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17 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Glad it’s not just me, that was easily our season’s worst against very poor opposition 

It’s the game that makes us question our away form, if we had won against Nottingham, nobody would talked about the away form.

But games like that happen for every team on a 38 games season, it is almost impossible to not have an off day once or twice.

I hate it when people say if so and so had happen then blah blah, but it didn’t happen so deal with it. If we had won against Nottingham we would have been top of the league now, and it it really bugs me, but I also hate myself for thinking it.

7 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

We are a big club with a big history. Us being in this position is not like Leicester at all. Maybe it is a generation thing but I seem to see it differently to some 

Leicester was expected to be a relegation candidate, and didn’t had the infrastructure in place to maintain the level required to fight in the top of the league. After winning the league they sold a lot of their most influential players, and didn’t replace them. Don’t think big club/big history had much to do with it.

We were expected to at least keep our place in the top 8, maybe even challenge for top 6 or 4. We have the infrastructure in place to stay at the top. I don’t expect us to sell our best players if we against all odds won the league, instead I expect us to strengthen the squad. 

30 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

lock this thread as top 4 is a given, lets direct out energy now to that 'other' thread 

Way too early, still 22 games to be played. Yes, at the moment everything is amazing, but a bad spell and we will be overtaken by ManC, Spurs and Newcastle, and lose out on Champions League football.

We have now won 15 home games in a row for the first time in the club's history.

We have 17 points more than we had last season after 16 games.

Last season we reached 35 points after 26 games, in other words we have a 10 game lead on last season.

We started the season below the 2ppg line, but have gradually improved our form, and are now on 2.1875 points per game, if that continue we will end the season with 83 points. Add a few more points and we could win the league.

Our remaining matches this year are: Brentford(a), SheffieldU(h), ManU(a) and Burnley(h). The two home games, should give us 6 points. The away games are tricky, but Brentford aren't as good as last year, and ManU seems to lose to all the top teams. If we get all 12 points, it is well possible we would be top of the table.

5 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Who will we play in the Charity Shield after we win the league and the FA cup?

Everybody say we should try to win the FA cup since we haven’t won it in their lifetime. I say, let’s win the Double, last time we won it I was too young to enjoy it properly. 

21 minutes ago, GlobalVillan said:

Yes and we are 8th in the away league table having played at Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and at 2 midlands rivals.

Beat Brentford and we can go as high as 3rd in the away table. Hardly terrible form.

We have played 8 away games, most of the teams below us have played 7 away games. It’s more likely we would drop places than gain places. 

Of course if we start winning away games we would move up the away table, that is a given.

I don’t think our away form is that bad, but it depends what you compare it to. If compared to previous seasons, it is pretty good. However, most will compare it to our home form and then our away form isn’t great. 

It’s our home form that keeps us in the discussion for the title.

Unless we win all 19 home game this season, we need to improve our away form to stay in the title race.

No previous permenant Villa manager has had a win percentage over 50%.

Emery has a win percentage over 60%.

Add that to his tactical brilliance and the way he coaches underperforming players into world class players, and if this continue there will be a new statue outside Villa Park soon.

Our away form isn't all that, but our home form is the best.

I'm almost starting to expecting us to beat Arsenal on Saturday, but even if we lost we would still be on 2 points per game.

Emery have been in charge for 40 league games and we have collected 81 points from those games, just above 2 points per game.

I still believe that 76 points would see us in top 4, and so far we are on track to get there.

14 home wins in the league in a row, this is something special

Just now, Demitri_C said:

Wheres 5 mins come from???

This season 5 minutes is nothing, was expecting 10-15 minutes

Just now, tomav84 said:

just poured whiskey number 3...nerves are shot

Too many minutes left and not enough booze

We are third in the league

I really hope ManU keep ten Hag around until after we have played them.

ManC isn’t invincible, but I don’t expect much from this. Would love it if our home win streak could continue, but even a point would feel like a win here.

This game is like the Nottingham match, away to a relegation candidate. In other word we have a superior squad, and should win on paper.

Hopefully we don’t have an other off day, and get all 3 points. I would have liked us to keep a clean sheet, but that don’t seem to happen this season, 3-1 win.

1 hour ago, turvontour said:

Is 2 points per game nearly always top 4? Were we also 2 points per game under Emery last season?

Last season we got 1.6 points per game, but as you said under Emery we did the business, it was pre-Emery with less than 1 points per game that prevented us from reaching champions league.

2 points per game or 76 points, nearly always means top 4, there are a few rare occasion where 76 points would have given you 5th place. This season, it is very likely that even 5th place could get us into CL.

We have now played 38 games under Emery, and have taken 77 points. We just need to keep up that standard for our remaining 25 games this season, and we would have CL football next year.

Last season we had 12 points after 13 games, this year we have 28 points. Last year we had 28 pints after 23 matches. We are still on track to get above 2 points per game and get into top 4.

34 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

No chance. He's not won knockout games against any top sides.

The Euros we basically had home fixtures throughout the knockouts and he still failed.

Any crucial game he bottles making changes at crucial times and lets the opposition take control.

He even lost a final against an Italy side which failed to qualify for the WC before and after it.

Go back and see how England did before Southgate, a lot of failure in EC and WC qualifications, a lot of times knocked out in group stages. Just getting England qualified to EC and WC makes Southgate one of the best, when he also manage to get England out of the group stages and win knockout stage matches, it makes him a standout England manager.

I’m sure he could have done things differently, but the history has shown that getting England to perform is easier said than done. Maybe it is wrong to call him a great England manager, but at least he is the least rubbish one in a very long time.

1 hour ago, Villan_of_oz said:

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not, but if it's serious it's total hogwash.

With the talent at Gareth's disposal he's actually let England down with his incompetent in game management, not to mention his biased and unbalanced squad selections...

Are you saying that England manager in the past didn’t have talent available? Some of the past England squad had more talent than what Southgate has available now.

Southgate have won 6 knockout stage matches in major tournaments, that equal the number of knockout wins in the 48 years before Southgate. That means Southgate has been by far the best England manager in a very long time, or at least he has been less rubbish.

I don’t like Southgate, but he should get credit as one the best England manager.

6 minutes ago, oishiiniku_uk said:

Why's everyone so down on our away form? Overall under Emery we've still managed 28/51 points (1.65 points per game) and I'd say we've started the season with some tough fixtures away from home. The average could and should improve over time. Wins in the next two would put the season average back up to 1.6+ ppg
Also, 1.65 ppg is similar to what Newcastle got and a fair bit more than Man United achieved away from home last season. So, our average up until now is pretty much in-line with what's required for a top four finish (assuming the home form remains strong).

This season the team performance home vs away in the league, are so different that everybody notice. At home we have 3 points per game, away we have 1.16 points per game. Not only are we winning at home, we are winning with ease. At least up to now we haven’t been able to put in the same performances away, but it is still early in the season, and hopefully things will change.

The big downer is of course the loss to Nottingham, a team involved in the relegation battle, that in the their previous two home games drew to Barnsley and Luton. Indirectly it means our away form is worse than those two teams at the bottom of the league. Yes, wins agains Tottenham and Bournemouth will restore the confidence in our away form, but for the time being fans are rightly concerned.

1 hour ago, R.Bear said:

The bottom line is, there are people in this thread almost celebrating that we have Lehmann for her supposed commercial benefits to our club. If we switch it up and it was one of the men's players who was not performing, warming the bench, releasing calendars in sexy poses, constantly uploading suggestive pictures on their social media and having a paid subscription service of pictures and videos, what do you think the reaction of the fanbase would be? Let's be honest, you know damn well what it would be.

Very few men are able to attract a massive social media following purely based on their sexy looks. If they have a lot of followers it is because they are amazing football players, like Messi or Ronaldo. So if we had a male player with a large social media following that was warming the bench, it would mean we have re-hired Gerrard again.

10 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Seems like a good time to play them...

Maddison out until the New Year, is that correct?

Romero, Bissouma suspended.

Van Der Ven also injured, anyone else.

In addition Richarlison, Sessegnon, Solomon and Perisic are not available against us.

On paper it is the perfect time to play them.

Son will be playing two World Cup qualifiers during the international break, so he wouldn't be rested.

If we win we most likely go third, since Liverpool is playing ManC the day before.

Spurs will have a few key players out, while we maybe get Ramsey and Moreno back, should be a good time to play them.

In typical Villa fashion we get our hopes up, and then our hopes get crushed.

Still looks good vs 2 points per game that if we keep it up until the end of the season will see us getting 76 points and top 4.

The next 5 games will be crucial, Spurs and Bournemouth away, then ManC and Arsenal at home, before away against Brentford, we need 9 points from those matches if we are to keep us at the 2 points per game line. If we don't manage to do anything about our away form, we could end up with 0 points from those matches, and more or less out of contention for CL places.