How gutting was that?
I thought we were the better side for a big part of that game, but quite often there’s no getting past a poor or biased referee.
It’s very rare for me to complain about a ref, because I think the job is incredibly difficult and it’s easy to make genuine mistakes, but I thought this ref was shocking today and made a lot of bad decisions which definitely weren’t in our favour. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I could almost say I thought money had changed hands. But we all know that’s preposterous, don’t we?
Or maybe some don’t.
So after going one down to a slabhead header, I thought it was already game over. Yet we came back really well and took the game to them.
I have to say I was encouraged by the performance and it was way better than what we’ve witnessed in our last two home games, but we still look like we couldn’t finish our breakfast, let alone a chance, of which we created plenty.
Yet Man U looked very likely to score with every chance they got. Which was the difference, in my opinion.
Slabhead’s goal should never have been. It wasn’t a freekick in the first place. Then there was an offside and it shouldn’t have been a corner. Then it shouldn’t have been a goal. Simple.
Where was the beloved VAR then?
That series of events was just disgusting and while I’ve never been much of a proponent of this “protected top 6” lark, so I’m tempted to change my mind for this game.
Even that tool Roy Keane said it wasn’t a foul in the first place.
Our play in the final third was poor and while it’s like that we’re going to struggle.
But being positive, I thought the midfield won the battle today. McGinn was better and Luiz, who seemed to have been pushed up a bit was too. The encouraging part was that Ramsey looked much more on his game, albeit not quite there yet.
Taking Bailey off was a big mistake and I don’t know why that was, as he looked dangerous to me.
At the end of the day, this was a typical game against this lot. It doesn’t matter what we do, we lose to them.
At least it was better than I expected.
I’m surprised that we’re surprised.
Let’s face it we’ve had no luck for years and it seems it’s not about to change.
Still – I’ll continue to support this club through thick and thin and in our owners and in Emery we’re better placed to face adversity than ever before.
Step forward the kids.
UTMV
https://theathletic-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/theathletic.com/5267010/2024/02/15/aston-villa-transition-emery/?amp=1&_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17080618706367&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Ftheathletic.com%2F5267010%2F2024%2F02%2F15%2Faston-villa-transition-emery%2F
Brilliant article.
Apparently we’ve got the 3rd best shot conversion rate in the league. Conclusions anyone?
Unbelievable. If true Watkins must be keeping us off top spot, the amount he misses.
I suppose we see 90 minutes of Villa and only MOTD highlights of the other teams wherein their misses are edited out.
We will need to be shooting well tomorrow, I think we need to score 3 goals to get anything from the match.
Watkins (again) will hopefully have been roasted by Emery for ball watching at a corner and not stepping up to play Hojlund offside. He will be needed to defend at corners and must not repeat that howler.
In so far as anything is clear from a Unai Presser – it seems Iroegbunam will start tomorrow in place of Kamara. Best of luck!