Villa’s Race for Europe 22/23

[bose]

Once again under Unai I’m going to be naively optimistic. Been through too much shit with the Villa to try and temper my hopes.

We’re going for the win tomorrow. If we lose it’ll be because United played very well.

I’ll be delighted with 8th after everything that’s happened but there is something special brewing here and It’s fine to be excited and maybe even too optimistic for a change.

Edited April 29, 2023 by bose

[Tomaszk]

8th is a great season.

Until we haven't beaten Utd tomorrow I'm dreaming of 4th.

[Don_Simon]

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

My sentiments exactly.

We have some real insecure and fragile fans, some of the reading on the last few pages is just unbelievable.

"Unbelievable". You cannot believe that after the last decade of Villa, people might not predict Villa to beat Man United away tomorrow, or that people might predict Villa to not finish in Europe?

You find those eventualities  "unbelievable"?

 

[Mark Albrighton]

I’ve been out drinking, I only caught the Brighton - Wolves result at full time.

Having mulled it over, my thoughts are -

Negative  - It wasn’t great for Villa’s European aspirations.

Positive - I won’t lie, it was pretty ****ing funny.

[Kiwivillan]

15 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

"Unbelievable". You cannot believe that after the last decade of Villa, people might not predict Villa to beat Man United away tomorrow, or that people might predict Villa to not finish in Europe?

You find those eventualities  "unbelievable"?

 

The past has no bearing on Emery and the current team

[paul514]

I'm nervous every game now, we sill need 3 wins from the 5 remaining games, if we don't win tomorrow suddenly it becomes 3 from 4 which is obviously harder.

[Keyblade]

Brighton still have 7 games to go, including City, United, Arsenal, Newcastle and crucially us. If they beat 2 or more of the former maybe before they play us, and until we start hemorrhaging points, then we can start to panic. It wasn't even a week when they were losing to Forest. Plenty of twists and turns yet to come. We just have to do our parts. If we beat United tomorrow, would you bet against us?

[Kiwivillan]

One of Emery's greatest achievements so far is turning Villa fans into hopeful optimists rather than the defeatist doom and gloom merchants of old. 

[Keyblade]

Brighton have 2 games in hand on us. We can allow them to be just 2 points ahead of us when they come to VP (we're not making up that goal difference).

That means that in those 2 games (City, Newcastle) we can afford them picking up 4 points (1 win and a draw). That's already a lot to ask, and if they get it we'd just have to match their results til the end. 

Starting with both of us playing Manchester United this week. Let's let both of these matches play out and reassess.

Our remaining games are then:

 

Villa:

Wolves (A)

Tottenham (H)

Liverpool (A)

 

Brighton:

Everton (H)

Arsenal (A)

Southampton (H)

 

We have the added bonus of being able to take out our own competition, and potentially rendering the final game a dead rubber.

Not to mention we play our games literally in that order, but they have a trip to St. James Park and hosting Man City in between those matches.

I'd say this is in our hands.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Keyblade

[GlobalVillan]

6 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's not really bedwetting to think we're competing for 7th.

We are. 

We're in a four team group with Liverpool, Spurs and Brighton in a contest where the top three win.

Liverpool are favourites in that group and we're the outsider with the bookies.

7th would be great and it would have been brilliant if an in form Wolves side who've been playing well over the last few weeks had done us a favour and taken a point out of a Brighton side who looked a little vulnerable going into the game - they look less vulnerable now - similarly, Spurs rescuing a point against United in the week is a setback, it'll give them renewed confidence.

We've had a couple of results go against us in the group, I remain hopeful we can do enough to not finish 8th, but we're going to need other teams to lose games as well as playing well ourselves.

I think we'll finish with around 61 or 62 points and I really hope that's enough. Our run-in is the toughest of those of the teams involved and we're going to need all the help we can get - it's all very well saying it's in our hands, but those hands are very, very full - we have some very difficult games.

If United had held on, or Wolves had grabbed a point, our chances would have been better than they are now.

I don't feel that's an overreaction.

 

Perfectly worded 

[Pinebro]

Think we'll finish 8th tbh

[CVByrne]

That was a statement from Brighton yesterday. I get the feeling we'll come up just short but what a start and future under Emery regardless. Summer to look forward to

[VILLAMARV]

We've already won haven't we. We've got Emery, we've got away from the bottom half, we've got a style, we've got our swagger back, we've got hope.

But we've also got this opportunity. And, it's one where we can have an effect on what happens to us.

There's nothing to be disappointed about.

[nick76]

7 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

That was a statement from Brighton yesterday. I get the feeling we'll come up just short but what a start and future under Emery regardless. Summer to look forward to

It was also a statement from us against Newcastle especially considering what they have done before and afterwards.

Yesterday, Brighton’s excellence was helped just as much by how much Wolves spreading their legs wide and letting every man and his dog have a go.  That was so poor by Wolves…it doesn’t take away that Brighton still had to take advantage but Wolves were at the beach, sipping their 10th drink, thinking about the cheesecake they are eating later mode.

I get it looks great for Brighton, they also stopped their recent run but some context to the game is needed.  We beat a flying Newcastle convincingly, Brighton beat a team on the beach convincingly.

[burchy]

I think we’ll have enough and finish 6th behind Liverpool.

We’ve been in every game, even the ones we’ve lost. 

I get the media clamour for Brighton as they’ve had a fantastic season but they are a selling club, the likes of Mac Allister, Caicedo, Mitoma will all be off in the Summer and they’ll have to start again, it’s their model.

We’re a different animal entirely. They’ve just had a 5 year head start on us premier league wise. We’ll build on this year and hopefully take off next season with Emery guiding us at the helm. 

Whatever the outcome this season there are exciting times ahead. UTFV

[brummybloke]

Today's game is hugely important, we need to keep the momentum going, with a win. After wolves no show and Brighton able to beat them so easily without 3 of their regular starters being in the 1st 11 and rested, we need to keep the pressure on the rest.

Win and i can see us win the next couple against wolves and spurs which would put us in a great position going into the last 2 games.

Results today to be the following please

Man ure 0 villa 2

Bournemouth 3 Leeds 1

Fulham 0 man city 4

Newcastle 2 Southampton 3

Liverscum 2 spurs 2 with it being a blood bath, players injuring each other, mass punch ups ref being shoved by players from both sides and players sent off from each team and banned for 8 matches.

 

Oh and even though Chelsea are not playing , I would still like them to lose !

 

[trekka]

31 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Wolves spreading their legs wide and letting every man and his dog have a go

[Leeroy]

I see Brighton getting 7 points from 6 games before they play us which would put them on 59 points when they play us:

Man Utd - draw

Everton - win 

Arsenal - lose

Newcastle - lose

Southampton - win

Man City - lose

 

I see us getting 6 points before we play them putting us on 60 points:

Man Utd - lose

Wolves - win 

Spurs - win

Liverpool - lose

 

I'm basing that off Wolves yesterday who were absolutely abysmal (they are better at home but we are great away under Unai so we really should be beating them if we play at our best, plus we have some injured players back hopefully to give us more options) and Spurs have been poor for a long time so another game we really ought to be winning especially with home advantage. We may get a point or more at Man Utd or Liverpool but let's assume losses as they are the hardest fixtures. If we are above Brighton by the time we play them we only need a draw on the final game of the season to grab at least 7th (probably 6th if we beat Tottenham) but I can see us beating Brighton with the crowd behind us and we have a very good record against them. 

 

So no need to be negative even if we lose today, although if we win today or even draw that gives us an even greater chance. The injuries are the only thing that concern me as we have to keep playing the same team and a 37 year old at right back, sounds like they should train next week so if we could have all of them on the bench for Wolves that would be very encouraging. 

[Kiwivillan]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

It was also a statement from us against Newcastle especially considering what they have done before and afterwards.

Yesterday, Brighton’s excellence was helped just as much by how much Wolves spreading their legs wide and letting every man and his dog have a go.  That was so poor by Wolves…it doesn’t take away that Brighton still had to take advantage but Wolves were at the beach, sipping their 10th drink, thinking about the cheesecake they are eating later mode.

I get it looks great for Brighton, they also stopped their recent run but some context to the game is needed.  We beat a flying Newcastle convincingly, Brighton beat a team on the beach convincingly.

Apparently Wolves are going to turn up against us because Portuguese players really care about a historic Midlands derby 

[SecretVillaScout]

37 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

I see Brighton getting 7 points from 6 games before they play us which would put them on 59 points when they play us:

Man Utd - draw

Everton - win 

Arsenal - lose

Newcastle - lose

Southampton - win

Man City - lose

 

I see us getting 6 points before we play them putting us on 60 points:

Man Utd - lose

Wolves - win 

Spurs - win

Liverpool - lose

 

I'm basing that off Wolves yesterday who were absolutely abysmal (they are better at home but we are great away under Unai so we really should be beating them if we play at our best, plus we have some injured players back hopefully to give us more options) and Spurs have been poor for a long time so another game we really ought to be winning especially with home advantage. We may get a point or more at Man Utd or Liverpool but let's assume losses as they are the hardest fixtures. If we are above Brighton by the time we play them we only need a draw on the final game of the season to grab at least 7th (probably 6th if we beat Tottenham) but I can see us beating Brighton with the crowd behind us and we have a very good record against them. 

 

So no need to be negative even if we lose today, although if we win today or even draw that gives us an even greater chance. The injuries are the only thing that concern me as we have to keep playing the same team and a 37 year old at right back, sounds like they should train next week so if we could have all of them on the bench for Wolves that would be very encouraging. 

Underestimating Brighton IMO