GingerCollins29 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Our early season form was incredible. No team knew how to fully deal with us. Now they do. Play a low block and lots of high pressing and we lose all momentum, killing off any service to Ollie (this is the main reason he is not scoring, not cus he's suddenly turned to shite). Diaby has gone backwards, ramsey has been poor, zaniolo poor, bailey hit and miss over recent weeks so thats our whole front line off it. Mcginn's standards have dropped and our full backs, who are the main threat of attack have been inconsistent also. Thank god for emi and konsa. Anyone who is not concerned by our present form and level of team and individual performance is living in a dreamland. To think the teams below us have zero chance of catching us because we are 8 points clear of 6th is so naive. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post markavfc40 Posted January 27 Popular Post Share Posted January 27 (edited) I suppose it is a sign of how far we've come but to read this thread you'd think we were struggling. The reality is though we have lost once in our last 15 games in all competitions, winning 9. Even if we just look at the league in our last 10 we have won 6, drew 3 and lost just once. That is 21 points in our last 10 games. In pretty much every other season in my 40+ years following us we'd consider ourselves to be on a great run. I do realise our performances have been hit and miss since the start of December but I don't know if that should have been unexpected given the amount of games we had over November and December and that we have had a number of injuries/suspensions (to what is already a relatively small squad without Mings and Buendia) with Torres, Digne, Kamara, Ramsey, Tielemans all missing for a number of games. You hear all the time that good teams are capable of picking up results when not performing to anywhere near their best. That is exactly what we have been doing and the reason for that is simple. We are now a very good team. Let's just contemplate that this last 6 or 7 weeks has been our slump and that performances will soon pick up, and fwiw I am 100% confident that they will. If that is the case it would be reasonable to expect our already very good results would then pick up. I'd have bit your hand off to be where we are now at the start of the season. More so if you consider we have had a slump in performances over the last 6 or 7 weeks yet we have still taken over 2 points per game over that time and lost only once. Wow when you really think about it what a position to be in. The next 3-4 months is going to be some ride. Edited January 27 by markavfc40 18 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiezels Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 We can play against a high press, we just need everyone firing, and Pau Torres back. We havent been found out, just in a slump of form with some injuries to key players. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 8 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said: Our early season form was incredible. No team knew how to fully deal with us. Now they do. Play a low block and lots of high pressing and we lose all momentum, killing off any service to Ollie (this is the main reason he is not scoring, not cus he's suddenly turned to shite). Diaby has gone backwards, ramsey has been poor, zaniolo poor, bailey hit and miss over recent weeks so thats our whole front line off it. Mcginn's standards have dropped and our full backs, who are the main threat of attack have been inconsistent also. Thank god for emi and konsa. Anyone who is not concerned by our present form and level of team and individual performance is living in a dreamland. To think the teams below us have zero chance of catching us because we are 8 points clear of 6th is so naive. Results after the Arsenal match are 2W 2D 1L. That is a “slump” but your hyperbole is saying we’re naive in thinking other teams can’t catch us. Our slump is 8 points out of 15, which maintains Unai’s 2 PPG average. The wins against City and Arsenal raises expectations but we’re still moving along at more or less the same pace and crucially, we finally get a run of home matches come up. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 13 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said: Our early season form was incredible. No team knew how to fully deal with us. Now they do. Play a low block and lots of high pressing and we lose all momentum, killing off any service to Ollie (this is the main reason he is not scoring, not cus he's suddenly turned to shite). Diaby has gone backwards, ramsey has been poor, zaniolo poor, bailey hit and miss over recent weeks so thats our whole front line off it. Mcginn's standards have dropped and our full backs, who are the main threat of attack have been inconsistent also. Thank god for emi and konsa. Anyone who is not concerned by our present form and level of team and individual performance is living in a dreamland. To think the teams below us have zero chance of catching us because we are 8 points clear of 6th is so naive. Yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 It’s a long season and there’s still a lot to play for. Chelsea and West Ham are having a purple patch but they both left a lot to be desired early in the season. Similarly, us, Arsenal, and Tottenham are hanging around the same kind of form. Pau comes back, crucial home matches, form turns around. You would think by the histrionics by some that we haven’t won a match since City and Arsenal and all of our competitors have won everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Pau coming back would obviously be big, but realistically we can still go on a good run without him, as we showed last season. I also don’t think every team we face will be temperamentally willing to just play a low block. That’s going to mainly be the lower table sides who are happy to scrap for a point or a goal against the run of play. We’ll carry on picking up big wins IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 1 hour ago, RichW said: Last year we had no mid week games and also teams didn’t really respect us that much. Definitely didn’t have the approach of Sheff Utd, Everton or Brentford last season for sure. Teams see Villa as a bit of scalp this season, last season they didn’t. Not sure why you are bringing up last season. I'm not bringing up last season, just the beginning of this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 2 hours ago, GingerCollins29 said: Our early season form was incredible. No team knew how to fully deal with us. Now they do. Play a low block and lots of high pressing and we lose all momentum, killing off any service to Ollie (this is the main reason he is not scoring, not cus he's suddenly turned to shite). Diaby has gone backwards, ramsey has been poor, zaniolo poor, bailey hit and miss over recent weeks so thats our whole front line off it. Mcginn's standards have dropped and our full backs, who are the main threat of attack have been inconsistent also. Thank god for emi and konsa. Anyone who is not concerned by our present form and level of team and individual performance is living in a dreamland. To think the teams below us have zero chance of catching us because we are 8 points clear of 6th is so naive. What you’re saying has a lot of merit. We aren’t playing well, we do seem to be struggling but I think this is missing the positive side of it. Despite all this we still have picked up very good points in the form guide, we still have the same amount of points as second in the league and still in the cup. We have just played Chelsea who have made Stamford Bridge a fortress since the start of November. So despite Chelsea being in good form and at home and us being in poor form the stats don’t look too bad. I can’t imagine all those players you mention above will continue in poor form, can you? Even a slight uptick should reap rewards back to better performances because the results need an uplift but not that bad, it’s the performances that have been poor. It’s the performances that people are freaking out about because the results and stats are only slightly below par. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingerCollins29 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 13 minutes ago, nick76 said: I can’t imagine all those players you mention above will continue in poor form, can you? Even a slight uptick should reap rewards back to better performances because the results need an uplift but not that bad, it’s the performances that have been poor. About the players, i'd hope not, but who knows. Diaby was on fire and has just progressively got worse, with little signs of a turnaround. Results might be 'ok', but how long will that continue when performances hhave been consistently poor since our last conference league home game, imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley14 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Not in all games, ithiught diaby played pretty well against burnley, admittedly he missed some big changes but his overall play was good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 8 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: It would help if people really and truly accepted that we're not going to win the league. Once you accept that, individual games of dropped points matter much less as whoever finishes 4th and 5th drops loads of points over a season. I do agree we need to be getting 4 or 6 points out of the next two though, partly because these are fairly 'easy' fixtures this season and partly because we need to dispel some of the gloom that's gathering in our corner of the Discourse. I think that's a great point. The title race thread has dropped well down the page in last two weeks so I think for 99% reality has dawned a bit with Liverpool pulling away and Man. City already on winning streak before Haaland returns. It was fun but we are not going to win the league as you need around 90 points to do that and that's simply beyond us. However 70 points could very well be enough for 4th so we could still lose 3-4 matches and draw a couple and we'd still reach that figure. Have a look at Newcastle's form from January up to May. They had a stick run up to the cup final and then in last few weeks they were losing to Arsenal and drawing v likes of Leicester and Leeds. What got them over the line was winning 5 straight in March and early April before we destroyed them at VP. That's what we need, one more 4-5 match winning streak and that should give us a decent buffer over Spurs. It's vital we don't lapse into thinking endless draws at VP are good enough now, need to keep winning at home and then we will pick up away wins here and there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 29 minutes ago, VillaChris said: I think that's a great point. The title race thread has dropped well down the page in last two weeks so I think for 99% reality has dawned a bit with Liverpool pulling away and Man. City already on winning streak before Haaland returns. It was fun but we are not going to win the league as you need around 90 points to do that and that's simply beyond us. However 70 points could very well be enough for 4th so we could still lose 3-4 matches and draw a couple and we'd still reach that figure. Have a look at Newcastle's form from January up to May. They had a stick run up to the cup final and then in last few weeks they were losing to Arsenal and drawing v likes of Leicester and Leeds. What got them over the line was winning 5 straight in March and early April before we destroyed them at VP. That's what we need, one more 4-5 match winning streak and that should give us a decent buffer over Spurs. It's vital we don't lapse into thinking endless draws at VP are good enough now, need to keep winning at home and then we will pick up away wins here and there. Yeah I agree. People got carried away with, what was at the time, title winning form. I even posted around the new year not to panic when we start slipping a bit. Currently we’re a 4th-6th team. To put it into perspective, if we continue our “slumping” form, we will finish at 68 points, so we have to be just a little better (which we know we are) to get UCL. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted January 27 VT Supporter Share Posted January 27 7 hours ago, nick76 said: Oh I agree but we have 11 points in 18, got through third round of FA Cup, and a draw at Chelsea whose home record for the last few months is impressive. So our performances haven’t been great we are still getting results. Our performances should improve soon hopefully. We have all the makings of a great side, picking up points whilst we’re not playing that well. This is a prerequisite of every successful team that has ever been and we are fitting the bill. I think we will put a run together (not that we really haven’t all season already.) I’d almost put my house on it. I still think we could prossibly win it, but we will see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichW Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 19 hours ago, GingerCollins29 said: Our early season form was incredible. No team knew how to fully deal with us. Now they do. Play a low block and lots of high pressing and we lose all momentum, killing off any service to Ollie (this is the main reason he is not scoring, not cus he's suddenly turned to shite). Diaby has gone backwards, ramsey has been poor, zaniolo poor, bailey hit and miss over recent weeks so thats our whole front line off it. Mcginn's standards have dropped and our full backs, who are the main threat of attack have been inconsistent also. Thank god for emi and konsa. Anyone who is not concerned by our present form and level of team and individual performance is living in a dreamland. To think the teams below us have zero chance of catching us because we are 8 points clear of 6th is so naive. I guess after playing 19 or so Premier League games you get to a point where it’s difficult to surprise teams and with the amount of analysis out there it’s a lot easier for teams to figure you out. Obviously the challenge for Emery for the second half of the season is what tweaks tactically he can do to make us a bit more unpredictable. Be interesting to see how the Newcastle game goes, you’d like to think they will try and have a go at Villa Park which can play into our hands but then again I’m pretty sure they went to Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago and only had like 20% possession or something around that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post foreveryoung Posted January 28 Popular Post Share Posted January 28 Emery will be wanting top 4, some fans saying they'll be happy with 5th-6th, not for me. I thought top 4 would be too much for us aorund Novenber and wasn't really bothered, but we have now come so far. We need to find that great form that got us in to the top 4 in the first place, so I'll go with Emery. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 2 hours ago, RichW said: I guess after playing 19 or so Premier League games you get to a point where it’s difficult to surprise teams and with the amount of analysis out there it’s a lot easier for teams to figure you out. Obviously the challenge for Emery for the second half of the season is what tweaks tactically he can do to make us a bit more unpredictable. Be interesting to see how the Newcastle game goes, you’d like to think they will try and have a go at Villa Park which can play into our hands but then again I’m pretty sure they went to Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago and only had like 20% possession or something around that. It will be interesting what Howe does. Teams have shown great effectiveness at pressing us high with Pau out. But we’re different gravy at home. Newcastle might sit back like they did against City and go for the counter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 It’s not looking great, I knew that the moment Kamara was sent off, then added to Torres, but, Against Sheffield Utd it was one of those games, while against Utd we were a bit naive tactically after being 2-0 up, Ten Hag done it twice against us (last season League Cup). Then we’ve played good against Burnley (We had a very good first half against Brentford but without scoring). Against Everton it reminded me with our away games last season, we used to do that and make games less tension while trying to win from some chances. That gave me more confidence actually, As we need to calm things down, against Chelsea was the game I got more confidence actually, when you look at their individuals, they’re one of the best especially midfield, they have a good manager and it started clicking for them. I was expecting the worse. Gladly most of their chances were gifts from us (not it’s a good thing but also it doesn’t show our system collapsed). We’re lacking some creativity, but scoring early would help us a lot. Tough game coming against Newcastle. Let’s see how it goes. Howe done us last time. I think Emery will be considering this game in a different way, he’ll still remember the 5-1 while even looking at our certain performances. I liked how he respected Chelsea despite many were taking them easily, it’s a different Chelsea right now. As we’ve seen with Utd every quality team can bounce back, so we shall be sure Newcastle don’t do it against us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 1 hour ago, foreveryoung said: Emery will be wanting top 4, some fans saying they'll be happy with 5th-6th, not for me. I thought top 4 would be too much for us aorund Novenber and wasn't really bothered, but we have now come so far. We need to find that great form that got us in to the top 4 in the first place, so I'll go with Emery. We shall take it game at a time, this week is a very tough and important game, win it and it will give us a good breath from Newcastle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 6 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said: We shall take it game at a time, this week is a very tough and important game, win it and it will give us a good breath from Newcastle. At home to Newcastle, a game that will definately show us where we are going for the rest of the season. A win, we are moving on, a loss, I don't wanna talk a out it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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