans on a global level and this is part of it.

I was delighted to see Youri score two last night because of what it might mean for his confidence when he gets back to Bodymoor Heath. That said, it might also have something to do with how much I despise the England team and its management at the moment.

1 hour ago, alreadyexists said:

An interesting graphic… I think we’ll win at least 5 of those… not to mention Spurs lost to Fulham and we drew with Spam. Not even giving ‘that other team’ the satisfaction of mentioning them

I feel the most important part of our respective runs is the stint where Spurs play Newcastle, City, Arsenal, and Liverpool. They could quite conceivably lose four games on the bounce and it really wouldn't be that much of a shock.

We need to get as much of a buffer in place as possible during that period and ahead of their last two fixtures as anything other than 6 points in those last two would be highly unusual.

7 hours ago, VillaJ100 said:

That 'last season results' line is giving me anxiety. To drop to 1ppg from here would be such a shame.

Hopefully this cheers you up:

Three of the upcoming games within the "last season's corresponding fixtures" line were managed by Gerrard - all of which were defeats. The games were Arsenal (A), Chelsea (H) and Palace (A).

It’s a shame Leverkusen haven’t gone straight out (still time of course) but I don’t think it’s going to matter that much in the long run. If they can’t beat Carrier Bag, they won’t stand a chance against Liverpool.

Bloody hell, I didn't expect to see these reactions in here.

I thought he played decently well in a tough centre midfield battle in his first start AND it was away to Ajax. The fact Emery trusts a 20 year old youngster to do that in a European knockout game speaks volumes.

16 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yeah the desire to correct what they see as an act of violence with their own act of violence from one of their players who is renowned for similar acts of violence is very amusing.

It'll be funny when Cash doesn't even play. They'll claim he was scared

I've been thinking this, too.

Emery seems to like Konsa at right back in games against better opposition so it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Cash on the bench. I can already foresee pages of tweets from Spurs fans saying Emery knew "Cuti" would end Cash's career.

1 minute ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

I know a spurs guy who desperately wants Romero to injure Cash badly enough to force him to retire. Poor guy has lost his mind over it.

My in-laws are Spurs fans and they had the strangest reaction to that Cash challenge.

My Father-in-law, who is a physicist, a lecturer, and an all round wonderful human was absolutely appalled at Cash’s challenge on Bentancur. Said he “knew exactly what he was doing” and that he’d aimed to injure him.

Absolutely baffling.

I've just realised something interesting about our remaining fixtures and how I've been using last season's results as projections for this season.

Three of them - Arsenal (A), Chelsea (H), and Crystal Palace (A) - were all losses and all under Gerrard.

6 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Been waiting for this

Now taking United into the picture.

To overtake us, due to GD, even if they matched our PPG +1 it still wouldn't be enough.

If we maintain our 2.04 PPG, United mathematically can't catch us.

If we drop to 1.5 PPG (which would mean Unai's worst form for us ever) they'd need more than 2.5 PPG. From 11 games it means they'd need a minimum of 28 points (9 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss)

They aren't doing that.

Even if we drop to 1 PPG (meaning we only probably win another 2/3 games all season, they'd need 2 PPG minimum, meaning winning probably 6/11. Also not likely to happen.

Spot on.

While it feels like counting our chickens before they're hatched, it really does feel like top 5 is now guaranteed. And, with CL football likely to trickle down to 5th place, we might as well get used to the idea of hearing the Champions League anthem blaring out of the Villa Park speaker system in the near future.

3 hours ago, CVByrne said:

 

I know this is irrelevant but I absolutely detest the way this guy speaks. I cannot watch their videos for longer than a few seconds.

Better? Worse?

45 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Really good to see this represented. If it's not too much work, could you do a graph for United? Then it can be visually represented the tear United will likely need to go on to finish 4th.

Good question.

Using all the same averages I've been using this season for the chart on our progress against Man Utd, we get the below:

Man Utd are averaging 1.76 PPG which, across an entire season, would see them finish with 67 points (actually 66.8 points) and would generally be enough for a 5th/6th placed finish. For context, 66 points was enough for 5th place in 50% of the last 14 seasons.

Interestingly, using the results from last season's corresponding fixtures against their remaining fixtures this season would see them land on 66 points which is pretty damn close to their projection. For them to reach the required average points for 4th place, they'd need to earn another 27 points from their remaining games, a PPG average of 2.07. Here are their remaining fixtures where they earned a total of 22 points:

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Maybe not hound out soon but online you can feel some idiots turning and dont realise how shit we were when he took over

Naturally would prefer that we have a passion merchant like Pulis or someone similar

Agree with this and it scares me. I've been at so many games where there are constant shouts (expletives removed) of "get it forward quicker!", "mix it up!", "wake up Villa", "get it up the pitch!", "why are we just playing it around the back!?".

Emery has done a lot to educate our fanbase but there are some beyond help.

5 hours ago, Wainy316 said:

Real Madrid v Barcelona

It's still a derby.  A game between teams in close proximity is a 'local derby'

Yeah, just the short, 7 hour drive between the two 

A "derby" is a game between two rivals that are based in areas of close geographical proximity.

There are some rumblings about a potential sacking for Poch based on their form throughout the season so far. Let's contribute to that with a win, chaps.