I’m sure you already know, but I’ll say it anyway. It’s nothing like a prediction from me, but the simple facts are that if we beat Brighton and Liverpool beat Spurs, we will qualify for the champion’s league and finally hit the big time that we’ve longed for, for so many years.
Assuming Salah’s petulant discussion with Klopp was a one off and not a demonstrator of a manager that’s lost his dressing room, you would think the Reds would want to give a good showing as a send off for an excellent manager of the club. Whatever, I expect that particular game to be a really good one and fortunately it’s after our match meaning we can watch it with even more interest than usual.
First things first then and the squad news is that whereas I thought Martinez, Tielemens and Moreno would all be fine for this game, they were being assessed just before travelling. Mings, Buendia, Kamara and Ramsey remain out.
As for Brighton, they’re in pretty rough nick too, with Adam Lallana, James Milner, Jan Paul van Hecke, Tariq Lamptey, Pervis Estupinan, Jack Hinshelwood, Kaoru Mitoma, Solly March and Evan Ferguson all out.
The usual “who cares about them?” applies, but we do like to put it up there just for clarity.
There are some very interesting facts about the two teams and while I don’t normally go a bundle on past events, I want to mention them;
We have only lost one of our last seven Prem away games.
Albion’s most recent top-flight home victory against Villa was 1-0 in December 1980.
The Seagulls are winless in their last six matches in the Premier League and have won one of their previous nine, which was against Forest in March.
So things seem to bode well then.
Except there’s one big fly in the ointment.
Got a terrible record of late and need something to help get over it?
Easy. Play Aston Villa and they’ll soon sort that out for you.
Or at least that’s how it’s been for a very long time.
We’re a different and better team now, of course, but there’s always that nagging doubt that it will just go wrong, isn’t there?
Even though we’ve done superbly this season, it’s still not easy being a Villa fan. Well, for me, at least.
We could just be a few hours away from achieving what seemed to be totally unachievable when the scouse clown was in charge and how things have changed in such a short time.
To be honest, I’m not even sure if I’m ready to believe it if it does happen and I think I’ll need some time to fully get my head round it.
If I had to predict this game, I don’t think I could, because while I feel more confident than I did against Olympiacos, a win just feels like it would be too easy and straightforward and it never goes like that for us, does it? It was just typical that we lost to Arsenal on the day we won the league, for example. (Slight aside, but just think: we took 25,000 fans to that game. That’s nuts compared to today’s levels).
I’m extremely hopeful, let’s put it that way.
UTV!
Comments
174 responses to “Brighton – Villa; Is today the day we qualify?”
Should’ve gone with the reserves. More energy and we’ve lost energy for Thursday. I genuinely thought he’d play Duran and Zaniolo at least. Oh well.
If Spurs beat Liverpool, I would take the kids to Greece and rest as many first team players as possible. At the moment I can’t see us winning another game.
We said that before Arsenal, Holte. But I know what you mean.
I had a bad feeling about this game. Looking forward to the Liverpool game now. Olsen MOTM.
They stopped us playing and we’re knackered and nobody on the bench. I can’t believe how some on this site are throwing the towel in and slating Villa. Appalling really…It’s frustrating but support the bloody team!!!!
We’ll get 4th. Come on you Scousers!!! Is this Klopps last game at Anfield today????
Why do we play defensive? McGinn helping out the halfback line we don’t have a midfielder when he’s moved . we lose our created man , We don’t deserve to be 4th do we, we’re to lightweight in the middle and our defence hasn’t a clue under pressure Uni in my mind played the wrong player in Diarby we needed a strong forward like Duran , again throwing games away when we play from the back it’s time to go through the middle and wings .
It looked like Emery’s plan was to expend as little energy as possible. Konsa was awful at RB today and again looks like he can’t pass a forward ball, which must make Cash wonder what’s going to happen with him in the summer. Brighton grew in confidence thanks to our inability to create any chances.
There’s been too much talk of us qualifying for Champions League. Spurs have Sheffield United and Burnley which should be 6 points in the bag for them. If they surprise Liverpool today who can’t win the league anymore, then suddenly they are favourites!
We have been playing on fumes for a while now and now we have Rogers injured. I don’t think we are ready to compete in the Champions League. We would need 5-6 top players based on our current squad size.
It would take a miracle for Emery to turnaround the 2 goal deficit on Thursday. Most likely we will lose, pick up more injuries and have even more knackered players for Liverpool game next Sunday, who will have had a weeks rest.
I’ve got that typical Villa have blown it feeling again!
Spot on Holte, Konsa simply cannot play the ball forward, every pass goes backwards.
Great centre half, shite right back.
What is the point of having Iroegbunam if Emery not play him? Since Kamara was injured in February our defence has become porous. The only game I can recall our midfield being totally at the races was against Arsenal. Tilesman / McGinn modules started to work but the former is injured. A Luiz / McGinn does not work. The space for defenders to play into them free in the middle is rare. Too often McGinn / Luiz come near the penalty area to collect a ball and a mistake occurs.
Why is Iroegbunam not playing in defensive midfield role allowing Luiz and McGinn to play further up field? His selection means one of Bailer or Diaby play, we are too light weight when they both start a match.
As soon as Cash came on to take up a midfield role the result was inevitable. On three occasions he went to tackle where he had the advantage and lost out in the tackle. Too light weight.
Common Unai let’s not let this slip away.
Totally agree. If Tim wasn’t ready, Dendonker should not have gone.
We didn’t play well. But there’s no doubt whatsoever the ref was against us. Constant fouling unpunished. McGinn was on for his goal. They took forever to disallow Brighton goal, even though it was obvious. And for me, it was never a pen. At this stage, we can’t expect scintillating football. But the officials are biased at best, corrupt at worst.
Did we get the lines for McGinn disallowed goal BFR? I don’t remember seeing them.
Of course not. With the freeze frame, he was on.
I don’t get why Iroegbunam isn’t playing. If he can’t get minutes in a decimated team with players knackered, then he might as well be shipped on in the summer because he needs to be playing regularly.
He will be, I’m sure.
Utter shite don’t think i could forgive us if we blow champions league after years of fuckin misery
Wether we are ready for champions league or not it would be so lovely just to be involved for now
I’m starting to hate watching us play, it’s tedious.
Ball across the back four, back to the keeper, passing for the sake of passing, total shite.
I reckon Unai’s been bubbled, stop Luiz and MCGinn carrying the ball and it’s curtains for the game plan.
Shite, shite and utter shite.
They obviously going to sell ironbaumn get 100% profits again and then spend money on another md absolute rubbish what does this tell the youngsters if you can’t get in the team with all these injuries.
If not want play them then why not play Chambers as defence midfielder he done it before.
I’m beginning to lose faith in unai, he’s supposed to be tactical clever but I can’t see anything clever at the moment
Watkins has the 20th goal on his mind I think otherwise why not take a shot on when had chance in first half instead of trying get nearer goal.
Unai might as well have played the youngsters as we lost anyway really pissed off with this club and this week
Another thrashing Thu and Sunday coming
Cause Chambers is utter dog shit.
Mo Salah, I f*”king love you!
True. But surely he can sit in front of the defence and mop up? Allowing McGinn and Luiz to influence the game??
Or at least shit in front of the defence? 🤭
I don’t think he could.
Could you see him recieving the ball under pressure, retaining possession and picking a pass?
He’s more a lump it up the pitch type (not that I mind direct football if executed well).
Better than nothing. Both Ollie and Duran are capable of holding it up. It’ll be like Wesley again, but with legs the same length (bless him).
Could run the 100m curve in under 10 seconds apparently.
Sorry Roy but I can’t agree with a single point you’re saying.
We’ve been incredible all season, from the very start we lost key players for the season. At the same time we had to bed in Diaby and Torres which can take months…remember how long took Berkamp to bedd in and we’reusing the same squad Gerrard left us?? We’ve broken record upon record, smashed Citeh and Arsenal twice albeit losing doubles to Newcastle and ManUre.
A bit of perspective is called for here. We were down 7 or 8 first team players earlier.
Keep the bloody faith!!!
Liverpool one up!!!
But the wheels have come well and truly off mate.
No they haven’t. It’s been an utterly exhausting season played without many ofbour main players!!!
Hang in there…it’s a marathon, not a sprint!!!! Cheer the Scousers on and pull yourself another beer!!!
Happy Whitsun!!!!
👍👍👍
Bum bum mate a bit of a reality check needed there mate.
Chelsea second half – pants.
Olympiacos – pants.
Brighton – total and utter pants.
Replace ‘pants’ with ‘knackered’, RSS.
At least the Spuds are bottling it
( true to form) 😁
Hmm, that’s strange, as I remember someone else saying that months ago.
Whatever, we offered literally next to nothing today and it’s a real concern.
The truth is, this wasn’t my banker game when I looked at our fixtures a few weeks back. The Palace one was.
But they’re a bloody decent side lately and I think we’ll seriously struggle to beat them.
Given that I don’t even see us competing with Pool, we’re now relying on Spurs to lose.
Fortunately, I think that’s an incredibly big ask to expect them to keep on winning.
It all boils down to “do you feel lucky?” for me, as that’s what it’s coming down to, I feel.
And as a Villa fan, that’s not a good place to be.
Should we qualify just how far would we go with performances like the past few games?
We’d be embarrassing, don’t bear thinking about.
But we wouldn’t be playing like that, because we’d have had a bit of rest.
Plus I have no doubt we’d bring more top players in as part of the next step.
Yes, we’ve been crap lately, but don’t write us off before we’ve even got there mate.
Correct, Badger.
Pissed off with that performance today mate.
Not acceptable.
And if some outfit like Olympiacos can embarrass us then I don’t hold out too much hope.
I except they’ll recruit but Unai isn’t going to change his style…
One size fits all.
That’s a fair point RSS.
Pool 3 now.
I’ve questioned Emery’s tactics before, as you know and I’m sure I won’t be the last to do so.
It’s that lack of plan B that concerns me.
But we’ve done okay up to now, so…….
He had a plan B but injuries put pay to it. If you recall the 3 defenders with Cash playing further up early in the season. Then half the defence gets injured so it’s back to square one. And he managed it all with zero fuss. To question Unai is bordering on treachery.
Come on BFR we have been absolutely shite for the past 3 games and you have to question a depleted squad but still doing the same old thing?
Definition of madness and all that?
We should be grateful, yea I take that on board but it is all a little repetitive and appears to lack any pragmatism?
Beating Arsenal and drawing Bradford. I’d have those games down as giving us 3 points but we got 4. I also thought Spuds would pick up a point at both Newcastle and Chelsea but they didn’t,m dropping 2 points.
It’s a breathless race to the finish line. Spuds, ManUre and Chelsea have been doing this for the past 10 years plus while we’ve actually faced extinction via Dr X and Lerner.
We’ve been brilliant and although we have to hold our breath, i think we’re there in the race for the last CL spot.
I’d like to see Liverpool get a second asap though!!!!
“It’s a breathless race to the finish line.”
😂😂
More like limp dick damp squib.
Don’t put yourself down, mate!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.
Prediction update. Spuds will win one, draw one and lose one. We will possibly get one more point, which will still be enough.
Spuds need to get something from Citeh who are on fire in the run in for the title. Can u seriously see Spuds putting up a fight and handing Arsenal the title???
We may actually not win another game this season. De Zerbi also admitted they beat us on a dodgy decision and that wasn’t the normal Villa performance yesterday.
Any news on Chesty?
My reputation proceeds me 🤣🤣
Because the officials are clearly against us.
And the ‘punk’ is usually the ref…
2-0! Really wish Unai had gone with the second string today. I wonder if its worth going with Duran and Zaniolo on Thursdsy, just for the surprise element. Duran’s explosiveness is something the team need right now…
3-0, I’m going to be so brave as to say that’s it, we’re going to get 4th.
The Spud’s ain’t coming back from this and they ain’t going to be get anything from Man City.
Happy days 😁
Don’t! Not yet! The fat lady…wait for her…
🤦♂️
Not feeling so down now Spurs are loosing 3-0.
It’s worth remembering that Emery will but in the summer and this will increase our strength. Further, just in today’s game we would have back from the injury list:
Martinez
Mings
Kamara
Ramsey
Tilesman
Buendia
That’s half a team or mists of the sub places. I see us coping with the demands of next season. This year injuries have caught up with us and Emery has done a brilliant job.
4-0!!!!
They ain’t going to catch us 😁
I’m not counting my chickens, but it would seem we’re at least in the driving seat.
Can you see this lot beating City?
No chance matey.
No but I can see them beating Liverpool…
Ohhh feeling a lot better now spuds are getting smashed even if we lose our last 2 they lose one and we are at the promised land
SING! FAT LADY! SIIIING! 🤦🤦🤦
Come on Liverpool doing us an almighty favour woo hoo shove your corrupt officialdom up your arse premier league
I’m getting a bad feeling…
Shhhit 4.2 please no
Well done Liverpool now have a night off next Monday.
Trouble with today’s results is villa losing, what is the old saying if you can’t win then don’t lose.
If villa had drawn today then spurs would have to win all 3 games to beat us if we lose our 2 games.
Looks like villa have a phobia of getting 70 points and Watkins has the weight of being first player since withe to score 20 goals on his shoulders pulling him down.
Not looking good but hopefully the point against Brentford is the winning one
And I still say unai has made mistakes by not playing some youngsters
Spurs still 7 points behind with 3 games for them to play. Sheffield United and Burnley should give them 6 points and possibly boost their goal difference. The question is would one point be enough against Citeh? I can see us losing to Pool and Palace. Maybe we can get Martinez and Tielemans back but now it looks like Rogers will be out. If Olympiakos score first on Thursday, I would take off Watkins, Bailey, McGinn and Luiz.
It’s a shame the injuries we have had have been relentless. Emery to his credit offers a no excuse culture. Sometimes I wish he would because we are one of the unluckiest although the media don’t offer us the respect we deserve. Also the officials seem to be under instruction to make sure we fail. The speediness in ruling out McGinns goal and the giving of their penalty. The only surprise was it wasn’t the referee who put in the rebound from Olsens save!
McGinn was on. And I’ve seen dozens of those not given when it suits. All bollocks. Shit performance, yes, which was totally inevitable after Thursday, but it should’ve been a gritty point, but for the twelfth man, and I don’t mean the Holte End.
I Saïd it after the game on Thursday I’m going to really loose interest if they don’t sort the refs out by next season.
I must have seen 2 or 3 similar challenges in the Liverpool game to the one Konsa gave away a penalty for and even similar challenges made by Brighton on us.
I’m becoming more and more numb to all of them now. I want discrete refs that let the games flow, I cannot stand all this wait for my whistle, double blowing for this, waving hands for that, oops I got in your way let’s restart, it’s becoming a referee performance with football highlights in between.
Penalties have become an embarrassment of late, too easily awarded, then we look at them for 10 minutes without any explanation, in the mean time the opposition is doing everything they can to get in the penalty takers head.
It all needs to be made a lot more simple, I don’t know who the hell makes up these new rules at the top but how nobody has suggested that the fewer decisions the ref has to make the less backfire there will be.
Totally agree mate. It’s become a farce. A circus. How much is the PL worth as a global business? Yet the product’s looking a bit faulty and the customers are getting tired of it. We’re the customers. Which means we have power. Lots of it. Time to weild it. Isn’t there a formal organisation that represents English football fans that can get things in motion? Everyone’s sick of VAR, the inconsistent refereeing, the endless minutes to make a decision ruining the game, and most of all, the total lack of transparency. Why shouldn’t we hear what they say when they’re VARing? Something to hide?
🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕 I’d add a moonie but there isn’t one, so one more 🖕
And a big F*** You!
Ooh lots of emotion on here tonight.
It’s typical Villa – isn’t it? We have a really great week followed by the complete opposite!
Emery won’t make excuses (whereas pretty much every other manager does) which you have to applaud but the reality is Europe and fighting for 4th place is beginning to take its toll – as it would even without the injury list we have. The only downside of Emery’s stoicism is the complete lack of empathy from the comms who went on and on about Brighton without any reference to the challenges faced (and surmounted) by Villa.
One fact this season has identified is the lack of depth in our squad – which suggests we’re not fit for a foray into the European Champions League next season.
Like others, I’m struggling to see where our next win will be but, notwithstanding we remain in the pound seat. It’s for Spuds to catch us which remains their challenge not ours. Lose against ManC and they’re done. Even a draw would leave us needing just a point.
We need Tielemans and Emi back for Thursday and then Liverpool.
Keep the faith 👍😄
Yep. Even a Spuds/Citeh draw, they’d need to go ahead of us on GD. Shame Pool’s defence was crap yesterday…We’re 8 goals ahead.
Park the bus!!!