The Official Aston Villa FC thread

[Fittster]

Arsenal are fallible but it's probably all over.

Dean Smith was a terrible appointment. The success of Brentford is due to their analytics department and the power they have over what happens on the field, not due to the ability of the manager. In fairness he's not had much luck with injuries.


The signings made at the start of the season have generally been poor, the exception being Luiz (Mings is OK, but at £20m he was poor value).

So a poor manager and poor transfers, you have got to start asking questions about the DoF, Jesús García Pitarch

I've got little confidence in the people behind the scenes making decisions that lead to a long term stable future in the premiership

Edited by Fittster on Friday 17th July 00:27

[Hungrymc]

Watched the arsenal game from behind the sofa.... Not sure how I’m going to cope with Sunday.

[Gad-Westy]

Hungrymc said:

Watched the arsenal game from behind the sofa.... Not sure how I’m going to cope with Sunday.

Ha, same. I'd written Villa off a couple of weeks back. Amazing what a couple of wins can do at this end of the table. Seems entirely do-able now but might come down to goal difference. Will be a nail biter!

[PurpleTurtle]

It's the rollercoaster of being a Villa fan! Beating Arsenal at home for the first time in TWENTY TWO YEARS!!!

I had to go out and sit on the bottom of the stairs for the last five minutes, I couldn't bear to watch. What a strike from Trez. I see mixed messages about him on Facebook/Twitter, but that took a very, very cool head to put that away.

7 points from the last 9, should have been 9 from 9 but for that woeful bit of defending to gift Everton their equaliser.

Mrs PT wants to go out for the day on Sunday .... words have been had!!

[JNW1]

I think it's falling nicely into place for you just when it matters! Watford seem to be in total disarray and are unlikely to get anything at Arsenal (who surely can't play as badly again as they did against you last night); meanwhile, West Ham are now safe with nothing to play for when you meet them on Sunday. I think you'll get at least a point from your final game and I'll be surprised if that's not good enough for survival....

[PurpleTurtle]

JNW1 said:

I think it's falling nicely into place for you just when it matters! Watford seem to be in total disarray and are unlikely to get anything at Arsenal (who surely can't play as badly again as they did against you last night); meanwhile, West Ham are now safe with nothing to play for when you meet them on Sunday. I think you'll get at least a point from your final game and I'll be surprised if that's not good enough for survival....

Cheers, I’m hopeful that’s the case but there are so many permutations of what might happen. It’s exciting in a way .... we’re a long way of troubling the top of the table but right now 17th means everything! Sky love a bit of this action!

[UpThe]

Well done. You deserved to stay up.

[stuartmmcfc]

UpThe said:

Well done. You deserved to stay up.

+1

[breamster]

UpThe said:

Well done. You deserved to stay up.

This explains the abusive posts from you in the Bournemouth thread then.

Anyway, well done to Villa.

Edited by breamster on Sunday 26th July 18:36

[Hungrymc]

That was a nervy afternoon. Honestly thought we were dead and buried 2 weeks ago.

15 days to be precise when we were 7 points from safety (11/7/2020)

I don’t think the wider football world really understand how much of a mess our club was in 2 years ago. Great effort to get 5th in the championship last year, and then win the playoffs. But the club was still in a state with so many loan players and players at the end of their career. This has to be a better platform to build from, need some very sharp recruitment of course and we’re all going to be worrying about Jack....

But what a turn around this last 2 weeks.

[PurpleTurtle]

Incredible performance in the last four games, I put a lot of that down to the return of Super John McGinn - he's an absolute talisman for us, we play so much better with him in the team. The 'Rona postponement allowed him to get over that serious injury and really deliver when it mattered.

I couldn't watch the last 2 mins of added time as I just thought we would concede and blow it.

Commiserations to Bournemouth, I live down south and get South Today as my local news, I have watched Eddie Howe graduate from player to manager there, taking them on an incredible journey over the last decade. I really hope they bounce back from it quickly.

[GTO-3R]

PurpleTurtle said:

Incredible performance in the last four games, I put a lot of that down to the return of Super John McGinn - he's an absolute talisman for us, we play so much better with him in the team. The 'Rona postponement allowed him to get over that serious injury and really deliver when it mattered.

I couldn't watch the last 2 mins of added time as I just thought we would concede and blow it.

Commiserations to Bournemouth, I live down south and get South Today as my local news, I have watched Eddie Howe graduate from player to manager there, taking them on an incredible journey over the last decade. I really hope they bounce back from it quickly.

Got to agree on McGinn, he's the midfielder that makes you tick while Grealish does the finishing off. If you can manage to keep hold of both of them this summer and recruit well then I think you will do ok next season as you've got a good side to build on.

Well done on staying up!

[Hungrymc]

SJM looked so far off the pace when he returned, but it’s a long break after a nasty....errr... break.

And certainly the last 4 games has been more like it. His holding the ball up and turning people as well as his press made a big difference.

Douglas had also looked very good since the restart, and Conor suddenly able to get involved in open play.

Such a relief. Hard on Watford and Bournemouth, when it’s so tight it’s rough on those that don’t make it, not something you could say about us in our last relegation.

[monty999]

Glad you've stayed up as that hopefully gives me another close away game to watch my team (Chelsea), plenty of others too next season with WBA coming up too.

But got to feel sorry for Bournemouth though. Funny how all this technology was bought in to prevent incorrect decisions costing clubs a fortune and in the end technology going wrong keeps you up and has cost Bournemouth ££££'s.

[L4CON]

monty999 said:

Glad you've stayed up as that hopefully gives me another close away game to watch my team (Chelsea), plenty of others too next season with WBA coming up too.

But got to feel sorry for Bournemouth though. Funny how all this technology was bought in to prevent incorrect decisions costing clubs a fortune and in the end technology going wrong keeps you up and has cost Bournemouth ££££'s.

We've lost out due to bad VAR decisions more than we've benefitted, so that's not the reason we stayed up. Besides, it's impossible to say what the outcome of a game would have been if an early decision had gone the other way. It's understandable that Bournemouth will feel a bit aggrieved but if that had happened in the first game of the season would people still be claiming that's the only reason we didn't get relegated?

[JNW1]

L4CON said:

We've lost out due to bad VAR decisions more than we've benefitted, so that's not the reason we stayed up. Besides, it's impossible to say what the outcome of a game would have been if an early decision had gone the other way. It's understandable that Bournemouth will feel a bit aggrieved but if that had happened in the first game of the season would people still be claiming that's the only reason we didn't get relegated?

I think that's fair, after 38 games the table doesn't lie and over the course of a season all teams will have been on the receiving end of good and bad decisions from things like VAR. That said, the goal decision against Sheffield United wasn't even marginal; I'm still surprised the officials - and especially the linesman - didn't spot it in real time but having missed it I'm still at a loss to understand why VAR wasn't used to correct such a blatant error!

However, rather than indifferent decisions, I think it was actually the lockdown break that helped you as it meant McGinn played a lot more games than he otherwise would have done; along with Grealish I think he's quite key for Villa and having him available for more matches was a definite bonus for you IMO.

[Frank7]

JNW1 said:

I think it's falling nicely into place for you, meanwhile, West Ham are now safe with nothing to play for when you meet them on Sunday. I think you'll get at least a point from your final game and I'll be surprised if that's not good enough for survival....

You were right about that, as a fair weather Hammer, who was often at Upton Park, but have only been to the London Stadium a handful of times, I was intrigued at my Gooner grandson’s view of the 1-1 draw against Villa.
“Your mob let them get that point grandad, they eased up, as Villa play in claret and blue, like West Ham do!”

[Hungrymc]

Frank7 said:

You were right about that, as a fair weather Hammer, who was often at Upton Park, but have only been to the London Stadium a handful of times, I was intrigued at my Gooner grandson’s view of the 1-1 draw against Villa.
“Your mob let them get that point grandad, they eased up, as Villa play in claret and blue, like West Ham do!”

Did he have a similar explanation for the Arsenal game as well :-) ?

[Frank7]

Hungrymc said:

Frank7 said:

You were right about that, as a fair weather Hammer, who was often at Upton Park, but have only been to the London Stadium a handful of times, I was intrigued at my Gooner grandson’s view of the 1-1 draw against Villa.
“Your mob let them get that point grandad, they eased up, as Villa play in claret and blue, like West Ham do!”

Did he have a similar explanation for the Arsenal game as well :-) ?

He never mentioned Villa’s 1-0 win, but I did say to his dad, my Gooner son, “I got a warm glow out of seeing a team in claret and blue kick your a$$!”

[L4CON]

JNW1 said:

I think that's fair, after 38 games the table doesn't lie and over the course of a season all teams will have been on the receiving end of good and bad decisions from things like VAR. That said, the goal decision against Sheffield United wasn't even marginal; I'm still surprised the officials - and especially the linesman - didn't spot it in real time but having missed it I'm still at a loss to understand why VAR wasn't used to correct such a blatant error!

However, rather than indifferent decisions, I think it was actually the lockdown break that helped you as it meant McGinn played a lot more games than he otherwise would have done; along with Grealish I think he's quite key for Villa and having him available for more matches was a definite bonus for you IMO.

I can see how the officials missed it and obviously the referee would be expecting to get the signal from hawk eye so would naturally assume it hadn't quite crossed the line I guess. In fairness, Sheffield's goal against us in the reverse fixture wasn't a marginal decision as their player kicked it out of our keeper's hands, so pretty even between us and them over the two games you could say.

The lockdown definitely benefitted us, McGinn looked off the pace to start with, but having him back at all was a positive and he picked up in the last few games.