Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[MakemineVanilla]

Bailey's goal was his best since his debut and should give him a boost of confidence: his stats are top-notch!

 

[AvonVillain]

3 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Be just like us to go and lose to Luton now

Yep, pre-now, it would! Now, it would be extraordinary.

[Kingman]

1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said:

 I can smell the Hot - Dogs.

Are they the ones that Bailey sent the defender for? 

[Brumstopdogs]

 

[Spoony]

 

i didn’t even think about this at the time but that is mad. I remember when the rule was you could move the ball forward 10 yards if the other team was pissing about and teams used to do that as it’s much harder to score that close to the area. I desperately want to support refs as a former ref myself but VAR seems to have totally scrambled their ability to referee properly (I know it seems odd to mention VAR but I think it’s the root cause of everything. It seems to have totally knocked the referees’ confidence and concentration). 

[Spoony]

2 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

great minds…

[Stevo71]

I mean, 10-2 on aggregate against media darlings Brighton and “Champions of Europe” Spam. It’s giddy stuff.

[allani]

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

We're a very good football team.

Seventeen goals in four home games is outstanding and we've looked good value for all of them.

We did an awful lot well today - we dominated for long periods with the ball, we scored good goals, we pressured them, we fought for everything in midfield, we looked dangerous on the break and we quietly defended the best team in the league at it through a whole series of second half corners.

We're a little short of depth and we have a lot of games, so we might fade come the spring, but right now, at home, we'd give any team on the planet a good game.

It's hard to pick people out today - everyone in the back four played well, I thought Konsa especially so, Martinez was reassuringly solid, even when they were offside there's something reassuring about watching him stop shots anyway, I thought Kamara was really good, I thought he won the ball really well and used it really well, that's the level he's capable of, Luiz was outstanding again and the addition of all these goals can only bring him that little bit more notice back home, McGinn was strong, smart and determined and played a lovely ball for Ollie's goal, Diaby was nifty and cunning, finding little pockets and disturbing the West Ham defence, I thought Zaniolo did a great job of driving us forward from deep positions and matching their midfield physicality and Ollie was occasionally wasteful, but diligently grafting and found another deserved goal. Even the subs did well, Bailey looks really sharp and Tielemans added a bit of calm.

A terrific performance against a very good side that we made look very average.

The gentleman on the sideline is something extraordinary - week after week, he makes the right decisions; tactically, in selection, in his man management, he just quietly gets everything right - he's a class act and we are lucky to have him. He seems happy and settled and if we can keep him around, the sky is the limit.

It's hard not to be excited right now, we're thrilling at home with some outstanding performers that have been with us long enough to be loved and a manager that's a step above almost any I can remember in my lifetime.

Awake.

Very awake.

 

Give it 17 minutes against Luton without us scoring a goal and wait for all the complaints on the match thread about how slowly we play the ball and questions about why we are trying to make 50 passes in our own half and why we can't just get the ball forward.    Today was a perfect example of exactly why we play the way we do.  The West Ham midfield and defenders didn't know whether to hold their position and let us just knock the ball around or come and chase us to try and get it.  Whatever they decided we then moved the ball past them and caused them trouble.  I don't remember when I last saw a Villa team play with this much confidence on the ball and belief in their ability (in general not over a single game).  17 goals in 4 matches at home including 10 against teams playing in Europe this season.  When we are on it we look superb.  We'll probably get hammered a couple more times this season when everything drops the wrong way - but we're going to dish out a few footballing lessons too.  More importantly it feels like if we do get beat badly then we'll just bounce back and win the next game.  Loving it.

 

[Talldarkandransome]

18 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

I was laughing my tits off when they were checking this for a pen. If it was borderline then fair enough but that's about 3 yards...

They seem desperate to check everything and that wasn't the only baffling one today. There was summat in the first half too. The lino on my side of the pitch was fecking useless

[RicRic]

56 minutes ago, turvontour said:

I mean, to be fair. All of the teams used to be our bogey teams to some extent. We are like a different club right now. 

Apart from man city and liverpool its extremely rare we come out victorious against those..would love to beat two out of the following three at least once this season :Liverpool, City and United …. That along with a top 6 finish would be the icing on the cake for me.

[Kingman]

[allani]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

In the season we went down, we scored 14 goals at home. We've got 17 in 4 games so far this season.

 

The season before I think we managed 18 at home all season.  At this rate - we'll have scored 2 season's worth of goals at home by Christmas!!!

[Follyfoot]

1 hour ago, turvontour said:

I mean, to be fair. All of the teams used to be our bogey teams to some extent. We are like a different club right now. 

The lion is truly awoken, and he is ravenous

[troon_villan]

Absolutely bizarre from the BBC having Ben Mee part of the pundit team interviewing Ollie after the match.

Maybe it isn't and my general dislike of Mee is providing a bias. Dunno.

[rjw63]

Only one match played and we get under 13 minutes on MOTD2. Brilliant.

And why did they show all the goals from yesterday, that they must have already showed. Yesterday.

I turned off when Ollie disappeared.

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by rjw63
keeeeeeeenanism

[allani]

21 minutes ago, Kingman said:

So 31 - 5 in our last 11 home matches!!

[Kingman]

2 minutes ago, allani said:

So 31 - 5 in our last 11 home matches!!

Shit 

[allani]

29 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

I was laughing my tits off when they were checking this for a pen. If it was borderline then fair enough but that's about 3 yards...

They seem desperate to check everything and that wasn't the only baffling one today. There was summat in the first half too. The lino on my side of the pitch was fecking useless

I think there was a check for handball from a shot after a corner - but it looked like the closest hand was actually a West Ham player.  But it was once again proof that the main issue with VAR is that the conversations between the ref and the VAR officials aren't broadcast and that the VAR footage isn't shown on the big screen so that the referees can see what is being checked and be involved in the conversation about what is happening.  In almost every other sport the technology is used to help referees improve decision making and yet football has decided to go the exact opposite way and only use it to try and avoid howlers.  The Liverpool goal against Spurs would never have been given if the referee was watching the footage on the big screen and the conversation was broadcast.

[turvontour]

18 minutes ago, allani said:

So 31 - 5 in our last 11 home matches!!

I've been inadvertently drawing comparisons with how Villa remind me of man City in various ways this calendar year. That sort of aggregate scoreline is in excess of any of those equivalent stats that they put up about man City when they are on their good runs. 

It'd be something like they've won 8 and drawn 2 of last 10, scoring 27 and conceding 7.

[ozvillafan]

Had a good feeling about this one, despite our poor record against Wet Spam.

That was a complete performance against a good side. Remember, we are down on numbers and playing a lot of football.

3 things I learned:

• Only Jack Grealish was better at drawing fouls then Ezri Konsa
• I didn't notice the ref during the game. That's the first time this season I can vote "Good" in the match poll with a clear conscience
• We are bloody good, aren't we?