I’ve been awake for about 24 hours straight now after a grueller night shift, having been too scared to go to bed, else I wouldn’t have got up to watch the game.
Hence at half time, I’d practically made the decision to not even bother writing a review about this one.
Fortunately the second half retrieved things somewhat and I changed my mind.
So what happened here?
I’m not going to even try and analyse the game, but it’s more about why we were so poor in that first half?
You can see it’s about confidence and the side simply has none, which explains the first half, I suppose.
Every pass goes astray and even many decisions, although the penalty was absolutely correct, to my mind.
You can’t put your arms around a player in the box, when you’re talking two players in that much space.
It happens all the time in set pieces, but…..
The fact is, we were awful: As bad as it gets. Again.
But then, we came out a totally different side in the second half.
Why?
What was said that should have been said in the pre-match speech?
This is the part I don’t understand.
The players must have been told to play all that totally backwards and sidewards passing rubbish, even when we’d gone a goal down early on, by the coaches or the manager.
To my mind, the manager at half time must have said forget all that and just play, which is why we were immediately miles better and actually tried attacking.
If that’s true, I find it worrying. Being overly cautious, now in our current position, is entirely the wrong approach and we need to try and actually win games.
Of course, there’s an argument where you might think Arsenal backed off in the second half. I don’t think so and I’d say we edged the second half.
Which means if we’d set out from the off playing the same way, we might have actually got something from the game.
No doubt some of you might think I’m deluded.
But I’m beginning to wonder that if the players are low in confidence, is telling them to play not to lose, a good approach?
Losing to the team that are currently top of the league is no disgrace, but the way we played in the first half was.
Yet if we could play like we did in the second half, we might have a chance, as bleak as things seem.
Yes, I’m clutching at straws, but we do have some (theoretically) winnable games coming up.
Turned of the game after the second goal went in. We were shot in the back again by our defending ,the game not long on and Mutten gives a peno away . Fox seems to be covering his ass and the boards ass.
I like Veretout and some of things about our squad. What i have noticed is Guzan is not a Premier League GK, he is a good shot stopper but he cannot distribute or command his area. Sanchez drops a clanger every game up until that clanger he is a half decent player he seems to get tired around the 70 minute mark. Gestede is a pile of shite quite possibly the worst player i have ever watched his movement is woeful as his touch as are his headers.
On the Villa trust thing i belive Tom Fox Sherwood is a media darling, we need a new GK and an experienced Premier league goalscorer as priorities. We probably then need another CB and a short term LB.
what I don t get from all this bull from fox, why no keeper ,right back experienced midfielder and goal scorer in summer, whose fault was that Sherwood oreilly . the 5 bigish signings look ok but where never enough, fox blaming media for bad press on villa,look at the table man shameful disgrace and all on his watch ,what does he have to do to get his payoff, and remember Sherwood was his mate he had him at game before sacked lambert
We’ve needed a new keeper, a decent centre half and decent right and left backs for a while now. We’ve got Amavi, but nobody good enough as back up. Hutton and Bacuna not up to scratch defensively. Guzan makes a few good saves, but otherwise very poor decision making and puts everyone else on edge – will he come out or won’t he?! Clark not good enough, Lescott and Richardson passed it. Richards and Okore our only decent centre halves but both injury prone and no decent back up. We never really replaced Delph or Benteke, didn’t spent the money we made in the right areas and didn’t actually dip into our pockets at all! Shame on the Villa heirarchy – relegation is what they deserve.
Just want to give a shout out to Marc Albrighton! Never thought we should have got rid of him when we did – he looked our brightest player whenever we brought him on during that spell and then we shipped him out! Look at him now! Another assist tonight – well done son. Very wise move getting out when you did and now topping the Premier League table with a progressive Leiceister City squad. Just goes to show the difference between good and bad management.
Well done Leicester …keeping Chelsea with 3 wins for us………….
Within 3 wins.
Let’s bring on the great escape! I must be mad. Totally agree on comments about dire squad and shot confidence, but surely our luck will change soon. With my rough Maths I make it that we need 1.5 points per game to hit the 40 mark. Just need to pick up some points between now and new year to keep us in striking distance. Then who knows what might happen during transfer window…
Enjoyed the banter between Leicester and Chelsea fans, “You’re going down with the Villa” retaliated with “They’ve won more than you!”
Yeah, good banter, but as John Gregory has said, how embarrassing to hear Leicester sing that about us 🙁
I’ve got the feeling that we’d better get used to it
Even our fans were singing ‘were going down’ at spuds this season so the Leicester fans are only echoing what we feel big deal.