wict01

I think his footballing intelligence has improved massively from his first stint with us. I always loved him, but did think he could be a bit of a headless chicken at times despite his obvious class on the ball. Now he's just so assured and his reading of the game is phenomenal. I guess that's what happens when you spend such a huge part of your career playing under truly elite managers like Ferguson, Mourinho, Conte and Danks....

I think a large part of that was also due to, and I'm sorry to say it, Coutinho coming on. He could not do anything right for the time he was on the pitch, it felt like we had 10 men. On Dendoncker anyway, he was brilliant yesterday and the perfect foil for Luiz. I wonder what we could've achieved with a DM like him alongside Luiz in the 20/21 season when we really were flying at times.

They'll go back for Rob Edwards I reckon. Would love it to be Bruce though!

Really not sure what to say after yesterday. Plucky defeats against the ESL 6 are all well and good, but when we aren't picking up wins against the poorer sides in the division either then there's extra pressure on these games to avoid defeat. It'd be much easier to take the positives out of the first half if we'd beaten Leeds and Forest - but we didn't, so we're sat here with our worst ever premier league start (barring the year we actually did go down). I think the situation is irreparable now for Gerrard, the only reason he's not been sacked is because it is such a hectic week with 3 games in 7 days, I wonder if the board think a sacking would be more harm than good with the disruption. I fully expect us to get bullied by Mitrovic and Palhinha at Fulham, and then give Ivan Toney the freedom of Villa Park on Sunday too.

I can see us holding Chelsea to a gritty 1-1 draw and then being absolutely rinsed by Brentford when we're expected to attempt to dictate the flow and tempo of a game.

There is no joy to be had here. Everything that was vibrant and entertaining about us as a club has been stripped away and all we are left with is John McGinn attempting a diving header with a ball that was falling perfectly onto his left foot in the box. As we've said so often, what are we? Aside from utterly turgid. There's no structure or pattern of play to allow us to try to hurt teams. I'm sure I heard somewhere it was the 6th or 7th time in 9 league games we've failed to haul ourselves above 1xG? That is not the players failing to step up, it's a damning indictment of a flawed system imposed by a shit manager who needs to go back to cutting his teeth coaching the Liverpool under 21s.

Surely has to be curtains for SG if we don't win this one. My concern is they sack Cooper and have a new man in the dugout just in time for our visit!

Nailed it

I feel like the bond between the players, management and supporters was mended somewhat after the City game. I am hopeful we can take that into Southampton on Friday, get behind the lads and kickstart our season. Villa Park under the lights with a late kickoff is always a good occasion. Southampton were also one of the teams we absolutely took to pieces under Gerrard last year, so I hope he can conjure up the same again.

With the international break as well, are we going to end up having gone about a month without a game?

Exactly. Why is me going to a football match on Saturday less respectful than me going to work today? Am I expected to cancel all leisure activities for private mourning and yet continue to work and generate profits for the rich and powerful? Honestly don't get it.

Dean Ashton for the same reason. Ashton Villa forward line

Nothing but praise for him today, got it spot on. May it be the first of many this season.

Credit where it’s due, SG got it spot on today. A point was the least we deserved IMO, a better first touch by Ramsey and better officiating and we could’ve walked away with all 3 points. This has to be the standard now, in terms of work rate and intensity - this is the baseline. Maintain those levels and we will shoot up the table. It also brought back a level of connection between the fans and players today - we fed off the effort shown by the players and in turn they fed off our support. Well played by everyone today, players and management.

The ones I can really remember vividly: O'Neill - the Rapid Vienna fiasco. Even though we got 64 points and came 6th again, there was a weird undercurrent of grumbling among the fans about the style of play. A proper European tour might've softened the blow. Houllier - as others have said, the illness. He was never coming back. McLeish - Bolton at home Lambert - for me, was the 8-0 at Chelsea. You just knew we'd never build anything capable of properly competing in the prem under him. Sherwood - Swansea at home after taking the lead and conceding straight after (sounds familiar...) Garde - Liverpool at home after that brief mini-revival Di Matteo - Barnsley away with yet another late equaliser conceded Bruce - Bolton away in the snow. Completely lost faith that we'd get promoted under him that day. Smith - Arsenal away last year. Gerrard - well, had a bad feeling about this one since he arrived.

"Gerrard needs to be given more time, Villa have to hold their nerve" "Why? He's shown nothing" "Because he's my best mate" Nice one, thanks for that insight Carra.

I think he's alright, always looked decent to me doing the basics and covering as the DM in a midfield three with Neves and Moutinho - Wolves have played their best football with that midfield combination, in my opinion.

I feel sorry for him now, he sounds and looks a broken, defeated man. This job has done it to so many managers over the last 12-13 years. Better for everyone that this daft experiment is just brought to an end, apathy is really taking hold - I couldn’t be arsed to celebrate our short lived equaliser or shout at the telly for the two arsenal goals…I just feel sad.

Me too, I end up feeling sorry for them being wheeled out to mumble meaningless platitudes in front of journos. I would of course rather this experiment had been a roaring success, and I generally wouldn't consider myself to be massively reactionary as a football fan these days but now this all just feels like dragging on needless misery and upset for Gerrard, his staff, the players and the fans at this point. It needs to just end.

It’s a no-excuse culture…..except for Stevie. Stevie gets excuses.

West Ham came for a point and decided to go for all three after they saw how shit we are. Unbelievable.

Goal straight from a corner, offside penalty and the Bolton keeper having an out of body experience for the 3rd before we could put the game beyond them. Avoided a banana skin but let’s not pretend that tonight was anything other than poor. Very nervous for the Hammers on Sunday.

Scraping through this with an offside penalty would be peak Gerrard

One long ball cuts us open and then McGinn just chucks their forward to the floor. What the **** is going on!

Hahahaha ducking dreadful. “Villa with their tails up since they scored” really? This is us with our tails up? Dreadful stuff, no wonder we can’t compete in the premier league.