Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Arsenal

[IrishVilla10]

Cash MOTM? What am I missing. He hoofed it in the first half and wasn’t involved in the second. Bloody hell 

Edited March 19, 2022 by IrishVilla10

[VillaFaninLondon]

7 minutes ago, Paul33 said:

They really won't you know !

Yes it will, he’s lost as many as he’s won in the league and it’s not acceptable. You can shrug off the defeats to crap teams like Watford and Brentford if he beats the better teams, but he doesn’t. Another loss today against a team above us, typical Gerrard.

[bielesibub]

[Zhan_Zhuang]

For Steven Gerrard to field a team and let Arsenal dominate and dictate was a surprise.

Villa looked so flat and without urgency, almost as though the tactic was to soak up pressure and snatch something on the break.

Villa looked naive, tentative and passive from the beginning of the game which lets the opponents gain the upper hand. Why is that a tactic, it makes no sense to me?

Massive gulf between Arsenal and Villa, hence the reason we lost both games to them.

[lexicon]

10 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I think last season we were trying to be a midtable team, this season is consolidating as a midtable team with the upgrades.  I don’t think we are a 6th-7th place strength team/squad.  It’s progress which is great but the next step is huge and some of these players aren’t that level.

Is the Arsenal team objectively that much better than ours? I don't think it is and they're 4th. 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Toothless display, Arsenal were better than us. Obviously.

In a match like this you are hoping the so-called better players perform, unfortunately they didn't.

Buendia, Coutinho all ineffective.

McGinn anonymous, Ramsey also had a bad day.

Young and Cash were our best performers.

Referee awful as usual which doesn't help.

Villa allowed them to get a good start by being passive and flat, why is this a consistent trait with Villa? It happened alot under Smith and it happens again with Gerrard.

I'm blaming the players here, at home they often look too reserved, tentative even scared on the ball. If we ever have aspirations of top eight it has to change.

Today was worrying. Exaggerated by the fact I really dislike, Arteta, Smith-Rowe and Arsenal.

[TheAuthority]

Watkins isn't good enough for us to progress into the top 10.

It won't be a popular opinion but neither is McGinn. Those 2 should be sold.

[OutByEaster?]

How do you get booked for that?

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

10 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Is the Arsenal team objectively that much better than ours? I don't think it is and they're 4th. 

It's all very fine margins in this league though mate.

They have a Partey for example, we don't.

They've been building and investing in this team for years.

The " fine margins " they have are also enough to have been better than 15 other teams in the League over the season so far, also.

[Herman22]

If you look at the team that started today:

Ash Young isn’t a starting left back. He’s a great pro and great to have him around the squad. 

Doug Luiz is still the screaming weak link. He doesn’t offer enough in any department.  We should spend whatever we need to to improve here. 

I’m a big SJM fan but he’s been poor recently. Needs to find his form ASAP. 

I don’t know if the two 10s work, this seemed to make Couthino less effective. 

What has happened to the Watkins we had last season? He made nothing stick today and provided absolutely nothing. I don’t doubt his attitude but he shouldn’t start the next game. 

We’ve a lot of work to do in the summer. 

[Adman]

12 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

How do you get booked for that?

One of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen, and let's face it we get to see several stupid decisions each week

[useless]

First season under Smith I'm pretty sure it wasn't until the last but one game before we managed to beat a top half side, that was certainly the first time we managed to beat a top eight team. Last season we finished midtable but a lot of that was down to the good start, for most of last year our form wasn't that much better than relegation form.

Also there was a lot of weird results last season because no crowds completely changed the dynamic of games.

And one more interesting point, after 28 games last season Arsenal had 41 points, compared to the 54 points they have after 28 games this season, point being that's it's pointless comparing our results against them this season with last season, as they're a completely different team now, it's not just us they're doing better against this season.

[skell]

18 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

Watkins isn't good enough for us to progress into the top 10.

It won't be a popular opinion but neither is McGinn. Those 2 should be sold.

Agreed. Bench is the best place for them.  But we.need.to replace them first.

Edited March 19, 2022 by skell

[OutByEaster?]

6 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

Doug Luiz is still the screaming weak link. He doesn’t offer enough in any department. 

He's been the best of our midfield three, consistently, for a month or more - he's the one we need to try very hard to hold onto.

I think I'm with TheAuthority on this one - it might be time to move on from McGinn and Watkins.

 

 

[Five Ken McNaughts]

1/10 for effort. And that’s being kind. On a day we wore black armbands for a Villan who gave everything – for a very modest wage – our current millionaires made it look as if turning up to play football at a packed Villa Park was just one massive inconvenience to their weekends.

[Sulberto21]

21 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

How do you get booked for that?

Corruption.

[El Segundo]

Completely Meh! today.  Didn't think Arsenal were all that but were better than us which is all they needed to be.  Our build up play is too slow and predictable.

Two number 10s isn't going to work.   Looked much better after the subs. 

Ollie's touch and ball retention are terrible., another awful performance today, though admittedly he didn't get much service. 

This will be an unpopular opinion but I think Martiinez has let a few in that really top keepers would save - today was one of them.   

Not sure what Sanson has to do to get a start.

[VillaParkAvenue]

59 minutes ago, Xela said:

We've spent money but peanuts compared to the top teams. 

Coutinho staying, I feel, is dependant on who we sign and the 'project' that is sold to him. You've got to start somewhere and he could be it. Him signing could attract other players and we take it from there

Coutinho attracting other players is just like Gerrard attracting players - it will only work as long as Villa perform really well.

If Villa are crap for the rest of the season, no players will want to come for the argument: ”but that crap side is where Coutinho and Gerrard are!”

[The Fun Factory]

Looked very much like one team who has a live season, and the another that is very comfortable in mid table and thinking of the beach.  This is a very much improved Arsenal from recent years, with a organised defence, some good attacking players and a united fan base. Fair play to Artera, even though they were guilty of some outstanding shi*thousery today.

Villa- poor first half. Young should be given a painting of  a spitfire and let go come May. Anyone who thinks Ash can be effective for another season in the prem  is deluded sadly.  The old adage of never come back does spring to mind. Most players were poor in fairness, lost possession far too much in dangerous areas again. We all know we need a dm. Nothing more to say on that but please can we prioritise that asap please in the summer.  Second half we were better but I never really thought we ever looked liked scoring to be honest. I seriously doubt either Bailey or Traore will be here next season as they did very little when coming on.

We need to start planning now for next season. We need to decide if this squad needs a few signings or ripping up and starting again. Gerrard certainly thinks so. We can't affford to have as such a chaotic pre season as last year as we have been playing catch up all year on this and we have never really got going at all.

Edited March 19, 2022 by The Fun Factory

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

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

When was the penalty shout out of interest? Game was so boring for large parts I can't remember the incident.

Young had a few things but they were just outside the box.