Indigo

All of the theorising would be fair enough if we hadn't seen him actually play well on the rare times he's had an opportunity, but we have and as it's the only evidence we have to work off it's fair to say it's at least strange that he hasn't gotten more of a chance.

Reduced prime Messi to rubble.

Carlos Sanchez as well, probably a couple of others in there that could be argued too.

We've had loads of defensive midfielders since NRC to be fair, whatever about the relative quality of them but we've had them alright.

I'm a big fan of both McGinn and Ramsey, but yeah, it's terribly difficult to maintain control or possession in a game when they're making up 2 of a 3 man midfield. Ramsey is young so will probably get there eventually, but his main strength has been his ball carrying. As tends to be the case for young lads games often pass him by and he doesn't see a huge amount of the ball, and subsequently makes less passes etc in the process. McGinn is a great player on his day, so all-action and dynamic but the guy just doesn't move the ball quickly or play short passes, he's something like bottom 2% for the latter and it shows. We obviously have further issues - lack of width, Konsa seemingly being unable to play out from defense and so forth - with being able to build out and control possession properly, but I don't think the qualities of the midfield outside of Luiz hugely aids it either.

I'm not normally one to get too hung up on the injury history of players but Gomez is the sort of case where I'd draw the line and be concerned about it to the point I think it wouldn't be worth it. He's had 4 or 5 lengthy injuries, some of which are recurring. It's a shame as he's a quality player and otherwise would represent a big improvement, then again we probably wouldn't have a chance of getting him otherwise.

Whatever about the merits of whether or not Villa should have signed him, but I've found some of the stick he's gotten on here before to be bizarre.

2022 and we're still taking the opinions of selected groups of other sides fans as gospel on players. WHEN WILL IT END ROBBIE.

Does make for quite grim reading for a "ball playing defender".

What makes it even worse is that it's not even a "tackle", he's literally making a pass as Villa are the team in possession of the ball and Saka comes into him as he plays it. Such a blatant non-issue.

I don't doubt that there are certain players that can and will be upgraded upon, but I think it's a bit cheap to be digging them out when it isn't as though yesterday was some one-off occurrence where it was clear that it was solely down to them not doing what he wanted. He played a system where we've previously struggled to have any form of control of games or ability to play out from the back with and stuck with one or two out of form players in the process. I massively rate this Araenal team and think they've gone largely underrated because of how relatively poor they've been in the last couple of seasons, but to have a colossal struggle getting out of our own half against them at home until they decided to sit in speaks more to getting tactically undone to me than it does certain individuals failing to pull their weight.

Not having a dig at Ramsey at all as he's been having a great season but I have no idea how Sanson isn't even coming on as a sub for him at the moment, never mind starting. Think he can feel awfully hard done by.

Would have been interesting to see how it would have been Mings' fault had it been an own goal.

This guy was one of the few positives today. Thought he was fantastic.

How on earth is Ramsey still on the pitch.

Ollie Watkins' first touch gives me palpitations. It's like he has elbows for feet. If nothing else it'd just be nice to see Sanson on for Ramsey, he's being increasingly hard done by not getting more of a chance and on top of that JJ is having a bit of a shocker in this game.

Arsenal are a good side but 0 touches in their box, 0xG etc is pretty shocking stuff.

Not really seeing all the issues with the ref tbh. They've been much better, we haven't come close to creating anything and I don't think the ref giving or not giving free kicks 50 yards out is impacting that too much.

Can't help but just feel prideful whenever I hear him speak. He's the sort of player/guy I'd admire were he at a different team so to have him captaining Villa enhances that so much more. Really do think he'll be so much more appreciated when he's gone, which when it eventually happens will - as he alludes to -be with the club in an almost unimaginably better position than where he found it. What a guy.

I like Watkins and don't think how huge an influence he was especially last season can be underestimated as he essentially transformed how the team played, but I just think he has quite a noticeable ceiling due to how limited he is technically at this level. Great work rate, good instincts and positional play but his first touch and general ability on the ball is so inconsistent and not really at the level of those around him. Don't think he's a problem at all but I think it's fair to say he's one of the players that could be upgraded upon if you're talking about getting to the "next level".

Can't argue with the logic in leaving a player of his quality on the pitch, just think it was quite apparent from his body language that he was struggling quite badly and we have the options off the bench to at least adequately replace him without having to sacrifice a midfield player for it when we were already flagging a bit in that third of the pitch. If nothing else I think Sanson also coming in to lift the midfield a bit looked like it was a no-brainer but as I said it's easy to play the hindsight game with subs.

Justice for this man.

Leggy game today. Not normally one to moan about subs but I thought it was clear that Coutinho was gassed after about an hour and could have been taken off for one of the attacking options rather than removing Luiz and giving up even more of a hold on midfield than we already had. Think Sanson can be justified in feeling awfully hard done by at this stage.

Ebbed and flowed really. Think Villa have had the better "chances" (Ings, Watkins, Coutinho) but they've been cut out by some great last-ditch blocks whereas West Ham have gotten cleaner efforts off but not come particularly close. They're so physical and organised that it's always going to be a rough one, you'd think a goal either way could be enough to do it.