Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Arsenal

[Adam2003]

7 hours ago, Monsieur Hazdazler said:

Do we think Barkley was annoyed with his performance, simply wanted to keep playing or some other deeper issue?

Probably both 1 and 2 - he’s said on the record he hates being subbed off and feels the last few mins is when he can most influence a game. Dean has to balance that versus the overall team of course.

[Hornso]

Loved the tenacity. UTV

 

[doaflip]

Great result. Still looked a little off at times but the defence was resolute and everyone put in 110%. Can't ask for much more really.

[TheStagMan]

12 hours ago, Brumerican said:

The people at Arsenal need to read the rules.

READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM !

We need Jackie Weaver to come and explain it to them.

[Herman22]

A lot of credit should go to Marv. He's been excellent in his last two starts against Newcastle and again yesterday. A real headache for DS now. 

For me Marv didn't put a foot wrong yesterday and deserves to keep his spot. 

[AVFCDAN]

37 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

A lot of credit should go to Marv. He's been excellent in his last two starts against Newcastle and again yesterday. A real headache for DS now. 

For me Marv didn't put a foot wrong yesterday and deserves to keep his spot. 

Yeah he definitely keeps his place, thought McGinn was much better and more present in the team as well which was better for the team overall.

[Okonokos]

Nakamba has absolutely proven he's an asset to the team and not just filler. I'm also yet to be totally convinced by Luiz and would probably start Nakamba ahead of him now. He seems to improve McGinn too, who was awesome yesterday.

[It's Your Round]

I couldn’t watch the game yesterday so had to make do with the audio coverage. Since then I’ve watched the extended highlights twice and watched MOTD. From what I’ve seen and read since, we really defended well. Our back four and Martinez are so good, they provide the perfect base for our attacking players to go and do their thing. That save from the free kick in the first half was brilliant, Emi is so composed, agile and strong. I can forgive the very rare mistakes he might make as his performances are making all the difference to this team. 
 

Arsenal had plenty of chances to level or even win, but they didn’t take them/we stopped them. We also had loads of chances to increase the score and on another day could have won by four. Barkley, Jack, Traore all should have done better with their chances and Watkins had a hat trick of chances. That’s not a criticism, just an observation. 
 

All in all, a great team performance that sets us up nicely for a week’s preparation for Brighton. Credit to Smith and the team, onwards and upwards for the mighty Villa boys! 

[NurembergVillan]

53 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

Nakamba has absolutely proven he's an asset to the team and not just filler. I'm also yet to be totally convinced by Luiz and would probably start Nakamba ahead of him now. He seems to improve McGinn too, who was awesome yesterday.

I think the other thing that helped McGinn yesterday was that, for all of Arsenal's passing, they hold quite a rigid shape.

Xhaka and Partey tend to sit deeper; Sako, Smith-Rowe and Pepe play in front of them; Lacazette on his own up top.  There was no breaking of the lines, nobody pushing up or dropping back from their "zone". Only the full-backs are asked to cross into other territories.

McGinn is all-action, box-to-box, break the lines. In that instance, who picks him up? Maybe when he's off the ball whoever's zone he's in picks him up, but if he's running with the ball they looked confused.

Nakamba was a necessity, because their 3 attacking mids sit where they are - certainly centrally with Smith-Rowe - so Luiz may have been caught out further up the field.

Barkley lost out in this instance, because he was sitting as our attacking mid and had Partey AND Xhaka around him at all times.

At least my take from watching it - I've not done any serious analysis post-match!

[roonst83]

Big win that. Much needed and I felt, deserved. What I’m most pleased with with is is how we have repeatedly came back from poor results to get big wins (Arsenal and Saints away and Arsenal at home). That shows character, determination and great coaching. And listening to Deano he talks about us still needing to improve in lots of areas. Love that. Looking forwards. Pushing for betterness. Always.

Mings, when fully focused, is absolutely colossal. Gave him MOTM with Watkins right behind him. Watkins is so huge to how we okay. He holds the ball up fantastically, is so mobile across all back lines, and doesn’t give anyone too much time. And he tracks back to get involved too.

Cash was also absolutely excellent. Fair play to Nakamba. Twice he’s been thrown in without much game time and twice he’s done a great job in that defensive holding role. Excellent and more importantly it shows we can rely on other players when called upon and play the way we need to. That’s crucial for progression.

We weathered a storm of possession bu Arsenal but we were absolutely resolute and crafted the better chances all game. Their keeper was the busier but massive credit to Martinez for that one brilliant save from the free kick. He’s a fans favourite despite him not having played for us in front of the fans. 

Traore has to start every game for me. He’s levels above Anwar and Trezzy in terms if quality, craft and guile. He’s unpredictable and whilst I was screaming at him for not drilling his chance low into the corner, I’ve learnt that his nonchalant style is just what he is and we shouldn’t want to take that away form him. He’s beautiful to watch on the ball and it was a great assist for the goal. 

We’ve shown in our games against Saints away and Arsenal yesterday that we can be resilient and defend soundly to help us get vital wins. Add that to the flair and attacking threat of our forward players then it shows we’re such an improving team. 

[TRO]

20 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

It does seem churlish to be complaining after a great result, its just that we all know it surely doesn't have to be that way any more. We have shown that we can play a lot more fluently, finding our men and even purring at times, but that seems to have gone, so I'd like to understand why. 

Your comment, was right......why can't we say, what is right.

We all love the result, but improvement should be equally as pursued.

[Stoobs]

2 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

I think the other thing that helped McGinn yesterday was that, for all of Arsenal's passing, they hold quite a rigid shape.

Xhaka and Partey tend to sit deeper; Sako, Smith-Rowe and Pepe play in front of them; Lacazette on his own up top.  There was no breaking of the lines, nobody pushing up or dropping back from their "zone". Only the full-backs are asked to cross into other territories.

McGinn is all-action, box-to-box, break the lines. In that instance, who picks him up? Maybe when he's off the ball whoever's zone he's in picks him up, but if he's running with the ball they looked confused.

Nakamba was a necessity, because their 3 attacking mids sit where they are - certainly centrally with Smith-Rowe - so Luiz may have been caught out further up the field.

Barkley lost out in this instance, because he was sitting as our attacking mid and had Partey AND Xhaka around him at all times.

At least my take from watching it - I've not done any serious analysis post-match!

Spot on analysis in my opinion.

[srsmithusa]

9 hours ago, Okonokos said:

Nakamba has absolutely proven he's an asset to the team and not just filler. I'm also yet to be totally convinced by Luiz and would probably start Nakamba ahead of him now. He seems to improve McGinn too, who was awesome yesterday.

Nakamba has always been the better ball winner between him and Luiz, but Luiz has been and still is better at putting the ball to good use.  It's quite a quandry from my point of view.  McGinn offers a ball possession, and attacking instinct they both lack.

[KenjiOgiwara]

On 06/02/2021 at 15:34, Brumstopdogs said:

We won a game in February - get in!

Now we just need to win one in March

[Lerner's Driver]

17 hours ago, TRO said:

Your comment, was right......why can't we say, what is right.

We all love the result, but improvement should be equally as pursued.

What is your theory, Tro? I suspect it's a mix of:

(1) Teams no longer being suckered into allowing us to play as we did early on in the season - they probably underestimated us and we grew in confidence on the ball as a result;

(2) As an extension of the first point, we look great when teams 'let us play', but sometimes struggle against the bigger, more aggressive teams, who force us into errors;

(3) As one of the main components in our fluid style, Barkley's injury lay-off and subsequent dip in form have put the pressure back on Jack to be our primary source of creativity;

(4) Again, as an extension of the previous point, a lack of game changing creative options on the bench. El Ghazi and Trez have contributed well this season, but are fitful and at times really quite poor, so not a guaranteed filip when called upon to give us a boost in games. Trez makes up for this with his defensive work rate.

On reflection, I like the return to the defence-first basics of the Arsenal game, but it is a dangerous tactic and does make for a stressful watch, when we are willingly conceding so much possession. You can get away with it against skilful but misfiring opposition like Arsenal, but not a clinical up for it team like West Ham (recently).

[Raver50032]

This was a very big result for us and a match (a month really) that shows that the job is still not over. We are still a club that needs to evolve in order to compete at the top. We soaked up a lot of pressure - like we did at Southampton, like we did against West Ham etc. A big performance from all of our defenders and a very good performance from Lord Watkins. Really, really pleased for the team and for Smith. 

This is a good season for us - hopefully we will continue to keep up the good work. Thrilled to bits just as the moment. 

[TRO]

6 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

What is your theory, Tro? I suspect it's a mix of:

(1) Teams no longer being suckered into allowing us to play as we did early on in the season - they probably underestimated us and we grew in confidence on the ball as a result;

(2) As an extension of the first point, we look great when teams 'let us play', but sometimes struggle against the bigger, more aggressive teams, who force us into errors;

(3) As one of the main components in our fluid style, Barkley's injury lay-off and subsequent dip in form have put the pressure back on Jack to be our primary source of creativity;

(4) Again, as an extension of the previous point, a lack of game changing creative options on the bench. El Ghazi and Trez have contributed well this season, but are fitful and at times really quite poor, so not a guaranteed filip when called upon to give us a boost in games. Trez makes up for this with his defensive work rate.

On reflection, I like the return to the defence-first basics of the Arsenal game, but it is a dangerous tactic and does make for a stressful watch, when we are willingly conceding so much possession. You can get away with it against skilful but misfiring opposition like Arsenal, but not a clinical up for it team like West Ham (recently).

I think All those points have relevance....its a bit of them all.

I don't think our midfield is there yet, despite a great start....we have too many samey players in there and not enough variation.....I am hoping a poweful, dictator, in the middle will be sought at some stage, and that will also help the attacking side of our game, someone who can turn the ball over, fairly regularly and start attacks.

I favour starting in games cautiously and catching teams on the counter.....our ball control and movement, is not quite up there to be a possession based team, and the counter is our best weapon.....but you can't keep relying on that, possession is a valuable feature in the game too.

We are just WIP....but 11 clean sheets is a dandy.

 

[TRO]

6 hours ago, Raver50032 said:

This was a very big result for us and a match (a month really) that shows that the job is still not over. We are still a club that needs to evolve in order to compete at the top. We soaked up a lot of pressure - like we did at Southampton, like we did against West Ham etc. A big performance from all of our defenders and a very good performance from Lord Watkins. Really, really pleased for the team and for Smith. 

This is a good season for us - hopefully we will continue to keep up the good work. Thrilled to bits just as the moment. 

It was a great result....and a team that are arguably better talented overall as a squad.....but our talent and application negated them.

it was a true benchmank of our progress and I am sure that Dean knows like we do, we have a way to go to be dominant....but it will come.

we couldn't ask for more right know.....but we must strive for better and I think these owners will.

[TRO]

On 07/02/2021 at 12:03, Okonokos said:

Nakamba has absolutely proven he's an asset to the team and not just filler. I'm also yet to be totally convinced by Luiz and would probably start Nakamba ahead of him now. He seems to improve McGinn too, who was awesome yesterday.

The problem is players move in an out of form....the great ones, like Jack show consistency.

A favoured player this week can be a doubt next week.....that is not us being fickle, its us evaluating their play, not necessarily the player.....variations in form can change opinions, if that form drifts away, for a long period.

Nakamba's last 2 outings give us another dimension, he is not eye candy, but he has presence and can be effective in denying teams initiative.....he douses the flames.

[PaulC]

On 08/02/2021 at 09:34, Lerner's Driver said:

What is your theory, Tro? I suspect it's a mix of:

(1) Teams no longer being suckered into allowing us to play as we did early on in the season - they probably underestimated us and we grew in confidence on the ball as a result;

(2) As an extension of the first point, we look great when teams 'let us play', but sometimes struggle against the bigger, more aggressive teams, who force us into errors;

(3) As one of the main components in our fluid style, Barkley's injury lay-off and subsequent dip in form have put the pressure back on Jack to be our primary source of creativity;

(4) Again, as an extension of the previous point, a lack of game changing creative options on the bench. El Ghazi and Trez have contributed well this season, but are fitful and at times really quite poor, so not a guaranteed filip when called upon to give us a boost in games. Trez makes up for this with his defensive work rate.

On reflection, I like the return to the defence-first basics of the Arsenal game, but it is a dangerous tactic and does make for a stressful watch, when we are willingly conceding so much possession. You can get away with it against skilful but misfiring opposition like Arsenal, but not a clinical up for it team like West Ham (recently).

I agree and if we are honest we would have lost the game against west Ham even with Marvelous in the side.  There was more effort collectively against Arsenal, Martinez had a great game as well but against West Ham he had a shocker, and west Ham were more clinical.