KMitch

Ollie, FFS... Another horrible miss...

FFS... It's going to be one of those days, isn't it? A million chances, but can't finish any of them and end up losing to a worldie.

Watford paid 30 million for Sarr... He was their record signing. Were going to take a 5-10 million pound loss on him if our transfer went through on him last summer. Brighton paid 15 million for Bissouma, which was close to their record signing of 20 million pounds. Sold for only 25 million pounds to Spurs, even though half his forum acted like he's a 50 million pound player. Brentford paid 5 million for Toney but reportedly had 10 million in add ons, which has surely been all but triggered by this point. Toney his one hell of a signing, but he was one of their top 3 most expensive signings ever at the time. You're acting like all these clubs paid peanuts for these players, but for their budgets they represent a very significant outlay. TBH, we have made a few signings in this mold so far and I'll give you 3 off the top of my head. Emi Martinez - 20 million for a 28 year old career backup keeper at Arsenal, now worth 80 million+ and is one of the best keepers in the world Douglas Luiz - 15 million for a 21 year old who looked very poor in his two seasons on loan at Girona, but has grown into a 40 million pound very solid Prem CM Boubacar Kamara - Free Transfer for a 22 year old with 4 seasons of top flight and Champions League experience and looks to be one of our best midfielders. Worth 40+ million now

I'm excited for the future... Our first team looks much more comfortable and composed both in the press and in possession. Emery & co are clearly drilling into them exactly how they should be playing. If Ings was playing instead of Watkins for the first half we would have won the game by several goals. Definitely need to spend big on a new striker this January in order to continue to try to challenge for Europe.

Played a very over hit hospital ball to Donk, who couldn't control it and it deflected to a Villarreal forward. Buried it in the net.

Chambers again looking like he's out of place under Emery.

Ugh... What a poor goal to concede. Unlucky

Villarreal bringing on their World Cup starters now... Will be an interesting end to the game.

Dougie & Kamara absolutely bossed the midfield tonight. We've finally found a midfield duo to take us forward.

Great pressing by the boys there! Almost had a goal out of that poor Reina clearance.

OMG Ollie... We really need a more clinical forward in order to challenge for Europe.

Some of the best footy we've played this season. Bring on the 2nd half!

Yeah, Watkins & McGinn have stood out like sore thumbs tonight. Replacing the two of them with a new forward and JJ and this team looks very dangerous.

Wow... McGinn could have gone down and gotten a stonewall, but managed to pass it into Bailey for a shot that hit the woodwork... Really loving our attacking movement...

Good build up play leading to another good Ollie shot on target. We look much much better building an attack in this game. On the other hand, Villarreal aren't pressing like a Premier League team. Getting slightly more time on the ball that we would get against regular opposition. That said, you can really see the progress we're making tactically. Everyone looks up for this game as well.

It's even more crazy to think that he just turned 23 as well.

To be fair, they have quite a few starters on their bench... Torres, Jackson, Pino, etc. They're starting the players who didn't have World Cup duty.

Been a good game so far... Both teams look dangerous at times and passing the ball around well.

Weren't we linked with Tagliafico pretty heavily before signing Augustinsson? He's been having a blinder of a tournament.

Stunning to see Messi still pulling this off at 35... Unreal...

You can see what Emery is trying to set up here... We have several very good pieces for his style but some players frankly just aren't going to be good enough to fill the roles they need to play. For example, Watkins has elite work rate and fitness but his footballing IQ and touch let him down more often than not. Will be interesting to see who we target in January to bring in.

Most of his mistakes are due to the pace of the match being a lot faster than he is used to, but he has also shown his quality at times throughout as well. The fans already writing him off are hilarious...

Jack Woodward...

We were interested a few seasons back before JJ broke through into the first team... He's very McGinn like in style. Lots of energy and more of a Jack of all Trades, master of none type of CM. Not sure he's a good fit for Emeryball, but would have excelled under Smith.