KMitch

What a harsh penalty to award... Tomori is clearly sliding into the challenge and his arm is in what I would consider a natural position for a player falling to the ground in a slide tackle...

Doesn't seem like our transfer style at all. City will want a lot of money for him and you'd think he would expect outrageous wages as well. I don't see us blowing most of our FFP wage space on him, to be frank.

It's hilarious to hear what their fans are saying they've heard from their club's reliable ITKs about Todd Boehly. He's the American Tony Xia... Was allegedly involving himself in tactical meetings with Potter before games trying to tell him what formation and players to play, at one point telling him to play a "4-4-3" formation. Apparently he was under the impression that Chelsea qualified for the Champions League automatically, regardless of where they finish in the Premier League, because... they're Chelsea? He was corrected by someone at the club during a meeting that this wasn't the case and he stormed out of that meeting when he came to the realization of what this meant financially. He recently spends a lot of time in the player dressing room and on the training ground trying to inspire the team and get them to turn their league position around. Apparently, he went off on the team after their loss to Brighton and Lampard has confirmed this to be true.

I keep doing fixture predictors to see where we can end up: The only way we finish 4th is if we drop no more than 2 points in the final 7 games AND one of Man United/Newcastle capitulate and drop points to lower half teams. The teams around us all play each other, which is good for us if they spread the points around, but if some teams start racking up the wins, I'll be more of a head to head run in than the messy group it is now. Most normal scenarios have us finishing 6th or 7th on goal difference with a wins against Brentford, Fulham, Spurs, & Brighton with a draw at Old Trafford and a loss at Anfield. Also assuming we draw against Wolves. Things to consider: Man United's defense is a mess at the moment and fixture congestion from the Europa League and FA Cup will cause them to drop points at some moment in the run in. We never win at Old Trafford, but I'm backing Emery to do the double over them this season, or at least get a point. Newcastle have Almiron back and will want to prove a point after our thrashing of them this past weekend. I see them winning more than they lose to finish the season out. Spurs are a mess on paper and some of their players on the beach already, as you could see where they spent most of the 2nd half against Bournemouth chasing a point. Even a dodgy VAR call couldn't save them, though and they threw away a point in stoppage time. I predict they'll fall out of Europe all together at this rate. Liverpool are pretty Jekyll and Hyde form-wise. You never know if they're going to turn up or not, but I think they realize that Europe is on the line now and will win most of their remaining games. Our trip to Anfield will determine which team finishes above the other. Brighton have the FA Cup semi final, pushing out yet another game in their schedule. They have Man City, Arsenal, Newcastle, Man United and a few "easy" fixtures like Wolves, Forest, Everton, & Southampton. I think Wolves are safe now, but the other games could be much harder than they are on paper because the survival battle is going down to the wire and fixture congestion will be a problem for Brighton. They might be exhausted by the time they come to Villa Park for the last fixture of the season. Villa really are in the driver's seat here. If we keep winning and picking up points off the teams around us, 6th is very realistic. It'll take a lot of luck and the craziest run of form we've seen since our promotion run in the Championship to finish in the Champions League. That said, the feeling around the club at the moment is exactly like it was when we were in the middle of our 10 game winning run a few seasons back. No matter what happens, it's been an amazing season under Emery and we have a great platform to go into this summer with. We'll know exactly what the team is capable of and which positions we'll need to spend to strengthen and which players to sell off. I'd be extremely happy with finishing 8th. Anything above that and I'll be over the moon.

Definitely the 10 spot... He's so good. Reminds me of of a young Spanish Steven Gerrard whenever I've seen him play. His long shots are incredibly powerful.

He's THE hottest prospect in Europe right now and is linked to every top club in the rags. He's having a monster season at Vigo and it's an absolute certainty he's off in a big money move this summer. I think City will be going for Bellingham this summer and Veiga would be the backup option if they don't get him. Man United/Liverpool will want him for their midfields too, as I don't think they can afford Belllingham, well as Real/Barca/Atletico... The only way we stand a chance at signing him is if Emery sells him a dream, we pay him 200k+/week, and we somehow pull off Champions League qualification.

Sherwood sounded like a proper moron too. No wonder we heard rumors of a serious dressing room rift coming out that season. Had clear favorites and shared confidential information with the teacher's pets, alienating other senior pros in the squad. He'd call Gabby/Richards/Lescott into his office and tell them about signings they're working on getting over the line, then wondered why lineups were getting leaked before the game. Sherwood sweeping his office for bugs when Gabby was off blabbing his mouth to half of Bodymoor Heath is peak stupidity. Can't make this stuff up.

I absolutely love his responses to the media. First his response to Rodri's complaints about Scotland parking the bus, now this.

This takes the cake! The only reason we beat Newcastle is because we've "outspend them since we were promoted". Can't make this stuff up!

He's spent most of his career playing in the Spanish second division or battling relegation before he went to Betis. He didn't really start to turn heads until he went to Betis, but his age turned off most of the top clubs from going after him.

Been saying for weeks now that Man City are still going to win the title, despite Arsenal's point lead. City will beat them in a few weeks and win out, whereas Arsenal will collapse and continue to drop points.

Not advocating that we do it, but if Liverpool threw a lot of money at us for JJ when their first choice Bellingham turns them down for Man City/Madrid, getting Veiga as a replacement would be a very solid move.

Looks like Alex had all the South American Villans over at his place last night after the game and they were all hanging out livestreaming on Twitch and playing Call of Duty together. Lots of shenanigans ensued... Here is a clip of Diego Carlos falling through a window. https://www.twitch.tv/15alexmoreno/clip/MoistAbstemiousAubergineSMOrc-dRNHKyaaLDbU7vus These guys really seem to have a very tight knit friend group.

It's going to be very interesting to see who teams will be able to pull in the transfer market this summer. For the first time in a long time, I don't think Liverpool, Chelsea, and Spurs will have the pull on new signings that they usually have. No Champions League football and questions surrounding management and their dressing room chemistry may cause their top targets to go elsewhere. Man United may have new investment to help them spend big on new players for the first time in a while and Arsenal/Man City will continue to boss the market and get who they want. Brighton, Newcastle, and Villa are the ones primed to start making big moves in the market. They're all teams on the up, playing great football, with coaches their squads respect, and all will probably have European football to entice players to sign for them instead of other clubs. I can't wait to see who we sign. I think we're all going to be surprised by our summer business in a good way.

I don't think everyone realizes how much luck we need to finish 4th... We would need 4 of Brighton, Man United, Newcastle, Liverpool, and Spurs to completely capitulate in their run ins, while we need to not drop more than 3 points during ours. I just don't see that happening. Maybe Liverpool and Spurs fail to impress while Newcastle falls off a little, but I don't see Brighton losing any of their games beside Arsenal and Man City before we play them in the last game of the season. We essentially need Southampton and Forest to suddenly find form and start beating the teams around us. It's most likely that we'll be playing Brighton on the last game of the season where the winner gets a Europa League place.

He really is the perfect defensive RB for Emery. One of the best 1v1 defenders in the Prem and will be available to sign this summer because he isn't great going forward and doesn't fit ten Hag's system.

Gallagher is the only one trying, but is always a touch too much or a step too behind.

His only accomplishment was getting an expensively assembled Derby squad to the Championship playoffs on the backs of Mason Mount, Tomori, and Harry Wilson. Has looked like an amateur everywhere else.

It's incredible just how awful Chelsea's recruitment has been under their new ownership. This past January everyone was praising them for spending as much money as they did and everyone has been a huge disappointment so far.

Our most complete performance under Emery so far. We absolutely battered a top side and looked like we could still turn it up a gear. The players are believing, the tactics/system is starting to become second nature to the team, and Villa Park is rocking. Europe looks like it's a real possibility now. So many good performances all around. Mings/Konsa were unstoppable at the back, Moreno was so good in defense and marauding down the left in attack, Ashley Young looking like he's 25 again, Dougie and Donk passing/tackling the Newcastle midfield off the pitch, Buendia & McGinn pulling all the strings out there, and JJ/Ollie clinical in front of goal. Ollie has to be the MOM for me, though. He's so good in this system. UTV!!! Emery is Jesus!!!

What a half!!! Absolutely dominated them all over the pitch. Tactical masterclass from Emery and Newcastle look completely lost. They love to press hard and swarm the ball carrier high up the pitch. No problem, we'll go over it! We've also successfully completely marked Guimaraes out of the game at times or have swarmed him when he gets the ball, which is why Newcastle don't look much of a threat when they have possession. Brilliant from Emery. Ollie has been immense up front and everything in our attack is flowing through him. We're unlucky to not be 3-0 up right now and I hope we don't regret finishing at least one more of our chances.

Musah? I think he's incredibly overrated, as is the case about most American youngsters. He's a very physical and athletic defensive midfielder who works hard and will occasionally make a brilliant run or pass, but will frustrate you most of the time when he can't pick a 5 yard pass out to a teammate. He's basically an American Reo Coker. As for Kluivert, I really haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion, if I'm being honest. The last game I watched was when Valencia beat Sociedad and I don't think he played.

Not defending what they did, but AJ did kick things off by pulling an Adebayor and celebrating his goal in front of the Norwich supporters right before his injury.