Apologies for the late post – any earlier and it would probably have been one long rant anyway.
I do have concerns tonight.
Is Targett available after going off injured on Wednesday? He put in an exceptional performance in defence and it showed just how well he had played when Taylor came on. In fact Targett has consistently defended well in recent games.
McGinn will be missing having picked up his 5th red card and a mandatory one match ban but Trezeguet comes back into the squad which is good news.
There have been a lot of calls for Barry to be included on the bench and if we’re not going to acquire a striker in this window, then it might not be a bad call, if only for experience. The issue I feel though is that he’s not currently training with the first team squad so it seems unlikely.
So, assuming Targett is fit, I can’t see Smith fiddling with the team too much. Trezeguet may come in for Traore or even for McGinn although I suspect Smith might keep faith with Ramsey.
Smith will be watching from the stands having picked up a one match touchline ban for telling Moss what a crap ref he is. Strange world when you get punished for telling the truth. I loved Smith’s comment – I’ve heard him (Moss) called a lot worse!
So prediction – Newcastle are on a terrible run of form but have been missing two of their key players through Long Covid although Saint-Maxim could be back and will add an attacking threat. Villa have only one one of the last 14 meetings with Newcastle and that in the same fixture last year.
Newcastle will be cautious as is Bruce’s want and look to counter attack on the break – something we seem peculiarly vulnerable to at home.
If we’re on our game and not too badly affected after Wednesday night, fitness wise, then it’s a game we should be looking to win.
Comments
82 responses to “Quick thoughts on tonight’s game”
Lampard to be sacked today,
Just released from the Premier League.
At the time, by the letter of the law, the goal was legitimate, because Mings played the ball deliberately and so the offside player is deemed not to have gained an advantage.
But referees group the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, rulemakers the International Football Association Board, and European governing body Uefa have since offered clarification on how such an incident should be interpreted in the future.
“Where a player in an offside position immediately impacts on an opponent who has deliberately played the ball, the match officials should prioritise challenging an opponent for the ball, and thus the offside offence of ‘interfering with an opponent by impacting on the opponent’s ability to play the ball’ should be penalised.”
The statement from the Premier League added: “Accordingly, if a similar situation to the one involving Rodri’s impact on Mings occurred in a future match, then the impact would be penalised for offside.”
The BBC’s Head of Soccer has just given us our half term report.
Aston Villa
The most improved team in the Premier League.
Villa escaped relegation on the final day of last season but a summer of smart recruitment, plus retaining the inspirational Jack Grealish, means they have been transformed into one of the most exciting and entertaining teams in the division.
The highlight was the sensational 7-2 home win against champions Liverpool. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been outstanding while Grealish’s class has stood out in a season that holds rich promise for the months ahead.
Phil McNulty’s pre-season prediction: 15th
Aston Villa’s current position: 8th
Half-term report card: New arrivals and smart management have sparked huge improvement. Real European prospects if progress continues.
Aston Villa have signed former France Under-21 midfield Morgan Sanson from Marseille on a four-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee. Thought to be 14 million
Villa captain Jack Grealish admitted his ‘confusion’ post-match while Dean Smith was sent off from the touchline for asking referee Jon Moss if he had received juggling balls as a Christmas present.
After consultation between the International Football Association Board and UEFA, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have updated their guidance to officials.
“Where a player in an offside position immediately impacts on an opponent who has deliberately played the ball, the match officials should prioritise challenging an opponent for the ball, and thus the offside offence of ‘interfering with an opponent by impacting on the opponent’s ability to play the ball’ should be penalised,” it reads
Football needs to take a long look at itself. Self serving and unable to tell it as it really is.
Every fan (even City fans) knew Rodri was offside the moment he tackled Mings except, of course, the referee(s).
Even the statement compounds the felony by stating that ‘by the letter of the law he wasn’t offside because Mings deliberately played the ball’…
Absolute boll**cks.
They conveniently forget the words in the law that says ‘if an opponent RECEIVES the ball’ (from a deliberate play of the ball) then he hasn’t gained an advantage etc.
Since when is running back from an offside position and tackling the player in possession, ‘receiving’ the ball.
But it’s OK folks the good people running the game have now kindly clarified the ‘being played on’ law which has operated quite satisfactorily for years.
What a joke.
They should return Smiths fine with an apology; he was only telling Moss what we all thought!
Rant over.
The thing about this statement that comes to mind is that we would have most probably have got a draw if that goal was disallowed but more importantly what if man city win the league by one point, then that means the 3 points the got against us could give them title. What a farce!
But I think the reason for this statement is because they have realized that the top players and coaches are clever enough to abuse this rule by always leaving a man offside with the sole aim of doing what rodri did to gain an advantage.
What ever happened to the game we all used to know
Are we forgetting Pogba, he’s guilty in deceiving the ref, all in all we have had a ruff deal and they know it..
Agreed Bill
You cannot make it up can look at this .
Under the existing interpretation, the on-field referee Jon Moss and assistant Darren Cann were correct in deciding that the goal should stand, but while this new advice does not constitute a change in the law, the goal would have been ruled out under the new guidance.
The Premier League and EFL have written to all 92 professional clubs advising of the changes, which will now apply in all domestic competitions in the future.
News has it Nakamba in line for a move . ?
Obviously you can make it up – the EPL and EFL just have. I thought the international board changed the rules but it seems they can be changed every time it rains in Manchester.
Venglos dies age 84. R.I.P. 1 change Mcginn for Nakamba.
sad news 🙁 bill i liked him even thou he had a tough season with us
so the offside goal shitty scored is now not allowed. not only did we form this bloody league but we are still helping to reinforce the rules. everybody knew that was oddside except the professional wannabes refs and var. its all ok nobody got hurt in this fook up match, except villa would have more and likely won or drawn that match. smith has a 8k fine for telling the truth to the ref to his face that only came about cause the goal stood.
how dare burnley manager bring up the past and throw it in our faces. he doesn;t know anything about villa. last season one decision went for us, how many decisions went against us ?? well i haven’t the time to count them. but off the top of my head i remember the lansbury goal the hand ball against arsenal. i know every time we play, we are up against the officials, so burnley boss is full of shit, trying to get in our heads. he wants to worry about his own battle and stop whining.
that said its gonna be tough, but trick to beating them is to move the ball quickly, stretching the game using the width. they will try to stay compact and defend deep and getting in behind will be hard,
0 2 watkins on fire.
p/s that ben mee is a fouling tw at he needs to be watched and put on a yellow fast, he is a old fashioned centre half, who will let you know your in a game soon as he can. hopefully we can get some protection for once.
Its an absolute treat to watch any team playing this attacking football but the fact that its VILLA is glorious. More please
1 nil to villa very good performance so far, burnley hanging on towards h/t. we are cutting right through them, brilliant lay offs lightening counters, if it wasnt for pope it would be died and buried by now. need the second and this game is over.
Another goal and its 5th place. No problem tempting faith either. Our confidence is screaming.
We are pretty awesome tonight. Really confident, great movement. It’s a long way from winning and Burnley will not roll over but we clearly are developing into a very good side. Good signings, great style of play (I would love us even if I was a neutral).
We seem to have owners who are not only wealthy but have a clear plan, have made good additions to the management structure (Lange in particular), and invest in the team and infrastructure.
Sanson here now. What a time to be a Villa fan.
I just don’t believe we losing now, we should have changed Barkley earlier. He was backing out of tackling and Traore slowing down in pace, golden chance this game was what we needed a win.
And now we are 3-2 down! That’s Burnley for you. If anything we were too cocky and 2nd half Barkley and Traore stopped performing. Subs too late. Need to do respond to shifting balance rather than wait until we are losing. Not too despondent though as we clearly have some talent.
I can’t believe it. How did we lose that game!? Missed a big opportunity to push up tonight, such a shame. Teams have worked out Traore doesn’t defend and poor Cash has to do it all on his own. They seem to target our right side. Think its time Trez started on the right and give Traore a break. Think he makes us a more solid unit.
I agree that Trezeguet is a more solid player defensively but Traore is better going forward.
If ever there was a smash and grab game then that was it. We had plenty of opportunities to put the game to bed. I still think Mings is a weak link at times. Why does someone 6ft 5” not pick up Woods! Substitutions came too late. I think Barkley especially was running on fumes. I will take solace in the fact that we outclassed them! We will win more games than lose playing as well as we did today.
Disappointing result but I hope we have learned a lesson. It’s not enough to be better footballers. You need to win your battles. Burnley were a bit lucky wit the second equaliser but they made us pay for our overconfidence.
We can compete with the best but we need to fight against the Burnleys as well. 3 points we should have had.
I think Sanson would be good in this kind of game. Proper battler.
A tale of 2 keepers.
Poor Martinez, his two worst errors since he joined us, and in the match where the best English keeper had a blinder. The second and third Burnley goals should never have crept in, but I think Martinez was rattled by the first goal where he was blocked from claiming it. You wonder too if Villa’s homework on Burnley was up to scratch on their set pieces – I have seen that corner routine before.
As other said – at the other end Barkley and Traore had run out of steam after 70 minutes – Smith evidently does not rate his bench would could provide answers.
You can make all the excuses you like. Fact, before tonight Burnley had scored just 10 goals and only 5 at home.
We looked good but we were not clinical enough and handed Burnley this win with poor defending second half.
For all our much vaunted away record that’s four games away without a win and only one draw.
The evidence was there last game that Covid has affected our stamina and Smith should have made changes earlier in the second half as Barkley and Traore became invisible.
All the plaudits will go to Burnley and Dyche
Really pi**ed off.
Or you could say Burnley scored 3 last game so the potential was there. Stats mean nothing. We made two fundamental mistakes tonight. First and foremost we knew we were better players and thought that was enough. Second was not making changes when the initiative moved towards Burnley (we agree there).
Be pissed off but let’s hope the management and the players realise that overconfidence will give you this outcome.
Their 2nd equaliser was a fluke. Their 3rd was totally predictable because that’s what they do.
Still thought we were good enough for 3 points tonight. I’m sort of pissed off but feel we could have lost that game in the past and just been second best. Tonight we weren’t but it was the kind of defeat that happens all the time when you play inferior teams who can only play one way and work for 90mins to win the game whether they are the better team or not.
what a shocker lol
1st we played great first half and not bad second. burnley allowed villa too much first half and second they imposed their game more, their second equalizer was a cross. its unfortunate to lose this game. but it was lost more in the first half when we should have put ball into their net more than the one time we did
hopefully we are not gonna sulk cause we lost, if you fight long enough you will gain some scars. today we learned a valuable lesson. to finish off teams when your on top. also we had complete control first half and second half we lost that control and when you lose control you have to defend better.
tough to take the defeat grealish was again mr angry leaving the pitch not quite sure why, burnley didnt deserve to win but they scored more so win the game no arguments from me
here is a score to cheer you up manure losing to sheff utd 1 nil. never fear referee to rescue
As disappointed as we all are losing a game that we should have won easily, let’s enjoy watching an entertaining Villa team when we could be watching a Newcastle type team. We are making great strides and hopefully Morgan Sanson will hit the ground running. Also isn’t it great to have the most talented premier league player who is also a Villa fan!