MadridVilla

Believe it's Chukwuemeka, imagine that on the back of your shirt. Just as well Villa don't charge for each letter

Looks like the Ramsey brothers and Philogene-Bidacre are out then. I don't follow the U23s very closely but I'm sure I won't be alone in saying I've only heard of half of the squad, let alone seen them play

Have they really flown from Liverpool to Birmingham and driven down their empty team bus to Birmingham to pick them up from the airport? Presumably nobody thought of, you know, taking the team by coach in the first place?

And literally nobody would care either. Nobody will care if they win 10-0 and if anything it's embarrassing for the FA for allowing such a farcical game to go ahead. If it helps them sleep at night to get 'revenge' for circumstances in completely beyond our control then that's their prerogative. Remember when we beat their academy team and we spent the majority of the post-match interviews praising them and how well they did, and all they think about is bloody Elmo celebrating with his arms outstretched as if he'd done a double backflip. Weird bunch those lot

It’s a complete farce we have to play our kids but I guess at least it evens it up with Liverpool last year. Just goes to show how easily covid will spread around a squad once it’s present, and other clubs will surely take note of how quickly it has spread around BMH. Not expecting the game to be competitive but it’s still more competitive than forfeiting. Completely understand why it can’t be postponed as well as there’s almost no chance of us playing before the 4th round kicks off and we don’t want that fixture congestion anyway if we can avoid it. What will be interesting is whether we are setting a precedent for the premier league games as well. Will we now be expected to play our kids against Spurs, or will the PL allow us to postpone it like Newcastle/City have done? I’m worried we are shooting ourselves in the foot a bit and that we won’t get the same treatment as other clubs have as a result.

Been waiting all year for this one. I'll get my coat

One thing is for sure, if we're going to mount any push for the top 4 we'll need a stronger squad to do it. The question is who do you bring in and how much do you spend? Are we looking at improving the starting XI or just improving the bench? While I can see a lot of benefits to strengthening I'm not sure we'll see it happen, based on what Smith has suggested in his interviews. But perhaps the covid situation as it stands may encourage them to beef the squad up as we have used the least players all season, so an outbreak would affect us more than any other club.

One thing worth mentioning. How bloody hard did those boys work tonight? Yes they are paid handsomely for it, but we absolutely wanted it so much more than Chelsea tonight. McGinn was the epitome of the fact this team will simply run and run and run all game long for each other. As Deano says be a good teammate, that's precisely what they were tonight, and it's such a pleasure to watch them giving everything for us. Really proud of this team

A lot has been said about our lack of squad depth but look at the situation we are in now. Trezeguet and Barkley who both dropped out due to injury are going to have to earn their place in the starting XI again, because nobody deserves to be dropped to let them back in. Mings is arguably not guaranteed his place back as Konsa and Hause have both been brilliant when they've played this season, and in the midfield Ramsey and Nakamba are both pushing Luiz and McGinn to keep performing. I think the competition for places is higher than we all realised initially and this will really push the team to be performing at their best, I don't think that can be underestimated.

4 consecutive clean sheets is incredible from how poor our defence was last season. The coaching job has been nothing short of miraculous, and Martínez makes a huge difference as well. Konsa is a real Rolls Royce defender, Mings was a bit off the pace and silly to get sent off, Hause is a real hidden gem and is looking an assured defender at this level. Targett is really making huge strides and while he gets a lot of praise going forwards, defensively he is difficult to get past and that is really where he has improved since signing him. Cash had another good game and he has taken to this team like a duck to water. Across the midfield Luiz was brilliant and McGinn looks like he's firing on all cylinders again, Traoré was having his best game before being taken off, and El Ghazi has got his mojo back, what a phenomenal strike his goal was. Grealish is always fantastic but today his passing was just unbelievable, the sorts of through balls you would only see De Bruyne pulling off, the through ball where Watkins hit the post was just magical. Watkins got my vote for MOTM because he fits the system Smith is playing perfectly, he was desperately unlucky not to score but he can be happy that he had a big hand in the victory today. He is definitely overdue a goal now, just has to keep doing what he's doing and it'll arrive.

Managed to find an xPTS table for this season, for all the anoraks out there... Some interesting things to note about Villa: We are 4th on expected points, with 1/2 games in hand on those above us (i.e. we are statistically one of the best teams so far this season) Our attack is 6th in the league based on xG, and our defence is 3rd behind Chelsea and Man City based on xGA. We are 1.65 points under what the xPTS statistic shows we should have, indicating we should have picked up a couple more points already And other interesting tidbits about some other clubs... West Brom are by a long way the worst team in the league on xPTS, even with only 7 points they have overperformed according to xPTS Wolves, United, Leicester, Everton and Southampton are picking up way more points than they deserve for their performances Sheffield Utd have been unlucky not to have picked up more points, but they're still one of the worst teams in the league. I really do think that although xG and its related cousins aren't always helpful, they do cut out a lot of the uncertainty in football to see what teams really deserve. Overall the signs for Villa this season based on their start are extremely positive, currently on track for a top 4 finish and perhaps more with our games in hand. What an exciting time to be a Villa fan!

Glad someone else thought the same. McGinn was just sensational

Would be quite funny to put Barry on the bench just to wind up West Brom, no other reason

Under Bilic they certainly allowed a lot of shots at goal, Johnstone has the most saves of any keeper in the league so far and they've conceded the most of any team as well. As long as we've got our shooting boots on (debatable) we could reasonably score a good number tonight. I know we struggled against Burnley but we certainly didn't lack creativity, and if we put in an identical performance and actually hit the target more often I think your prediction could be reasonable.

Credit to Burnley tonight. ah who am I kidding

I hope we have learnt from the Brighton game that we need to take the game to these sides when we're at home. We were great at it against Wolves, and I think with the same tactics we can win this one also. Yes this is a potential banana skin but Burnley are not as bad as their league position would suggest, perhaps they've been slow starters but they will be tough to beat. I think having Barkley back if he's fit will be absolutely vital, as we will have to get creative to break down a side that is well-organised at the back. Time to show we can win consistently, as it's been up and down for the last 2 months or so. 2-0 for me.

Feel a bit for Wolves there, thought the game was a dead heat in all honesty. Tactically it was nice to see us on the front foot and controlling the game, particularly in the first half. That has let us down in the past few weeks, showing too much respect to the opponents. The improvements we have made at the back with Martinez and Cash made a big difference to withstanding the counter attacks, and I thought Konsa was great once again today. Martinez kept us in the game and was arguably the biggest influence in snatching a win. Luiz was good, McGinn also in patches, and I thought Ramsey showed he has the talent to make a difference in the team. As for Mike Dean it is utterly irresponsible to hand out 9 yellows and 2 reds. The game was far from the bloodbath he thought it was, he gave so many soft yellows and he has to take a lot of the blame for so many cards. He almost ruined the afternoon for both sides and while I think the Luiz second yellow was fair, was there really any need to book Moutinho with 1 minute left for a soft foul? It's reckless refereeing with no common sense in my opinion. Thankfully some luck went our way this afternoon after a couple of unfortunate losses, it all evens out in the end!

Thought we were the better side and deserved to win that game, but that's the fun of football. Say what you like about VAR but it wouldn't have mattered if we could finish our chances, Trezeguet and Watkins both missed golden chances and the number of corners we had... WDFAFC though, of course. I think we have to accept that with a mid table finish looking the most likely outcome you will win some you don't deserve (Leicester springs to mind) and you'll lose some you don't deserve, like tonight. All will be forgiven with a win on Friday night!

Sure our American fans are absolutely delighted

Agreed that Luiz wasn't his usual self but I think he can be forgiven coming back from a busy international break in South America. I think McGinn also was half a yard off the pace and wasn't really able to take hold of the game. That meant one of Mings or Konsa had to come out from the back line to win the ball, which left so much space in behind us that Welbeck had the pace to exploit. I do feel tactically Graham Potter had our number and, while results have been really good against better teams, it seems we only have one way of playing. Obviously a counter attacking style worked wonders against high-pressing teams like Liverpool, but for counter-attacking sides like Brighton it didn't quite suit the game. It's something to learn from again just like the past 2 home games but I don't think it's a cause for concern. Certainly at the stage we are at in our progression to an established PL side again, it is still early days and like you say we are going to get better. I'm sure we will definitely make progress from last year and that is a good step in the right direction, even if we do lose games like yesterday in a disappointing manner.

He's gonna sock it to them

The first goal was a truly wonderful move. Grealish, Barkley just toying with Arsenal, an incisive move from Targett, and Saka forced into an OG from Trezeguet. Liquid football

Dressed in black for Arsenal's funeral

Slightly disappointing result but ultimately it was only what we deserved. It seemed to me that we had pretty much no idea how to beat Southampton, we were aimless and just going through the motions and ended up 4-0 down as a result. While it was nice to have a bit of a fightback, I think it was more a result of Southampton easing off than Villa getting going. I think we lost the game in the tactical battle. Smith's tactics seem to be to allow the opposition to control the ball and remain as compact as possible at the back, while hitting teams on the transition with a quick counter-attack. The problem is that when we have players making individual mistakes it leaves us so exposed and the silly fouls we committed on the edge of the box for both free kicks are points in case. And going forwards, while the players we have are quick, we aren't playing quickly. Much of that is on Jack, as good as he is, he does dither on the edge of the box too much in my opinion. I wish he could be more incisive and burst into the box with the ball because not only does it allow defenders to get organised but they can quickly surround Grealish before he can do anything with the ball. I think there is a lot to learn again from today's game, but there is no need to panic. It's still early in the season and I'm sure Smith, the coaching staff and the data team will be able to see where we need to improve most.

Agree Southampton are a good side but they're hardly lighting the league on fire. I think it'll be a close game between two even sides, whoever is the more clinical will probably edge it. Ings will get a lot of attention but Southampton have quality across the pitch, so it's not quite as simple as keeping Ings quiet. Same goes for Villa, I think even if Southampton do a job on Grealish we still have other quality players like Barkley who can create chances. I'll play it safe and predict a 1-1 draw, a loss would be a missed opportunity against a team who may end up being a rival in the league table.