villaglint

Yep another shocker for Alan - he's been better of late but if I was him I would be very worried about my place with the emergence of Lichaj

Great finish - put everything into the game - as with a few others was so knackered towards the end that he failed to make the most of his other big chance. But that will come with more first team football.

Hoping, hoping he could be a great find for us.

Yep agree with all of that - Collins has been outstanding since Dunne has been injured. Not sure why but it seems to be the case

Fingers crossed he can really work on that step over to give him an option of going down the left.

As other have said it doesn't matter if you cut back in - just cant do it every single time. Defender needs to be kept guessing at least a bit. I think its partly been symptomatic of his fragile confidence - just wanting to get any kind of cross in rather than work a decent position first.

Was pleased to see Marc do well when he came on.

I've not been his biggest fan recently but happy to see him prove me wrong in this game. Ivanovic is exactly the type of defender he usually struggles against and he even brought out a new trick and a left foot cross of all things for his assist.

Maybe there is a player in there. Just think its going to take time for us to get best out of him and we would be playing a very dangerous game if we are going to rely on him to supply goals for us in mean time.

He's better as an impact player off the bench imo

This

A few times he has looked better coming on as a different option rather than starting.

Why was he dropped after he was one of our best if not the best player v Arsenal? I can't fathom that one out. Crap manager is crap.

Because he wasn't - as said before he got involved a lot but his quality let him down every time.

Was pleased to see he was able to bring his form from reserves to big league.

He has been playing really well for some time now and just needed his chance.

For my money - he came in and did well and so has retention of the shirt. Surely that's how a squad is supposed to work.

Otherwise how demotivating is it for the squad players if whatever they do they know they cant keep their place.

Not as if Hutton has been pulling up trees for us anyway. If you ask me Lichaj did more in that game than Hutton has done in any this season

Tragic news

Puts our season into perspective I think

One thing I'll say is that the man is a hell of a fighter which will stand him in good sted

I think they were relying on big things from Delph this year.

How else can you justify the lack of depth in CM this year?

However it has not gone well for Fabian and as lots have suggested the jury is very much out on whether it ever will.

For my part I had high hopes for him when he signed now with injuries and poor form my hopes are rapidly diminishing.

My view is that if he makes it now it will be a big bonus because I don't have the expectations I once did.

a lot of money for that scoring record

Paying for potential, innit. He did quite well on loan at Tom Tomsk, has recently made the step up from the Russia U-21's to the full national side and he's not really spearheading the attack anyway. Spartak either use him just off Welliton's shoulder or as an attacking midfielder behind a front three of Ari, Welliton and Emenike.

A target man who plays as an attacking midfielder ?

Sounds an odd blend

Ok happy to agree to disagree - not a big issue.

Also happy to agree that Hutton and Given are also at fault. But in my eyes it ends up with Stan being the only man who can put in a challenge on Gibbs and he is left flat footed.

His effort at trying to stop the shot is disappointing to me and was symptomatic of the rest of his performance.

Stan probably has more heart than the rest of them combined which is why it concerns me to see him playing like that.

Actually it concerns me to see any Villa player playing like that. And I'm not trying to make a scapegoat of him either - most of the team were all over the place - this is just one chance that led to a goal but their running off the ball had our entire midfield and defence in ribbons.

Nobody seems to have mentioned Petrov's performance on Saturday.

Let me start by saying that broadly this season he has been one of our better players (admittedly not sayin much). He is experience is essential to our midfield and we miss him when he's not there.

However his performance was really really bad on Sat. On at least 5 occasions I say him walking back towards our goal as the Arsenal midfield streamed past him. He was also walking when Gibbs got in for the first goal.

For a centre mid that is inexcusable -

Now Father Abraham said he saw him limping heavily after the game which would explain the performance but the fact is if he was injured what the **** was he doing on the pitch.

These are my thoughts as well. He should win player of the season, just for his general consistency (always around the 7/10 mark).

Saturday was possibly the first time I have seen him put in a really bad shift (which if mentioned above he was injured then understandable).

Was so surprised to see Herd come off from holding midfield and Gardner put into that role. In my eyes it would have been better leaving Herd on, Gardner as the advanced midfielder and Petrov to go off. It even looked as if Petrov thought it would be him going off. Started to move towards the dugout when the board was produced, only to then see Herd's number appear.

Hutton was the man marking Gibbs, he then lost Gibbs and Gibbs ran into our box and scored. Given should have saved it, but Gibbs was being tracked by Hutton and then he let him go. So Petrov gets a pass on that particular gripe although I though he was poor in the game.

Nope sorry - watch it again and look at the effort Stan puts in to stop Gibbs getting his shot in - non existent. He did that quite a few times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdJNRxiYHKs

As I said overall I am a Stan fan.

However it makes me angry that he has been allowed to play this shit. If he was injured then I feel sorry for him. But does that mean that Eck would rather play a clearly injured player than have two kids in centre of park? Surely this is taking the austerity too far?

So he went with Emile after all - not sure it was Ecks proudest moment.

Anyway thought Weimann looked good again when he came on - deserves a start and a run of games before Bent comes back.

Nobody seems to have mentioned Petrov's performance on Saturday.

Let me start by saying that broadly this season he has been one of our better players (admittedly not sayin much). He is experience is essential to our midfield and we miss him when he's not there.

However his performance was really really bad on Sat. On at least 5 occasions I say him walking back towards our goal as the Arsenal midfield streamed past him. He was also walking when Gibbs got in for the first goal.

For a centre mid that is inexcusable -

Now Father Abraham said he saw him limping heavily after the game which would explain the performance but the fact is if he was injured what the **** was he doing on the pitch.

The arsenal game was the very essence of where Marc is right now.

As others have said at least he got himself involved whereas Gabby was largely anonymous.

We works really hard and gets himself into good situation which is why some have said he was our only threat and in some ways they are right to do so.

Problem is though his quality when he gets himself into good situations is really not there. He looks like a kid who is playing above his standard.

I think he is useful cover but if he's our starter we are in a world of trouble.

Part of the reason we cant string five passes together is that we have Marc and Gabby on wing who are both headless chickens neither has the game intelligence to know when to attack the defender and when to keep ball.

I have tried and tried to not immediately slag Eck off but it is really difficult to do.

My biggest gripe amongst many is that he seems to think we are incapable of getting a result against about half the teams in the league. Then we are in such bad form with so much pressure on getting results in the other games sometimes/often it doesn't happen.

Eck for me is a bit like the signing of Heskey - you know it aint going to turn out well but you just have to sit and watch the fat arse for the remainder of his contract. Maybe Utd will take him as Sir Alex's successor after all he is the obvious choice.

Our squad club is in a broadly equivalent situation to Everton but do you think they ever go into a game against the big boys thinking they cant get a result. Obviously Moyes is a much better manager but you dont have to be Mourinho to at least get your team to have a go.

Money or not this is embarrassing

I'll go for the following team - assuming Zog and Hutton are injured.

-----Given------

Lichaj Collins Cuellar Warnock

----Herd-----Petrov

Albrighton --SI-----Gabby

--------Weimann----------

I hate to be negative when it comes to looking forward to a footy match so I'm going for a mighty Villa win of 1-0 with a 70th minute headed winner from the Weimann. And then to everyone;s surprise (including Arsenals) we manage to defend well to the final whistle.

Well if NZogbia is out then surely Gabby must go wide and the Weimann will get his chance.

Or does Eck start Emile and risk chants of "you don't know what your doing" from 1st whistle!

Why does Gabby have to go wide ? cant we play with 2 strikers for crying out loud.

Yeah I did think about that.

However Arsenal will certainly play 4-3-3 so we will be out gunned in centre of park if we go 4-4-2. Its likely we will struggle to keep possession as it is so I dont see a benefit in making it more difficult.

Also 4-4-2 would mean playing Ireland on wing - again not sure this will be beneficial.

Well if NZogbia is out then surely Gabby must go wide and the Weimann will get his chance.

Or does Eck start Emile and risk chants of "you don't know what your doing" from 1st whistle!

Shame - sounds like the kid is doing all he can to through away the glimmer of a chance he has.

For me he's got great ability but so do 1000's of kids - still a million miles away from being a proper player.

Cant blame him because god knows I was doing the same at his age.

But if you want to be a really top player you have to make sacrifices and be truly focused on what is a short career

Sounds like Baz might not be up for that.

Was wondering when this thread would perk your interest Gazton -

Obvious question I suppose -- Do you know anything of this supposed "done deal" to play in the Soccer Leagues ?

-------------Given-------------

Cafu Cuellar Collins Warnock

---------Herd Petrov----------

---Gabby---Ireland----Nzog

-----------Weimann----------

This

Except Zog and Gabby on opposite wings - both are happier/more dangerous cutting in.

Also if Petrov had so much as a long toe nail I would put Gardner in. Petrov in no way deserves to be dropped but we are safe now so the more game time we can get into the kids who make up our future 1st team the better.

-------------Given-------------

Cafu Cuellar Collins Warnock

---------Herd Petrov----------

---Gabby---Ireland----Nzog

-----------Weimann----------

This

Except Zog and Gabby on opposite wings - both are happier/more dangerous cutting in.

Also if Petrov had so much as a long toe nail I would put Gardner in. Petrov in no way deserves to be dropped but we are safe now so the more game time we can get into the kids who make up our future 1st team the better.