I don’t think I say it enough, but I’m going to now;
We did really well and fully deserved that. Indeed, we could have won by more and that’s always a great thing to say when you’re playing Arsenal away.
While I think Arsenal were incredibly poor (and late on they looked more shambolic than any time I can ever remember them in the Premier league) it takes two teams to make a game and Villa performed very well.
But how can Arsenal go from performing so well against Man Utd to performing like that?
And conversely, how can we go from performing as we did in our last two games to how we did tonight?
As I keep saying it’s all quite strange.
But it’s exciting too, because it means any team might end up at least challenging if the season continues as it is.
And that means you never know. We are certainly capable of scoring goals after all.
So what happened?
The truth is I don’t have a clue.
I said in the preview that Villa’s game revolves massively around our midfield.
There’s no new theory there and it’s not rocket science I’m talking about.
But Barkley and McGinn were different players today and I struggle to see how that can be.
They played well and everything else just followed.
It’s just crazy how things work.
But when the pre-match talk was about changing it up, most of us had a feeling that Smith wouldn’t because he knows his best players.
He was certainly justified in picking the same team (Traore apart) today, wasn’t he?
And while McGinn and Barkley played well, with hard work and at least some skill, so they gave Jack Grealish the chance to weave his magic.
He was head and shoulders above anyone else. Again.
And he does it so often I’m sure I think massively less of him if he doesn’t have a great game.
In fact, I’m sure many a Villa fan think the same as me. And that’s major pressure on his shoulders.
It’s also incredibly unfair, especially when he’s getting slated for not having at least an 8 out of 10 game.
Whatever, Andy Townsend couldn’t talk highly enough about him and it was pointed out that Jack has now contributed to 8 goals in 10 games. That’s impressive.
How good was that game for Martinez?
He’ll be well happy having kept a clean sheet while Leno conceded three and may well be thinking he’s joined a team on the up and left a team on the way down.
That’s how things struck me, for what it’s worth. Arsenal just don’t look to have any desire.
Talking of conceding three goals, McGinn’s whopping strike, that I thought had broke the net, raised questions about it’s validity.
My immediate reaction was that Barkley was in front of Leno’s sight and hence interfering with play.
But Andy Gray made the very good point that Barkley wasn’t directly in line between McGinn and Leno and there was no chance of Leno stopping it anyway.
I can see both sides and while it doesn’t matter today, if that had cost us points in a relegation struggle, I’d be fuming.
Whatever, if we didn’t have VAR, I’m pretty convinced the goal would have been given, without question.
There was a mention that something like eight out of ten fans surveyed want VAR scrapped. It’s a view that I tend to agree with.
But then I think about the years of bitching that made the game introduce VAR in the first place.
I think Townsend called it right in saying the priority is preventing VAR stopping the game for too long. His point that allowing the ref to have a look and keep the decision on the pitch, being wise, is one I agree with.
I’ve rattled too much and I’ll leave you to comment more about the performance.
But it didn’t take any mechanical means to say we romped that game, did it?
Happy days and long may those type of results continue.
UTV!
Yeehah!
I’m having a beer after that!
It seems even the Arsenal fans think McGinns effort should have stood;
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/arsenal-aston-villa-var-decision-19245619
That was a stunning game, totally unexpected result.
Beers for all the lads tonight!!! 😁😁😁
I still think if McGinn was playing for Arsenal the goal would have stood. VAR should be scrapped because it’s ruining the flow of the game. McGinn’s ‘goal’ was about 50 seconds in and it was around the 5th minute when the game restarted. It can’t help with players standing around and risks muscle tightening and possible injuries. Thankfully it didn’t matter and every one of our players was a minimum 8/10. Now we have a stupid pointless international break. What with Covid you would think mixing international teams would be a dumb idea.
First class – awarded myself a rum nightcap for being Part of the Pride.
Couldn’t criticise any player tonight.
Grealish will steal the show but the whole of the midfield were excellent. A big word for Luiz who I thought was back to his best and Trezeguet who worked tirelessly all night and forced the own goal.
15 points after 7 games – Lee Hendrie said ‘it’s great to see the old Villa are back’. Couldn’t agree more.
Great game and it should have been 4 the goalkeeper did see it because he moved to the right so should have stood.
Only 25 more points to go for safety 👍😂😂😂
A truly fantastic result.
I followed it on BBC website. Refused to pay £15!
Just been scanning YouTube for highlights. Wow, what a run by Grealish for the 3rd goal. I also like the way Ollie Watkins knows where to position himself.
I am still pinching myself after taking 9 points from Liverpool, Leicester and now Arsenal.
Keep going Deano, you are building a very good team.
Great result tonight. In past seasons there was always games that you would have down as “Should Be Winning” games. This season every game is “Can Win but Might Not” . Its a strange old season and 5 wins out of 7 is pretty incredible in comparison to last season. Keep racking up the points lads and let us see where we are come Christmas. We are averaging just over 2 points a game. Keep that up and we will have had an amazing season. But i still keep thinking we are 12 points clear of relegation places. Always fearing the worst ! Its a Villa Thing !! Lol.
After the 2015 season when we broke every record on the debit side….its great now to be setting new credit records……
won 1st 4 at start of season
won 1st 3 away (ever)…
what a performance 🙂 the way villa dominated arsenal was outstanding. we started the game like we meant business, finished it in the same manner. i think the team was the men of the match. don’t get fooled into thinking arsenal where off there game. villa forced them into positions they didn’t like. leeds forced us into a game we didn’t want. soton did the same in the first half of the other game. where we got bullied handed over the ball.
arsenal bullied man utd in the game before. they were awesome in that, countering man utd and winning the ball back with ease, its easier to blame arsenal saying they were off the game as a valid reason why villa ended up easy winners. but its b/s villa forced arsenal on the back foot from the whistle to last. we paced ourselves well, hunted the ball in packs. we never over committed ourselves like in leeds and soton games. we were controlled with the ball and without. it was the best villa performance of the season and tbh best that i have seen us in a long time. it was dominate 90 minute performance i seen in years
well done to all villa players all the coaches and fans deserve this performance suffering as we have for ages. smith has kept the same team and this is frowned upon in this day and age. but we have fast tracked the relationships on the field which is important. you can see that in the way we out passed arsenal in periods, down our left flank we was awesome. targett grealish and watkins all were unplayable. the other side was almost as good . relationships of the players on the field means they know instantly what each other likes and their strengths. we won the league like this using the minimum amount of players. no need to keep resting x and y rotating they call this nowadays. its unsettles players who always what to play when they are on the game. if a player needs rest then the coaches and manager will identify that and we have players that will come in and add to the first team.
only downer for me is the next match is ages off damn internationals again. i don’t know whats more frustrating southgate inability to see what is right in front of his big nose. grealish is the best midfielder or winger / attacker england has. he offers way more than southgates attackers or midfielders he plays. england lack the vision ,guile and calmness grealish would brings. if grealish slows it down which southgates hates. their is a reason he does this, the 100 mph game we play in england is outdated. the first goal trez /og was calmly worked. between barkley grealish and targett they were marked by three defenders but villa players rotated over and over finally creating the space to work in inside the box and crossed / passed in front of the goalie to the back stick. also southgate wants to change grealish into a defender off the ball which is all fine and dandy but why would you want tire the best skillful player you have, he should pick grealish and allow him to play his natural game and allow the defenders to defend and attackers to attack.watching england is boring they pass tippy tappy one way to the other, then they switch the ball and thats about it. we have no imagination. that style wont go far against the top international sides
Spot on Nath.
Alan Shearer on MOTD 2 was ecstatic about Villa’s performance – said it was the best all round performance he had seen – ‘magnificent with and without the ball’ even Wrighty had to give them praise.
What was Sky’s headline – ‘Abject Arsenal ……… ‘ so it seems we won because one of the darling Sky 6 were poor on the night?
Give praise where praise is due.
England have a history of misusing their most talented players. Gazza, Rooney, Le Tiss, and it seems Southgate is from the Bert Millichip school of punishing flair players.
Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Frank Worthington. Even Trevor Brooking until Ron Greenwood had a caretaker manager role. Wasted talent and part of why England have been mediocre for most of my lifetime.
I loved Ian Wright’s comment on MOTD. “If Villa were walking down the street, they’d be John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.”
And Shearer almost burst an artery in gushing praise, saying how stunningly brilliant Villa were.
Happy days.
Fabulous performance and great result. I can understand Smith sticking with the same team as the subs are not up to the same standard. Some top performances yesterday but what a refreshing change to have a striker like Watkins who will get bucketloads if we supply the chances.
Absolutely fantastic team performance. We keep that up consistently and we will comfortably be top 10 and if the players keep top form and we don’t suffer key injuries then this group of players can really take us forward. Such a refreshing start to the season. We have had 1.5 bad halves of football so far. Its starting to feel great being a villa fan again. The only annoying thing is when we win particularly against the top 6/8 the response in the media and opposition fans is as if we were a national league team! Wake up everyone Villa are back and we are only getting stronger. UTV.
That game beyond doubt was first class football, I’m not a fan of tip tap football that Southgate wants, it will take a side like Villa to destroy his game. Every player gave 100% and Targett up his game and proved he can be part of Villas set up. Piers Morgan a prat of the first order, one day he’ll talk sense when Villa gets its well deserved position in football like European games, VAR is defiantly ruining the game, that was a goal and I won’t be told otherwise. Well done my Football team ,I’m proud of you all.
Though the Liverpool result will live longer in the memory, I agree with you, this was our best performance. After conceding 3 goals from deflections Liverpool realised they were jinxed. Arsenal were still in the game at 0-1 though Villa Villa were bossing it.
We got the improvement from all the players who needed to raise their games from the Saints match = the entire midfield, Konsa and Watkins. If we can raise our game like that against every big six team we could beat the lot.
3 or 5 substitutes? The argument about player welfare is, imho, a red herring.
The bigger clubs have sufficient squad depth to rotate their teams so Joe dies the number of allowable sure affect player welfare? What it really does is give a massive advantage to the clubs with the bigger squads.
Why aren’t we hearing an argument for dumping the hated international breaks as part of players welfare and using those weeks to allow rest periods for the players?
Self interest that’s all it is – top marks to Dean Smith for standing against it (Villa being one of three clubs with low substitute usage because we don’t have the squad depth – and the injury argument – how does 5 subs help Villa if they suffer a number of injuries?)
Rant ended 🙂
‘Joe dies’ 🙂 which was entered as – how does – predictive bollocks! And – ‘allowable sure’ put in as allowable substitutes.
Modern technology?
If the Nations League isn’t bad enough, why on earth does there need to be a friendly beforehand? It would slightly make sense if there were fans and revenue was raised towards the over budget Wembley. But it seems to all of us that there are more and more international fixtures introduced every year. Once upon a time getting an international cap was the ultimate achievement. Unfortunately it has been belittled with average players who have just left school getting games. Remember how many caps our English players in the 1980-1982 era got? Not many despite their success at club level.
Nowadays getting 100 caps will be commonplace and ordinary players will be compared with the likes of Billy Wright, Bobby Charlton etc.
I don’t know many fans who care about England games other than the Euros and World Cup actual tournaments (not qualifying)