Premier League 2019-2020 Thread

[Kiwivillan]

With a couple of good signings in the right areas I'm not fearful of many teams outside the top 2 and Spurs. Norwich more impressive than lot of mid to lower table rabble. Chelsea have issues with Hazard gone and transfer embargo. United still seem meh. Arsenal were shite away all season. Everton 8th and don't rate their team that much outside a few players. Wolves lost twice to Huddersfield. I think people giving a lot of the teams way too much respect

[Villan_of_oz]

Maybe I'm wearing rose tinted glasses, but with modest signings and retaining Mings, el Ghazi and Hause (at least) I can see us getting 45 points next season 12 wins 9 draws and 17 losses.

I'd take that for our first year back in the Prem!

I could Google it but I'm scared I will be more horrified by the truth but when was the time we got 45 points or more?

Edited June 1, 2019 by Villan_of_oz
This is my minimum expectations

[abdulaziz1]

30 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Maybe I'm wearing rose tinted glasses, but with modest signings and retaining Mings, el Ghazi and Hause (at least) I can see us getting 45 points next season 12 wins 9 draws and 17 losses.

I'd take that for our first year back in the Prem!

I could Google it but I'm scared I will be more horrified by the truth but when was the time we got 45 points or more?

2010-2011 I guess. Thanks to McAllister when we’ve beaten Arsenal and Liverpool. I guess we had 48 which made us 9th.

The last time we’ve been above 15th also if my memory helps.

[Villan_of_oz]

1 hour ago, abdulaziz1 said:

2010-2011 I guess. Thanks to McAllister when we’ve beaten Arsenal and Liverpool. I guess we had 48 which made us 9th.

The last time we’ve been above 15th also if my memory helps.

So for 5 seasons we survived but didn't get 45 points, no wonder my memory is so bad. It was self induced memory loss!!

[abdulaziz1]

4 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

So for 5 seasons we survived but didn't get 45 points, no wonder my memory is so bad. It was self induced memory loss!!

Actually we haven’t reached 40 points at all if my memory is correct. (Not sure about 2012-2013 though) I will figure out. But I’m pretty sure we haven’t make it 12,14,15,16.

Edit: I was right on that, we got 41 points, but still on 15th.

11-12, 16th on 38 points.

12-13, 15th on 41 points.

13-14, 15th on 38 points.

14-15, 17th on 38 points.

15-16, 20th on 17 points.

Edited June 1, 2019 by abdulaziz1

[Villan_of_oz]

That is so depressing, I can say this hindsight but I'm glad we got relegated. I chose to forget how bad we really were!

[rubberman]

Aim to make VP a fortress and win the 13 home games against the also rans. 

Add in a few away wins. 

Grab the odd draw against the top six. 

Simple. 

[alreadyexists]

I just really hope some of our more vocal and hard to please fans give the team and manager a bit of time. If we’ve not won our first three games, that’s ok, we need to get behind the team not get on their backs if things dont go right straight away.

[Only2McInallys]

I think when we join the premier league we are in for a bit of a shock.

The top  6 are now considerably stronger than they were in the past due to improved finances and this is evident from our dominance of the European competitions.I don’t think we will get many points here.

Teams like Leicester,Wolves and Everton have invested heavily and are at the moment are 

  better than us.Watford and Bournemouth seem to be extremely well run and have teams that will probably beat us.

The newly promoted teams both beat us,Sheffield Utd convincingly.

I think talk of 45points plus and finishing mid table is overly optimistic.Our priority next season is to avoid relegation and I think it’s going to be close.We finished the season very strongly but some of our key players won’t be with us Axel or Tammy.We are letting go of a number of players and recruiting at least 6-7 new players.Achieving consistency with so many new players is going to be difficult.

[Guest av1]

5 minutes ago, Londonastonvilla said:

I think when we join the premier league we are in for a bit of a shock.

The top  6 are now considerably stronger than they were in the past due to improved finances and this is evident from our dominance of the European competitions.I don’t think we will get many points here.

Teams like Leicester,Wolves and Everton have invested heavily and are at the moment are 

  better than us.Watford and Bournemouth seem to be extremely well run and have teams that will probably beat us.

The newly promoted teams both beat us,Sheffield Utd convincingly.

I think talk of 45points plus and finishing mid table is overly optimistic.Our priority next season is to avoid relegation and I think it’s going to be close.We finished the season very strongly but some of our key players won’t be with us Axel or Tammy.We are letting go of a number of players and recruiting at least 6-7 new players.Achieving consistency with so many new players is going to be difficult.

Of course its going to be tough, but l if we are clever in the transfer market we can be better than at least 5/6 teams imo. 

I may be accused of being blinkered, and as i say I'm certainly not niave to the size of the task, but imo we are an immediately more attractive proposition to players than the likes if Bournemouth (see Mings), Southampton, Brighton, Norwich, Sheffield United, Palace etc. 

Tough, yes. But i think we can be more optimistic than simply finishing 17th. 

[Only2McInallys]

52 minutes ago, av1 said:

Of course its going to be tough, but l if we are clever in the transfer market we can be better than at least 5/6 teams imo. 

I may be accused of being blinkered, and as i say I'm certainly not niave to the size of the task, but imo we are an immediately more attractive proposition to players than the likes if Bournemouth (see Mings), Southampton, Brighton, Norwich, Sheffield United, Palace etc. 

Tough, yes. But i think we can be more optimistic than simply finishing 17th. 

The big advantage teams like Bournemouth,Palace and Burnley have is they have been playing in the premier league for the last 2or 3 years and have mostly settled sides.Many of our players have no premier league experience Steer ,McGinn El gazi and even Jack hasn’t made many appearances.

So we have half a team currently with minimal premier league experience.Its not as if this year we have performed well over the whole season .We have managed to do it in short bursts.

In the last 5 years 1 team who came up by the playoffs has avoided relegation and that was Huddersfield who went down this year.

Our main hope is Dean Smith.He has taken a very disjointed team and created a strong team ethic and with a winning mentality.

The law of averages says we should be relegated next season.Dean Smith doesn’t follow the law of averages.

[A'Villan]

I look at middle table clubs like Newcastle, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace and wonder if they are superior to us as it is.

West Ham and upwards, so top half, is where we would need to make some quality additions in personnel in order to compete.

[sidcow]

7 hours ago, Londonastonvilla said:

I think when we join the premier league we are in for a bit of a shock.

The top  6 are now considerably stronger than they were in the past due to improved finances and this is evident from our dominance of the European competitions.I don’t think we will get many points here.

Teams like Leicester,Wolves and Everton have invested heavily and are at the moment are 

  better than us.Watford and Bournemouth seem to be extremely well run and have teams that will probably beat us.

The newly promoted teams both beat us,Sheffield Utd convincingly.

I think talk of 45points plus and finishing mid table is overly optimistic.Our priority next season is to avoid relegation and I think it’s going to be close.We finished the season very strongly but some of our key players won’t be with us Axel or Tammy.We are letting go of a number of players and recruiting at least 6-7 new players.Achieving consistency with so many new players is going to be difficult.

[mjmooney]

You know what next season's going to be like? That thing when you go from being the big kids in the top class of primary school to being the littlest kids starting at high school. We're going to have to stick up for ourselves against the school bullies. 

[Demitri_C]

21 hours ago, Londonastonvilla said:

I think when we join the premier league we are in for a bit of a shock.

The top  6 are now considerably stronger than they were in the past due to improved finances and this is evident from our dominance of the European competitions.I don’t think we will get many points here.

Teams like Leicester,Wolves and Everton have invested heavily and are at the moment are 

  better than us.Watford and Bournemouth seem to be extremely well run and have teams that will probably beat us.

The newly promoted teams both beat us,Sheffield Utd convincingly.

I think talk of 45points plus and finishing mid table is overly optimistic.Our priority next season is to avoid relegation and I think it’s going to be close.We finished the season very strongly but some of our key players won’t be with us Axel or Tammy.We are letting go of a number of players and recruiting at least 6-7 new players.Achieving consistency with so many new players is going to be difficult.

Have you seen Manchester United recently? Your telling me this united team is as strong as the one we played when we were last here? 

Not a chance in hell. City and Liverpool yes. Spurs also the rest nothing to fear. 

[VillaChris]

Problem is lots of teams ended last season strongly from mid table.

Everton finished up last year in great form. Played Liverpool, Man. United, Chelsea and Arsenal all at home in last six games and didn't even concede a goal. They were poor defensively for much of last season so if they've fixed that they'll be challenging for 6th.

Wolves will dip a little given they'll be in europa league but got some fantastic players, particularly in midfield and also a deadly striker in Raul Jimenez. They're an example of a side who came up with a strong core and made signings to significantly improve the first 11, big example to us. A huge threat away from home as their results show.

West Ham. Odd team, wildly inconsistant but have good quality in final third in Felipe Anderson and Aranutovic if he can be bothered. Seem to have finally improved at Olympic stadium, beat Arsenal, Man. United and drew with Chelsea and Liverpool there last season.

Leicester City. I think appointing Rodgers was a great managerial signing for them. They were comfortably beating Arsenal in the run in and have lots of exciting players in final third like James Maddison and Harvey Barnes. They could well have gone after McGinn if we hadn't gone up.

Palace. Another team brilliant away from home although will dip massively if they lose Zaha and Wan Bissaka.

Newcastle. Depends on this takeover but already got a fantastic manager in place.

It will be very very tough to finish top half so that's not a priority to me. To me we need to finish above the other two promoted teams and Brighton. I think way they ended last season and Potter being a gamble with his style they're the obvious established team who could well get relegated like Stoke and WBA in years before.

Then I have a feeling Bournemouth might be on decline and Watford could also struggle after losing the cup final the way they did (similar to us in 2015).

I would say though there's not 6-7 obvious relegation candidates unlike last few seasons, basically last season was just one relegation place in play with how bad Huddersfield and Fulham were practically from the start.

[Only2McInallys]

55 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Problem is lots of teams ended last season strongly from mid table.

Everton finished up last year in great form. Played Liverpool, Man. United, Chelsea and Arsenal all at home in last six games and didn't even concede a goal. They were poor defensively for much of last season so if they've fixed that they'll be challenging for 6th.

Wolves will dip a little given they'll be in europa league but got some fantastic players, particularly in midfield and also a deadly striker in Raul Jimenez. They're an example of a side who came up with a strong core and made signings to significantly improve the first 11, big example to us. A huge threat away from home as their results show.

West Ham. Odd team, wildly inconsistant but have good quality in final third in Felipe Anderson and Aranutovic if he can be bothered. Seem to have finally improved at Olympic stadium, beat Arsenal, Man. United and drew with Chelsea and Liverpool there last season.

Leicester City. I think appointing Rodgers was a great managerial signing for them. They were comfortably beating Arsenal in the run in and have lots of exciting players in final third like James Maddison and Harvey Barnes. They could well have gone after McGinn if we hadn't gone up.

Palace. Another team brilliant away from home although will dip massively if they lose Zaha and Wan Bissaka.

Newcastle. Depends on this takeover but already got a fantastic manager in place.

It will be very very tough to finish top half so that's not a priority to me. To me we need to finish above the other two promoted teams and Brighton. I think way they ended last season and Potter being a gamble with his style they're the obvious established team who could well get relegated like Stoke and WBA in years before.

Then I have a feeling Bournemouth might be on decline and Watford could also struggle after losing the cup final the way they did (similar to us in 2015).

I would say though there's not 6-7 obvious relegation candidates unlike last few seasons, basically last season was just one relegation place in play with how bad Huddersfield and Fulham were practically from the start.

Agree.I just think talk of midtable finish now is wildly optimistic and may be counterproductive if we start the season poorly.

We are going to lose a lot of games and in some cases Man City, Liverpool etc very heavily.We need to manage expectations now.

Our main priority is to beat the teams around us Brighton,Sheffield united.

Recruitment now is crucial but I don’t think the owners will spend recklessly.Its too big a risk if we get relegated again.As long as we stick by Smith and give him time I think we will be ok.

[Tommo_b]

2 minutes ago, Londonastonvilla said:

Agree.I just think talk of midtable finish now is wildly optimistic and may be counterproductive if we start the season poorly.

We are going to lose a lot of games and in some cases Man City, Liverpool etc very heavily.We need to manage expectations now.

Our main priority is to beat the teams around us Brighton,Sheffield united.

Recruitment now is crucial but I don’t think the owners will spend recklessly.Its too big a risk if we get relegated again.As long as we stick by Smith and give him time I think we will be ok.

Well we are never going to finish 1st if they are the teams around us! We need to be beating City, Liverpool and Chelsea I’m afraid.

[Rugeley Villa]

I’d like to think there would be no pressure on us in the premier league, unlike when we were in the championship. Reality is there is always pressure at Villa and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The best thing that happened to us was getting relegated. It’s set us back a bit , but it’s enabled us to step back and take a look at ourselves. We will be ok next season. We will have some shit moments, but we will have some great moments. 

[mjmooney]

51 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

I’d like to think there would be no pressure on us in the premier league, unlike when we were in the championship. Reality is there is always pressure at Villa and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The best thing that happened to us was getting relegated. It’s set us back a bit , but it’s enabled us to step back and take a look at ourselves. We will be ok next season. We will have some shit moments, but we will have some great moments. 

I think you're dead right. Had we not been relegated under Lerner, the only real alternative would have been season after season bumping along near the bottom. A depressing prospect. As it was, relegation + Xia & co + Bruce very nearly destroyed the club. But, crucially it didn't quite, and the advent of NSWE + Smith finally brought about the root and branch shakeup that was so desperately required. The darkest hour is just before dawn, and all that. There's a long way still to go, but we're back on the rails.