Smartin

He set a trap and Luiz fell for it. Not shoulder to shoulder at all. Deeney was in front of him. Grealish does stuff like that all day long!

how is it not?

what would you have done?

I also think it should be said in the middle of all the negativity that Hause has been very good last game and a half imo.

Slowest midfield ever. Watching Jota in particiular is painful. I am sure he will be good for us if we go dow, but not anywhere near PL standard.

I love that you are claiming that missed clear chance as a positive... and people say our fans are negative?!

Spot on. Suicidal imo. I like some of the others above though.

...the only thing he does well at times so far is hold up play, and Davis does that better. (We really shouldn't write him off though. I'm not sure we are helping him as a team)

Frustrating result and performance in the end but there are a lot of positives too. Defensively we look really solid. Engels is immense, even outshining Mings at the moment imo. Our midfield looks good. Loads of energy and we move the ball well at times. Nakamba looked like the defensive mid we have been crying out for. We also have lots of options, so we will have to trust Deano to get the selection right more often than not. We also just need to sharpen up our passing. A few too many loose passes every game is holding us back and keeps taking the pressure off when we look to have a good opportunity. Some of the decision making too has been poor. but I put this down to the players still learning about each other. The front 3 is clearly the weak point. They just look blunt at the moment and it is hard to see us scoring enough goals to stay up at the moment. We also just don't have the depth on the bench to be able to change a game with our subs in these areas. Ultimately, I think we are just 2 players and a couple of months of gelling time from a very good team. But at the moment I am slightly concerned.

My fave player I think.

Are people really questioning Grealish in this game? Probs his best performance of the season imo.

That part doesn't matter, because he still drags defenders with him, but he really needs to choose his moments better. It was such a bad decision towards the end of the half when Jota had 2 defenders on him.

Absolutely. So good! Game is there for the taking. We are doing alright. Just need to go up one more gear. Agree we need to strengthen in the wide areas in Jan.

Fuming at that! Yes, we were poor and will need to improve, but the ref has cost us all game, and capped it off with that at the end. He had an issue with Grealish all game for some reason!

So poor so far. Not got in any rhythm and the ref is making us terrified to put in a tackle. Agree that AEG needs to be on instead of Jota. Disappointed with Douglas Luiz, though maybe a bit harsh to single him out when everyone else has been equally poor.

If as is being reported, Mings and Engels have gotten call ups, they will be buzzing for this game. At the same time, if as expected Grealish misses out, hopefully that lights a fire in him to go out and dominate the game. Feel confident of winning this one. Just have 2 men on Zaha at all times and we will be fine.

I can't see how using our squad can be seen as disrespecting the cup. We are talking about some very good (and expensive) players. It's almost as if people will find anything they can to moan about.

So would I, but that is very different to having no hope of beating Everton at home in a single game.

Are people's Villa hopes really this bruised and battered after 2 games? As someone else said, if we cant aspire to get a result against Everton at home, we may as well give up now.

They haven't faced the mighty meatball yet.

I think it would have been communicated very clearly to the players that we will need the entire squad this season, and different players for different types of games. I don't see it as Taylor being 'dropped', more Targett offering something different that is more suited to this upcoming game.

Yep, I think their energy and willingness to get forward will be so important for us in these kinds of home games. Guilbert's overlaps in particular will cause Bournemouth problems.

I feel like at least one and maybe both full backs will be swapped out. Thought Taylor did ok on sat to be fair though.

Norwich look heavily reliant on Pukki to me, but if stays fit he will bang in a decent amount of goals. Enough to keep them up, I have doubts. I feel like they will have quite a bright start and then struggle massively in the 2nd half of the season, whereas we will get stronger. My 3 to go down currently are: Norwich, Palace, Newcastle Not in any particular order.

Yeah Sheff Utd were quite impressive. If they can produce that consistently they will be fine. I would really like them to stay up... as long as its not at our cost!