VillaJay

Just in a bad run of form at the moment, he's played a lot of football this season and on the whole been very good, his form over the last few months has coincided with Kamara being out and our own performances as a team have been inconsistent in comparison to earlier in the season.

Very exciting talent and really been a bonus this season, tired in the second half and really should have been subbed off at the 60th minute for Tim.

4 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

It is a very strong position, but would be better if Spurs didn’t have 6 games remaining.

However, they have a got a pretty bad run-in with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City to play. Being Spurs though they could win them all or lose them all.

It's out of our hands to a degree, but we can only play our own games and it's up to them now to try and catch and beat a 7 point lead with a very tough schedule including the top 3 and a team that played us off the park tonight away from home.

I'm not a betting man, but I'd still rather have our points on the board, even if it's not in our hands.

We're a worse team with him in it, but not his fault, Emi is the best goalkeeper in the world and to be honest he did not too much wrong today, Diego Carlos was totally at fault and Olsen's positioning wasn't too bad as he would have been expected to sweep in that high line so was where he'd be expected to be.

Naturally though, we look more shaky without Emi in the team as he brings so much confidence at the back.

6 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

From the sublime against Arsenal to being woeful when he came on today. 

Needs to show more consistency.

This is the reason for me why he should be sold, if we we can get a decent fee, he's too clumsy despite his qualities and not reliable enough.

Truth be told i've never been convinced by him and should never be more than 4th choice. If we can sign or ideally bring through a younger alternative, the wages would be better used elsewhere.

Football isn't linear, the points against Brentford and Arsenal could have come in either way but overall we got a win and draw that we would have taken the other way round and turned disappointment into a positive.

2 weeks ago, we were discussing that we could potentially be 6 points ahead of Spurs before they play again as a great potential position to be in. Tonight we're 7 points ahead, I'm disappointed with dropping a 2 goal lead at home, but again in the overall picture it's a great point.

7 points ahead in a champions league place with 3 to go is a very strong position.

Shocker of a second half but still a very important point. Madueke is a horrible little f*cker

Just now, thabucks said:

If you’d said we would get 7 points from Bournemouth Arsenal and Chelsea games you’d have taken it … 

Still time to get 9

10 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

 

The letter spacing / tracking on the Villa word vs Aston is very very poor, I can't unsee it and looks very amateur hour.

1 minute ago, useless said:

Chelsea were never as good as the hype after their win over Everton suggested, but also they're not as bad as their defeat to Arsenal suggests.

All we need to know is that on their day they can be decent, and as such we need to be wary, less talented teams than them have taken points of us

If we're not at our best they're more than capable of beating us, but if we play as well as we can do then we will have an excellent chance

Agreed, they beat us well in the FA Cup and are a decent side despite all the noise, but we have a TEAM and a talented one at that, no easy games in this league, but for what feels like the first time in decades we will be going up vs Chelsea as the favourites and stronger team.

19 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Even trickier thought… how does Kamara fit into all of this?! Recent performances and progress makes me think we actually only need one of Luiz or Kamara…. 

We need both and possibly more, it's a squad game and very few of the starting 11 should be guaranteed to start every game. Unai has rotated the team quite well and I could imagine McGinn, Tielemans, Luiz, Kamara and another easily playing 30/35+ games in all comps.

The days of a starting 11 are gone of we're to compete in as many competitions as we want to.

Involved in all our goals and setup Pau in the first half for a decent opportunity.

Played well today.

Top class performance 19g 12a in the league alone, all round striker and some of his hold up play and technique today was brilliant.

He's not been brilliant and his form overall had been quite poor but he has been contributed fairly significantly this season with goals and assists. He's also been unlucky that a couple of his goals/assists ended up as og's and he's setup a number of good opportunities that should have been assists too.

Bailey was the same last season, his overall play wasn't great but he was involved in a lot of goals either through goals, assists or in the build up to the goals.

There's definitely a player in there and he can strike a ball well.

Still time, performance has been very poor, we just need to grind it out and grab a goal.

The co-efficient is the only reason I had any interest in CL, until we get there next season.

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

End of day everything is in our hands. If we dont get 4th or win Conference its our fault. Not Dortmund,Legia Warsaw, Qarabag or Arsenal

Time to take personal responsibility as Unai would say

Definitely, would prefer if we're the only english team left in Europe and all focus on us to win it. 4th is in our hands, win the next 2 and we're nearly there.

He played quite a bit during our good early season form, he has great physicality, a brilliant touch and technique and he has something about him that if it's harnessed correctly he could genuinely be a top level player.

A frustrating player at times, but has that Gareth Bale like build and still quite young and new to the PL.

I'm still undecided if I'd buy him but if he can show some consistency and contribute some goals/assists to the end of the season he would be worth the punt.

His best game for us vs Arsenal, it can't be underestimated how instrumental he was to us controlling that second half, it was a truly world class performance and we wouldn't have won that game without him dictating that game.

I'm not sure I've seen an as assured performance from a villa midfielder vs that quality of opposition.

Absolutely brilliant.

He's been very good this season, showing why he's played for Barca and has 40+ french caps.

Moreno coming in on the left side of the midfield for Zaniolo also added some solidity and got Moreno further up the pitch where his strengths are better utilised.

The constant work he's put into improving his game is really showing and he's moved up a level again this season.

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

We spent £21.1m on agents last season.

What was our matchday revenue again?

 

Interesting listening to JJ Watt on the overlap that the thing that surprised him most about football vs NFL was the agents fees and it's like the wild wild West vs NFL.

Agents had a big anti competitive legal win in the summer led by the same legal team taking on FFP, technically they shouldn't be capped but they are definitely feeding off the huge amounts of money available in the PL and holding so much power on where a player moves.

Money has ruined football, and agents are a by-product of that. The horse has bolted.

1 hour ago, GlobalVillan said:

I really think we need to match Spurs' result this weekend. If they win and we lose then I think we are done in the race for 4th, given they will be 3 points ahead with a game in hand and a far better goal difference.

Added to that Burnley and Sheffield United are their last 2 games whilst ours a Liverpool and Palace, I dont think we would be able to make up the ground required during their difficult run of games.

Huge weekend ahead.

Realistically to keep us in a shout with 4th place, Newcastle need to win this weekend, if Spurs win, they most likely will get 9 points minimum bringing them to 69 and a better goal difference. 

I can see us getting another 6-7 points, if we were to beat Arsenal I could see us getting 9-10 points and even then that might not be enough for 4th if Spurs win this weekend.

5th and qualifying via co-efficient seems to me the most likely scenario for us to get CL football and in truth that would be preferable if it meant we win the conference league too.