Ratings and Reactions: Villa 2-4 Arsenal

[Harry]

I seriously cannot beieve people on here think that was anything near acceptable today.

I've just read four pages of "we werent that bad", "Warnock was solid" "Got to give them time" and so on....

Can you wake the f... up !!!! - we have played 15 games - and won 2 - putting us 6th from borrom - 3 points out the relegation zone !!

WE ARE ABSOLUTE SHITE !!!!!

And I am sick of the excuses as well.

Lets look

Friedal , L Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, A Young, Downing, Carew

THAT IS 8 OF LAST YEARS STARTING 11 !!!!

And I tell you what, player for player Pires is better than Petrov so that one can't even be used !

You are all banging on - "We need NRC" "We need Albrighton" - WELL WE SODDING DIDN'T LAST SEASON !.

We were an embarassment to football in the first half, it must have been getting towards 90% possession for Arsenal. The only miracle was it took them 4- minutes.

And the guess what - A LAST MINUTE GOAL - I wonder where we have seen that before !

2nd Half - yea it looked better, but only coz Arsenal were trying to outdo Brazil 1970 in the goal charts - so many times they were through and tried to pass 30 times without putting it in the net.

We got a goal out of nothin, then guess what, Arsenal took it seriously and scored within 3 minutes !. Then they took the pee again, and we got another goal out of nothing, and then guess what - A LAST MINUTE GOAL AGAIN !.

Absolutely shocking.

We are in for a relegation dogfight. Wigan will be below us, but I tell you this, I ain't confident the others will be !

MOTM - Delfonousu - who at least actually tried to look like he knew what the job of a forward was !

Oh - by the way, quizz question - our 80 million pound player - when was the last time he scored in the Premier from open play - coz from what I reckon it was the Everton last minute goal - and that was 3 years ago !

Thank you P&D for putting it into perspective. It was completely and utterly abject today and any poster who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. I was ready to go home at half time because it was only Arsenal's poor finishing that stopped them being about 4-0 up.

Ok we gave it a go in the second half but yet again we gave away a very sloppy goal. Our defence is appalling and to be honest on the basis of today I would sell every single one of them because they were shite!!

Oh and thanks for mentioning the R word because that's where we are now, a relegation dog fight.

A challenge for the optimistic posters on this forum. How many points do you think we will get between now and 2nd January (the Chelsea game). On the basis of today a big fat zero.

Oh and SHA will almost certainly stuff us next week. Yes it is that bad.

[villianusa]

Not reading all the posts but as anyone mentioned the handball at 0-0 just before they scored. Not saying we would have deserved to be in the lead at that point but it was a definite penalty for me. The ball was crossed into the box and Wilshire jumped with his arm above his head to block the ball and he did. Cannot understand why the ref didn't give it as he was only a few yards away.

If we had gone 1-0 at that point who knows what could have happened. Another big decision that I feel as gone against us this season.

[TOTTI-THE-GOD]

My feelings have been pretty much summed up already on here . But the thing is we were poor today yet still managed to score 2 goals if we could actually sort our defence out and get some of these injuries back we can push on and get our confidence and form back . The premier league this season is sooooo unpredictable we need to stay positive .

[bickster]

Tactically clueless

Why start a home game against a side who play three up front usually with 4-5-1

Why start an arthritic 37 year old Pires

Why play Carew on his own up front, he will never ever be a lone striker in a million years

(also by playing those two, we allowed ourselves one other sub for the entire game, it was a given they would both have to come off at some stage)

Why did it take 135 minutes (if you include Blackburn) of football for GH to realise he could swap the wingers onto their natural wings? (I still don't think he realised that Downing is shit there, as he moved him back when Ireland came on)

Did someone telling Stuart Downing he was playing statues in infants PE again and being a pro footballer was just a dream he had?

My ratings are as follows

Ciaran Clarke 7.5

The fonz 7

The rest meh!

[Brumstopdogs]

Things that were annoying:

Not being smart (awake) when opposition are taking short corners.

Not being able to do simple 5 yards passes.

The centre backs naive positioning where one ball puts them in trouble.

Warnock slipping over on the edge of the box and then later putting his shoe back on meaning an Arsenal player is onside and almost scores!

Negative tactics at home.

Have to go behind before we "have a go"

Pires and Carew starting ahead of Ireland and Delf.

The gutless performances of some players.

The lack of movement from throw ins.

The inability to consistently cross balls.

The inability to get players doing what they do best i.e. Ashley Young and Downing running with the ball.

Glass is definitely half emoty - it might well only get worse at St Andrews -I can see Blues winning and then another defeat at Anfield!

Poor, poor, poor!!!

[bickster]

The lack of movement from throw ins.

That has been a problem for decades, it's like it's the law or something

[tonyh29]

then another defeat at Anfield!

surely the script is already written that Houllier will win on his return to Anfield ?

[Harry]

And another thing. In our new passing game can the players please remember to pass to their own team please. First goal for Arsenal was from a 'pass' from a Villa player (Collins I think).

Sorry to continue the rant but for the first time today I sat freezing my knackers off and I thought 'Do you know what, I'd rather not be watching this, its that bad'.

We are all over the place. The defence is utterly laughable and worse still its our first choice defence. Eight goals in the last three games is a **** disgrace. OK injuries are an issue but I get the distinct impression the players just don't care. Arsenal were so so vulnerable when on the back foot but as ever we just let ourselves get out thought and out played and over run in midfield.

Utterly, utterly pathetic.

[PaulMcgrathsknees]

Worst 1st half for a loooooong time.

Literally no-one could make any type of pass whatsoever.

Carew/ Pires/ Clark. Sloooooowest spine of a team ever. Not good when the front two are trying to get to flick ons..... or break away from Arsenals midfield....... Looked pathetic.

Clark is not a central midfielder and it is killing us. Turning circle of a barge with the speed of thinking and passing of a telegraphed sloth.

Arsenals tippy tappy bollocks killed Clark and Bannan forgot what the term "goalside" means.

Warnock was horrific for 10 mins, but after that best of the defence.

Ash and Downing had nothing to pass to with Carew and Pires running in treacle up front for the first half.

Horrible team selection by GH.

2nd half was much better.

2 Clark goals will paper over where we struggle the most when it matters. Our defence is cack because Petrov or NRC aren't in front of them.

Positives for the day - Ireland. Needs to play instead of Pires. Ireland and Ash interchanging with Gabby/ Fonz upfront. Please.

[VillaAus]

Have to go behind before we "have a go"

This is what annoys me as well. I don't understand why Villa went into the game with a complete defensive mentality, especially when it's a home game. We have nothing to lose against a team like Arsenal, so go all out.

Carew is useless now, and really needs to go. Just had to say that.

But getting back on the point now, it always seems that we sit back waiting to concede before we actually have a punt and go for goal. We should be aiming to hit the lead first and continue to apply the pressure throughout the game.

Two strikers should be starting from the very first minute, not when we are 2-0 down, that was a very poor choice. Throughout the season we have shown good signs when playing attacking football, not defensive, so why the team is set up so defensively every week still beats me.

The defence is far too slow and allowed Arsenal too much space.

My other concern is that we always concede either late in the first half or at the end of the game.

I wasn't worried about the late goal against Arsenal for obvious reasons, but in general it seems the players are more worried about getting off the pitch than playing every minute of the game.

It's pretty sad really because Villa are, and deserve better. But the injuries have really hurt us this season.

[ozvillafan]

Oh boy.

Friedel 6 - Solid but perhaps could've stopped goal no 3

Young 5.5 - Communication, Young. Communication.

Collins 4 - Anybody else seeing what I have been banging on about yet? Air swing. Beaten for headers by Chamakh. Constantly drawn to the ball. Not good enough.

Dunne 5 - Patchy, but so would anyone with Collins next to them. Some surprisingly good balls out of defense

Warnock 6 - Best of the back 4 for mine. I'm not a big fan - so well done.

Young 5.5 - effort but little penetration.

Clark 7 - MOTM. Wonderful technique and likes to put a foot on the ball when we have it instead of panic pass/hoof. But. So. Slow. It. Hurts. To. Watch.

Bannan 6 - Seemed to be playing deeper than Clark in the second half, which was strange. When defending must stay on feet and goal side.

Downing 5.5 - mirrored Young, so does his comment.

Pires 4 - He's a winger. Why put him up front?

Carew 4 - The stuff he managed to win he immediately turned over with a touch so poor it doesn't even belong in 4th division.

Fonz 6 - tried hard, didn't really get much service.

Ireland 4 - He's a wonderful player.... if only he could be arsed to try. I've seen more movement from my grandmother.

[ozvillafan]

Some other random thoughts

- Arsenal's defense is shit, culminating in a decidedly average keeper. To exploit this, you need to press them higher up the pitch and pepper the keeper when given even a half chance. We only did that in patches, yet it produced results. Why didn't we do this all game?

- First half we defended waaaaaay too deep and zonally, giving their players too much time. Carew spent a lot of time just outside our box. We had no outlet when we finally won possession being so compact, so we usually hoofed it straight back to them. That's as poor a showing as I have seen from Villa recently.

- When we broke forward our defense (and central midfield) stayed deep. This was especially the case in the last 15 minutes. You simply CANNOT give arsenal that much space. If you go forward, you go as a team. Houllier of all people should be drumming in the mantra that won France the WC: "We all stay or we all go".

- We try to pass the ball around the pitch and, again, we do this well at times. But we are impatient in our play. If there is no option, put your foot on it and draw a foul - don't just hoof it or hope for the miracle ball. Only Clark grasped this yesterday.

- Our "experienced" players performed worse than our kids.

- Don't get me started on Collins.

[cheltenham_villa]

Not reading all the posts but as anyone mentioned the handball at 0-0 just before they scored. Not saying we would have deserved to be in the lead at that point but it was a definite penalty for me. The ball was crossed into the box and Wilshire jumped with his arm above his head to block the ball and he did. Cannot understand why the ref didn't give it as he was only a few yards away.

If we had gone 1-0 at that point who knows what could have happened. Another big decision that I feel as gone against us this season.

That decision went against us, but lets be honest. Clarkes first should never have stood. Carew was offside right in front of the keeper. Fabianski had to move to the side to see around him.

[cheltenham_villa]

Some other random thoughts

- Arsenal's defense is shit, culminating in a decidedly average keeper. To exploit this, you need to press them higher up the pitch and pepper the keeper when given even a half chance. We only did that in patches, yet it produced results. Why didn't we do this all game?

- First half we defended waaaaaay too deep and zonally, giving their players too much time. Carew spent a lot of time just outside our box. We had no outlet when we finally won possession being so compact, so we usually hoofed it straight back to them. That's as poor a showing as I have seen from Villa recently.

- When we broke forward our defense (and central midfield) stayed deep. This was especially the case in the last 15 minutes. You simply CANNOT give arsenal that much space. If you go forward, you go as a team. Houllier of all people should be drumming in the mantra that won France the WC: "We all stay or we all go".

- We try to pass the ball around the pitch and, again, we do this well at times. But we are impatient in our play. If there is no option, put your foot on it and draw a foul - don't just hoof it or hope for the miracle ball. Only Clark grasped this yesterday.

- Our "experienced" players performed worse than our kids.

- Don't get me started on Collins.

you want our defence to go forwards yet how many times were we caught out by through balls or balls over the top. Part of the problem was trying to play to high a line.

[briggaman]

The lack of movement from throw ins.

That has been a problem for decades, it's like it's the law or something

It's not only from throw ins either. The movement all over the pitch seems to be woeful in quite a lot of our games. The players just don't want to move for the ball and don't create any options. This is something that the better teams do with ease.

Oh and I forgot to talk about Downing earlier. I'm not going to pin the defeat on him, yet I was disappointed in him. He has been doing really well lately. Yesterday though he looked like he couldn't be bothered at times and just stood there a few times when he could have done something. Hopefully it was a blip in the rather good season he is having thus far.

[bickster]

Reading the last few pages, the handball at 0-0 wasn't in the box it was just outside I thought (not seen a replay yet though)

Pires will never be a winger again, he's a Cent Mid now, way too slow for a wide man, way too slow for a footballer tbh He has been brought in on this basis, make of that what you will. Starting him was idiotic

Sitting back and playing on the break is the GH way, don't let any talk of "continental football" confuse you about that, its always been the way he's set his teams up.

You aren't offside until you touch the ball now, every pundit in the world seems to have forgotten that with Clark's goal.

[Genie]

You're a big fan of sweeping statements aren't you Bicks

[lexicon]

A new manager who hasn't even had a transfer window yet, a new style of play, a whole shitload of injuries and losing our best player in the summer WAS ALWAYS GOING TO MEAN that there would be teething problems.

It's all the same people that got on MON's back that are getting on GH's. This sort of pointless impatience and spleen-venting is just ridiculous. He needs time to get things right - if that isn't good enough for you, then pick another sport. Football teams are built over time and they are the creation of typically one manager alone who had a certain style of play - when someone completely different comes in, then he's going to need to bring his own players in, change the programming of the existing players or ship them out if they can't cut it.

[bickster]

It's all the same people that got on MON's back that are getting on GH's.

It really isn't.

[Undesirable]

One of our worst performances in a while. Nothing went righ today. A number of the lads looked out heir depth and some of the experienced players had shockers. Downing didn't seem to want to challenge for any 50/50 or run for a ball that he might have won, he should stood off for most of the game, seemed as though he'd lost of notion of depth perception and left balls he good have had.

Clarke had a shocker of a first half but atoned with 2 goals, though he could've had a hatrick.

Arsenal weren't even that good, we just let them have too much time on the ball and showed them far too much respect, poor all round.