FLVillan

2 hours ago, Risso said:

Winning a penalty should never be counted as an assist in a million years.

And yet if Ramsey hadn't kicked the bottom of his foot, he's got a yard or two of space to shoot and potentially score, or pass.  So winning that penalty led directly to a goal-scoring opportunity. 

3 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

They’re lucky QPR and Wednesday are so shit 

History tells us one of those teams at the bottom will have a surge of form at some stage and claw their way out.  Small Heath are only two places above relegation and the team directly below them only one win behind....

Have to say this guy doesn't come across well at all and the "explanation" for not doing the stand rebuild is beyond pathetic.  Since the later years of the Ellis tenure rebuilding the North Stand has been a point of much-needed discussion.  His history at NYRB and first six months at Villa aside, I am pinning my trust in Wes and Nas to know what they're doing and done their research on him.  They got it right with Unai and Purslow (Gerrard disaster not included), so I shall keep my powder dry until I see the new badge..... 

35 minutes ago, Muller Yogurt Long Sleever said:

Zero point in this but what the hey, it's a slow day. Maybe we could have it for a couple of weeks mid-January

You might be on to something with the two shades of claret there... make everyone happy...   

40 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

West Ham kits over the years have tended to have white trim whereas ours didn't. 

And I see white on that West Ham badge there, we haven't ever had white as a third colour on our badge.

I see what you're saying and that's why I'm not wholly opposed to the "gold" as the third colour, but I just want it to be mostly claret and blue....  Put a gold border on it, or 1874 in gold for example.

Maybe I'm just old (fashioned) but I was never a big fan of the gold lettering, even on the vintage 75-91 round badge which is the best that's been produced in my lifetime.  There was actually a version of it floating around for a very short period of time that had white lettering but that was short-lived (I had a scarf with it on there, that my old man bought from the club shop).  The problem for me with "gold" is that it's not really a true shade of colour and you see so many versions ranging from yellow to beige to orange.  The Lion on the Lerner badge is decidedly yellow, the lettering on the 75-91 is more like orange and the newest "150" marque is closer to beige.... 

(The European Cup star is white...   )

11 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Someone could easily make the argument that us using so much " Sky Blue " makes us look like City etc.

I think we need to move away from this thinking slightly and just be as unique as possible while sticking to our ethos somewhat.

Don't City's kit have Claret and white on the Sky Blue as well? Lol

Man City have, throughout my lifetime had a little claret here and there and that's their prerogative.  Their main two colours are blue and white with claret as a third option (like white is ours, hence why most of our away kits are predominantly white and we wear white shorts at home).  For Villa, in order, claret and blue shirts, white shorts, blue socks.  I just want to see those colours as the dominant ones on our badge.  I'm not against gold (yellow/beige) if the club really think it's needed but definitely not as one of the two main colours (as was done with the Lerner badge and this "150" marque).   We are a club with a unique kit and colour combination that actually is also very aesthetically pleasing and is what we have worn for 100+ years.  I just don't want to see gold, yellow, beige as a dominant colour anywhere.  Lettering, sure, outline, sure, but not as a main colour. The Lion didn't turn gold until Ellis produced those two consecutive hideous striped badges in the 1990s. Ever since that first striped badge emerged we've had FOUR main badges and each has been worse than the previous one.  

I want to look at our badge in isolation and see claret and blue.  Ideally with white as the third colour if needed. 

6 hours ago, burchy said:

Last one now as I'm depressing myself as we're going to have a shield and not a round badge.

Love it.  Best one I've seen so far.  Claret, blue and white with a bit of gold trim.  Kind of like every single kit we've had for well over 100 years.... 

6 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

No white, white screems west ham

So does "gold" (yellow/beige) 

16 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Once he gets up to speed he'll be a menace. This league is relentless. New players have to recalibrate their whole game to adjust, and it's harder for faster players who already did everything at 100 mph. Took Bailey almost 2 years to figure out what he can or can't do against PL defenders and how to do it. It's not easy.

When Diaby first came he was playing on instinct, and it was working for a while, but once he started playing the tougher teams and some of the things he was doing weren't coming off anymore, he probably started to second guess himself and now he's in that all too familiar limbo new foreign players often find themselves in. We need to be patient.

This..... 

The other factor to consider is he was a completely unknown quantity for opponents' scouting, so teams couldn't really prepare for how to contain/stop him.  I believe he will come good....

What seems to (constantly) get lost in all the discussion about our badge, is the fact that our colours are claret and blue.  The 150 marque is predominantly claret and beige.  The Lerner badge was predominantly blue and yellow.  The one thing that I enjoyed about the two options given by Purslow is that both were predominantly claret and blue.  I fully understand the need for a third color and if it has to be "gold" then so be it (even though every single kit we've worn since about 1910 has been claret, blue and white), but gold/beige/yellow should not be one of the two predominant colours on our badge.  

Furthermore, the other two claret and blue premier league clubs have bloody gold on their badge!  Give me the Scunthorpe colour scheme all day!  (not the actual design though - it's awful)

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Probably work in their favour as they’ll have a better goalkeeper playing for them instead

Stevie Wonder?

I thought there was a massive waiting list for season tickets?  So, if true, how can a new stand not be logical?

1 hour ago, YLN said:

I had such faith that Villa would manage the game and Trust Unai etc that I was shocked that it all fell apart. I'm still sort of reeling.

There were moments of concern in playing it out early on where it all went to shit because of the 6 outfield players who work it out, 4 were back up or playing out of position. Only Luis and Digne were where they should be. And then Digne went off so there was only 1 of the first choice in position. 

And that was not likely to hold, despite the lead. I would have been happy with a draw going into the game and we nearly got it. I wonder if we could have abandoned our playing it out early on and try to go long just to not run the gauntlet on those 5 back up players. Maybe easier to say in hindsight. 

Similar feelings.... Just when I had begun to "re-programme" myself to Unai's Villa, we blew it at Old Trafford and all the bad memories came flooding back.... 

I considered the same as you - to going long to bypass the press, but then with Varane and Evans, in particular, being dominant in the air I just couldn't see a way of playing that would have allowed us to get back into any sort of rhythm.  I was hoping we would bring on Duran and Zaniolo a bit earlier to compete for long balls with their centre-backs, and change how we were playing, but to be fair, Utd had so much momentum at that point, the result was inevitable.....

53 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Ramsey was having his shirt pulled before he put his hand on the keeper’s arm. But FFS why did he have to put his hand on his arm?!?!?  

He was being pushed and manhandled by the defender.  Probably just grabbed whatever was there to keep his balance.  That's the frustrating bit with referees, they have no ability to see/analyse the big picture....

34 minutes ago, villan95 said:

If only like 90 other football teams didn't exist they'd have more trophies too!

91

I think the conventional wisdom for an away team in general is to keep things tight, hope to quieten the home crowd and grow into the game, playing in a counter-attacking way.  And that simply is not the way Unai wants us to play.  

Teams now are also setting up to play deep and get men behind the ball against us.  Frustrating for us to watch as we try to break teams down, but imagine being a home supporter and your team has eleven men behind the ball and hoping to nick a goal and build momentum.  Wolves, Bournemouth, Forest and now Brentford all happy to sit deep and defend at home - reminds me of the Lambert days at Villa! 

Unai: "This match is a chance for some players to play."

MOMENTARY PAUSE

Unai: "Not you Calum, please sit back down." 

47 minutes ago, TheMightyVillans said:

Did they really create that much? Saka missed one chance and Odegaard missed 2 chances. Outside of that martinelli's flick over martinez was offside so doesnt count and the nketiah header also looked offside. havertz goal clearly handball so shouldn't have counted. Can't think of much more outside of that.

Our highline worked wonders again although pundits keep saying it should be easy to beat.

To answer your question, no they didn't.  The only two moments when Emi was troubled were the miscommunication with Watkins at the near post from a corner and the disallowed (multiple handball) Havertz goal. 

I was actually very surprised that Emi got Man of the Match on the official site.  He was his usual composed, dominant self, but aside from a fairly routine stop from Odegaard he barely had a save to make.  Come to think of it, maybe the AVFC Official site gave it to him to wind up the gooners...

I love how Ian Wright constantly harps on about our high line.  He'd have been offside 20 times a match if he was playing us today! 

9 hours ago, briny_ear said:

Fair play to Bournemouth! The best of that pack. 

Bournemouth have won 4 out of the last 5, including beating Saudi Arabia FC, ManUre (away), Palace (away) and Sheffield (away).  Our draw at their place looks like a better result every day.... 

11 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

We are a big club with a big history. Us being in this position is not like Leicester at all. Maybe it is a generation thing but I seem to see it differently to some 

I think as the season progresses there are going to be loads of media references to Villa "doing a Leicester" and it will be far more annoying than the year we came up when we were referred to as "doing a Fulham."  

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

1980-81

and 2023/24 

I was there for the first and I'm here for the second. 

I was there for the first and now I'm 5,000 miles away...

12 minutes ago, tommytenjobs said:

Voted emry average. ...looks like im the only one. 

Just so frustrated that we didn't change up the positioning of Luiz and kamara throughout. Havertz and odeguard sat on them both and made it impossible to play out....just couldn't understand why Emry didn't change their starting positions to free them. Equally, no one put on zinchenko to counter in the same way they did to us. He was free all the time and kept playing balls in behind konsa and cash. 

But....we won....so wtf do I know. Clearly and Emery masterplan!! 

That's why we were by-passing midfield in the second half. Emi was taking long kicks.  You can't pull your central midfielders out of central midfield. Odergard and Havertz would have had the freedom of Villa Park!  Regarding Zinchenko, most of his passing isn't good-enough quality, he's hardly a creative force, and Emery would know that, plus his tendency to push inside and high was exactly the reason why we scored.  Martinelli always comes short and Jesus simply doesn't have the pace or guile to beat our high line. When Ramsey came on, he moved McGinn to the right and Zinchenko barely got a kick after that. 

Arteta: "Aston Villa did not have any chances yet we lost 1-0."

Are you THAT stupid/blind/arrogant Lego Head?  If we didn't have any chances then how did we manage to score a goal you numpty. Not to mention the saves by Raya from Digne and Watkins. 

Our goalkeeper made a couple of routine stops and there was one correctly disallowed.  

I am taking a strong disliking to this bloke.  Always excuses, always blaming officials when his team doesn't win. 

1 hour ago, JPJCB said:

They had more chances than us but I don’t think any of them were sitters or wonder saves. Martinez put in a very consistent professional performance but i couldn’t pick out a save that he really shouldn’t have made. Put it another way, we had by far the best chance of the game and we scored it. How many times in years gone by have things been the other way round and the big teams have taken their one big chance while we’ve huffed and puffed?

As for Arteta moaning about the ref, I kept a running tally of his decisions and reckon that, by the letter of the law, both rice and havertz should have been sent off. Rice cynically blocked one of free kicks in the first half which this season has resulted in bookings; then he got a deserved yellow for pulling a player’s shirt. Havertz pulled back a players shirt in the first half and then tackled Martinez late in the game while he had both hands on the ball. Bizarrely he got no booking for either. Meanwhile Luiz got booked for something as innocuous as kicking the ball away and saka gets nothing for doing the same thing two mins later. And yet artetta’s complaining about a goal disallowed for a genuine handball?! 

And if you get the chance, watch the Palace-Dippers highlights and look at what Ayew got his two yellows for.... 

The Year....?.....

We had a goalkeeper who was superb, imperious almost, yet had been rejected by Arsenal.

We had a pair of full-backs who were solid defensively and adventurous going forward, full of energy.

Our Number 6 was a combination of all things that you want from a central midfield player.  Good on the ball.  Covered ground.  Got forward. Never flustered.  Led by example.

We had a Scottish Number 7 who epitomized the energy of the team, never stopped running, and could play multiple positions.

We had a winger who played on his weak foot, would scare the daylights out of defenders and contribute goals.

Our centre forward was underrated, yet scored plenty of goals and contributed in a multitude of ways to our attacking play.

Our centre-back pairing was a combination of guile and muscle.

And we had a manager who was intense and demanding, and never made excuses.