Leeroy

Absolute bottle jobs Arsenal are, can't rely on them for anything. At their best they would beat Brighton but no, can't be arsed to turn up but if they were playing us of course they would. Genuinely thought Brighton would get a point at most out of Arsenal, Newcastle and City, pretty much f*cks us if they win this.

He'd be a good squad player but no way he starts over Luiz or Kamara who are superior. Maybe he'd be getting in higher up the pitch but we're being linked with far better so are clearly aiming higher than Ward Prowse. If he was available for £20m he'd be a decent bench option.

Guy takes some stick on here and other forums but he showed yesterday there is a PL player in there and why I don't think it's a bad idea to keep him around next season even as a squad player. If he can find some consistency he can fight for a first team place, but it's been a frustrating year watching him because I really felt he might tear up the league this season and sadly he hasn't.

Another excellent performance again yesterday. The way he spins and turns away from players is so good to watch. I do think we'll add some real quality in midfield over the summer so he isn't going to start as much next season, but he's such a vital part of this squad.

I hope he wins the player of the season because he's a class act and has now started adding goals and assists to his game. If we bring in a new holding midfielder like Ugarte or Palhinha then Dougie definitely stays in the team but plays higher up. Only thing he did wrong was lose the ball to let Harry Kane in, which he should have scored and if that goes in might be a different game. Juts needs to be a bit careful at times.

First half played them off the park and should have been out of sight, all they contributed to the first half was hopeful balls over the top to try to catch out our high line and getting caught offside every time. Second half they pushed higher up the pitch starting to play football and were possibly the better side for about 15 mins and more likely to score before we got our second goal, but Kane clearly dived to get his penalty the cheat and he's got a track record of doing that. I still feel Martinez didn't need to go out to the ball though as Kane was going nowhere. It would have been nice to put a few past these like Newcastle did as they've done it to us several times over the years, but at least we've done the double over them and beaten them at home which was well overdue. Never really understood their status as a media darling club other than the fact they play in London, to be honest they're probably the London version of us but I'd still class us as a bigger club traditionally than them (pre the Sky 6 rubbish) so hopefully we'll start to see us eclipse them over the next few seasons which we should do under Emery and the current owners. May not be this season but we're in much hands than they are. Brighton have a tough run in, I'd be surprised if they beat any of Arsenal, Newcastle and Man City (two of them away) and could feasibly see three losses there, so if they beat Southampton as expected then we'd only be one point behind them in the final game even if we lose to Liverpool. Spurs have an easier run in but Brentford are no mugs and Leeds will be fighting for their lives to beat them. Think this one goes to the wire.

Thought he actually played well yesterday, was unlucky not to score after hitting the bar and the left foot shot was well saved. Didn't lose the ball much and involved in good moments of play. Still feel the same as before though, upgrade needed in summer with Buendia more a squad player next season.

Yep, Man Utd was 27 years without a home win and Unai broke that one in his first game. Its a bit strange that we've beaten Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs at home more recently than we have Tottenham.

It's an absolutely embarrassing record tbh, even Unai alluded to it today. We haven't beaten them at home since NYD 2008, over 15 years ago, a home win is well, well, well overdue. Our away record at Spurs is actually reasonable, since 2015 we've won there three times and lost three times, but for whatever reason we cannot seem to beat them at home. Part of the reason for that I'm sure is how sh*t we've been over the years and now that we are finally competing again near the top end of the league I'd expect sh*tty records like this to start to change, hopefully that starts on Saturday. We certainly need to improve from the last couple of games.

Cash should hopefully be back for this so would bring him in, Young has been a great professional filling in but don't think I'd start him for the rest of the season, his legs are showing his age now. Kamara will hopefully be ready to start and I'd be tempted to drop Ramsey for Bailey or Coutinho just to try something different following two defeats. Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Moreno Kamara Luiz SJM Buendia Bailey Watkins

That was the point I was making but the guy clearly didn't bother to read my post.

Mcginn has been good under Emery, but we can't ignore that he has just one goal this season and only a couple of assists. That isn't good enough for a player playing in an advanced midfield role. I like mcginn but I think his role now must only be as an impact sub. Don't think we should sell but we need to upgrade that area of the pitch and that would see his minutes drastically reduced next season. Maybe sell in summer 2024 though. Ramsey is young and will get better but he's starting too many games, next season he needs more competition which will hopefully get more consistency out of him. Buendia is another one, he is our record transfer but what is he really offering except work rate? Very rarely does he open up a defence and he has scored just 9 goals in two seasons for us. Again I probably wouldn't sell this summer but next season he shouldn't be more than an impact sub in the league. We need to bring in a significant upgrade this summer. Likewise for Bailey, everyone says sell, maybe we should, but I wouldn't be opposed to him being an impact sub next season either. But definitely shouldn't be starting. Watkins I'm 50-50 about, maybe give him another season as main striker, but these periods without scoring are a concern. Konsa needs more competition too and we need a right back. Young is a great professional, but do we want to rely on a 38 year old in defence again next season? No in my view, but definitely give him a coaching role. If we can sell Digne we need another left back too and while Moreno has looked good for the most part (except the last couple of games where he's been poor) he'll be 30 next season so we won't get more than a couple if seasons out of him. Traore, Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen and all the players on loan (Sanson, Nakamba, Davis, Hause, Wesley etc) need to be sold IMO, none of them have a future at Villa. I'd almost consider with a couple of them, if we can't sell, just release them like we did with Guilbert but that's down to the owners. The young players on loan (Archer, Ramsey, Iroegbunam etc) maybe go on loan again or are integrated. Buy: Young backup goalkeeper (eg James Trafford, Bazunu) Right back (eg Foyth, Dumfries, Geertruida) Right sided centre back (eg Christensen, Timber) Attacking left back (eg Truffert, Tierney) Central midfielder (eg Guendouzi, Kokcu, Lo Celso) Creative attacking mid (eg Goncalves, Maddison) Pacey winger (Williams, Torres) That's seven new players without buying a new striker so shows the amount of work we have to do this summer if we want to break into the top 4/6 positions. Might well have to do it over two summers (2023 and 2024) as would be very expensive to do it in one summer alone.

If we end the season with five straight losses that for me is plainly unacceptable. I don't think we will finish in the top 7 now but want to see at least a good end to the season, we'll probably lose at Liverpool but let's get at least a point in the home games if not all three. If the players can't do that to end the season on a positive then quite frankly I don't care if we replace 8-9 players in the first 11 next season because we want winners not players who down tools. Spurs and Brighton are both winnable games at home.

That would be an ideal summer and see us improve greatly, but sadly villa rarely tend to do great summers and always feels we fall short. Let's hope this one with the new DOF coming in things are different and we really go for it. Those sort of options next season would have us challenging.

Tbh it's probably a blessing in disguise not getting into Europe, we need a serious summer of upgrading many of these players. I particularly want to see our midfielder upgraded because Buendia, Ramsey and McGinn are not good enough to have us competing with the very best. I'd even say wolves have a better midfield than us which is not good Hopefully we have enough to bring in some proper competition for Watkins and Konsa too.

Very funny. We were never coming back against defensive wolves after going 1-0 down. Needed to score first but failed and we haven't turned up again in an important game. Spurs game next week is pretty much irrelevant now.

Nearly full time now. Going to score are we?

Spurs winning, we're losing. Game over.

Reading the Barca forum, they seem to think Torres would perform really well under Unai and say he's a good player but not at the level for a team winning league titles. Seem to think he might be an option on loan for us and then a deal at the end of next season for around 30m, certainly would be a good option. Feels unlikely but may happen with this new Barcelona DOF coming in. Christensen is very highly rated on there, probably their best performing defender all season, and they prefer him to Kounde and Araujo. So clearly would be a big upgrade on Konsa (as good as he's been under Emery) but would cost at least 50m by the sounds of it so not cheap. Although as Barcelona need to offload players it might be cheaper.

As were Newcastle in the Championship 6 years ago, and bottom of the league 18 months ago, but things can change very quickly in football. It is probably a bit early to attract these types of players, but at least we're finally acting like a big club and going for top players, we should have been doing that under Doug or in the early years of Lerner. I remember Spurs before they consistently broke in the top four regularly being linked with players who seemed out of their league, I suppose it is about the vision of attracting these elite players and what we have to do in future to get them here.

This weekend is key. We have to beat Wolves and expect Tottenham will beat Palace, and if they drop points it's a bonus. We need to be at least level on points with them when they visit us next weekend, because then a win puts us three points ahead of them with two games to go. I would imagine 6th is probably out of reach now with Man Utd's sheer incompetence of letting Brighton beat them twice this season while it's been nearly 70 years since we've been able to do that, but hey ho. 7th is still up for grabs, although if we finish 8th it's definitely not the end of the world.

Vlahovic and Torres do seem a little out of reach at this moment, although their stock is not as high as a year or two ago. Vlahovic's Juventus stint so far hasn't been hugely successful and as a goalscorer over the last 18 months he hasn't been any better than Ollie, but his all-round game is better and technically he's a level above. I imagine if we want a striker it would be the next level down so someone like Openda or Jonathan David. I think a second striker/winger, attacking midfielder, central midfielder and right back are all positions we need to strengthen before upgrading Ollie though, and I'd probably upgrade Konsa before that happens too. I'm not really sure why there are so many that like to say this or that player would never come here. We've been rubbish for over a decade but I think this season shows the next few years we are going to compete. Of course we have to show that consistency but we are not a joke team like we were a few years ago, we're a very serious club that wants to compete with the very best. I think we might need a top 4 finish to convince players like Vlahovic to come, but I'm guessing even if we finished top 4 they'd still be some people on here saying this or that player wouldn't come. Instead of speculating maybe it's better to wait and see what the club can do, I have a feeling we might sign 2-3 players this summer that we didn't think we'd have a hope in hell of signing.

Yeah from what I gather Kokcu is a bit like Gundogan, could play in a double pivot or slightly further forward. Very impressive player from the clips I have seen, very comfortable in possession and doesn't panic or dally on the ball like Buendia or Ramsey when pressed by the opposition. I'd potentially add two midfielders (one like Kokcu and then a playmaker to replace Buendia), a pacey second striker/winger to replace Bailey, a RB to replace Young/Cash. and another CB to compete with Konsa who has been brilliant under Emery but is always playing when Chambers is the only alternative. We need a backup GK to replace Olsen too and maybe another striker as Ollie competition.

Kokcu would be a very welcome signing, an all round midfielder who is already showing world class ability and captains Feyenoord at the age of 22 who are on the verge of winning their first title in 6 years. The only issue is the league is pretty weak and a lot of players signed from the Dutch league have flopped in the Prem before - but I have a feeling Kokcu would be a sensational signing if we could get him.

Must win. If we don't win this against the weakest of our final four opponents then Europe is over. It's a cup final and f*ck them if it's their cup final too, it's more important we win than they do. We need injured players back but we also need players to perform much better, Buendia, Ramsey most notably and Ollie needs to start scoring again because it's now three games firing a blank. If we could get at least 2 of our 4 missing players back for this it would help an awful lot. I rate their manager but they are genuinely sh*t, losing 6-0 to Brighton who had their three best players on the bench is an absolute disgrace and of course didn't help us. They literally gifted most of the goals to them, they should be embarrassed letting Danny Welbeck get a brace. Of course they'll play out of their skins against us the horrible b*stards, but we just need to beat them whether it's a flukey 1-0 or a hammering. Why oh why we never beat these I don't know, only one win since promotion, and that was a last minute penalty, they are better at home than away but they aren't the team they were three years ago and it's about time we beat them again and preferably comfortably. Draw or lose and we finish 8th IMO.