Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Crystal Palace

[BigJim]

Could this be the first time McGinn has 0 votes for MotM?

[ozvillafan]

Well.. that was easy, wasn't it?

Been a while since we won coming from behind - almost 12 months, apparently - which makes the win that much sweeter and important.

3 things I learned:

• I don't like this "scoring late" malarky. Can we switch back to scoring early please?
• A perfect sliding tackle, boundless energy, a smashing finish and a daft yellow card. Duran is never dull
• There is only one master of the dark arts between the sticks. For reference: he's at the opposite end, Sam. Nice try though.

[Robtaylor200]

Why is the Holte so quiet at times . well I think. I know, its our new style of football (OMG did I just say that out loud)

Am I wrong to still want boot and rush football at times. It gets the crowd going

For 88 minutes. I was pleading with us to actually take on an opposing player and try to go around them. I am still having to get used to all this possession,  playing it out from the back and if the move breaks down we knock it back and start again. I shouldn't complain because the proof is in the pudding and wins on the table and that's all I have ever wanted

BUT I was at VP yesterday and thought how quiet the crowd were for so long while we passed it back and forward side to side. The crowd are quiet because "nothing is happening". Then Duran scores a brilliant goal and the we all go mad. Then we start charging down the wings and the crowd gets louder, ball over the top to run onto and we go crazy, jumping , shouting and cheering.

So please don't get on my back, I LOVE winning, and at the end of another win the crowd goes wild. During the game when "nothing" is happening its quiet

[Robtaylor200]

By the way when did they take the roof off the dugout and why 

[oishiiniku_uk]

Crystal Palace came with a game plan to sit deep and clog up the midfield and it almost paid off. People can say we were slow/flat/whatever but I think a lot of teams would struggle to break down such a defensive opponent. And even so, we still created enough to be 2 or 3 up by half time. If we'd got the first goal then it would have been a lot more comfortable and one-sided. But a late win like that can do a lot more for team spirit and confidence. So personally I take a lot of positives from the match and I know we would have lost a game like that 1-0 a year ago. Onwards and upwards! 

[Brumerican]

That Duran strike was the first goal ever to be picked up by the  LIGO detector according to some boffin at NASA.

[delboy54]

Was at the game in Upper Holte, regarding the foul on Watkins I was a long way from it, but looked like a definite pen tbh.

If it had been liverpoo or man ci$y they would have taken only seconds to award it. I think VAR's were trying everything they could do to not give it, so credit to the ref to overturn it, a rare example of that happening these days.

But ref was very inconsistent.

Justice for us, if palace players and their keeper hadn't been so keen on wasting time for most of the game they would have won that...

[Jareth]

9 hours ago, Talldarkandransome said:

That Duran goal looked even better on MOTD, what a finish

I'm still watching it on repeat on twitter - loving it every time 

[randy_69]

7 hours ago, Zatman said:

2 subs come on and score to change the game

Add tielemans coming on with some top passing. Absolutely key to getting the result. So nice to have impact from the bench. 

[allani]

5 minutes ago, randy_69 said:

Add tielemans coming on with some top passing. Absolutely key to getting the result. So nice to have impact from the bench. 

Tielemans got a load of **** in the match thread (I know - I shouldn't really follow it!) but his passes for the second and third goals were absolutely sensational - not quite as good as Pau's for Diaby's disallowed goal but still superb.  I only saw MOTD so hard to tell whether the clips were an accurate reflection of the game but I thought we looked really good.  Lax marking for their goal but even then without Emi's slip it is a much, much harder chance.  I think we have to remember that this time last season we could barely string two passes together (sometimes we even struggled to make a single pass to a player in the right coloured shirt) - from the highlights some of our passing was absolutely sublime.  The build up to the Duran goal was great - surpassed only by an absolutely sensational finish.  Same games for the build up to the penalty - the pass into him was just superb.  I can see why Palace felt hard done by - but the defender definitely takes Ollie first and then plays the ball.  If he doesn't make contact with Ollie first then I think Ollie is getting a shot away (probably straight at the keeper ).  I know Palace then threw men forward but the third goal was an absolutely superb example of how to hit a team on the break - superb pass, great run to get on the end of the pass and then the presence of mind to wait for the perfect moment to play the ball into the box, a great run by Duran to pull all the defenders towards the near post and Bailey finding himself with loads of space at the back to control the ball and stick it in the back of the net.  Every single component of the goal was top class.  MOTD spent a lot of time analysing Brighton's passing against Man Utd (which was also brilliant) but they barely mentioned ours and I don't think either of Tieleman's passes were really mentioned.  I did like how people are now talking about our strength in depth.  They mainly mentioned Duran and Bailey (for obvious reasons) but again Tielemans came on and made two crucial contributions - neither will count as an assist but both were THE pass that created the chance.  Also slightly annoyed that the commentator mentioned Palace being without two players - but missing the fact that we were five players short of our match day squad (I guess because four of them have been longer term injuries).

Room for improvement for sure - but Ramsey and Moreno on their way back.  The bench looking confident.  And let's not forget that we've scored 11 goals in the league in 5 matches and our centre forward is yet to get off the mark.  I (and many others) were concerned about our general lack of goals last season (even after discounting the SG era - our goals per game was the lowest of Emery's career to date) - only the current Top 4 have scored more than us this season. We're proving that we have more balance going forwards and are significantly less reliant on Ollie than we have been since he arrived - which is great to see.  Also - just how reassuring was it to see Dougie with the penalty?  High pressure situation, added to by the lengthy pause to review the decision and yet I was SO confident that he was going to stick it away.  AEGesque.

Obviously our defensive stats aren't quite as impressive (joint second worst) but we're having to play with a different / new back 4 every week and the understanding will come.  I'm also quite happy conceding a few more goals this season (not too many more but a few more) if it means that we're more likely to score two or three each game.  Very happy to win 3-1 rather than 1-0.

[John]

Tremendous late goals, to beat "The team of the Eighties" and VAR (well done to the referee, who redeemed himself by ignoring VAR for our penalty). Way to turn our weekend round Villa! 

[limpid]

10 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

Was out today so didn’t see the game until now

So match of the day slow it down , zoom in and you can clearly see the palace defender makes contact with Watkins first , then the ball … yet somehow the pundits all say he got the ball 

anyway , 3 points and palace can cry all they like 

that strike From Duran must have broken the land speed record … wowsers 

Foul play is about intent, not contact. From Law 12:

A direct free kick is awarded if a player commits any of the following offences against an opponent in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force

• kicks or attempts to kick
• trip or attempts to trip

It doesn't even mention contact until after the list containing these examples.

But why would former players know the rules. I mean, it's their only job.

[allani]

PS - One other thing that made me chuckle was the Palace assistant moaning about how long it took to make the VAR decision and implying that it was the wrong decision if it took that long to confirm.  I think he forgot that the ref awarded the penalty on the field and the VAR check was to overturn the penalty, not to award it.  So if there was a 30 or 60 second limit to make a decision otherwise it stays with the onfield decision - then it would have stayed* as a penalty.

* The caveat here being that if there was a time limit then the ref might not have had time to review the VAR footage and so been pressed into accepting whatever decision the VAR officials made.  Obviously the way to get around that is to do what they do in rugby and have all the VAR footage relayed onto the big screens so that the refereee can watch and review with the VAR officials without having to run over to a monitor on the halfway line.  I really don't understand why football has decided not to do that.  I think they were worried that it might rile fans if they disagreed with the decision but surely leaving fans ignorant of the reasoning does that anyway.

[OutByEaster?]

5 minutes ago, allani said:

PS - One other thing that made me chuckle was the Palace assistant moaning about how long it took to make the VAR decision and implying that it was the wrong decision if it took that long to confirm.  I think he forgot that the ref awarded the penalty on the field and the VAR check was to overturn the penalty, not to award it.  So if there was a 30 or 60 second limit to make a decision otherwise it stays with the onfield decision - then it would have stayed* as a penalty.

I thought that - he seemed to be saying that if it took him five minutes to make the decision it couldn't have been a clear penalty - which is of course not what happened at all - he made the decision immediately (and confidently) and then spent five minutes dealing with someone else who wasn't sure.

None of that matters if we take our first half chances - Watkins and Cash should both have scored and the game should have been over by half time.

 

[MrBlack]

13 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

There is a serious flaw in your reasoning ... the flaw was, you thought I was serious.

Ahh, my bad. Didn't detect the sarcasm there.

[Pelle]

It shouldn't feel this good to beat palace at home, but I take it. Were at the pub with a few other swedish Villans and we'd all but given up long before the 87th minute. We didn't create many chances and those we did create just wouldn't go in. To be one goal down in the 87th minute and then win by 3-1 is quite amazing no matter what team you play.

Was it a penalty? I think it was but I thought he'd turn it over and wouldn't have moaned that much. It wasn't clear cut, IMO. But still a penalty. 

Wasn't it said before this season that there should be daylight between the attacker and the defender to be offside? There certainly was no daylight between Diaby and their defenders. 

Anyway, not a great game but a great way to win. But I still wonder where we stand. How good are we? It will be an interesting game on Sunday. But Legia Warszawa first.

UTV! 

[MrBlack]

10 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

Was out today so didn’t see the game until now

So match of the day slow it down , zoom in and you can clearly see the palace defender makes contact with Watkins first , then the ball … yet somehow the pundits all say he got the ball 

anyway , 3 points and palace can cry all they like 

that strike From Duran must have broken the land speed record … wowsers 

 

10 hours ago, Awol said:

Palace player: misses ball, clatters Watkins 

MOTD team: harsh on Palace, he clearly plays the ball 

Me:…..

Murphy talking through the slow-mo saying "and there's the toe"...as if the toe pushing 4he ball away at the end has any consequence when the forward has already been wiped out.

To be fair to the other two, they were claiming he got contact on the ball earlier, but even that was debatably after he'd already made contact with Watkins.

The ref did the right thing. He made a call as he saw it in real time. He then didn't see anything obviously wrong to overturn it, despite spending 5minutes trying to do so. There should definitely be a limit enforced for these types of things. 

In cricket it would have definitely been the equivalent of an umpires decision, as I think if it hadn't been given you can't then say it was definite that he obviously made contact with Watkins before the ball.

[allani]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I thought that - he seemed to be saying that if it took him five minutes to make the decision it couldn't have been a clear penalty - which is of course not what happened at all - he made the decision immediately (and confidently) and then spent five minutes dealing with someone else who wasn't sure.

None of that matters if we take our first half chances - Watkins and Cash should both have scored and the game should have been over by half time.

 

Agreed.  Reading the Match thread (I know) it sounded like we were bordering on SG levels of ineptness yesterday and we'll be lucky to avoid relegation.  Watching MOTD it looked like we were a genuine top half team with a serious chance of finishing in a European place.  If Emi doesn't slip for their goal I think we keep a clean sheet.  At the other end it looked like we created lots of chances.  Should probably have been 2 or 3 up at half-time but then showed real character to snatch a draw at the death - only to clearly decide that a draw wasn't enough and so piled on the pressure to try and get a win.  3-1 seems a fair reflection on the highlights - just not quite as straight-forward a home win as it could / should have been.  Ironically, the manner of the win is probably better for morale and for our prospects this season as it will give the players a lot of confidence that they can turn matches around and that if we can hang on in games then we've got the fire power to score.  It would be nice to do something similar on the road as well - but I'm happy if we just go into half-time 2-0 up each weekend instead!

[John]

16 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

Not a pen for me. 

 He agrees with you and he's taking his ball home too:  

[MrBlack]

1 minute ago, Pelle said:

 

Wasn't it said before this season that there should be daylight between the attacker and the defender to be offside? There certainly was no daylight between Diaby and their defenders. 

 

I'm not certain but think that was being trialed in a different competition by fifa initially. Pretty sure the rule in the PL is unchanged. They did increase the width of the line they draw for the comparison to increase the margin of error in favour of the striker, but that might have been last year anyway.