As predicted, the worst possible game we could’ve had following a dismal few weeks at Aston Villa Football Club. The way I saw it is that we were just completely spineless and had pretty much given up before we kicked off.
The fans were in full voice in the first half again and it was quite a jolly away end to be in given the last few weeks, but again, this did not seem to rub off on the players. Something just does not seem to be working at the moment.
Interestingly, sporting director Damian – and I am not going to attempt to spell his surname – has put a post up asking for support, and actually says “Maybe we don’t deserve to ask nothing”, which just tells me that all of these players and staff members definitely read the negative comments posted by fans on social media.
The truth is, they do need our support tonight, because to crash out of the Europa League after bringing a 1-0 win home would be utterly tragic, and would destroy our season, especially if we keep at the rate we are going in the Premiership.
One positive from Sunday was Ross Barkley getting himself on the scoresheet! That was quite unexpected, but I was happy to see it. I think he is a very organised team player, but realistically most Villa fans predicted the end result correctly and as soon as they made it 2-1 I just knew there was no way we were going to get back into the game again, once seemed too much to ask.
Watkins, I’m sorry… just utterly useless at the minute, nobody is going to tell me otherwise. I severely hope not anyway.
In terms of tonight’s game, Buendia, Tielemans and Cash are set to miss out, along with the obvious Kamara. McGinn is seemingly back at full fitness now, and will hopefully start in the midfield again, which is much needed. We will need to block the influence of Oliver Giroud, as we seem to struggle against prolific strikers, but we have a chance to make this a sound victory, it just all depends on how up for it we are, where at the moment, I am not too confident that we will be on it.
That being said, I do think we will win tonight, 2-0 – and I hope this can be the start of our turnaround, because West Ham on Sunday is an absolutely vital game against a side who are never an easy game for us at Villa Park.
UTV
I’m listening on TalkShite. Sounds as though the game has really picked up!!!
We picked the pace up, Bum bum.
Us, the fans? 🤣
No coincidence that it’s both.
Stan summed it up. Basically said there’s been little to cheer about.
Leroy!!!!!!!!!!! 2-0!!!!
Fuck me, Bailey to save the day (!)
Told ya!
Ahem.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
A big boost for the West Ham game!!!!! Just what we needed!
How has Lindelof looked tonight?
What the hell are we going to talk about now
More football, Gerry!!!!!!!
Bloody hell, a goal by Bailey. Am I in a parallel universe?
Watkins has done really well since he came on – continually stretched the defence and provided the assist for Bailey (really?) to score – quelle surprise!
And I really like Elliott.
Whoooo!!!!! Great result many of us were a little worried about on recent form.
Not a classic, but a significantly improved performance and we seem to have rediscovered our taste for winning. Well done lads! Here’s to a trip to Italy.
Nice one!!!!!
Yes, it was better second half. I didn’t notice Lindelhof much, which must mean he did nothing wrong.
Watkins was better and Bailey actually did something.
You have to call that a good night.
I noticed the mask though 😄 Must be a new football fashion statement p!
Have we got our mojo back? Certainly hope so. Watching the ET in the Roma game. At 3-3 it seems that both defences are porous. Not afraid of either team.
Also note that Lyon is out, honestly think that Celta Vigo might be a dark horse.
Anyway we won and SuperJohn is back. Happy days.
Why are there only 7 games listed on the BBC website tonight? Did one game happen yesterday? Or tomorrow?
Good question, but I’m seeing the same here too.
https://www.livesoccertv.com/
Worth bookmarking or favouriting, that is.
Braga beat Ferencvaros yesterday. No idea why it was on a Wednesday.
Cheers!
Aston Villa v Bologna!!!!! Malen out.
Yep, didn’t want to meet Malen the Bahl ‘un
He’d have been guaranteed to score against us.
So it’s Bologna who we’ve already beaten this season.
Roma and Lyon out makes it very interesting.
Indeed. It’s for us to throw away now.
Hmm.
37,500 attendance last night and tickets for the Bologna game £71 for the back of the Holte.
Another one I definitely won’t be going to.
Talk about a dear game these days!
Well done to all concerned; through with minimum fuss.
Plenty to do; Betis and Forest are both concerns, in my opinion. Unless we go up a couple of gears when Tielemans returns…
I have to say we was a force to to be envious about, the football at times was a glee to watch. Cannot yet think we have a team good enough for the premiership, meaning the f.a favorite, yes loved last night’s game and well done the lads.
We won last night lads! SJM, our leader is back. Youri on the way. Last 8 of the UEFA Cup! (Sod the rebranding).
I still think we might sneak 3rd place. ManUre will wobble…
Always good to see that Emery is prepared to try something new. It was very obvious from the highlights ( and boy have I watched them) that Villa were squaring the ball much earlier than normal. Instead of walking the ball to the touchline before crossing they hit it earlier. That produced both goals and more chances than we have had for a while. Looking forward to them doing it sunday. It means that defenders are always running back towards their goal in panic.
Acknowledging that Watkins is having a poor (goal scoring) season by his own high standards, last night was a great example of how he puts CB’s under a lot of pressure.
He’s not a static CF and pulls them left and right and, imho, doesn’t get the number of fouls against him spotted by refs.
He made Bailey’s goal by pulling the CB out of position and then a nice simple pass for a tap in.
He also scored a good headed goal in the away tie so I’m hoping he’s starting hitting form at just the right time to see us through the rest of the season.
Not going to get ahead of myself on the Europa League – Villa have been ‘nearly men’ for too long. IF we get past Bologna then the possibility of Forest in the SF might be a real problem.
Ollie not included in the England squad today. Looks like his form, i.e. not putting the ball in the onion bag, might have cost him his WC place…
I believe that Ollie’s loss of form came at the same time as his automatic selection of the English team. Arsenal were offering 50m for his transfer. The press were raving about the golden boy and Ollie believed them. Perhaps this is the rocket up his arse that he needs. We really want him back.
I was really hoping Forest would go out last night, to be honest. We just do not need the passive pressure of another English team in the competition. They’ll be up for it against us if they play us, but I wouldn’t mind the cheap European away game.
Midgetland really let us down, I agree.
I have to say Ollie was more of a trouble to the defence than Tammy was, and I was impressed in us being more direct, also our defence was in tune with each other, good game enjoyed the football ⚽, Sancho and Elliott did well .
Completely off topic, sorry.
Badger I’m in the process of buying a place in Murcia, Spain and would like to get some advice. If you could contact me via email I would appreciate it. Cheers Neil
No worries mate.
Email sent Neil
Good news – or is it?
Tielemans is back in training and Emery says he might get a few minutes on Sunday – so far, so good. BUT Emery has agreed he can go away with Belgium in the IB to be introduced ‘progressively’.
I’ll be fuming of he picks up a knock playing for Belgium!
Yet another big mistake…
Villa pay his wages and it’s just friendlies FFS! We shouldn’t even contemplate it.
I suppose the counter argument is that Tielemans gets some game time which helps with match fitness.
Tbf according to Emery, the medical staff have agreed a limited game time introduction and continuing rehab with their Belgium counterparts so it could be a win, win.
There’s always a risk of injury coming back from a lengthy time out which could as easily be with Villa if he gets a few minutes tomorrow,
Keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
Something has just crossed my mind that worries me about youri.. that if he does play for Belgium in the friendlies i really hope that he doesn’t come up against any players that play for man United, Chelsea or Liverpool.. As they could be out to injure him like spurs did with kamara.. 😳😳😳