They say the bookies are usually right and so it proved today.
With 20-20 hindsight, we didn’t even deserve that 13-1 that was quoted, in my opinion.
So what went wrong?
I don’t know where to start, but I guess the lineup is as good a place as any.
Cleverley and Richardson started and as per usual I asked myself why?
Gabby, who’s been reasonably prolific against Arsenal was not started. I know I’ve called for him to be dropped myself, but this is one of the only games of the season where I’d actually want him to play.
I just don’t understand Lambert’s thinking at all, as we’ve had decent results against the top clubs by sitting deep and countering. Yet what has previously worked was abandoned by Lambert today and we tried to play far too high up, resulting in Arsenal getting in behind us to score after only eight minutes.
The deft flick on from Ozil didn’t help matters and the sickening thing here is that I was thinking about him and how he was bound to score, just before the kickoff.
To think we were linked with him not that long ago. That’s how far we’ve fallen.
We were very lucky to go in only one down at half time, as it could easily have been three, after they had chances and hit the post.
Our defence just after the goal was a complete shambles and we weren’t picking their players up at all.
Do we man mark or zone defend?
I don’t have a clue.
Then we came out for the second half, where things just got worse.
We looked aimless and I’m struggling to see what there is to discuss here.
A couple of points though;
Sanchez, while he was incredibly frustrating in the way he gave the ball away today, was for me, the only one (Gil apart) that was looking to actually go forward and look for something. I remember him at least twice running straight down the middle, only for him to reach a position where you could practically see him thinking “now what am I supposed to do?”, because there wasn’t an option around him, apart from Benteke, who was isolated up front.
I feel really sorry for him and he surely must be wondering what’s going on in the way we play the game.
Gil looked good again and he too was actually looking to achieve something.
The rest of the midfield were totally anonymous and I just kept thinking to myself it’s either the players are utter rubbish or it’s the way they’re being played.
I came to the conclusion that it’s probably a bit of both.
Lambert changed it up, but it was already too late and the game was already lost when we went two down by a goal from Ozil.
At the end of the day, we had two chances on target and yet again, that just isn’t enough.
So, we’ve now gone six games or ten hours and twelve minutes without scoring in the league.
Apparently, that’s another record low, although I’m not sure if that’s in the prem or overall.
They’ve just shown a table of the lowest scorers in the English league, on the telly.
West brom are 91st with 20 goals scored.
We’re 92nd with 11 scored.
While I expected a loss today, Lambert should be sacked for that alone.
He should also be sacked for the way we came out against Arsenal too, as that was tactical naivety at it’s best.
But we all know it isn’t going to happen.
To think it’s Chelsea up next.
What’s the solution there Lambert?
Will you be mug enough to try the same again?
It really wouldn’t surprise me if he does, as it seems he’s untouchable.
And that’s a bigger joke than what happened today.
The crowd should be screaming blue murder from the off for Lamtwat’s head next week.
I agree Bum Bum.
But it won’t happen.
The hype has worked, in that we won’t do any better than what we’ve got now.
Looking at it totally objectively though, with all of the bad records broken, Lambert’s sacking can be the only way to go.
It’s just a case of when those at the top finally see it.
As I said in the post, while I expected the loss today, it was the manner of it, which has hurt me.
We were a disgrace.
They won’t all the apologists will be out in force
I’m just gutted 🙁
Listened to it. Ashamed to be a Villa fan. I know someone who went today. £130 it cost him for that shite. Lambert has to go now. Fox and Lerner are beyond a joke. I never ever though Villa would sink this low under Lerner.
I just could not believe how many times we gave the ball away, Richardson, Sanchez, dire, Benteke was missing, we was to far up the field and at a disarray in knowing what to do, best player was Gil , we are doomed to go down, and as we all know Lambert is Lerner’s money belt ,he will not be sacked.
Yes, Benteke was poor today, but he was obviously under instruction, imo Bill.
He was far too remote from the game and our midfield, that is far too defensively biased for my liking, don’t know how to close up the gap.
That’s why you saw Sanchez giving the ball away too much.
While some of his passing was just wayward, there’s also a case that he’s expecting those around him to actually go forward and actually move around to create something.
But it just doesn’t happen.
That’s why we create nothing and aren’t getting chances, imo.
But what the fuck do I know?
It’s blatantly obvious that we don’t create anything and blaming Benteke for getting a load of shit for service is not the answer.
Benteke would have got at least a couple if he was playing for Arse today, imo.
Agree Badger. At least Sanchez was trying to get the ball forward. We just don’t move the ball forward quickly enough and then end up playing across the front of the opposition.
No movement and very little vision.
Benteke – I accept your points but he’s just not interested. No aggression and no power in his play both of which are his main attributes.
Hitchens, it saddens me to say it, but would you be interested?
Yes, he should be, on his money, but he must surely see it the same as us and it has to be disheartening to say the least.
I’ll say it again.
He’d have got a couple if he was playing for Arse today, as they would give him chances.
Imo, we now have three players who are frankly too good for the rest of those around them;
Benteke, Gil and Sanchez.
You can possibly add Guzan and Delph for my money, but the rest are utterly average at best, either in the way they’re being played or just plain quality.
Benteke was awful today, he barely moved for the ball, service is one thing, but desire is another and he couldn’t of looked lazier.
The biggest problem is Lambert, these are not a bad bunch of players, they have no confidence at all and no direction, and Lambert still doesn’t know his best eleven, which after 3 years is pretty bad.
I think Sinclair and Gil will be breaths of fresh air and are far better than Gabby and Weiman.
i feel sorry for the poor souls paying good money to watch this shit i gave up 20 years ago
Im fucking sick to death of this villa team, lambert and feeling like this, this team has pissed me off for 4 seasons now and im close to taking drastic action and doing my coaching badges or summat because I can do better than that fucking prick who manages us,fuck off Randy Learner,sell us to any one who will buy better fucking players,its that simple,fuck off lambert, I have forgotten more about formations, tactics and motivating a team than you will ever know, this bull shit team cant go on anymore
Lambert has done his coaching badge.
it’s the man not the qualifications.
I can not think of anybody (in any walk of life) with such a poor record and not get stacked.
frank spencer could do a better job.
Shows what a bullshit qualification it is then. Probably a multiple choice test at the end of it
Well said Paul
649 teams have scored more than us. Lambert still claims he’s the man for the job!!!!!!!!!! Collymore is spot on today.
A thumping coming yet again Saturday difference being at home & I would of thought a good turn out.could get nasty if not I’ll be amazed all I can say it would be about time.badger good article my only gripe you were too polite mate,thank God I didn’t write it.
1. We were never going to win
2. Never thought we would roll over like we did
3. You won’t trouble anyone with 7 defensive players.
4. Setup was woeful
5. We were woeful
6. Changes were promising but far too late
7. We were woeful
8. We need to throw money at a good striker & another ‘Gil’ type midfielder
9. Lambert needs to watch it back, twice. Once to see where he went wrong, the second to see what Arsenal did right, and try his best to emulate.
10. We were woeful
11. UTV
I can simplify:
1) Sack Lambert. Enough said.
Lambert should admit – for the good of the club – that it is not working, do the honourable thing and walk.
The spineless fool wouldn’t understand the concept of honour or decency. Can’t see him getting another job after this one. Maybe that’s why he won’t walk, because it’s his last pay day.
Badger all time EVER in our history – six league games without a goal. I think Sunderland hold the all time record with 10. Go for it Lambert.
Thanks Hitchens.
Oh dear, is the polite way of looking at that.
Yes they do hitchy but looks like we’re going to have a good go at it.
Arsenal are a quality side, they can put 5 past anyone in the league so it could have been worse considering how bad we are. Did anyone really expect anything different today? We’ve consistently struggled against teams around in the league, Leicester, WBA, Palace, Burnley etc etc. We could have gotten a serious hiding today and I didn’t even watch it because I thought it was gonna be 7-8.
I think we’re gonners this year if I’m honest. It’s sad sad times at the villa atm.
I agree with your sentiments but it was embarrassing to watch.
How did Sinclair look when he came on?
I noticed we had the edge on posession haha
New Ragime he has pace, and also showed some skill but it was only on for 17 minutes need games to say.
Cheers mate. Should of started really, we had nothing to lose, but that’s not Lamberk’s mindset now is it
lambert does not have clue how to set his team up .he looks lost when sitting on the bench he has to go for the good of the club
Well there we are then.
The predictable thumping and yet another dire, clueless performance.
The performance of Carlos Sanchez in particular was disgraceful – how many times did he give the ball away?
3 years this idiot has been in charge and each year despite bringing in players of his choice, we have just got worse.
Lerner, Fox and Lambert are a trio of absolute clowns.
Good to see that the one’s who predicted “only a narrow defeat” are back to calling for Lambert’s head again. If some no-mark signs tomorrow it’ll all be positive again and “bring on Chelsea”.
Fickle – you better believe it.
Gareth, you’re spot on, just spot on, it’s just a disgrace, this manager is a disgrace.
Keeping Paul Lambert any longer is a true “false narrative” – it could easily have been eight.
As for Gabby, what a complete and utter parody of a player he is.
Gabby looks like he’s put weight on to me anyone else think that
Badger you should have titled your header ‘Down & Rout’.
Yes, good one.
I quite like Paul Routledge’s stuff though, so wouldn’t want him asssociated with us 😉
Seriously though, it wasn’t good today, was it?
Woeful mate, to be honest I’ve disagreed with Oohah and Gareth but they’re both on the money, just where do we go from here?
Clubs like Southampton , Swansea seem to have a plan an ethos that runs through the club, they can take a kid from the reserves and he knows what’s expected of him. We on the other hand are a rudderless ship running onto the rocks of relegation.
You’ve just answered it yourself, BWS.
The club, from top to bottom, has no plan, leadership or guidance.
It’s a sinking ship and that load of BS that Fox came out with the other day is not what’s required (hence my post about it).
Fox, if he’s as good as is made out, needs to take the bull by the balls and sort this utter mess out.
Without money though, I think his hands are tied.
I can’t see him being here long, as the club just don’t match up to what he envisions, imo.
Money is important but not the be all and end all. If Randy has this plan for AVFC (which I doubt) he’d throw enough to keep us up then start from scratch copying the Southampton model but he won’t cause he’s clueless. He came in threw shit loads of money at it in the hope of getting into the CL and creaming of the the tv and advertising rights (see David Conn).
When that went Pete tong he ran for the hills leaving AVFC high and dry. There is no plan, no love of the club, we are just an investment that went wrong.
No we are an investment that went right. Lerner is making ridiculous amounts of money from sky deal whilst spending a fraction of that to keep us up.
I have gone on an on about sacking lambert but having no viable better replacement. If lambert goes I want Lerner to go too. I still don’t know if we will even remotely improve under any poor sod who would come in after him, probably cowans or take your pick from the one of the ex mangers, come pundits on the tv. But I am giving in to my villa depression. Sack him let’s take a punt it could be worse but statistically that’s becoming less likely. The new manager buzz will hopefully get us the 15 points to cling on desperately to te prem. even it doesn’t we are going there anyway, might be less depressing
Colonius, I see where you’re coming from.
Change for change sake isn’t good and I know that has consistently been your stance, which is generally wise.
But we’ve now got to a stage where things can hardly be any worse, statistics-wise.
He has to go, as it simply isn’t working, is the 100% pure logic.
When the likes of yourself turn, you know there’s something wrong, imo.
badger
2 wins out 19
41 points out off 47 games 141 points
wake the fuck up fox
first division will be easy to get more money into club wake up fox
the way they have played this season they will struggle in the championship they look clueless
Just reading post match comments from twat,he didn’t feel it was a 5-0 game too fucking right it should of been 12-0.he said we did well for 60-65 mins what fucking match was he watching.excuses for benteke now are running thin when he does get in scoring positions he doesn’t score.ashamed to be a fan & twat should be ashamed to class himself as a manager.
Don’t tell me giddy – the lads did brilliantly, they were fantastic blah blah blah.
Mate I only read a few lines & as far as I was concerned that’s was a few lines too many.
I lost count of how many times we gave the ball away today. It was just horrific especially given that Arsenal werent even closing down that quickly. Sanchez’s passing today was horrific, although I still feel he had more impact on the game than Cleverley.
Lambert is deluded. Arsenal scored 5, hit the bar twice and also had some dubious offside calls. It could have been a lot worse. We created two half-chances.
We are in serious trouble.
Blaming Benteke when the only chances he get are the rare floated crap crosses. Hahaha. I’d too be disillusioned if I was him.
I see this threads also turned into a Lambert out campaign. Who in their right mind would come? No prem manager from top to bottom and no Top 6 Championship manager would leave this time of the season, especially for us. And anyone else further down the pecking order would be no better. End of.
Helenius,
I totally agree with you about the service Benteke gets.
As for Lambert, you were already in a minority, with your “who else can we get?” stance.
You were strongly backed up by Colonius.
But guess what?
When faced with statistics and facts, he thinks Lambert has to go too.
See above.
How can anyone be worse? is the question.
At the moment, I’m close to not giving a toss, tbh, as I’m seeing no ambition or even any aim from the club and this is the problem.
If they don’t care, why should I?
Whatever, it would seem that you or I couldn’t do a much worse job, given the new record of six games without a goal.
listening to his comments and the way he stormed down the tunnel i think after tonight hes probably lost the players
How anyone can defend Sanchez after his performance today is beyond me. He was downright shocking. Not just wayward passes, but his touch and control was awful as well. You can’t really blame his teammates, there was one instance where he was given the ball from the left and had Gil Hutton and Cleverley all in good positions on the right and he hit it over all of them straight to their left back. When Westwood came on for him he not only passed and moved it better, but he almost scored one too!
Same for Benteke, he may have gotten us some important goals but he needs to be dropped as soon as, he may be shot of confidence but you need to at least MOVE to get going. There was one instance when Gil got to the byline and hit it across, first defender cleared but a good striker would be legging for that front post ready to come in front of the defender before the ball is even played across.
Those 10 players that started with him had better apologised to Gil after the final whistle. Sinclair looked alright too in his 25 minutes. Just realised by the time I’m over this match it’ll be time to play Chelsea.. Aaaaaah.