Ratings & Reactions: Arsenal v Villa

[kiltorken]

3 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

Why didn’t Smith change it at 20 mins? 

Valid point 

[ferguson1]

We’ve now conceded 8 goals in 3 games, whilst playing this turgid 5-3-2 formation.

Stop the rot now by reverting to 4-3-3 and leave Ings or Watkins on the bench. Right now it would be Watkins no question.

Did anyone see Sanson having a hissy fit on the bench because he wasn’t brought on? I wonder if all is not well in the camp? Perhaps some harsh words need to be said. Our captain for one needs to go back to basics and just defend.

Pleased for JJ and good to see Bailey get minutes. 

[Xela]

1 minute ago, Awol said:

First half looked like whore’s gash after 30 years of service.

Excellent phrase, Chaucer. 

[regular_john]

I've had shits that were less pure in their shitness than that first half performance.

 

Martinez - unlucky with the penalty. Didn't do much wrong 

Everyone else - **** dreadful.

 

They all need to donate tonight's wages to charity because not one of them earned a **** penny.

 

**** off

 

And **** Arsenal. Bunch of cockney, no mark, midtable words removed.

 

 

 

 

 

[Brumstopdogs]

Why didn't Ings start today?

[PaulC]

4 minutes ago, Dale said:

5-3-2 is a dire formation. We should never play it again. This should've killed it dead. 

and it shouldn't even be am option against the top sides. 

[Awol]

1 minute ago, Zero7 said:

This is the biggest worry for me, he watched the game go by 

Agree, he should of acted much earlier (after 10 mins). 

[OutByEaster?]

Last week was a decent performance with a terrible result.

This week was a really, really poor performance with a poor result.

I don't think 5-3-2 suits us - we look no weaker at the back without the extra centre back and it gives us a player we can use somewhere else, two up front isn't working, I don't think these two are ever going to be a pair.

Arsenal were brilliant in the first half, their best performance in a long while, I know it's hard to look beyond our performance, but sometimes you have to give the other lot some credit, their performance was more responsible for that that first half than ours.

Sometimes with a game like this, you just have to take your licks, learn your lessons and move on. 

Bad night at the office.

 

 

[Xela]

10 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

This is the beginning of the end for Deano. I dont agree with it, but he'll be gone by Christmas.

What Christmas?

[Jareth]

In heroin rehab, they say that before you get better, you have to reach your bottom, we have reached it. 

[Newry_Villan]

Watkins poor, Buendia very poor.  If I was Ings I'd be pissed at getting hooked.  I would have been asking serious questions if Dean didn't change it up at half time, he did but too little too late. He should have changed 20mins in when we were getting overrun.  Lose the next two and pressure will be on Dean.

[LondonLax]

Hopefully that’s the last of the 5-3-2 experiment…

[Genie]

I’m not usually critical of Smith but that was awful, he tried something, fair enough but it was clearly a car crash. He waited until we were 2 down and dead before changing it.

At 1-0 he should have accepted it wasn’t working and reshuffled whilst we still had a chance to salvage something.

[AVFCDAN]

7 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Smith under pressure now unfortunately. Everything that could go wrong, did. 

Maybe another three 30 million pound players will put things right, realistically I don’t know how much more money he needs to improve on last season…

[the_eristic]

Hopefully that's the end of three CBs. We still need a midfield upgrade or three and from now on, it's Ollie Whatkins.

Never a pen, though, at 1-0, that second half is a different proposition.

[Lichfield Dean]

1 minute ago, Brumstopdogs said:

Why didn't Ings start today?

He did...

[MackHaakon]

While the horror of that first half will remain the outstanding highlight and memory of this game - I worry more about type of reasoning that deducts that this absolute black hole of a formation is the way to set up this team with the players we have. It benefits not a single individual in the line-up.  IT MUST STOP. 

[dcdedi]

Time for the board to be ruthless now and move Deano on. However much we like him for what he’s done, for the money we have spent this continues to not be good enough. I hope purslow and the owners do the right thing

[Villa87]

We’re **** about with long throws from our set piece coach, 5 at the back, relying on full backs for creativity and shoe horning 2 strikers into the starting line up which Deano has never done before. Why move away from what was good last season?! We finished last season with 2 wins against Spurs and Chelsea. 

[Brumstopdogs]

Just now, Lichfield Dean said:

He did...

Must have been wearing his invisibility cloak