Ratings and Reactions: Villa 1-2 Arsenal

[StefanAVFC]

The support was a tad embarrassing to be honest on 2 counts.

 

The cheering of KEA was completely unacceptable.

 

And floods of people started leaving with 3/4 minutes to go when we were a goal down and had all the momentum. Then we'd attack and people would just stand in front of the people who didn't have the stupidity to leave.

 

I agree OBE, not our finest hour.

[darrenm]

  On the plus side there was less passing sideways and backwards 

 

See I think this is a big problem with the mindset of our fans. Passing sideways and backwards is absolutely what we need to do. Not keep being so desperate to get it forward that we hoof it up or try a desperate ball that will never work. The best teams probe and pass, pull the other teams out. If fans think that passing sideways and backwards is bad, we'll never progress.

[StefanAVFC]

 

  On the plus side there was less passing sideways and backwards 

 

See I think this is a big problem with the mindset of our fans. Passing sideways and backwards is absolutely what we need to do. Not keep being so desperate to get it forward that we hoof it up or try a desperate ball that will never work. The best teams probe and pass, pull the other teams out. If fans think that passing sideways and backwards is bad, we'll never progress.

 

 

Exactly. There's a guy in front of me who just shouts 'FORWARD' all game.

[villa4europe]

i though our shape at the back was shit before baker went off, luna plays so narrow, sagna was pretty much playing like a right winger, they were sending 2 or sometimes 3 up against him and simply passing it round him, it was embarrassing

 

don't think arsenal got out of 1st gear and let us back in to it, we were so poor up until about 30 minutes left to go when we actually managed to stretch the game, benteke vs monreal was an obvious tactic and by and large it worked but no one read his flick ons, thought overall our anticipation of the 2nd ball was incredibly poor, then when we tried to go down the middle i though mertesacker for them was excellent and didnt really give benteke a sniff, both of their goals were obviously really poor from our perspective, delph looked good at times but over did it at others, his run in the 1st half when he's sprinted half the pitch from left to right and not a single player made a run for him or tried to support him just about sums us up at the moment for me

 

think there were some positives, benteke's goal and hopefully just as importantly lowtons superb ball in, vlaar back, hopefully that finish will give us at least a bit of a lift

[villa4europe]

And floods of people started leaving with 3/4 minutes to go when we were a goal down and had all the momentum. 

 

couldnt agree more, they must have known there would be a decent chunk of injury time too, then again the couple next to me left after 65 minutes

[abdulaziz1]

We had two good chances in the first half .. Delph and KEA ..

 

We were only bad for one minute .. Other than that we were either good or ok ..

[Robbie09]

 

  On the plus side there was less passing sideways and backwards 

 

See I think this is a big problem with the mindset of our fans. Passing sideways and backwards is absolutely what we need to do. Not keep being so desperate to get it forward that we hoof it up or try a desperate ball that will never work. The best teams probe and pass, pull the other teams out. If fans think that passing sideways and backwards is bad, we'll never progress.

 

 

Nail on head. 

[thetrees]

I thought we were decent in both halves - moving Bacuna into an attacking position made a great difference in the second half though because they couldn't build from that deep midfield position. I thought Vlaar was good and the whole team gave it a good go.

 

The referee (Mr Swarbick according to the programme) was abysmal - we should have had a penalty in the second half, Wilshere could and should have been booked for a couple of fouls before his booking, he's constantly going in over the ball and I thought Flamini's challenge on Gabby in the first half was disgraceful - somewhere between yellow and red (he didn't give a foul.)

 

Arsenal play some beautiful football, they're a joy to watch at times, but a more unlikeable bunch you couldn't hope to find. If by some freak of luck somebody clatters Wilshere before the world cup and the poor little imp misses out, I for one will be breaking out the bunting - he really is a mouthy, dirty, nasty little boy.

 

They were better than us, they are better than us and they deserved the win, but I thought we did what we do very well and there's plenty of positives to be taken out of tonight.

 

The half time boo from the Holte End was really disappointing and completely unearned, as was the sarcastic applause for  El Ahmadi's substitution and I don't think the support covered itself in glory tonight - I was as disappointed with that as anything else. 

 

A defeat, never a good thing, but a decent showing and I can't say as I'm unhappy.

Quoting because I pretty much agree with all of this. The booing at half time was disgraceful.

Notable performances from Vlaar, Lowton and Luna, as well as Bacuna.

El Ahmadi's forearm smash in the first minute effectively put him out of the game. Had it not been the first minute, I think that he would have been sent off, but he didn't make any challenge after the booking.

[darrenm]

Notable performances from Vlaar, Lowton and Luna, as well as Bacuna.

El Ahmadi's forearm smash in the first minute effectively put him out of the game. Had it not been the first minute, I think that he would have been sent off, but he didn't make any challenge after the booking.

 

 

I thought Luna was awful. Vlaar was majestic though.

 

You saw the El Ahmadi incident very differently to me. I saw him looking at the ball and putting his arms up to jump for the ball and colliding with Wilshere. Standard thing that happens all the time and isn't anyone's fault. I could have accepted a free-kick but a booking that early in the game was ridiculous.

[Harry]

 

  On the plus side there was less passing sideways and backwards 

 

See I think this is a big problem with the mindset of our fans. Passing sideways and backwards is absolutely what we need to do. Not keep being so desperate to get it forward that we hoof it up or try a desperate ball that will never work. The best teams probe and pass, pull the other teams out. If fans think that passing sideways and backwards is bad, we'll never progress.

 

Hmmm.....last time I checked you had to move the ball forward to score goals. Its nothing to do with desperation and everything to do with using the ball effectively, something which we are generally very poor at which manifests itself as taking the safe option of passing backwards and sideways. The 'big problem' is the tactics and coaching of the players not the mind set of the fans, The good news is tonight we played much more positively and looked a much better side for it.

[VillaAndLoyal]

It's amazing the mindset of Villa fans. Fascinating, in fact. I genuinely think we've been driven to such despairing lows recently that some people, rather like people often over-react in a negative way, are actually going the other way now.

 

When Alex McLeish, yes I said his name, started with 5 at the back at home and played similar negative rubbish that we played in the first-half he got slaughtered for it on the terraces and the message boards. Yet, when Lambert does it, it's just part of our 'game plan' and we 'kept Arsenal at bay'. I find it unbelievable - that first-half was as negative as anything AMC served up. People saying we kept Arsenal at bay until their goals, are you forgetting the two great chances Giroud spurned in the opening 8 minutes? The game as a contest should have been over far sooner.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are positives to take from tonight and Christian looked a different player after his goal. So, in that sense, we have improved on recent home games. But a bit of fight in the second half when the game was effectively already won has led to some pretty big cracks being papered over. I said to my old man at half-time that Arsenal would ease off the gas in the second 45 and it proved to be the case. They dominated the first-half and allowed us back into the game in the second-half. When we scored our goal, we finally got a bit of confidence and their unprofessionalism almost cost them.

 

But how much of that was REALLY down to how well we played? I unfortunately agreed with 606 when they said that for 65/70 minutes we looked like credible relegation candidates. Only Gabby looked like a threat up front for us, and Bacuna when he came on.

 

I hate Arsenal with a passion and would have loved for Benteke's second header to have rippled the back of the net, but I honestly thought that was a walk in the park for them and only their naivety almost gave us a way back into the game.

[R.Bear]

When Alex McLeish, yes I said his name, started with 5 at the back at home and played similar negative rubbish that we played in the first-half he got slaughtered for it on the terraces and the message boards. Yet, when Lambert does it, it's just part of our 'game plan' and we 'kept Arsenal at bay'.

 

Sorry mate and I may get banned for this but **** off with that shit. The boys did us proud tonight.

[VillaAndLoyal]

I couldn't care less if you are banned for swearing at me on the internet. You disagree with my opinion, and vice versa. Get over it.

Edited January 14, 2014 by VillaAndLoyal

[villa4europe]

 

When Alex McLeish, yes I said his name, started with 5 at the back at home and played similar negative rubbish that we played in the first-half he got slaughtered for it on the terraces and the message boards. Yet, when Lambert does it, it's just part of our 'game plan' and we 'kept Arsenal at bay'.

 

Sorry mate and I may get banned for this but **** off with that shit. The boys did us proud tonight.

 

 

did us proud with what? turning up after 70 minutes?

 

we were awful in the 1st half, gained a bit of momentum and confidence when arsenal eased off at the start of the 2nd and the finally started playing well towards the end

 

even then it was still littered with poor play (Bacuna on the break in the 94th minute manged to pick out an arsenal defender rather than the 3 villa players in front of him)

 

other than vlaar i don't see who you can claim they played well for the whole 90 minutes

 

grinds my gears, no doubt people will see the score, see our league position, even see the stats from tonight and see arsenal probably chad less chances than us and think that it was a good performance, it wasnt

Edited January 14, 2014 by villa4europe

[VillaAndLoyal]

As I said, after the recent tripe served up, many fans are getting misty eyed about what 25 minutes (tops) decent-ish football. Shows how low our expectations have sunk.

[TRO]

Good response in the second half, which begs the question; why are we so shite all the other time?

 because Arsenal wanted it in the first half and thought they could coast through the second half, but because we scored .....to some degree scuppered their plans of an easy passage....hence the cries of " come on Arsenal"

 

Until we play a brand of football that is self determining and do not rely on the oppositions actions.....we are going nowhere.

 

we are currently far too passive and far too reactionary as opposed to proactive.

[TRO]

As I said, after the recent tripe served up, many fans are getting misty eyed about what 25 minutes (tops) decent-ish football. Shows how low our expectations have sunk.

 

we are desperate for the slightest bit of positivity....some of it is quite sad really.

As I said, after the recent tripe served up, many fans are getting misty eyed about what 25 minutes (tops) decent-ish football. Shows how low our expectations have sunk.

 

its all quite sad.

[TRO]

It's amazing the mindset of Villa fans. Fascinating, in fact. I genuinely think we've been driven to such despairing lows recently that some people, rather like people often over-react in a negative way, are actually going the other way now.

 

When Alex McLeish, yes I said his name, started with 5 at the back at home and played similar negative rubbish that we played in the first-half he got slaughtered for it on the terraces and the message boards. Yet, when Lambert does it, it's just part of our 'game plan' and we 'kept Arsenal at bay'. I find it unbelievable - that first-half was as negative as anything AMC served up. People saying we kept Arsenal at bay until their goals, are you forgetting the two great chances Giroud spurned in the opening 8 minutes? The game as a contest should have been over far sooner.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are positives to take from tonight and Christian looked a different player after his goal. So, in that sense, we have improved on recent home games. But a bit of fight in the second half when the game was effectively already won has led to some pretty big cracks being papered over. I said to my old man at half-time that Arsenal would ease off the gas in the second 45 and it proved to be the case. They dominated the first-half and allowed us back into the game in the second-half. When we scored our goal, we finally got a bit of confidence and their unprofessionalism almost cost them.

 

But how much of that was REALLY down to how well we played? I unfortunately agreed with 606 when they said that for 65/70 minutes we looked like credible relegation candidates. Only Gabby looked like a threat up front for us, and Bacuna when he came on.

 

I hate Arsenal with a passion and would have loved for Benteke's second header to have rippled the back of the net, but I honestly thought that was a walk in the park for them and only their naivety almost gave us a way back into the game.

 

That is basically how i seen the game to a tee

[chappy]

Not felt this positive after a defeat since Newcastle last season. hopefully we can kick on now like we did then. Last fifteen minutes we were really **** good which is depressing because you think why couldn't we have played like that all night?

 

Aside from the 40 seconds where they scored twice I would say it was quite an even intriguing game. 

 

Vlaar motm, he is so important to us. Luna looked loads better than recently. Bacuna did well when he came on. Weimann did well when he came on, one point when I think he bicycle kicked a ball back into play to set up a chance for us was reminiscent of one game last season (could have been QPR at home?) where his chasing set up an important goal. Benteke scored and he looked a different player! Fingers crossed this isn't a flash in the pan.

 

Looking forward (a bit more) to going to Anfield on Saturday now.

 

Also has there ever been a word more worthy of removal than Jack Wilshere?

[nobler]

I thought Arsenal were quite sloppy at times tonight and worryingly for them fairly complacent in the second half which gave us a platform for our token 20-25 minutes of good play. We weren't terrible tonight, at times we looked like a team and not just a rabble of blokes but I agree that people have become so numb to batterings against top teams that narrow defeats almost become a really positive thing, and I guess in a way it's true - we can take some positives tonight.

 

Benteke clearly can thrive off Lowton's deliveries but the downside of that is that Lowton actually has to play which leaves us defensively very weak, more width and deliveries would help Benteke massively but as it stands we don't have many options. 

Edited January 14, 2014 by nobler