It’s been a long while since I’ve been confident about a Villa game. I think it’s just that I’m scared that I’ll jinx things. Well, portraying things in a pesimistic light has certainly worked quite well lately.
This is one of my favourite fixtures, probably because Spurs are similar to us in having an ongoing history of usually trying to play the game in the right way.
Their start to the season is a bit of a mirror image to ours, in that they won their first three games against Man city, Wolves and Watford but have lost their last three games with a 9-1 goals against record.
I watched their game against Arsenal last weekend and they were frankly poor, with Arsenal running riot in the first half. Spurs did pull it back somewhat in the second half, but I got the feeling that Arsenal had taken their foot off and were going throught the motions.
Hence my confidence.
Squad news first and nothing has changed. Bailey and Sanson are out. Trezeguet and Davis are long termers.
On Spurs’ side, Stephen Bergwijn (who?) is a concern because of an ankle problem. Ryan Sessegnon is also out.
Not that I’m bothered much.
Who’s the threat in this game then?
Well, Kane is the obvious one, but I commented recently that I think there’s something not right about him. I don’t think he’s finished, but I also think his head isn’t right and he’s seriously off form. He scored a hattrick last night in the Europa cup, but the opposition wasn’t that great. Of course, it could have been enough to get him back in the groove and if anyone needs to change a recent record, there’s no better club to turn it around against than the Villa.
I think the bigger threat is Son, who I admire a lot. He’s bang in form and has 6 goals and 4 assists in his last eleven games. He’s also scored 3 of their 4 goals this season.
There’s a lot of interesting stats for this game and one is that Spurs have had fewer shots than any other team in the Prem this season.
You can read more stats here, if you want and they are actually worth a look, I’d suggest.
What to think then?
Well, we’re playing reasonably well and as Dean Smith has said, there’s more to come: an assessment I agree with.
If our strikers can start performing, I think we’re capable of worrying most teams. Without wanting to be over-confident I think we can win this.
Oh, I’ve been working in Norwich for the first part of the week. A two minute walk from Carrow road, as it happens.
And I got talking to one of the locals, where somehow football came into the chat.
He assured me that we had got a steal in Buendia, because he has everything in his locker. He said he’d probably take six months to settle and I wish I’d pushed him as to why he thought that, but I was too busy at the time.
I just said that I’d be happy to see a lot more of him. I wonder if he’ll feature tomorrow? Dean Smith made a very good point when he said it shows how things have changed when our record signing has hardly featured.
Back to the point in hand and even with our strikers not firing, we can score.
I like Son though and fancy them to get one through him.
Our defence should have enough to keep them at bay and I suspect they’ll resort to shots from distance, which Kane is pretty good at.
Now add in that we’ve recently turned our abysmal record in London around (see the previously mentioned stats link) and I think we’ve got enough to win this.
I’m going for a 2-1 win.
Comments
74 responses to “Spurs – Villa; Er, I’m worryingly confident”
Oh god, I hope I haven’t jinxed things 🙁
Last week I thought it was the best time to play them and a guaranteed win. After yesterday’s result, we’ll need to be on our guard as Kane will be revitalised, no doubt. And he (almost) always scores against us. I still think we can win, and an early goal will smash their still fragile confidence. I say go for the jugular and they should collapse, given their general current form.
Ollie is due a goal and I fancy him for one tomorrow after his England recall.
UTV
Micah Richards in the Mail today: “why shouldn’t they be the team that emerges from the pack to put pressure on the top four? I’m not saying they will break in to it this season but why shouldn’t they make that their ambition?”
Pretty much what I’ve been saying since pre-season.
I prefer to hear it from you though BFR, as opposed to that…….
A complete tangent, but it makes for interesting reading;
https://www.spotrac.com/epl/aston-villa-fc/payroll/
Davis on £45k a week?
Blimey, he must have a good agent, is all I can say.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10049971/MICAH-RICHARDS-love-play-Aston-Villa-team.html
A good piece from Richards. How did all that talent slip through our hands?
Watford have sacked their manager after only winning two games this season.
Shows how much of an aberation them beating us was.
He ran out of petrol. Watford managers only last as long as one tank of gas.
Martinez; Konsa, Hause, Mings; Cash, McGinn, Luiz, Ramsey, Targett; Ings, Watkins.
Substitutes: Steer, Tuanzebe, Young, Nakamba, Buendia, El Ghazi, Philogene-Bidace, Traore, Archer.
I’m gonna go for a big one.
4-1 to Villa.
Apart from Son and Kane, there’s hardly a Spud who could better our starting 11 today.
Ambitious, Bum Bum. I like it.
Bein sports 1 are showing it.
We haven’t found anything like any rhythm to our play yet.
BBC saying we’re all over them..
But who believes a word from the BBC anymore!
Well, it wasn’t difficult to see that coming.
We’ve been poor in not holding the ball.
Damn. Well that’s their goal. More from us to come!!!
Test
Well, I thought that was poor.We’re not getting the ball up to the attack at all.
We need to change formation and beef up the midfield somehow.
4-5-1? I don’t know, but it’s not working.
Mind you, it doesn’t help when we can’t pass or even keep the ball for a short while.
Mcginn has given the ball away a lot so far but also showed lots of tenacity, ings and Watkins isn’t working again and we’re getting over run in the middle. I’d take ings off and put on buendia or traore.
It does sound like we need a formational tweak…
Take off one of the CB’s and Ramsey. Put on Traore and Buendia and go back to 4-2-1-3 with Watkins wide left. Simples!
Good call Holte…
Get in! 1-1 and that was way more like our normal play.
Ollie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucks sake.
The defending there.
1-2
Apparently there wasn’t any defending…
i can’t be arsed to write anything about that.
Shocking performance and Smith should have changed it up at HT.
Just poor,poor,poor.
Remind me not to have the slightest inkling of confidence, because this is what happens every fucking time with the Villa.
Points dropped and that’s so disappointing.
Too many players not performing today. We started well with good pressing but they got into the game and looked more threatening. I don’t think the Watkins and Ings partnership is working. I actually called for the 4 at the back with Buendia for Ramsey. Turned out that we played worse with the changes.
Watkins and Ings isn’t working, simple, Holte.
Purslow rushed Ings signing because they knew Grealish was going and it was just to try and keep us fans happy.
I don’t think Smith wanted him, but is having to play him and we’ve done reasonably well up to now, but got caught out big time today.
If we don’t get decent ball up to the top, we have not one, but two players wasted.
The trouble is if Ings and Watkins play two up top, we rely on Cash and Targett to supply ammunition unless Smith can get the best out of Buendia. He was anonymous when he came on today. If he sacrifices one of the strikers and reverts back to a flat back 4, then he can fit Bailey (when fit) and maybe Traore into the team. If you add Buendia as a number 10 we surely have more creativity. It seems we have an over reliance on set pieces under the current system.
Agreed. we cannot play Ings and Watkins together, because it doesn’t suit the staff. I said it before, but our fbs are not wingbacks, simple.
I’ve just been looking at some stats and we attack less down the right than any other team apart from Brentford. We’re missing something there, as the left side of defence is always the weakest generally.
Son embarrassed us at the back, as he tore us to pieces every time he got the ball. I don’t think we stopped him once.
I don’t profess to be anywhere near a tactics person, but you could see early on it wasn’t working and us not changing it up has massively annoyed me today.
How do Smith and the coaches not see this?
I thought Son wasn’t good enough for us Badger? Too old apparently…
No, you’ve got that wrong, BFR. I think Son is better than Kane, at least lately.
And if you actually read the headline post you’ll see I called Son as the main risk 😉
It’s Kane I wouldn’t want.
And just to make things worse, we have an international break again!
It’s being a Villa Fan unfortunately. I’m 60 next year and have enjoyed magnificent perfomances but since Ron Saunders we have flattered to deceive. We have had a few cup wins, but nothing has been built on.
So we have to continue to build. In the current situation we have to move forward and not expect to be European champions over night
EDIT by BADGER123 (I’ve removed your mail address, Neil)
I don’t think it’s about expecting to be European champions overnight Neil.
It’s about expecting to beat a very average Spurs side.