KMitch

Probably a hip flexer injury. Will be out for a month or two, if it is.

That one tackle aside, he's been our best performer with Buendia.

Konsa still hobbling... Looks to be serious.

Ask VillaLad...

Buendia... The guy runs his socks off. He is everywhere at the moment.

...and right on cue he picks up a yellow for a horrible tackle...

On the plus side, Digne looks to be the best player on the pitch so far.

Same problems we've had when losing under Smith. We go behind and everyone stops moving off the ball. Nobody moving into space or calling for the ball, just endless passing back and forth across the back line until Mings hoofs it forward.

Emi's mistake has really deflated the team... Need something to happen in our favor.

Just shows how shit we were under Doug & Lerner. Times are different now...

"Wake me up, before you go go We've got Digne and we've got Coutinho!!!" Let's fookin' go!!! Haven't been this excited about a Villa match in a few years!!! 2-1 Villa - Coutinho comes off the bench to score the winner, while they score a dodgy peno. UTV!!!

Everton are falling apart... Looked awful and their new left back didn't exactly impress today.

Breaking news! Player who hasn't played in over a month and is recovering from COVID isn't match fit!

What is this??? We're actively trying to clear out deadwood BEFORE they lose all their value??? Are we sure this is Aston Villa we're talking about here?

Saw on Reddit that an Everton fan has said their club's Tier 1 Source (equivalent to Percy for us) said El Ghazi's loan was not wanted by Rafa and that this was 100% Moshiri behind this because he's chummy with El Ghazi's agent. They're proper pissed off right now.

Really? I honestly see the two of them playing together a lot. Maybe if Bailey hits his stride, he may take Buendia's spot, which would add more pace to the attack, but I don't see that happening over the next month or so.

He's a bit like Hourihane, Whelan, Elmo, & Hutton for me and I will always hold a place in my heart for him. Great for us in the Championship, but no longer up to the standard we need to keep moving forward. He seems like a good dude, but I'm happy we're finally looking to move him on. I hope he tears it up for Everton, but I can't see how he'll fit into Rafaball.

He's going to thrive with Coutinho... Too often Buendia isn't on the same wavelength with the rest of the team, but I can see the two of them absolutely ripping apart teams with Ings and the Digne/Cash fullback combo.

Yeah, I think it's been obvious that we need to spend more money on quality to push us up into European contention. We did a great job building a solid, mid-table Premier League squad of promising players who had room to grow and develop under solid coaching, but we'll only get so far under that philosophy. Other teams who have tried this approach in the past (Southampton, Swansea, etc.) never really sustained their success once their best players were poached from them. The only teams who managed to stay up on that end of the table (Leicester, Spurs, etc) have spent big on actual quality players to replace those they sold on. Gerrard's appointment has accelerated this transition a bit.

Agreed. We'll be making a good springboard to try to vault into European contention next season, if we get things right. I'm very happy with the Digne signing. He was a bit of a coup for Everton to get from Barca back in the day, but for us to prize him away from them is an even bigger transfer market masterstroke! He's an excellent fullback and a huge upgrade on Targett. Not exactly fast, but he's one of the best attacking left backs in Europe, with a wicked cross on him. I can't wait to see him link up with Coutinho on the left!

I used to think so too, but I've seen a few Norwich games since Deano took over and Aarons has been shockingly poor at times. Doesn't seem to have kicked on as much as everyone has hoped, or Norwich are just that shit.

No idea why some are labeling him a troublemaker or questioning his attitude based on some Twitter rumor BS.

The last two times I thought we had very good transfer windows were: Summer of 2015 - Ended up getting relegated with some of the worst individual performances of all time Summer of 2021 - Horrific start, ended up with Deano getting the sack and all the signings have yet to hit their expectations yet. Part of me has a sickening feeling with regards to being as optimistic as I am, but the difference this time is we're buying actual quality instead of taking punts on promising players.

Robin, huh? Was Batman not available?

I really feel bad for them... Lots of similarities to the later Lerner era now. Bad managerial appointments, over paying for poor players, not selling any on for profits, and in a bind financially.