VillaFaninLondon

To be fair I'm very impressed by this signing, especially on a free. Still p*ssed off about our collapse at City but this is some good news at least.

It just shows this team is mentally weak as p*ss and has been for too long. The manager doesn't help by making wrong subs (Ashley Young wtf, taking off Coutinho and Buendia) and deciding to allow City to take over even though we were 2-0 up and should have been getting the ball high up the pitch and winning fouls. Getting pinned back in your own half clearly isn't going to work and it was only a matter of time, although that capitulation even for us was something else. In games where we score first but the opposition then gets back into the game, it's almost like we just give up, it's pathetic. Against Wolves, City, Liverpool, Brentford and could even say the collapse against Leeds at home (even though they scored the first goal) we completely messed up. We're the gift that keeps on giving.

Plucky losers again. Same sh*t different day. Effing fed up with it to be honest. Only we could be cruising at 2-0 and then concede 3 goals in 5 minutes. At least the season is now over. Today just encapsulated it, bits of quality but just far too many weak, spineless, bottlers in this team. Let's pray next season will be different and we can finally have a season where we're competing with the big boys again.

Well we're losing. What's the point in bringing Young on, Traore or Sanson would make more sense, but Gerrard's management has cost us this game anyway.

Ashley Young coming on. Great sub Gerrard you clown.

Typical novice manager, goes 2-0 up against a team like these then decides to sit back. Makes rubbish subs again. I mean today was a tough ask but to go 2-0 and let them go 3-2 within 5 minutes is absolutely scandalous and awful management.

How can our defence be so good for 75 mins then concede 2 goals in 3 mins. Ridiculous.

Buendia at fault for that goal, he let Zinchenko run off him far too easily.

Typical Villa. We'll lose this now.

My stream is effing awful, keeps buffering every 2 secs.

What a goal. My stream is behind!

Ref is giving them everything the pr*ck.

Fernandinho is their weak link, it's his final game for them, but we can get more joy there. Stones doesn't look comfortable as a RB either.

VAR once again not doing its job, Fernandinho clearly fouled Watkins and could easily have been off. I just do not see the point in VAR, absolute waste of space.

CASHY!!!

I think there was more to our downfall than that but it certainly didn't help. We were a much bigger club than City pre-2008/09 and they and PSG are the reason football is now more corrupt than ever and why football is in a huge bubble. Why anyone would back them over Liverpool I've no idea, Plop are annoying but were always bigger than us and their success seems a lot more transparent than City's.

No Martinez then, FFS. Hopefully Olsen plays a worldie like he did against Spain in the Euros.

You'd hope that's not true as it would seem a bit odd resting him when we only have one more game to go. Olsen against Burnley would have probably been fine but not against City. He posted this 3 hours ago so it hopefully just smoke and mirrors: https://twitter.com/emimartinezz1/status/1528313383291953153

According to this article in the Telegraph, 8th was the aim this season: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/05/22/inside-aston-villas-transfer-war-room-steven-gerrard-prepares/ ("This campaign overall will be viewed as a disappointment, as the pre-season target was to try and finish eighth. Villa will go into this weekend’s game at Manchester City 14th in the table.") Whether 8th was the aim before or after Grealish left, I've no idea, but we've fallen well short of that. Next season, for those saying 12th will be acceptable, it really won't. For me, anything below 9th will not be good enough and the aim must be 7th or above. We absolutely must be targeting to finish above Palace, Brentford, Brighton and Wolves who I suspect will not be spending much this summer. I've no idea what direction Leicester are going in but they are a realistic side to catch next season too. After that it becomes more tricky but we should be looking to be in and around where West Ham and Newcastle are who will both probably be competing for 7th (depending on the signings Newcastle make but they will no doubt spend big). Our biggest weaknesses are at CB and CM (both bottom half PL standard I'm afraid to say) so these are the two areas that need the most attention. I think we have top 6 players in Martinez, Digne, Coutinho and maybe Buendia (if he can find more consistency). Bailey could be if he finds his Leverkusen form but that's a very big if given the system we play. I actually think both Watkins and Ings are top half PL standard so not sure we absolutely need a striker, although I think we could improve on both of them with the right scouting. So for me I think we need to go all out for at least one quality CB, one quality DM and one quality CM. A quality ST if there is enough money to spend and if we can get good money for either Ings or Watkins (Ings would be my preference to be sold given his age). If we get these players in, then 6th/7th next season must be the goal.

Other than their great song Blue Moon and KDB (who is not only an exceptional footballer but a really nice guy), I pretty much hate everything about City. From getting lucky in 2008 after being God awful for the best part of 30-40 years, to having corrupt, morally bankrupt owners with a terrible human rights record that they turn a blind eye to, to their annoying manager complaining all the time that City don't get enough love in the media. Then there is Grealish, a player they signed for 100m just because they could, only serving to weaken us and not actually do anything for them (they would be exactly where they are in the table with or without him). It's not inaccurate to say that they have ruined football, although they are of course in complete denial about that. My lack of respect for City is such that I would rather see Liverpool win the quadruple than they win the PL, however nauseating that might be. At least Liverpool are a traditional big club. It would be nice to deny them the title but it seems very unlikely. Hopefully we can at least end the season with a respectable scoreline and not let them run away with it, we seem to be able to raise our game against Liverpool so I don't see why we can't do it against City.

So thinking we should be finishing in the top 10 at least once means we need to ‘temper our expectations’? I really don’t get this. We have a massive waiting list and plans to increase the stadium to 50,000+. Huge investment over the last few seasons. High profile signings and some super talented young players coming through. The league is undoubtedly stronger than it was but our expectations are remarkably low rather than high as you are implying. Leicester, West Ham and Wolves have all done an awful lot more with their investment and are all smaller clubs than us. I’m not saying we should be regular top 4 or even top 6, but achieving at the minimum what those teams have done should be a reasonable expectation. The give it time argument is an excuse for me given the level of investment, Leicester and Wolves both built strong teams after promotion and have sustained it while losing key players from their first team. Maybe some of our fan base has just accepted mediocrity, I don’t know.

We will almost certainly finish 14th and that is nowhere near good enough. There have been very few highs, but I guess beating Man U away and signing Digne and Coutinho were the two positive highlights, but we didn't kick on after either of them. There have been many lows, beaten 4-0 at home to Spurs, throwing away a 2-goal lead to Leeds, losing 13 out of 15 games against the top 8, internationals screwing us over, new signings not delivering consistently or being constantly injured in Bailey's case, Grealish going a few days before the season started, but losing twice to an awful Watford team probably tops the lot. I've said it and I'll say it again, a club this size should not have gone 11 seasons and counting finishing outside the top 10. Think of all the other clubs that have finished top 10 in that time, the likes of Palace, Burnley, Sheffield United, Wolves, West Brom, Leeds, Stoke, even bloody Swansea have done it not just once but twice. Honestly guys it's embarrassing. We've got fantastic owners and a squad full of internationals, this is nothing like the lerner years, and every single fan should be very disappointed with this season. At the very least we need to be finishing in the top half next season and it's about time we really got ourselves back in European contention. There should be no excuses any more with the investment the owners have put in and the players we are attracting to the club. Gerrard will be backed financially, it's up to him to get us up that table next season because so far progress has been minimal under him.

Eh? I'm talking about Gerrard's record against the top 8 since November.

To go from 16th when he took on the job to 14th when the season finishes is really very little progress and you wonder whether the owners will keep faith in him if we don't start next season really well. So many dropped points this season to poor or average teams, especially at home - Watford, Brentford, Palace, Burnley, Leeds. Gerrard was in charge for most of them. We dropped points to weaker teams under Smith last season too but at least we beat a lot of the better sides. Gerrard has taken a solitary point from the top 8 this season, in fact his record against the top 8 is: Played 9, Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 8. So his form against teams at both ends of the table doesn't read well. He really hasn't done a good job at all and is very lucky that he is now going to be backed financially in the summer given how mediocre results have been under him.

Another poor result against a poor team. Another match day of disappointment at home where we’ve a poxy six games all season. Signing off with a thrashing from city on Sunday. What a terrible season.