Well, there it is, following a fairly convincing and enjoyable third round victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, we crash out of the FA Cup at the hands of the Geordies, who are delighted to get their own back on us after they were schooled on the art of simple football a few weeks back by Unai and the lads.
A game largely overshadowed by stupidity and refereeing decisions, Villa completely capitulate again after losing Marco Bizot to a completely foolish move. Seriously, what were Bizot and Bailey thinking? Regardless of that anyways, this is something we happen to see time and time again – Villa proving that they are quite simply not cut out to win things unless we get over this bottling it when push comes to shove. Obviously, had I have had the choice – beat them in the cup and lose at St. James in the league, or beat them in the league at St. James and lose to them in the cup – I would of course, like many, have chosen the latter, but it still feels beyond the point, the point that we are just not natural winners in our modern era, even with Unai.
In terms of the actual match, I was sat in the Upper Holte due to being forced to move from the Upper North Stand due to Newcastle being entitled to an allocation of around over 6,000 tickets. This is something that is great for the atmosphere, however awful if you want to actually watch the game. It is more chaos than away games, and if I had a season ticket up there I would sure be fuming that my seat will pretty much be occupied every single week by people who buy a ticket and stand anywhere. Let’s just say I’m grateful to be returning to the Upper North Stand next week, where I will be able to watch the game better, and also a lot closer to the pitch. That being said, it was magnificent to be back in the Holte End and I always do love it when I am there.
I thought the goal from Tammy Abraham, despite being technically offside, showed something that we have missed from Watkins this season, and I thought he took it very well. Additionally, I thought we saw the level of composure at times in the first half that we showed in the away game against Newcastle a few weeks back, and it was good to see. However, the game just completely changes once Bailey tries a blind pass in acres of space and Marco Bizot just acts out of complete stupidity and costs us the entire match. I knew it was over when that happened, despite being 1-0 up. Newcastle’s deflected goal levelled the scoring after they were denied a blatant penalty, and Sandro Tonali secures his brace as Villa yet against let a defensive player score for fun, just like we have done Fabian Schar in previous fixtures against this lot. The third goal wraps it up, and that was me out of the stadium. Really, really poor and I suppose it just means full focus must be turned to our run in the league now, as missing out on top five… well, I would have to find a stronger word to title an article than ‘capitulation’.
Oh well, over and out I suppose, this just makes the Europa League absolutely vital. Onto Leeds next weekend, which needs to be a win.
The referee was very eager to send Bizot off I noticed. Not seen a referee as eager to give our blatant penalty calls all season, but I’m sure it’ll be swept under the carpet like it always is.
Still gutted over Saturday we would of won without the sending off as for baily he has come back even worse he never got past his man once there has to be an upgrade on him next season
Really worried we will fall to pieces now after a very good season hope I’m wrong
I’ve just seen the Bizot red. It’s not a red. There are players everywhere and Murphy is going wide. It’s utter bollocks. Doesn’t excuse him charging out but the letter of the law was NOT applied. It shouldn’t be a red. Just my opinion.
From what I can gather, that’s the general opinion.
On the other side of the coin, it seems that the same group think Digne was very lucky not to get a red for an horrendous tackle.
Personally didn’t see the game, as having a really nice Valentine’s night out with the missus, so can’t personally comment on either incident.
Alfie is right. The ref was trigger happy. Whipped out the red without even thinking. Pathetic. Generally, nearly every decision they made was wrong. They’re basically zombies without VAR and were totally exposed on Saturday. In many ways, it’s the AI effect and tech in general. We’re losing the ability to think because we no longer have to. Tragic, dangerous, and totally f***** up.
Just see their third. Embarassing. Don’t they ever f****** learn?
I coach 8-9 year olds and I don’t let them pass it around in their own half. Nor are they allowed to pass to the goalie. The object of the game is to get forward and score goals. So find a way to do that! Not passing backwards is a good start. And not inviting pressure in your own box is another. On Saturday, our opponents were pissing around in their box, passing to the goalie. So I told the boys, pin them in and score goals. Needless to say we won.
Literally schoolboy errors from Villa. Inexcusable as it’s a regular occurence. With all Unai’s analysis, why doesn’t he come to the conclusion that we have to stop doing this!?
https://www.sportspro.com/news/sponsorship-marketing/premier-league-sponsorship-centralisation-revenue-proposal-february-2026/
The plot thickens.
Sidenote. IF we can afford him, Gibbs-White is THE perfect replacement for McGinn and a marquee signing. I’ve been praising him on here for years. Brilliant, old-fashioned box-to-box dynamic midfielder. I hope the rumours are true and he wants to stay in the Midlands; a move to City will destroy him. Be wary, Morgan.
I like Gibbs-White and would love for us to get him signed in the summer to replace Barkley. If Citeh come in for him, he should remember what has happened to Kalvin Phillips!
So we would be facing Man City in the cup. Still relieved we lost.
Agree 100% 1874.
We really don’t need the distraction and risk of the FA Cup – no matter how much it pains me to say so. It’s already cost us Kamara for a season with literally no upside either financially or in terms of European qualification,
As I previously posted – involvement is emotional not pragmatic!
Shocked at the decline in Digne. He’s been immense! What’s gone on???
If we DO win the Europa League, that’s £45m in the bank. There is also a handsome pot of EPL prize money, potentially £60m. Then we can spend the CL earnings as long as we don’t really screw it up of at least £60M. The maybe £40m in sales? That’s over £200m to spend.
We need an overhaul badly…
Time catches up with everyone sooner or later. Digne has been brilliant for us but Maatson is the new left back pick going forward.
I think Digne will go in the summer with a new younger left back coming in.
Part of a wider reset – particularly if we qualify for the CL.
Good grief Alfie, you’d rather be in the North stand than the Upper Holte?
That’s sad! The whole idea is that you stand where you want!
No such luxuries of turning up five minutes before the game and then spending half of it on the concourse drinking beer.
We had to be in our spot for 1pm, else we’d have lost it.
And we wanted to get every pennies worth of our ticket too. I’m sure the junior season ticket when I was only 16 and an apprentice was only £5.
Yep. For the whole season.