Ratings and Reactions: Villa 1-2 Arsenal

[dakid007]

Good game 2-1 fair result

Negatives: why do we let teams come to villa park and run the show? Why does baker get a head injury every single game?

Positives: we got some evidence the team isn't shit just lack confidence. 4-3-3 Is our formation. Vlaar bacuna and benteke stepped up.

Team has to play 433

Guzan

Lowton vlaar Clark Bennett

Bacuna Westwood Delph

Weiman benteke gabby

[TRO]

Sorry to be Mr Negative but the game changed when Arsenal sat back and defended their lead. We had so much ball because they let us

 

spot on

 

for all the folk, that have little respect for possession and only look for results..... we lost, yes another home defeat against a team we were able to beat away from home.

 

and furthermore they were in charge of the game (when they wanted), they took the lead twice in the space of a few minutes,they then took their foot off the gas, (when they wanted) we scored a perfectly good goal and they came back in to the game ( when they wanted).

 

wallow in all the positives you want....until there is a change of mentality at the club, you will be sifting through more of these type of positives.

Edited January 14, 2014 by TRO

[8pints]

Dolly was in the programme

[LordSepulchrave]

Even in the first half we were limiting their chances and creating better ones - they're in bad form and it showed. Aside from a mad couple of minutes, acquitted ourselves very well. Let's hope we can get some momentum going after this and the Sunderland result.

[Harry]

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

I actually laughed when that happened as  the rest of the side just stood and watched.

[Raver50032]

I was fearing a stuffing before the game, and happily, we came out of the fixture with a creditable 2-1 reversal. No doom and gloom then.

 

1st half it seemed like normal Villa service where we struggled to put anything really meaningful together. Losing Baker to what looked a serious bit of head injury didn't seem to help our cause, though it did introduce Bacuna to the game, who went on to be my man of the match. That said, we surrendered two goals in 2 minutes, which was a real sickening blow. We were in the game, then so far out of it within a minute or so. And Jack Wilshere? What was that celebration about? Had he just fingered his girlfriend for the first time???

 

Half time and boos - maybe harsh, but probably more aimed at the one minute capitulation than anything else. I didn't boo.

 

2nd Half - we seemed to show a bit of spirit and demonstrate what we all know that there is a team in there, trying to perform. They can't help it, they just aren't good enough. But we saw some fight at last, culminating in some positive stats in the second half. Benteke's low header was a great bit of work following a good cross that found it's mark. Late rally and the big guy had a chance to equalilse too. Oh so nearly then... Realism, and it's debateable whether or not Arsenal took their foot off the pedal in the 2nd half, but even if they did, we still have to play in order to get anything from the game... If only they had defended better after conceding the first goal...

 

MOTM - Tony Moon, for that beard...

 

Not really, Bacuna got my vote, and average tactics for the way we set about the first half.

 

36k attendance was disappointing, considering it was a home fixture against top-4 opposition - I guess it was a school night... Will that flutter Mr Lerner's heart?

[Stevo985]

 

 

  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.

 

Yeah that annoys me when I'm at VP (but I assume it happens everywhere really apart form like Arsenal or Man City)

 

The midfield will be passing it around, no options yet in front of them and you'll get people yelling "just **** get it forward!!"

 

That's schoolboy football. I'd rather our players kept the ball and waited for a viable option than just hit and hope forward. It's probably the same people who will be complaining abotu hoofball down the pub afterwards

[bobzy]

 

Sorry to be Mr Negative but the game changed when Arsenal sat back and defended their lead. We had so much ball because they let us

 

spot on

 

for all the folk, that have little respect for possession and only look for results..... we lost, yes another home defeat against a team we were able to beat away from home.

 

and furthermore they were in charge of the game (when they wanted), they took the lead twice in the space of a few minutes,they then took their foot off the gas, (when they wanted) we scored a perfectly good goal and they came back in to the game ( when they wanted).

 

wallow in all the positives you want....until there is a change of mentality at the club, you will be sifting through more of these type of positives.

 

 

The gulf in class between us and Arsenal is huge, though.  We haven't beaten them at home since, what, 1998?  This isn't a recent thing - they're just a much better side than us and currently top of the league for **** sake.  Naturally, therefore, they're going to be in charge of the game - especially with a midfield that is about a billion times better than ours - and playing a counter attacking game was always going to have the possibility of being more rewarding than trying to compete with them.

 

So, on that note, I thought we were good defensively.  Giroud had a very good chance with a header early on and Lowton's mistake led to the first goal; but I think these were the only times we were properly caught out.  For all Arsenal's possession, they didn't actually create much at all (they probably could have, but they didn't). I thought Vlaar and Clark were both very good throughout the game whilst Luna showed improvement on his past performances.

 

The main issue for me - and most people on here I'm sure - is that our midfield doesn't really contribute much.  Delph had a poor game imo and Westwood and El Ahmadi just don't do anything to influence a match.  We desperately need some creativity in the centre and to switch to using actual wingers as Benteke's hold up play lacked last night, but he proved he is still a huge threat from crosses which we rarely use.  If we're not going to have possession (which we don't) we need to be strong in the middle of the park and disrupt the other team.  The first half, we did neither of these things and got completely overrun.  Second half, we got stuck in more and pushed Arsenal backwards.  More of the latter is needed for the rest of the season.

[The_Steve]

 

  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.

 

 

I agree. But there is evidence of this team being able to pass. Example being against Sunderland, the team strung a series of passes to together all over the pitch that lead to Albrighton spooning over a glorious chance. The players are capable of it but I think too often some are caught in the headlights and prefer a ball over the top.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

I'm just fed up of watching us hand the incentive to the opposition every game.

 

I think we did ok and showed we can compete but we should be imposing ourselves on the oponents.

 

Vlaar MOTM.

[villaglint]

Thought we played well overall.

 

Had the better chances before their goals and responded well in second half. Of course if they weren't so comfortable then I'm sure they would have raised in second half.

 

However football was much better than it has been and great to see big man get a goal, looked a different player afterwards.

 

So a loss which we all mentally prepared for but a number of positives which perhaps we didn't expect.

[nokesy]

More belief from the players but still dog shite hoof ball

[Ulver]

Crap apart from the 30 seconds that led to the goal.

 

Before that, toothless, clueless and shapeless. After that HOOF

[abdulaziz1]

I think we were more dangerous the first half .. We had two chances which almost were goals .. If they didn't score or stayed at 1-0 atleast .. We may have come back ..

 

Benteke was good even in the first have .. he could have assisted a goal to Delph .. Anyway Delph should have get it back to Benteke .. He could have scored that ..

[Danishlad]

Just watched the game again. We actually weren't that bad before Arsenal scored 2 in a minute. The commentator here in Denmark praised us for being well in the game and then Arsenal scored- what the hell was Lowton doing for that first goal???

The commentators mentioned too that they thought the combination of Gabby and Benteke looks good on paper but they didn't do anything in the way of combining their play together on the pitch. ( I totally agree with this- lack of game intelligence is unreal)

Lastly, the tv guys laughed at the fact that they thought Guzan was our playmaker with the long passes.

Just thought I'd share the thoughts of the commentators here in DK

[villa89]

Crap apart from the 30 seconds that led to the goal.

 

Before that, toothless, clueless and shapeless. After that HOOF

 

This. It wasn't a good performance and we only got into the game because Arsenal let us. Some really poor performance's, KEA and Luna to name only two.

[pacbuddies]

Although our second half performance was much better than what has been served up over the last few months (and that may be down to Arsenal stepping off the gas) the fact remains that we still lost and if we can't get anything when we play some of our better football it doesn't bode well for the future as we tend to play shit all game usually.

[StefanAVFC]

Although our second half performance was much better than what has been served up over the last few months (and that may be down to Arsenal stepping off the gas) the fact remains that we still lost and if we can't get anything when we play some of our better football it doesn't bode well for the future as we tend to play shit all game usually.

 

Anyone would have thought we were playing top of the league.

[VillaForever1970]

Sorry to be Mr Negative but the game changed when Arsenal sat back and defended their lead. We had so much ball because they let us

I thought we couldn’t do anything when teams sit back, we can only counter attack.

Which is it?

[SurreyGooner]

A View From the Opposition

 

Arsenal fan in peace, just wanted to give my view on the game.

 

Even though we've had a pretty decent record at VP over the last 15 years, the games we've had against Villa recently have been very difficult and this proved to be the case yet again last night.

 

Lambert changing the formation to a 3-5-2 worked well in terms of stifling our play, apart from the minute of craziness which led to us capitalising on your defensive lapses in concentration.

 

The game started off very slowly and, even before the unfortunate injury to Baker, Arsenal had the lion's share of possession but I never felt we were truly threatening your defence enough. We only had one good chance in the opening 5 minutes, which Giroud should have scored from, from Sagna's cross but for most of the half, I felt Villa coped with us relatively well. You congested the middle and gave us a little more room out wide which actually looked to be working well for you. And as always, when you did get the ball, the pace of Agbonlahor, who gave us a torrid time at The Emirates, proved to be deadly on the counter, as exemplified with Monreal getting booked for a cynical foul on him when his turn of pace proved to be too much for the Spaniard.

 

Ozil's passing was easy on the eye, but I still question his influence in certain games but I felt it was a quiet night from the German overall. Cazorla, who I felt was our worst player by a mile, was gifting away possession and was frequently forced back due to the pressure from your midfield and closing down his options. Wilshere, in my view, was our best midfield player, as he was the only one in our midfield with the drive and energy to get at Villa and play forward passes to try and penetrate your defence.

 

Everything was looking comfortable for Villa despite all of the ball we had, but then Lowton had a lapse in concentration when Ozil played an incisive through ball to Monreal whose precise cross was buried into the net by Wilshere. Not the cleanest strike but was accurate enough to go into the bottom corner. The groans around Villa Park said it all and the players seemed to a little shaken up. Arsenal took advantage of Villa seemingly feeling sorry for themselves straight from the kick off, as Wilshere caught Delph dilly-dallying on the ball and played a lofted ball over the top for Giroud to latch onto. The Frenchman's first touch was impeccable, a lucky second touch with the bounce of the knee and a very composed finish to make it 2-0 and made it his 9th of the season, 12 in all competitions. 

 

Villa's hard work to stop us from playing our quick passing game was undone within the space of a minute. Unfortunately for Villa, teams like Arsenal will punish you if you make rookie mistakes.

 

The second half, Arsenal, as has been an all too familiar story, tried to rest on the 2-0 goal lead and Villa, much to my surprise, tried to give it their all. In certain games this season, Villa have crumbled when they've conceded first, but this didn't look to be the case against the league title contenders. It appeared that Arsenal tried to conserve their energy and see the game out which tends to be our tactic after building a two-goal cushion, but we sat deeper in our own half and we seemed far too casual with our passing which, from our perspective, wasn't professional enough. We didn't play with enough vigour and we weren't pressing your midfield. However, for all of Villa's effort, Szczesny was a spectator for most of the game and it was only where Cazorla's over elegance cost us, as his stray pass was intercepted with ease and Lowton whipped in an inch perfect ball for Benteke to head in from close range. His 6th of the season and a goal which will hopefully do his confidence a world of good, hopefully going into the game against Liverpool at Anfield this week! 

 

From then on, for the final 20 minutes, Villa could smell blood and they searched for an equaliser. Were it not for the composed Koscielny and the height of Mertesacker preventing Benteke on two occasions from scoring taps-ins, Villa surely would have got a point which would have rewarded their hard work.

 

In the end, it proved to be too little, too late but a chorus of boos at Villa Park was not the case. It was a round of applause for the team spirit to get back into the game.

 

Villa can take a lot of encouragement from the second half and I have no doubt in my mind that if they can perform like they did in the second half against us for the rest of the season, they will not be near the relegation zone. However, despite having a young side, my own opinion is you need another experienced head at the back. Vlaar was superb (your best player in my opinion) and another central defender with a bit more experience to partner him would really sort out your defensive woes. Lescott, perhaps?

 

Best of luck for the rest of the season Villa!

Edited January 14, 2014 by SurreyGooner