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Title race 2023/4

Jareth

By Jareth
in Villa Talk

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Spoony
Spoony
Jareth
Jareth

They just lost to the dog heads. We are yet to play them. OMFG - it could happen. 

fightoffyour
fightoffyour

Next up on Sky Sports: Spurs still in the title race!

TomC Veteran

TomC

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, MarkLillis said:

Football has changed a lot since the last time we were in this position in 1998.

What hasn't changed is back then (like now!) nobody thought we could win it.....and they were proved emphatically right.

I cant get that season out of my mind, pre Xmas and post Xmas were night and day. The second half of this season will NOT be like that this time.

I believe we will keep getting results and i believe pundits will keep trying to find reasons (like the imaginary "poor" away form) why we wont stay the course.

All we can do as a club and as fans is enjoy the moment and live in it.

So ignore all the WBA, Blues and Wolves fans telling you to stop getting carried away and carry on dreaming!

With all due respect to John Gregory, he was not Unai Emery. Unai has won things before.

That squad had less depth than this one, too.

 

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Adman Mentor

Adman

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Hallmarks of a title winning team:

Elite manager (goes without saying)

Exceptional home form ( the joint best in the world)

A 20 goal striker (maybe)

Goals throughout the squad (luiz, mcginn, bailey, Diaby, Ramsey, Moreno, Pau etc)

A class keeper (the world's No1)

Quality bench (good options able to change games, or see out wins)

Mental toughness (handling pressure, winning games when not playing well, getting undeserved points, seeing out games)

Some luck..

 Weakened competition (hopefully man city and Liverpool hopefully not achieving 90+ points this year)

Winning mentality (Emery and Martinez ooze this)

I actually think we've got a decent chance on paper, it's only my villa scepticism kicking in that stops me getting too carried away

 

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wilko154 Proficient

wilko154

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Don't think we will, but if you were Emery, would you sacrifice a potential FA Cup run by playing the youth team against boro to focus on the ECL and title/top 4?

Absolutely not.

If the game was midweek maybe, but it's a Saturday kick off with a week off coming up two weeks later.

We should be competing on all fronts.

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tomav84 Grand Master

tomav84

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Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Don't think we will, but if you were Emery, would you sacrifice a potential FA Cup run by playing the youth team against boro to focus on the ECL and title/top 4?

yes, but the problem is that for many fans the FA cup is the holy grail. generations of fans have yet to see us win it and there's been numerous seasons where we had a chance and messed it up

that stevanage game remains pretty much the only black mark on emery's tenure. we crash out to boro, there will be some pissed off fans around, irrespective of where we are in the league

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PaulC Grand Master

PaulC

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6 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Don't think we will, but if you were Emery, would you sacrifice a potential FA Cup run by playing the youth team against boro to focus on the ECL and title/top 4?

Normally I'd say no but it will be difficult to compete on three fronts. So a bit of squad rotation is needed.

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Vive_La_Villa Grand Master

Vive_La_Villa

Posted
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10 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Don't think we will, but if you were Emery, would you sacrifice a potential FA Cup run by playing the youth team against boro to focus on the ECL and title/top 4?

Not the youth team but I’d expect quite a bit of rotation as mentioned by others. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got knocked out in early rounds of the FA cup.  

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HanoiVillan Grand Master

HanoiVillan

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A little snippet I found interesting from the Guardian (discussing Arsenal):

'The whole team defend with a mania. Only one team since the year 2000, Manchester United in 2012-13, have won the Premier League while conceding more than a goal a game. Last season Arsenal conceded 1.13 per game. So far this season it’s 15 in 17 games, equal fewest with Liverpool.'

from: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/dec/18/premier-league-10-talking-points-weekend-action

We've conceded 21 goals in 17 games, a rate of 1.24, somewhat worse than Arsenal's rate last season. Yes we've scored a lot, but over the whole season we'd probably need to tighten up to really contend for the title. 

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Marka Ragnos Grand Master

Marka Ragnos

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We're so in it now, mates. Villa settling mentally for anything less than the title would be strategically reckless. Simply staying on the mountain will demand supreme ambition every single minute of every single match for the rest of the season. No turning back. Must climb.

giphy.gif

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Captain_Townsend Grand Master

Captain_Townsend

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1 hour ago, tomav84 said:

yes, but the problem is that for many fans the FA cup is the holy grail. generations of fans have yet to see us win it and there's been numerous seasons where we had a chance and messed it up

that stevanage game remains pretty much the only black mark on emery's tenure. we crash out to boro, there will be some pissed off fans around, irrespective of where we are in the league

I would rather go hell for leather to maintain a title challenge.

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Marka Ragnos Grand Master

Marka Ragnos

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3 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

I think Arsenal are the biggest threat of the 3

Not according to the Chief. 😉 (As if I needed another reason to hate on Oasis) That said, you know you've arrived when the Gallagher bros starting dissing your club. We've already been called bumbaclarts, etc. by Liam.

 

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Stephen_Evans Experienced

Stephen_Evans

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7 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

A little snippet I found interesting from the Guardian (discussing Arsenal):

'The whole team defend with a mania. Only one team since the year 2000, Manchester United in 2012-13, have won the Premier League while conceding more than a goal a game. Last season Arsenal conceded 1.13 per game. So far this season it’s 15 in 17 games, equal fewest with Liverpool.'

from: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/dec/18/premier-league-10-talking-points-weekend-action

We've conceded 21 goals in 17 games, a rate of 1.24, somewhat worse than Arsenal's rate last season. Yes we've scored a lot, but over the whole season we'd probably need to tighten up to really contend for the title. 

The Newcastle result was a bit freak and so was the own goal against Luton.  If those games are ignored for a moment, the general pattern is then 1 per game (15 in 15).

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oishiiniku_uk Mentor

oishiiniku_uk

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29 minutes ago, Stephen_Evans said:

The Newcastle result was a bit freak and so was the own goal against Luton.  If those games are ignored for a moment, the general pattern is then 1 per game (15 in 15).

A fair few of the goals we've conceded have been in emphatic wins where we took our foot off the gas a bit (Luton, West Ham, Brighton, Fulham, Burnley). And except for those early season defeats to Newcastle and Liverpool, it's been rare for us to concede more than 1 per game. The overall defensive trends are good, I think. 

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