KMitch

A lot of good performances all around today, but Moreno seemed to be involved in everything in attack and defense. Fantastic signing who continues to impress. He's integral to our attacking play and it'll be very interesting when we're able to get a consistent threat down the right next season to complement.

Watching the highlights of the other games, looks like Spurs/Brighton was an absolute shitshow on the touchline. Both managers sent off and will probably get touchline bans next week.

McGrath is already God... Emery is well on his way to becoming Jesus.

Comfortable commanding performance 6th place Positive goal differential Brighton, Brentford, Fulham, & Chelsea all losing today Such a good Easter weekend! UTV!!!

Pretty sure he's a certain Leeds supporter who has made yet another account...

He's 20... He'll come back from an ACL injury. He was flying last season for Southampton and is a good player who will attract a lot of interest from other Premier League clubs if Southampton go down. I don't think he's a good fit for Emery's system, though. I still think Wan-Bissaka should be the primary RB target for us this summer because he is the arguably one of the best 1v1 defenders in the Premier League and will be available because he doesn't fit into Erik ten Hag's system.

Absolutely. 3-4 additional QUALITY additions will really help us out this summer. The sky-high confidence and belief this team has in themselves and each other is winning us games this same group would have lost in the past.

Does Bertie only score bangers???? What a strike!!! Another rollercoaster of a match. I don't think I'm going to last the whole season before I have a heart attack watching the Villa one of these days. WE'RE 7TH!!! EUROPE!!! MCGRATH IS GOD & EMERY IS JESUS!!!

Easy to say when it isn't your money...

His on the pitch intelligence and decision making are his best attributes now and make up for a lot of what he's starting to lack physically. He does a fantastic job slowing down the game when we need him to or shithousing the opposition when we need to waste time to see the game out. Same here with the hatred for the dive. Can you imagine if Jack did the same to us in our first game against Man City after his move? That's how badly Young's dive hurt when it happened... I still don't know if I'd consider him a club legend, but I no longer hate his guts and look at his time at the club fondly. Delph will always be a two-faced snake, though.

Because £100k/week to Villa and £100k/week to someone like Man City/Chelsea are two different things considering FFP. Those clubs make around £4.5-£5 million/week more than Villa in revenue over the course of a season and can afford to spend that much more than us on wages and still be compliant with both Premier League and UEFA FFP restrictions. We probably can only afford another £200k/week in wages total on the books right now and still be complaint. Spending half that on a moonshot doesn't make sense.

Not at all... The fact that he has recovered this quickly is remarkable. Usually Achilles ruptures take 10-12 months to fully heal because explosive movement can so easily cause the tendon to tear again. It used to be a career ender as recently as 15 years ago, but with modern world class treatment, athletes can expect almost full recovery. I know everyone really wants to see him on the pitch as quickly as possible, but we're incredibly lucky to even have him available for selection at this point. Let's take it easy and make sure he's ready to compete for a starting spot in preseason.

Don't worry! We'll still find something to complain about... This is Villa we're talking about, after all!

They're nothing alike... It's akin to Villa beating out Madrid and half the clubs in Europe for Martin Odegaard in 2015... Kamara was a mainstay in a good Marseilles side for 5 seasons and helped get them to the Europa League final. We apparently offered him more money than other clubs by way of wages and a massive sign on fee, not to mention Gerrard promised to build our entire team around him with him being our key midfielder. He was statistically one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe and we were willing to pay top dollar for a player who would slot in and improve us immediately. Roque is 18, only has a year of professional footy under his belt in Brazil, and has just got a call up/cap for Brazil. Half the clubs in the Premier League as well as all the other top clubs in Europe have met/are meeting with his representatives ahead of a summer move. There is no way he's ready to be starting on the regular for Villa in the Premier League at this time so spending a huge amount of money on someone so young/inexperienced could destroy us from a FFP perspective if he turns out to be a flop. It's nice to see we're at least making the attempt, but I would bet money against him coming to Villa.

...and like Alvarez, we won't be able to sign him either. He's the biggest prospect in South America and was just capped by the Brazilian senior squad. Why would he go to Villa for 40k/week when a Champions League club will be in for him and will pay him 100k+/week before he even kicks a ball in anger? It'll be the same situation as Alvarez... We'll inquire and make a pitch, but he'll politely turn us down and wait for more money/prestige from someone else.

Also, Emery doesn't strike me as someone who would tuck tail and run to another club at the first opportunity, especially after he's just started getting settled at a new job . If that was the case he would have left Villarreal before he did.

This... and will demand a 50 million pound transfer fee with 150k/week in wages because of the United tax.

Brilliant player! What a bargain at 15 million pounds. You get the sense that if he was 5 years younger and playing this well, the big boys would be circling for him and we would have had no chance of signing him this past January.

Tim Howard spoke very highly of us and Emery right after the match. Said Villa's squad are 100% bought into Emery, have a clear identity, and you know exactly how we're going to play before the game, but you have no idea what Chelsea is going to do and neither do their players.

NBC Commentators: "Villa have just joined the race for Europe. They sit just a point behind Liverpool." Villa Fans: "No S*** Sherlock!!! Where have you been the past month?"

This match is going to give me a heart attack... Must be fun for the neutrals watching, but I'm in a state of constant panic. This game could easily be 3-3 or 4-3 with Chelsea leading. We're incredibly lucky to be going into halftime leading.

Incredibly lucky to not be sent off there...

Yeah, it was quite poor all around. Liverpool haven't looked the same dominant force they used to be since they lost Mane.

Salah would cost too much and would have better options than Villa if he even wanted to leave Liverpool at this time No way they let Nunez, Diaz, & Gakpo go so soon after buying them Jota just signed a new long term deal this season, so he isn't going anywhere either Firmino will be 32 in October and will demand wages way too high to be a rotation option for us

Agreed. The Big 6 have such a huge advantage over us from a revenue perspective that even if they did fall off for a year or two, all it will take is a new manager and 250 million in new signings to pass us by again. The only way for us to gatecrash the establishment and possibly add ourselves to the mix permanently is a sustained period of success for ~5 seasons. Meaning, we need to be regulars in Europe and consistently challenging for Champions League footy, with a couple of deep cup runs/wins thrown in there. This raises our profile around the world, increases our fanbase, which increases our advertising/revenue generation, and allows us more room to compete on the FFP front. Luckily, Emery seems to be 100% bought into the project from a long term prospective and isn't just looking at transfers with the next 6 months in mind, like so many of our past managers have. We need to be very calculated with our signings and be deliberate with who we recruit from this point forward. Guimaraes, for example, has been an outstanding signing for Newcastle and he would walk into any top 6 team's midfield. So much of their recent success has been because of what he brings to their squad. We need to make sure that our next 6-7 ins are all of similar Champions League quality to him. We have the bones of a good squad, but we still lack serious elite talent throughout. Based on Emery's comments from his presser today, he knows we're going to have to be patient in this regard and will need to continue to build slowly year over year in order to attract elite players to the club like Joao Felix, whom he was using as someone just out of our reach at the moment.