Villa 1- 0 Man City: City battered and lucky to get away so lightly

Stunned. Just stunned.
I’ll update as I get my thoughts together, but we’ve just gone third, 2 points above City.

Wow. I’m still breathless.
I’ll cut to the quick.
We totally destroyed the the Champion’s league holder.
I’m listening to Pep now and he’s just said that quite simply the better team won. To me, that is some statement.

I’d said in the preview that City don’t look right. I suspect it’s tiredness and it showed. They offered very little and even Haarland never had a look in, the two quick sucession chances that Martinez saved apart.

Oops, I’m just listening to Unai, in a prolonged interview.
Interesting stuff. He said we need to remain balanced but we can also believe, while not being contenders.
I think even an old cynic like me already does, so I’m sure the new blood do, Unai. I have to say, the support sounded amazing today and I don’t know if that’s down to how Amazon set the sound up, but certainly my daughter said it was a great, buzzing atmosphere.

I don’t know where to start with the praise.
I said we needed to go at them and I don’t think the lads let us down in that area.
Were McGinn’s softer performances of late, deliberate, so he could save energy for this game?
It certainly seemed like it as he was a dynamo, that won us the all important midfield.
He was ably supported by Luiz, who helped to scare the crap out of City.

I don’t remember the last time I saw City put under the cosh like that.
I don’t currently have access to any stats, but I believe we won all of those that mattered. The last I saw, we’d had 16 shots against their 2.
We have now equalled a club record of 14 home wins. In our whole history. I’m honestly struggling to get my head round that one.

I’ve picked a couple of players out, but it seems a bit unfair, because this was simply a great all round performance. So many players would justify an 8 or even 9 out of ten.

I specifically left one player out on purpose.
Take a big fat bow, Leon Bailey.
I’d written this bloke off a few months back, but Emery made a point of saying how committed he now is. So obviously he wasn’t before. He was excellent today and contributed majorly in scaring Man City’s defence.
You can decide if he or McGinn get MOTM.

I’m giving 10 out of 10 to the fans, who sounded superb.
We should make no mistake here. What we witnessed today is on a par with as good as it gets.
Only winning silverware betters that, to my mind.

Amazon also get a big shout, because I really like their format.
It’s a shame we won’t be seeing them in the next allocation, imo.

Arsenal up next!

UTV!

63 Comments

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  1. Bum Bum
    Bum Bum December 8, 2023 at 8:05 am . Reply

    Don’t know about you guys but I’m not fond of the comparisons between us and Leicester. While their title win was legendary, Villa are a massive club. We have a bigger history, trophy cabinet, fanbase and profile, but we’ve seriously underachieved for the last 4 decades. If it wasn’t for the dodgy money flowing into Citeh and Chel$ea (formerly known as Chelski), I’d say one of the top 4 English sides of all time.
    Am I being over sensitive? 🤣🤣🤣

    1. Ardent Villain
      Ardent Villain December 8, 2023 at 1:01 pm . Reply

      Quite agree. Apart from anything else, Leicester went from just avoiding relegation the season prior to winning the league, obviously we finished rather better last season, having qualified for Europe; so being in or arounf top-4 this season isn’t as surprising as Leicester coming from nowhere.

      We played pretty well during the 1990’s (Big Ron, Brian Little & John Gregory’s teams were always competetive) but only managed the League Cup that decade. Poor for a few years after that until MON came in, but his teams were also generally competetive – trying to break the glass ceiling to go top-4 without ever quite making it.
      Then we had that disasterous spell starting when Lerner ran out of money…

      Meantime, as you say, both Chelski & Citeh acquired more cash than had ever been seen in English football; ManUre, for all of their size, had no idea how to replace old Red-face – pretty much like Arsenal and Wenger.

      The problem is really that the media have become totally obsessed by the soap-operas at ManUre and Liverpool, and similar threatrics by Arteta at Arsenal, and they can’t ignore Citeh simply because of their record over the last 10 years. So all they ever really talk about are those 4 clubs – regardless of which teams are actually ‘top 4’ at any given time.

    2. BFR
      BFR December 8, 2023 at 2:56 pm . Reply

      To 4:
      Liverpool, United, Arsenal, Villa. 👍

    3. The Ron Saunders Stand
      The Ron Saunders Stand December 8, 2023 at 3:28 pm . Reply

      No Bum Bum you’re spot on.
      Loved what the Dortmund fans did.
      https://twitter.com/archiert1/status/1721963491249074682/photo/1

  2. Badger123
    Badger123 December 8, 2023 at 12:03 pm . Reply

    Probably not.
    If you think about it, pretty much all the “top” clubs have had some success in that last 4 decades.
    Arsenal, Chelsea, both Mancs, Pool, etc.
    It all depends where you draw the line, I suppose.
    Newcastle had a stint challenging, as have Spurs.
    League-wise, you would have thought we’d have done better.
    Regardless, I’d say if we do actually manage to achieve anything, we ought to be better placed than Leicester to maintain it.
    And then, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be equally as big as most of those clubs.
    Baby steps first though, obviously 🙂

  3. The Ron Saunders Stand
    The Ron Saunders Stand December 8, 2023 at 4:17 pm . Reply

    “Morgan Sanson has reaffirmed his desire to leave Aston Villa.”
    Just how long was this fella’s contract? 🤦‍♂️

    1. Hitchens60
      Hitchens60 December 8, 2023 at 4:48 pm . Reply

      Too long!

      This is one is a Purslow black mark alongside Wesley (although he was unlucky to get such a bad injury at Burnley)

      1. The Ron Saunders Stand
        The Ron Saunders Stand December 8, 2023 at 4:55 pm . Reply

        Absolutely Hitch.
        More comebacks than Lazarus. 😂

  4. Hitchens60
    Hitchens60 December 8, 2023 at 4:58 pm . Reply

    Not a great fan of Sutton’s predictions but I think he might have called Saturday’s result right at a draw (1-1).

    The question he poses (fairly in my view) is can Villa reproduce the intensity of Wednesday’s performance again against – I think it’s fair to say – currently the best side in the Prem.

    I don’t like Arse or Arteta but being objective they will be a bigger challenge than ManC on current form. Having said that they do ship goals but can score them as well from a number of positions and in Saka they do have a tricky winger.

    Badger, if you remember, I called this as a win when we did the six game prediction with your grandsons – after five games I haven’t managed one correct call 🙂 Can I get this one right 🙂

    Good job I’m not a betting man – would be broke by now!

    1. The Ron Saunders Stand
      The Ron Saunders Stand December 8, 2023 at 9:43 pm . Reply

      Good to see O’Hare sticking it to them noses 😁

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