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Title chase 2020/2021


villalad21

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If we beat Chelsea and United then I have to say it’s definitely on.

it would mean after 15 games we would be just one point behind Leicester (32) in 2016 when they won the title. 
 
80 points will earn the title this year. Liverpool will lose at least 3 more games IMO. 

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4 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I don't know where it came from, I logged in one day and it's everywhere. I pretty much zone out whenever someone starts trying to use it to prove something about performances. When they started giving Actual Points for Expected Goals, I'll give a shit.

If my aunt had 2 expected bollocks, she still wouldn't be my uncle.

It is more to show overall team performance and chance creation. On a day finishing can be worse or better so you can look at a game and go well actually 9/10 we would have won that so you don't change the system. It is more about seeing whether the team played well without relying on the actual finishing. 

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5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Desperate for Targett, Mcginn and Grealish to get through this game without a booking. Will be gutted if can’t play our strongest team against the mancs. 
 

Hopefully Barkley will be back.

Particularly Jack. I love McGinn and Targett has been excellent but I’d be content for them to be replaced for one game, but jack is the heartbeat and the talisman. So I’d be more disappointed 

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13 hours ago, YouUnastanFren said:

xG and xGA are far better predictors of future performances/results than any other underlying stat imho. I'd say they're actually better predictors of future results than actual goals and goals against are.

For instance after our losses against SOU, WHU and BHA people were saying we were defensively weak because we'd conceded 8 goals. The reality was our xGA was just 3.07 total for these games. That suggested we were solid just unlucky and that we'd be likely to concede less if our performances remained the same. Sure enough since then we have had 4 CSs in a row (and a total xGA of 2.4).

Naturally over small sample sizes teams are likely to over or under perform both metrics by a large percentage but over the course of the season they tend to be fairly accurate.

xA is a fair bit more abstract and difficult to use, but then assists are more abstract than goals so that makes sense.

The possession stat alone is for all intents and purposes completely useless. When it's divided into territories it becomes more useful but when passing it along your own back 4 is worth as much as passing it in the opposition box it's not going to be a good predictor of anything.

Brighton say hi. 

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Nothing is out of reach at the moment but once we get to mid January we'll have a much better idea of just how well our season is going. Could easily lose the next 5, be out the cup and bottom half, or do the opposite and be still fighting for the cup and be comfortably top 4. And then there are the million different scenarios between.

I genuinely couldn't predict what is going to happen though, which after the last decade of watching Villa is more than I could ask for, just going into a game against the likes of Utd, Chelsea and Spurs not feeling resigned to turgid football for 90+ minutes whilst losing. 

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36 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Brighton say hi. 

Future... 

Their squad lacks a bit of quality, particularly in the midfield. Based on the stats they’ll clicking eventually or if they add some extra quality they’ll probably get their sooner. Really not a bad side at all. 

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Haven't' been in this thread at all really. Wary that popping in now means chelsea will dick us, but i would be really surprised if they did. We look so good recently, we are confident and creating so many chances we could be higher up further. We are playing like euroean contenders. Whether that can last, who knows, but the way the likes of Hause and Anwar have come in and made their claim is very encouraging. As is Traore's rapid improvement. We have the bonus this year of no european games over competitors in a what is going to be a packed second half of the season. As far as opportunities go to do something special, this is a great one.

I would now be disappointed if we were below 10th in the table I think, which shows how well we're doing.  I think we can definitely put our names into the mix for best of the rest and compete with everton, west ham, wolves, southampton, etc for 6th, 7th, 8th. Our respective forms will change over the season. 

I'd say we definitely don't finish finish above liverpool or man city, we probably don't finish above man utd, chelsea, spurs or leicester but remarkably it's not impossible we do finish above at least one of them. 

After that though, we can aspire to be competitive with the rest. Everton and Southampton are the strongest sides of the rest, and if we were to finish just below those two then fair enough. Wolves and West Ham aren't bad sides, but I think we've got a great chance to finish ahead of those two, then, who else? Leeds or Arsenal aren't catching up with us. 

So many teams taking points off each other makes every 3 points gained vital, and we have the firepower to more often than not create enough chances. I think the points gap between say 6th and 10th might be only 4 or 5 points, it's going to be so close and a bit of luck here and there could be the difference, but why not us? Anything more than that ( ie. top 4/5 ) - requires a good break in terms of injuries and VAR and being able to sustain the form ). We can dream! But I wouldn't be realistically thinking of us as in the mix unless we're still up there come March time. 

Queue Chelsea 6- Aston Villa 0 obviously

 

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7 more wins and my pre season prediction of 15 wins for the season which was shot down will be achieved. Not jumping the gun but I'm re-assessing this and by my calculations we should now achieve 28 wins for the season. Any less is a catastrophic failure (tongue in cheek for the serious brigade). 

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I think we are the best team in the division at the moment, and I think had we taken our chances and with a little more luck we could be 3-6 points higher up than we are. I would say we are currently a top 4 side. Obviously we are not half way through yet, but it’s a good place to be.

Personally, I think we are generally a better side than the Leicester team than won the league, the only difference being Vardy. However, Watkins is part of why we are doing so well and frankly would prefer him to Vardy at the moment. The main difference is that the division is stronger now than then, but I think we defend better and have a more potent, rounded attack.

I heard today that we had an xG of over 5 against Palace, despite having only 10 men for more than half the game and at home where we are worse this season. Apparently it’s the second highest xG on record since records began in 2014, only Man City have a higher figure.

Just wanted to add that we now have our destiny in our own hands 😉

Now watch us lose to Chelsea.....

Edited by thunderball
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I think Chelsea will dismantle us with ease today teaching us a footballing lesson, will probably be a bit of a reality check and maybe spell out just how important Mings is to us.

Any kind of positive result would be a miraculous outcome, only way I can see it is if Grealish and Watkins are in sensational form and can help us match their scoring, both due a goal or two now.

 

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1 minute ago, useless said:

I think Chelsea will dismantle us with ease today teaching us a footballing lesson, will probably be a bit of a reality check and maybe spell out just how important Mings is to us

 

I kinda feel this way too. 

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2 minutes ago, useless said:

I think Chelsea will dismantle us with ease today teaching us a footballing lesson, will probably be a bit of a reality check and maybe spell out just how important Mings is to us.

Any kind of positive result would be a miraculous outcome, only way I can see it is if Grealish and Watkins are in sensational form and can help us match their scoring, both due a goal or two now.

 

Seriously? If anything Chelsea look like the soft touch, not Villa, and we also look the more potent attacking side. It should be a very competitive game. Villa will win, 2-1.

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