Kiwivillan Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 4 hours ago, Demitri_C said: Still way to early days. Home we are excellent away not good Wolves away we have been done very shit over the years Borderline positive. I'm loving it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Make Pies Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Here is my take on the top 4 (top 5?) contenders: Man City/Arsenal/Liverpool - a level above everyone else, including us. This will be the top 3 in some order. Brighton - good team but struggled last season and yesterday due to fixture pile up. Their European opponents are tougher than ours and should be a drain on them. Tottenham - been a bit lucky with their results and their playing style will get found out. No Europe will give them a boost in the league, however. Newcastle - strong squad and have experience of getting top 4 last season. Howe holds them back imo and have Champions League distraction. Man Utd - bit of a mess on and off the field but have the players and the money to spend their way there. Likely to improve. West Ham - statistically should be in the bottom half, although that's typical Moyes. Unlikely to sustain their position with Europa League also. Chelsea - call me crazy but I think they are putting a good team together. At some point it will click, but hopefully not until they are out of contention. The Villa - still a work in progress and our away form is not great but if anyone can find a way, it's Emery. I didn't think we would be competing for the Champions League at the start of the season but now it seems possible. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 10 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: Feels like the pace has been pretty blistering so far at the top; Spurs and Arsenal both unbeaten after 7 and there seem to have been fewer draws (possibly? I haven't done the research) meaning more points overall, eg City, Utd, Brighton, Newcastle and ourselves all haven't drawn yet and no draws from today's fixtures. Arsenal only dropped 7 points up to start of Feb last season so little difference. Spurs actually under Conte were as high as 3rd when we played them on first of Jan last season so Spurs starting seasons strong is nothing new (although them not in europe could be a factor as the months go on). Big difference to me this season is Liverpool have well and truly snapped out of their malaise, I actually think they'll run Man. City close to the title. Next weekend is quite important for our european aspirations. We need to be beating Wolves and other fixtures are Brighton-Liverpool and West Ham-Newcastle so depending on results we could start to pull away from a couple of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oishiiniku_uk Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 5 hours ago, Demitri_C said: Still way to early days. Home we are excellent away not good Away form over Emery's tenure so far is still very good: 27/42 points away from home (1.93 ppg). Points against bottom half sides away from home: 19/24. Away form is not quite as impressive as at home (which is at over 2.3 ppg!) but if you're getting close to winning 2 out of every 3 away games, then over the course of a season you're doing very well. Having Newcastle and Liverpool in the first few away fixtures has put a dent in this season's away record (although arguably Newcastle could have gone either way before Mings' injury). It should improve after a few more winnable games though. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 55 minutes ago, I Make Pies said: Here is my take on the top 4 (top 5?) contenders: Man City/Arsenal/Liverpool - a level above everyone else, including us. This will be the top 3 in some order. Brighton - good team but struggled last season and yesterday due to fixture pile up. Their European opponents are tougher than ours and should be a drain on them. Tottenham - been a bit lucky with their results and their playing style will get found out. No Europe will give them a boost in the league, however. Newcastle - strong squad and have experience of getting top 4 last season. Howe holds them back imo and have Champions League distraction. Man Utd - bit of a mess on and off the field but have the players and the money to spend their way there. Likely to improve. West Ham - statistically should be in the bottom half, although that's typical Moyes. Unlikely to sustain their position with Europa League also. Chelsea - call me crazy but I think they are putting a good team together. At some point it will click, but hopefully not until they are out of contention. The Villa - still a work in progress and our away form is not great but if anyone can find a way, it's Emery. I didn't think we would be competing for the Champions League at the start of the season but now it seems possible. Yep agree with this. Spurs is a tricky one - we really do need to finish above them if we want a CL spot. But Ange has got them motivated and playing well. They are keeping pace with the top 3 and doesn’t look like dropping off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 22 minutes ago, ender4 said: Yep agree with this. Spurs is a tricky one - we really do need to finish above them if we want a CL spot. But Ange has got them motivated and playing well. They are keeping pace with the top 3 and doesn’t look like dropping off. Spurs squad depth isn't huge. At 1-1 against 9 men they were bringing on likes of Skipp, Ben Davies and Hojiberg. Their frontline is pretty good and functioning well but if Son or Maddison is out for a month or two that's when they'll dip, Maddison had injuries for Leicester last season. Was asking a Spurs fan on another forum yesterday if they had any serious injuries currently and he was trying to convince me Sessegnon and Bryan Gil out for them were significant problems ..... A little difference to criticial player like Mings being out for the season. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DakotaVilla Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Spurs had the easiest start to the season as well. They have their tails up but you will be very tough for them to maintain it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 hour ago, I Make Pies said: Here is my take on the top 4 (top 5?) contenders: Man City/Arsenal/Liverpool - a level above everyone else, including us. This will be the top 3 in some order. Brighton - good team but struggled last season and yesterday due to fixture pile up. Their European opponents are tougher than ours and should be a drain on them. Tottenham - been a bit lucky with their results and their playing style will get found out. No Europe will give them a boost in the league, however. Newcastle - strong squad and have experience of getting top 4 last season. Howe holds them back imo and have Champions League distraction. Man Utd - bit of a mess on and off the field but have the players and the money to spend their way there. Likely to improve. West Ham - statistically should be in the bottom half, although that's typical Moyes. Unlikely to sustain their position with Europa League also. Chelsea - call me crazy but I think they are putting a good team together. At some point it will click, but hopefully not until they are out of contention. The Villa - still a work in progress and our away form is not great but if anyone can find a way, it's Emery. I didn't think we would be competing for the Champions League at the start of the season but now it seems possible. Not only do you make pies. You also make good posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 hour ago, I Make Pies said: Here is my take on the top 4 (top 5?) contenders: Man City/Arsenal/Liverpool - a level above everyone else, including us. This will be the top 3 in some order. Brighton - good team but struggled last season and yesterday due to fixture pile up. Their European opponents are tougher than ours and should be a drain on them. Tottenham - been a bit lucky with their results and their playing style will get found out. No Europe will give them a boost in the league, however. Newcastle - strong squad and have experience of getting top 4 last season. Howe holds them back imo and have Champions League distraction. Man Utd - bit of a mess on and off the field but have the players and the money to spend their way there. Likely to improve. West Ham - statistically should be in the bottom half, although that's typical Moyes. Unlikely to sustain their position with Europa League also. Chelsea - call me crazy but I think they are putting a good team together. At some point it will click, but hopefully not until they are out of contention. The Villa - still a work in progress and our away form is not great but if anyone can find a way, it's Emery. I didn't think we would be competing for the Champions League at the start of the season but now it seems possible. Good write up. I think the top 3 are set and agree with you. It's very much open for the 4th to 8th spots. Hopefully the cups are won by top 8 sides and there are 5 CL places as that means top 8 get Europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 2 hours ago, Kiwivillan said: Borderline positive. I'm loving it Im try my best for you sweet heart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 7 hours ago, Demitri_C said: Still way to early days. Home we are excellent away not good Wolves away we have been done very shit over the years Eh 50 percent win record away from home this season. Only 2 teams have won more than us this season 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 I think as long as we can start a consistent XI and the rotation isn’t shambles, then there’s a chance we keep pace with 4-6. I am concerned about MON style burnout so hopefully we can stay in 2nd gear and not make matches against relegation sides too taxing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Looking at the top half of the table...there's no room for error! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Wolves will be ready for us and we'll have just played a few days before, probably using all our regular starters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 43 minutes ago, Zatman said: Eh 50 percent win record away from home this season. Only 2 teams have won more than us this season But conceding 8 in 2 games is not good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 2 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: But conceding 8 in 2 games is not good We have conceded 9 in 4 games. Brighton have conceded 8 in 3 games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, Zatman said: We have conceded 9 in 4 games. Brighton have conceded 8 in 3 games Still not great though is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, Demitri_C said: Still not great though is it? Only 2 teams have won more away games than us. so its pretty good Same amount of wins as Liverpool and Spurs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 11 minutes ago, Zatman said: Only 2 teams have won more away games than us. so its pretty good Same amount of wins as Liverpool and Spurs Tbf although ive been abit critical the last away performance was excellent at chelsea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 hour ago, Zatman said: Eh 50 percent win record away from home this season. Only 2 teams have won more than us this season We're not bad away from home at all. Inferior to the home form obviously, but still top 6 away from home under Emery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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