Woody1000 Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Great start to the season in general, neutral goal difference after 3 tough games. But the main positive for me is the fact that Benteke, Lowton, Weimann and Westwood have barely got out of the blocks yet this season. (I appreciate that Benteke has scored a few, but for me his level of all-round performance has been lower than last season). I feel that once the players mentioned above can find their stride, we will be more than a match for any team in this league. Really pleased with the continued improvement of Delph, but still find his touch a little heavy at times when running with the ball. Most importantly, we are starting to re-gain some credibility as a side - teams not just seeing us as an easy 3 points! UTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Luna. Could easily have got 4,5,6 or 7 points from the opening three games. Okore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshVilla Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 (edited) - We did better than most of us expected from possibly the most difficult first 3 games of any team in the Prem. We could have had more if it wasn't for some poor refereeing. This time last year we probably would have just about managed a point. - We're still improving and gelling as a team. It's only the first week of the season so once we're fully settled, we should look more organized and clinical with the ball. - There's a definite improvement defensively. There's still work to be done, but hopefully with more coaching and game time the back 4 will strengthen. Luna is fantastic going forward and has a magnificent work rate, and Okore looks solid and comfortable with a good bit of pace on him. - Individual players are showing definite signs of improvement (i.e, Delph) Edited August 26, 2013 by JoshVilla 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 - Beat Arsenal away - Drew against Chelsea away, Lost to the ref - Did ok against Liverpool, even though 3rd game in 8 days. We're not firing on all cylinders yet, but are still matching top 6 teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Positives for me are: 3 more points from those 3 fixtures than last season. Luna looks a better left back than Bennett Delph's continued improvement El Ahmadi looks much better Okore looks solid We look a much more competitive team overall and should avoid the embarrassing defeats of last season. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Positives - We've got three points from a difficult start, Benteke is still here, Delph is playing well and Okore looks like he might well be another great find. A clean sheet at some point would be lovely though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 The fact that we could have easily walked away with 5-7 more points against 3 good teams in 7 days, 2 of which away from home and the fact that we look to have made progress on last season so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Great start to the season in general, neutral goal difference after 3 tough games. But the main positive for me is the fact that Benteke, Lowton, Weimann and Westwood have barely got out of the blocks yet this season. (I appreciate that Benteke has scored a few, but for me his level of all-round performance has been lower than last season). I feel that once the players mentioned above can find their stride, we will be more than a match for any team in this league. Really pleased with the continued improvement of Delph, but still find his touch a little heavy at times when running with the ball. Most importantly, we are starting to re-gain some credibility as a side - teams not just seeing us as an easy 3 points! UTV Good post. Yes Lowton was poor Saturday! I think we probably deserve to be on 5 pts not 3. Luna has been a big positive to me. Delph is playing the best football of his career. I worry that sides will setup like Liverpool did at Villa park and we will find it hard to get our front 3 into the game. We need more from the other 2 midfield players. We need to get a home win under our belt when we play Newcastle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 All of the above plus we can really pass the ball when we want to. We're not timid with the ball anymore and for the first time in a while, we're able to fashion chances after periods of sustained possession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradarmstrong_ Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 The main positive is that we were all annoyed that we had only come out of Arsenal and Chelsea with 3 points. Last season our main concern coming away from those games would be how many goals we conceded not how many points we should have took. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMcKenna Posted August 26, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted August 26, 2013 (edited) With a little luck and better refs we could have actually won the two we lost and deserved at least a draw in both. We were not outplayed in any of the games. Our defence is much tighter. Delph is a real prospect. Okore could be a star in the making. Edited August 26, 2013 by MikeMcKenna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danwichmann Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 The fact that we could have easily walked away with 5-7 more points against 3 good teams in 7 days, 2 of which away from home and the fact that we look to have made progress on last season so far. Surely we couldn't have got more than 6 extra points? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 I meant to put we could have easily come out of the 3 with 5-7 points, worded it badly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted August 26, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted August 26, 2013 3 games against top 6 sides in the space of 1 week - including 2 away trips - and we were unlucky not to get more than 3 points. The positive? We will get a lot better over the course of the season! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 We could have easily managed to get 9 points out of the 3 games just gone, based on performances and such. That is a huge positive for me and although we did lose to Chelsea and Liverpool I feel that our best showings so far are from our defence. When our attacking force gets into gear I think we will see some really good results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa-revolution Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 We have 3 huge fixtures behind us. We have 3pts on the board when most pundits thought we would have zilch. We have come from behind to win. We have come from behind to level at Chelsea & would have done so again & might even have won had it not been for scandalous refereeing Big teams have shown us a lot of respect. Our goal difference is intact. Okore looks the part. Luna is a big improvement on Bennett. We have still to see Sylla in the midfield which should bolster us further. Our first home game was a sell out. We weren't beaten by a liverpool side managed by the FSW We have improved our defending at corners. Our hospitality team really look after their guests & make sure the Sponsors get well & truly pissed before naming their MOTM. We have shifted some of the `Bomb Squad` The transfer window is still open so there is still time to do further business both ways. The Holte End have a new song. We haven't been last on MOTD. The Beast has already netted 3 times. Bacuna is the new `Pele` - At least according to the sponsors 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AValon Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 (edited) Plenty of positves for me....even from the largely infuriating Liverpoo game. Luna looks as if he's played for us for years and Okore is everything we hoped for. We have 3 HUGE points, should have had another and were it not for inspired saves from Mignolet, we might have got something out of Saturdays game. As it is, not every team will be able to sit back and kill the game like the plop did. They can try, but I think most teams will be worried how they set up to stop us. Definitely more positives than negatives, I'd say. Edited August 26, 2013 by AValon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 We were awful in the Liverpool game. But the other two games we looked to have improved. I think the shitty decisions vs Chelsea really affected the team. I agree some of more established players have not shown up yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted August 26, 2013 Moderator Share Posted August 26, 2013 Everything is a positive compared to last season. If anything, we as fans need to manage our expectations because after the Arsenal game there was a danger we would use that as the expected result for every game. The one note of caution is that they are still a young team that are still developing and they do have some way to go. We've come on leaps and bounds. We knew we would do and it's nice that we have done that. Most of our new signings look properly useful too already. As has been said above, Okore looks like the star we hoped he'd be. I like the look of Tonev and Luna really impressed me against Liverpool. Delph has been the standout and Gabby has continued where he left off last season. Benteke has already shown he's no one season wonder and while some of the lads still need to get fully up to speed (Lowton, Weimann, Westwood) I've seen enough to suggest my 8/9/10th place prediction is not out of the question at all.The fact we've already broken last season's attendance record after one home game this season speaks volumes for the fans' optimism too. It's a fun time to be a Villa fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulver Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Hard work, Graft, Effort, Never say die attitude, New faces It's going to take more than that to improve though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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