VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: I think we'll need more than the 38 points to stay up...40 perhaps? Hope not, will be too much for us. We have 9 home games left and many of those are against top half teams so I don't fancy winning even half of them. Need to step things up away from home now. A win at either Watford or Burnley would do wonders for confidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Man.City Watford Spurs Sheffield United Chelsea Man. United Wolves Palace Arsenal That's our home run left. Watford the big six pointer and they're dangerous on the counter attack away. Palace very good away from home as are Sheffield United although hopefully Palace near the end will be "an on the beach" team. Will have to check if we're playing Wolves after a potential europa league game, that would help us. Think we need to win four of those as a minimum so gives a scale of the task ahead. Could well have to beat two out of Man. United, Arsenal and Spurs and we haven't beaten two of those at VP since the 90s! Chelsea is one team down the years we generally give a good game to at VP and pick up results. We continue to struggle away and we won't stay up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 We're still due a win against a big 6 club. I think Arsenal, Chelsea, and Utd will play into our hands slightly at Villa Park, and we could get points from those games. City will be too good for us, unless we're very lucky on the day. A really crucial fixture for us is Burnley away on New Year's Day. They have a nasty string of games around that, and if we can get 3 points, they could go into free fall. As we all know, teams can go into a freefall at any moment, and I'm sure one of the teams around us will do that soon. We just have to stay within touching distance and make good signings in January. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Well those fixtures show that we're either going to have start winning away from home or against divisions better teams or we're going down. Need to dig deep and get a couple of wins from such games just to get some confidence going. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 1 minute ago, useless said: Well those fixtures show that we're either going to have start winning away from home or against divisions better teams or we're going down. Need to dig deep and get a couple of wins from such games just to get some confidence going. We only have Leicester and Liverpool to play away out of the whole current top 9. Bodes well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 16 minutes ago, KentVillan said: We're still due a win against a big 6 club. I think Arsenal, Chelsea, and Utd will play into our hands slightly at Villa Park, and we could get points from those games. City will be too good for us, unless we're very lucky on the day. A really crucial fixture for us is Burnley away on New Year's Day. They have a nasty string of games around that, and if we can get 3 points, they could go into free fall. As we all know, teams can go into a freefall at any moment, and I'm sure one of the teams around us will do that soon. We just have to stay within touching distance and make good signings in January. Burnley are "too solid" imo to go into freefall. They will grind out wins in games they need to like at Bournemouth, Newcastle and what they did to us at VP. Even though Bournemouth picked up a good point today they're still only two points ahead of us and have aways at Brighton on Saturday and West Ham on NYD. That's the little group we need to keep in touch with or even go above one of them by winning another game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Only2McInallys Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 The key to us improving our away results is in new signings in January. We need to add some pace upfront and some physical presence in central midfield. Looking at the table after today’s results there are a number of clubs within 3 points of us.The problem is they all seem to getting points in games you expect them to lose which is what we have been unable to do. The confidence of the players at the moment is the lowest it’s been all season.Many of the players are avoiding doing anything for fear of making a mistake with one notable exception.Today was a poor performance but a clean sheet is a good starting point for our recovery. We had a spell like this last year and maybe the return of Mings a couple of new additions will lead to a similar upturn in second part of season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 1 minute ago, VillaChris said: Burnley are "too solid" imo to go into freefall. They will grind out wins in games they need to like at Bournemouth, Newcastle and what they did to us at VP. Even though Bournemouth picked up a good point today they're still only two points ahead of us and have aways at Brighton on Saturday and West Ham on NYD. That's the little group we need to keep in touch with or even go above one of them by winning another game. I tend to agree, but I think Dyche will struggle to keep working miracles with such a cheap squad. He's already overachieved for several seasons running. Their next few fixtures are: Man Utd home Villa home Chelsea away Leicester home Man Utd away Arsenal home If we beat them (it's a big if), I feel like they'll be in the relegation zone by the end of that run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 58 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: I think we'll need more than the 38 points to stay up...40 perhaps? At current rate 38 pts won't be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 If Chelsea had have just won today we'd be out of the bottom three, and they'd be just three points behind Leicester. For all the stick that Sarri got they had eight points more at this point last season. Lampard could soon find himself under pressure if things dont' improve, especially with their transfer ban being lifted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Liverplop to win the league, took Leicester apart in the last 8 minutes, 4-0 now quality, how it kills me to say. How we competed against them I do not know, where's that gone, an without Grealish. Still think tactically Smith focuses on him to much, which denies other players time with the ball. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Zatman Posted December 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted December 26, 2019 3 hours ago, villalad21 said: Brighton got Maupay. They'll be fine. you would swear Maupay is a combination of Ronaldo and Messi the way people go on. He was dragged off after 55 minutes today 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 2 hours ago, KentVillan said: I tend to agree, but I think Dyche will struggle to keep working miracles with such a cheap squad. He's already overachieved for several seasons running. Their next few fixtures are: Man Utd home Villa home Chelsea away Leicester home Man Utd away Arsenal home If we beat them (it's a big if), I feel like they'll be in the relegation zone by the end of that run. They could easily get a 0-0/1-1 off Man. United (they're not exactly amazing trying to break down deep low block teams), scramble a 1-0 off us when a pinball set piece hits Barnes backside and flies into top corner and I'd fancy them to take at least a point off Arsenal at home. Could get a draw in one of the other games. Do that and they'd be on 30 points with an easier run in. I think we're looking at the wrong team if the target is Burnley. Look at what West Ham have. Leicester home- could lose Bournemouth home- should win Sheffield away- draw Everton home- draw Leivester away- could lose Brighton home- draw Man. City away- lose Liverpool away- lose That's their run up to March. We are 1 point behind them (they've also got a home game with Liverpool still to play), With those fixtures it's a realistic target to be above them with ten games left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 That Jordan Ayew goal, beautiful. He's a talented player. Just lacks that drive and ruthlessness when in final third to be a real top striker. Very much a scorer of great goals as he showed in 15/16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Strange to talk about Maupay being the difference between us and Brighton when we've actually scored more goals than them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, VillaChris said: I think we're looking at the wrong team if the target is Burnley. Look at what West Ham have. I'm not suggesting we "target" Burnley, but the game is an obvious six pointer, as is the West Ham game. Just suggesting teams who might get dragged into the relegation mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 1 minute ago, KentVillan said: I'm not suggesting we "target" Burnley, but the game is an obvious six pointer, as is the West Ham game. Just suggesting teams who might get dragged into the relegation mix. I think from 10th down should watch their back, maybe not Arsenal but they are well capable of getting in a slump and Arteta is inexperienced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 6 minutes ago, Zatman said: you would swear Maupay is a combination of Ronaldo and Messi the way people go on. He was dragged off after 55 minutes today No, he was on the bench and came on after 55 mins. I'm not sure if he was being rotated out or if it was a tactical thing. I agree, though. Get the impression that a lot of players are bigged up on here without a great deal of time actually spent watching them play. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 10 minutes ago, KentVillan said: I'm not suggesting we "target" Burnley, but the game is an obvious six pointer, as is the West Ham game. Just suggesting teams who might get dragged into the relegation mix. Draws v Watford and Burnley wouldn't be the end of the world although ideally we'd take a win from one of them. My worst case target was always 20 points by NYD so we can still achieve that. The big aways for us are going to be Watford Brighton, Bournemouth, Southampton, Newcastle and probably West Ham on the final day. We need to win a couple of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 9 minutes ago, KentVillan said: No, he was on the bench and came on after 55 mins. I'm not sure if he was being rotated out or if it was a tactical thing. I agree, though. Get the impression that a lot of players are bigged up on here without a great deal of time actually spent watching them play. They save him for Bournemouth at home on Saturday lunchtime which is a much more winnable game. He's a good player and would improve us. I see suggestions he hasn't socred a huge amount of goals but it's not just that, he makes good runs and can link up o.k so that creates extra space for midfielders to run into. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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