Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Arsenal

[El Segundo]

Last two home games has been like watching Leeds under Bielsa, some great stuff going forward but fragile as hell defending.

Once again gifted the opposition at least two goals with errors, Mings header back into the box for the first was a joke, and then failure to mark at the corner for the second – a carbon copy of the Stevenage winner.   Why hasn’t our set piece coach addressed that? And Konsa tried his best to gift them another one.

Bailey and Duran both looked good when they came on and Bailey very unlucky with his big chance.  Surprised he took off Luiz and Watkins who were both having good games.

Arsenal were the better side but still very fortunate to win with two gifts and a jammy third. Thought we were worth a drw.

11 conceded in three games is a concern especially as several of them have been from our mistakes. Some mitigation that it was against the top two and a Leicester side that seem to have hit form and also put four past Spurs. But still.

Ref terrible again and the linesman on the Trinity side as well.     

[wict01]

Proper gut punch of a result. Played well in patches but we are absolutely gifting the opposition goals now. I’m all for “taking the positives” but when the manager comes out and says it’s not **** good enough then I’ll side with him. Just felt like typical Aston Villa. Always a footnote in somebody else’s story. Sigh.

[El Segundo]

Not sure why people are complaining at 6 minutes added time, it was going to be at least that with two lengthy delays for injuries to Saka and Cash, at least 5 substitution sets, and then Martinez dicking about again.  Emery not happy with him apparently and didn't seem to like him much when at Arsenal.  Wouldn't surprise me to see us cash in on his high stock in the Summer.

[Villatillidie95]

Not long back from the game, I thought we had some good attacking opportunities today and took a couple of them tbf, however, we didnt close them down near enough however and were completely undone by them in the final few minutes which was very very disappointing. Everton have won today and i reckoin they cant wait to play us, for me we can't get anything less than 3 points in that game. Its a hell of a lot tougher than it was a month ago.

I've seen us play a lot worse against Arsenal and predicted a loss before the game, but after how we played and considering we were drawing with them until late on i was quite upset we dropped the points there

[MakemineVanilla]

It was all a bit disappointing in the end but having considered Arsenal the best team in the Premier League this season, I didn't expect anything except a loss.

I even thought that Arsenal would beat City in the week, and was amazed they needed a dodgy penalty to draw level.

Judged on some very patchy form I don't think Villa can be a 'good' team by any stretch of the imagination - Konsa's rick was horrendous.

I certainly was surprised by Villa scoring so easily and so early, and the quality of the second was outstanding.

Villa defended poorly for Arsenal's equaliser, which made it the second time the near post was not defended properly, after the Stevenage equaliser.

Arsenal's third was just a good shot rounded off by lady luck.

Villa deserved a draw, and were unlucky not to get it.

Perhaps Villa's luck will get better when they are a better team?

 

[AvonVillain]

16 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said:

.. considering we were drawing with them until late on i was quite upset we dropped the points there

Not certain what to make of this final line, apart from: well naturally.

[WallisFrizz]

Anybody still in the area of VP keep a look out…

 

[CLARETANDBLUEFOXY]

Quite scary that we are only 8 points away from the bottom three when you think how close we were to getting into the top ten a few games back. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by CLARETANDBLUEFOXY

[picicata]

30 minutes ago, beachboys1 said:

seen some people on twitter say emri no better than gerrard

It's important to remember most people on twitter are dickheads 

[VillaJ100]

Despite Konsa with the suicidal play notwithstanding arsenal's goals had a touch of luck about them. You see a screamer like that about once every 20 games let alone 2 in one game

[VillaChris]

Just now, VillaJ100 said:

Despite Konsa with the suicidal play notwithstanding arsenal's goals had a touch of luck about them. You see a screamer like that about once every 20 games let alone 2 in one game

Zinchenko's goal wasn't much different to the one Stevenage scored.

If you just constantly leave players unmarked on edge of box from corners don't be surprised if some of them get shots on target.

[thunderball]

Disappointed as I am I have to say it was bad luck today, the 2 goal difference was a freak and not the story of the game. 

I thought no one was poor today, I think we can play better but have definitely played worse. Arsenal are a very good team and we didn’t look out of place and they are a team we aspire to replicate in their patient revival from mid table runners. 

Positives: Watkins is playing well, a great finish today. Kamara is getting back to his level. I thought Cash was good today, and Luiz. 

Still think there is a better player than McGinn and we need to find that front three balance. 

If we get £80m+ offer for Martinez I think we let him go with our blessing. 

I feel we are a much better team today than in August. The trajectory is obvious and exciting.

[The Fun Factory]

11 goals conceded in 3 games, 8 in the last 2 home games, while taking the lead on four separate occasions in those games. 2 wins in 5 at Villa Park.  A minus 10 goal difference. 11 defeats in 23 games.

Even with Chelsea obliging we are looking at just a mid-table side at the moment.  We may win a few, but then lose a few. Played well for large periods today but as soon as they announced 6 minutes of injury time you knew what was going to happen. I don't think many of the subs worked either. 

Since we have been back in the prem we have played 69 home league games winning 25, drawing 14 and losing 30.   No wonder we sound so flat, we just expect disappointment for the weekend.

Edited February 18, 2023 by The Fun Factory

[Leeroy]

I'm just looking back over our last few games and our XG compared to the opposition and it isn't pretty reading.

 

Not sure where the positivity is coming from because today was a thoroughly deserved loss and the stats show it, Arsenal's XG was 2.86 and ours was 0.34, Arsenal possession was 66% and ours was 34%. Everton are sh*t and when they played Arsenal 2 weeks ago they had an XG of 2.09 and Arsenal 0.69. 

 

It's not just today, last week we gifted City a load of chances and the week before we gifted Leicester a load of (clear) chances.

 

Honestly it has to stop and stop soon or we will keep losing, we are not playing well despite some having it in their head that we are and I'm starting to get very worried. People laugh that Everton is a must win but heaven forbid we lose that and we are in the sh*t big time. 

[tinker]

After all the squawking Arsenal did over last week's offside decision our relative acceptance of a clear breach of the offside rule is disappointing. 

As long as teams like Arsenal pressure the officials to make decisions that suit them at teams like our expense  then we will get results like today, Disgusted by it all tbh, the whole thing stinks.

[chrisvilla4]

Enjoyable, nervy game. Last 8 minutes were just typical villa and emi was so unlucky. We gave a good account of ourselves

Not going down or challenging for Europe so all about learning Unai's philosophy for me. Some green shoots despite the loss. UTV.

[fightoffyour]

3 hours ago, S-Platt said:

Yep typical Utd fan no clue the ball has to be played forward to be offside.

It doesn’t.

[S-Platt]

4 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

It doesn’t.

Explaine?

[Lichfield Dean]

2 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

Explaine?

I explained this earlier. You can't be offside form a corner, the rules state this explicitly. Playing forwards or backwards is irrelevant from corners when it comes to offsides.

[S-Platt]

Just now, Lichfield Dean said:

I explained this earlier. You can't be offside form a corner, the rules state this explicitly. Playing forwards or backwards is irrelevant from corners when it comes to offsides.

So where does that matter to a forward pass?