Title chase 2020/2021

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 minutes ago, jackbauer24 said:

The league is beginning to just show a few cracks where the battles will be.

We seem to have a top 4 which are just beginning to get that consistency and make a little gap start forming (points in the bag vs games in hand)

Then 5th to about 12th where a mini run gets you dreaming of Europe and a blip in form makes you feel like the bubble has burst.

13th to 17th are probably focusing on not having a mare of a second part of the season and know safety, without drama, is their aim.

Then you've got the bottom three who are adrift and hoping to be the one team that escapes with a minor miracle.

We're clearly in that second band - 5th to 12th, so even finishing middle of that pack in 8th/9th would be big year on year progress and I'd be happy if a little anti climactic after our stunning start to the season. Make the same strides again in 21/22 and you're fighting for the title!

Good post but I doubt the level of improvement will ever be that great we’ll be challenging for the title. The gap is just too big to fill. I think we can become a comfortable top 8 team again though. 

[jackbauer24]

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Good post but I doubt the level of improvement will ever be that great we’ll be challenging for the title. The gap is just too big to fill. I think we can become a comfortable top 8 team again though. 

I thought using a hashtag #sarcasm was a bit unnecessary in my post - but no, I don't think we'll be challenging for the title next season! I meant more the jump was significant this year and really you just need to keep improving.

My mind always goes to F1 when talking about improvement actually, or cars more precisely. I give you £1000 to modify your car and you can probably get it around a track a minute quicker (vague example!) but for every improvement after that it gets harder and more expensive... F1 cars now spend millions to shave 0.01 seconds off a lap time. The same will apply broadly to a team, throw money at a poor team and big strides will be made in a short space of time but the higher we get the more expensive and harder it will be to push forward so steps become smaller and smaller.

17th to, say, 10th would be good. Next year 10th to 6th. 6th to 4th. 4th to 3rd... You see what I'm saying. Just keep showing progress, and that might not even be measurable in direct position - stabilising in top 10 for a few seasons has to be considered great progress based on the last decade.

But I'll dream of a title sometimes... (When I sleep which this post clearly demonstrates I don't do...)

[villalad21]

7 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Do our direct rivals rotate much? I can only really pick out Arsenal, who seem a lot more settled of late.

Cheslea too i would say

Their new coach rested Abraham and Mount against Wolves.

Listen this is all reminiscent of how MON did it. He would play his preferred 11 players every week and we all remember how they eventually got burned out the last 10 games. It's how we missed out on top 4.

Edited February 1, 2021 by villalad21

[Kiwivillan]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

It's how we missed out on top 4.

Bullshit. He bought Heskey

[Kiwivillan]

West Ham have fielded the same 11 bar 2 changes in outfield in 5 games and won 4 in a row before Liverpool. Will likely play same 11 against us. This a stupid stick to beat Smith with from the usual suspects

[villalad21]

41 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

West Ham have fielded the same 11 bar 2 changes in outfield in 5 games and won 4 in a row before Liverpool. Will likely play same 11 against us. This a stupid stick to beat Smith with from the usual suspects

It's a special season. In a normal season i think we could get away with it.

We'll see what happens but if he keeps picking the same 11 every game i think injuries are bound to happen.

Liverpool do the same thing and look how injuries have been piling up for them.

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

22 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

It's a special season. In a normal season i think we could get away with it.

We'll see what happens but if he keeps picking the same 11 every game i think injuries are bound to happen.

Liverpool do the same thing and look how injuries have been piling up for them.

 

Well that’s when the players you think are good enough to rotate can come in play.  Maybe you should trust the performance professional at the club regarding player fitness instead of the view from your armchair?

[villalad21]

[alreadyexists]

It all comes down to trusting the management team in my opinion. I don’t think we would be where we are this year without DS and the rest of the management team, it’s an unknowable alternative though isn’t it?

I think if you trust the management that have got us this far, then you have to accept that their methods have worked. 

Also, how many times have we actually named the same 11?
John McGinn missed the Burnley game through suspension, and Nakamba came in, Matty Cash missed a game through suspension too, Trez started the season well but was out through injury and Traore has made the starting place his own, and didn’t Mings miss a game too because of the red card and Hause came in? Same for Barkley, was in and the out for 4 weeks or whatever it was.
 

[Lord Willard]

West Ham H

Arsenal H

Brighton A

Leeds A

Leicester  H 

February is a massive month. 4/5 are 6 pointers. 

 

 

 

[Nigel]

Arsenal losing to Wolves is decent

.....combined with them having 2 men sent off makes it a great result!

[villalad21]

Arsenal have us, Leeds and Man City next.

Make it or break it for them. Anything less than 6 points from that and they are probably finishing mid table

[maqroll]

One point ahead of Arsenal with three games in hand on them, woooot

[maqroll]

16 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Arsenal losing to Wolves is decent

.....combined with them having 2 men sent off makes it a great result!

I don't know, Luiz is a walking clanger

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, maqroll said:

One point ahead of Arsenal with three games in hand on them, woooot

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the Arse.

They are a mid table club now and have been for a while.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Arse conceding a couple tonight also has Villa back as second best defence.

Continue that and scoring in most games who knows where we can finish, win against Spam and confidence will be high.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Zhan_Zhuang

[VillaChris]

1 hour ago, Nigel said:

Arsenal losing to Wolves is decent

.....combined with them having 2 men sent off makes it a great result!

What happened to Matt Ryan? Great for us if they play the Icelandic kid in goal as he's been a nervous wreck whenever he's played for them in the cups.

[Rds1983]

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

What happened to Matt Ryan? Great for us if they play the Icelandic kid in goal as he's been a nervous wreck whenever he's played for them in the cups.

Hip injury. Be back in a week or two but very likely miss our game. 

[VillaChris]

Just now, Rds1983 said:

Hip injury. Be back in a week or two but very likely miss our game. 

Hopefully Tierney is still out as we can get at Cedric on the left aswell.

Arsenal did play really well first half though, classic case of red card changing everything.

Mad they changed the rule a while back after it rarely being a red now when you do a last man foul in the box and yet Luiz has been sent off 3 times like that in the last 13 months.

[Vive_La_Villa]

23 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Hopefully Tierney is still out as we can get at Cedric on the left aswell.

Arsenal did play really well first half though, classic case of red card changing everything.

Mad they changed the rule a while back after it rarely being a red now when you do a last man foul in the box and yet Luiz has been sent off 3 times like that in the last 13 months.

Don’t really get how it was a red. Great chance for us with both Luiz and Leno missing. Whilst Luiz always has a mistake in him the back four have been looking quite settled so Arteta wouldn’t have wanted to change it.