Race for Champions League - 2023/2024

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Like being without our best centre half and 3 of our best play makers?

Fair but ultimately I think it came down to them only have 2 decent centre halves in the squad. That’s on them as had all summer to sort it.

[Jareth]

12 hours ago, It's Your Round said:

The most interesting thing about Jermaine Jenas is that people didn’t know which way to pronounce his surname when he first broke through hahahahhahaha! What a ledge! 

Rhymes with anus

[Kiwivillan]

21 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fair but ultimately I think it came down to them only have 2 decent centre halves in the squad. That’s on them as had all summer to sort it.

They still may have been gassed 2nd half from Angeball

[Lord Willard]

Do we know how much extra money you get for getting champions league. 

[Lord Willard]

Also surprised no one has mentioned in the media that Spurs new manager bounce has ended?

[RichW]

I know the Man City/Arsenal are the two games everybody is looking at to see where Villa are at but the Bournemouth/Brentford away games are a bit more intriguing to me tbh. Been really poor at Bournemouth last two times and don't need to mention the record at Brentford. Really hope we can go to both and put in a positive performance. I recall Brentford pretty much battering us after we started brightly there last season. 

In regards to Man City/Arsenal I think one thing that's missing under Emery is a win at home against of the big boys and I think we will win one them, just not sure which one. 

[fightoffyour]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fair but ultimately I think it came down to them only have 2 decent centre halves in the squad. That’s on them as had all summer to sort it.

They've got Eric Dier they chose not use him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fightoffyour]

6 minutes ago, RichW said:

I know the Man City/Arsenal are the two games everybody is looking at to see where Villa are at but the Bournemouth/Brentford away games are a bit more intriguing to me tbh. Been really poor at Bournemouth last two times and don't need to mention the record at Brentford. Really hope we can go to both and put in a positive performance. I recall Brentford pretty much battering us after we started brightly there last season. 

In regards to Man City/Arsenal I think one thing that's missing under Emery is a win at home against of the big boys and I think we will win one them, just not sure which one. 

It's an interesting one, especially for where we are at the moment - it's away games like these that are most important for cementing a CL place rather than matches against those in the title race.

However, we are in the title race for now at least. And that means not dropping ground on our title rivals by losing matches against them. Even better if we can beat them.

I'm sure all of us would snap someone's hands off if they were offering 8 points from the next 4 games. If we could do that with 2 home wins and 2 away draws rather than vice versa, all the better.

Edited November 29, 2023 by fightoffyour

[It's Your Round]

55 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Rhymes with anus

Jermaine Penis Anus, middle name Tiny.

What a loser! 

[Pongo Waring]

We need Man City to beat Spurs

[El-Reacho]

14 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

We need Man City to beat Spurs

That depends what our ambitions are this season

[tomsky_11]

In like-for-like games vs last season (or equivalent), we are only 2 points better off at present and the entire gain comes from matches Emery was not in charge of last season.

This might not be so bad as it sounds though and may well mean we are on course to a CL spot.

The 8 like-for-like games that Emery also managed last season achieved 19 points both this season and last, so a pretty high 2.38ppg

We have 17 games left that Emery also managed last season (or equivalent). We picked up 30 points from those same games last season, so 1.76ppg. Add that to our current total and we are at 58 points.

Our 2 point gain this season comes from 9 points in 5 fixtures that earned 7 points last season before Emery's arrival. The remaining 8 fixtures of this kind only brought 5 points last season so plenty of opportunity for gain.

So to get to 70 points we only need to equal Emery's like-for-like record last season and then get 12 points from the remaining 8 fixtures he did not take charge of last season.

Those 8 fixtures: bou(0) MNC(1) shu(1, replacing Leeds) ful(0) BRE(3) ars(0) CHE(0) cry(0)

I feel like we'd be favourites in 5/6 of those 8 games this season under Emery, so 12 points should be more than achievable.

[MSvillain]

5 minutes ago, El-Reacho said:

That depends what our ambitions are this season

He's posted the opposite in the title race thread 

A draw would do nicely imo

[TRO]

23 hours ago, briny_ear said:

That last sentence sounds a bit grudging. I think we did a bit more than “at least” taking the initiative in the second half.

I’m pretty sure Emery, Edens and Sawiris won’t give a tinker’s cuss about the “doubters” and won’t see their main preoccupation as winning them over.

We just need to go on accumulating points in the way we have been so far this season and the players need to keep working at mastering the way Emery wants them to play. They have been getting better progressively since October 2022.

It wasn't meant to be begrudging, on the contrary.....just picking up on points, that the manager is likely working on anyway.

I think folk, do care about how we are perceived, judging by the comments about the media....I don't subscribe to the view, that the club don't care, what others think, However I do accept it might not be their top priority

The amount of people that have said to me, that first half was nervy, and it was.....I think we should not be afraid to talk about it, without sounding ungrateful to Unai's whole tenure....which is phenomenal.

I will say it again.....you can be well pleased with the progress so far, and still talk about times in the game, where we can look more convincing......its an observation, thats all it is.

Talking about a game, is not the same as talking about a season.

I would hazard a guess, that if you spoke to the manager about the first 30 minutes, he would engage in a conversation, that would suggest we can improve, in that aspect.

We can still talk about aspects of a game, without getting prickly.

 

[IrishVilla10]

 

[TheStagMan]

On 28/11/2023 at 15:44, Vive_La_Villa said:

If we had 6 starters out which included 2 centre halves, our best DM and our best play maker I don’t think we’re getting anything from the Spurs game. But that’s football. I’m sure we will have these kind of problems at some stage too during a very long season.

So a bit like having Mings, Carlos, Boubs and Buendia out then??

[Vive_La_Villa]

39 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

So a bit like having Mings, Carlos, Boubs and Buendia out then??

Not really because we knew Mings and Buendia were out before transfer window closed so prepared for it. I’d say like having Tores Konsa Bouba and Luiz out.  I say Luiz as I regard him as our best player maker at the moment. Maybe Diaby.

Anyway it’s on them for not having cover. **** em. I just think looking at how the game went they would have won if full strength.  All if and buts anyway. We won so happy days. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Vive_La_Villa

[MrBlack]

35 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

 

As impressive as that stat is it kind of stacks with the way we play. If a team comes at us, we exploit it and score. So once that happens, they keep attacking, and we keep exploiting it.

The issue is the few games where we concede early, and then teams get the option to sit back. The Liverpool and Newcastle's cases are a bit of an exception where they kept coming and we were overwhelmed.  Promising stuff

[Steero113]

48 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

 

Bottleham Hotspur stacking up real nice I see. Big Ange workin his magic. 

Probably Matty Cash's fault?

Edited November 29, 2023 by Steero113

[Adman]

1 hour ago, Steero113 said:

Bottleham Hotspur stacking up real nice I see. Big Ange workin his magic. 

Probably Matty Cash's fault?

I've not watched Angeball before this season, has he always ragged the **** out his players in the first hour so they all get injured and run out of steam?