Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Arsenal

[The_Steve]

Different game if we had the penalty.

We won't win if we don't get shots on target though.

Ings did more than Ollie to threaten and that says so much

[jacketspuds]

It took Arsenal a fair bit of time to start playing consistently well under Arteta. Gerrard needs time to do the same.

[villa4europe]

Arsenal are better than us, was very much on show today 

The only frustration for me was that included falling over which the ref lapped up 

[tezzaleed]

jesus.  cash motm are you having fing laugh he was total shite.  kept running down dead ends when he should have made a 30 yard pass.  luiz was the only player from the original 12 who was trying to pass the ball forward.  coutinho was awful.  Bailey looked promising when he came on.  watkins poor ings looked more of a threat.  in summary.   p poor.

[AvonVillain]

To think of the wages being spent out there from the manager down, and not one shot on goal. Every penny should be forfeited this week and handed over to help Ukraine.

[ozvillafan]

Passive. Lacking intensity. Ball watching.

Then Arsenal scored.

We started pushing the ball about and either forcing a pass that was never on and turning over possession or lumping it in to the box.

I'm not sure which of those was worse.

[Rightdm00]

I don't think I'm ever going to like this setup. We just leaves whole swaths of the pitch unoccupied and move around like U8 scrum around the ball. Looked much better once we got a little width on the pitch. 

[Bizzzle]

I didn’t think we’d win but I thought we’d at least **** try! Glad I didn’t waste my money going now! 

[Ponky]

Meh. Second best when it counted. 

Problem with playing everything thru one player is when that player is having an off day you are pretty much screwed. 

Cash best Villa player on the pitch by miles. 

Ollie. Well. His first touch shows exactly why he'll never play for his beloved Arsenal. 

[Demitri_C]

90 minutes of our lives we will never get back.

JJ watkins need to be dropped for next game i think.

Traore and Coutinho were pants. Overall a poor day at the office. If there was a '"on the beach'" performance this was it

[the_eristic]

Can't play two small, technical 10s when your midfield is incapable of passing to them (or even just keeping the ball) and your striker can't win the ball and hold it up for them. Would've been better served with KD up top today.

JJ needs resting. Coutinho, too, frankly. Sanson needs a chance. Ollie needs benching.

[maqroll]

Another losing streak woohoo

[NurembergVillan]

We've lost to a very good Arsenal side who attack and defend as a solid unit. It's taken Arteta a while, but he's shaped them how he wants them.

That said, for as much they kept us at arms length, there wasn't really a sustained period where I could sense an Arsenal goal coming.  I think for the most part (and especially given we had Young at LB against Saka) we defended them very well.

Gerrard will still be learning a lot about his players. He's stress-testing his own system against other teams rather than changing formations and personnel all the while, and I think that's the right approach. It might cost us a few games this season, but we're not going down and we need to see who will stay and who will go in the summer.

Ramsey played like he was knackered again, McGinn gave one of his infuriating performances and Luiz looked far better when he was allowed to step into central midfield rather than having to protect the defence.

Watkins was back to the frustrating form we've seen too often this season.

Cash had another good game and largely kept ESR quiet, but Coutinho and to a lesser extent Buendia were anonymous.

Ings looked a threat when he came on, whilst Bailey showed the benefit of having explosive pace with his little burst and cross from the byline.

Traore didn't offer much and made a couple of bad decisions, but his close control remains as good as anyone else in the squad.  Certainly far better than that of Watkins who seems to trip over the ball a lot these days.

Another learning curve for coaches and players alike, and proof that if you can see glimmers of what a manager is trying to achieve, give him the time and eventually he will achieve it. Arteta is quietly doing a very good job there.

[VillanousOne]

1 minute ago, Robtaylor200 said:

Players need to have a good look at themselves and should be made to watch the replay a dozen times until they feel as sick as we all do 

Poor performance from well paid men with a job to do, cant be bothered to vote MOTM If I could my vote would go to every fan who went. We honestly should be doing better now 

They pressed us so we kept losing the ball or bypassed our midfield and all our creativity is focused on the middle of the park or an out ball to Watkins who is always being closed down by three players.

Then when we do have possession we are so slow, that Arsenal and any team we play can just sit back in their own half and wait for us to overplay/hoof some desperation ball or sloppy pass somewhere.

For some reason we only pressed in short spells and even when Arsenal hoofed it their players still won the ball, that is how gutless and dire we are at winning 50/50s.

As soon as we sold Grealish and start playing this slow narrow football we have suffered, Gerrard has better personnel available than Dean but is still playing without any pace and width. Against some poorer teams who don't press as much we might get a bit of joy but we will get violated with ease by the teams currently above us.

 

[PaulC]

Very frustating game. Our play seemed very ponderous and predictable. Did well to keep them to 1-0 but it seemed second half it was the old Arsenal playing for 1-0. 

[PieFacE]

6 minutes ago, hippo said:

Artetta promoted his youth players. Something Stevie G didn't do at Rangers and looks unlikely to do it here.

Not sure how that's relevant? 

[NurembergVillan]

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

90 minutes of our lives we will never get back.

If it makes you feel any better, that is equally true of any other 90 minute period you've lived so far

[brummybloke]

Negative slow passive and that's the positives.

No bringing the ball out quickly against a high press team ? Really ?

Midfield 3 in effective, slow uninspired passive and negative

Forwards ? Blunt is the nicest way I can describe them

Seems we are training the skill out of big phil who was a waste of space today thanks to our negative play.

Nice to see traore continue his total selfishness of ignoring every single cash over lap, to the point cash gave him a taste of his own medicine in the end which again cash was more effective as he got himself a free kick.

Tactics were wrong formation was wrong and players were wrong.

As good as Ramsey has been this season mostly, he has faded the last 4 games, passing sloppy not holding his position leaving the full back totally exposed.

Mcginn again slow poor passing and wasteful.

Luiz slow and poor play for most of the game 

Big phil was wasteful when he did get the ball 

Watkins had another shocker

Only player to get any credit was cash.

 

Gutless by most of them today.

[VillaParkAvenue]

My eternal hatred for Arsenal makes it difficult to see straight, but I didn’t think they were at their usual level today. Quite poor second half from them.

We were dull, toothless and sloppy. McGinn and Ramsey were shit but no-one really stood out as good. Coutinho pretty useless as well.

Worst thing about it is the Arsenal hype will only increase. If the weather was bad at least one could hope their bus had some sort of accident.

[Demitri_C]

Buendia was also really shite today. Didnt take the chance he was given therfore for me bailey should get a start ahead of him