Hurray, the qualifying break is over and we’re back to proper footy.
I’ll say straight away that I’m fairly confident for this one, but not overly so.
There isn’t much squad news on either side, Jota is getting over his Hernia and Chester is training for more fitness.
As for Brighton, only Bernardo and Jose Izquierdo are out.
Both sides come off the back of good wins in their last games, with Brighton surprising a few by deservedly beating Spurs 3-0, where they’ll be just as confident as us.
We look very threatening though and Dean smith has practically claimed the credit for getting Grealish more involved, although I think the simple reality is that we’ve not let Grealish go as deep, defending as he had done in our first few games.
My complaining that he should be viewed more as a number 10 and definitely not as a number 8 wasn’t rocket science on my part and I wasn’t alone in thinking it, by any means.
Sorry, but if Grealish playing close behind the main striker isn’t the favoured option, it was well known that him coming inside from the left was the next best thing.
Put it this way; I don’t think it was a tactical revelation by Smith in the slightest. It was just obvious if you want to create maximum attacking threat.
Which suited us perfectly with the way Norwich played so openly.
I do wonder if Smith will stick with Grealish in the same position, as Brighton will be more canny, but suspect he might.
Otherwise, I don’t think Smith will change much.
I’ve seen predictions of us winning 2 or even 3 nil , but while I again see goals, I think if we do win, it’ll only be by the odd goal.
I’ll go for 2-1 to us.
And then there’s the latest twist to the Tony Xia story, where he’s apparently got a £30,000 reward on his head.
It’s all a bit vague at the moment, but it seems to me that Xia set up some kind of bond in China, where people were asked to invest money, with the promise of interest, backed up by Villa getting promoted last season.
Obviously that didn’t happen and Xia hasn’t been able to keep up the payments.
This might explain why Keith Wyness called Xia a “fraud” via Twitter almost immediately after we lost in the final last season and then backed it up today by saying “Karma is a Bitch”.
The former could easily be prosecuted for defamation, I’d have thought.
I’m in speculation land here, but suspect Xia told Wyness of his plan and if the bond or whatever wasn’t 100% straight, Wyness would have had to advise that it was illegal. Xia, desperate for money then had to sack Wyness if he wanted to go through with it.
Which then left Wyness in a perfectly good position, where if he was still in his job, it would have been his duty to declare us as trading fraudulently and basically bankrupt, at best.
There’s more of this story yet to come and I find myself fascinated.
But expect Wyness to get a fat payout.
YES! 2-1
Targett with a bullet.
See what I did there?
Wow. That’s a huge win. Maybe a bit of luck has gone our way. Brighton made it hard work for us though. They must be gutted.
2-1 Get in there. Finally we have beaten 10 men. We are above Man Ure!
that was a very good match to watch. two very good teams , brighton were the better of the two. they had chance after chance, ppl will look at the seagulls and think easy game but they are a very good side and we rode our luck.
the winnning goal couldnt have come any later, but hard on them but on the hourihane goal which was wrongly ruled out, i guess we deserved it just.
two win on the spin top half ere we come / but more work to be done out of possession. seagulls found loads of space behind our midfield and in front off our defence
Fantastic win, fully expected it after half time. Yes, we have work to do and they had waaaay too many chances, but the result is what’s most important now. I’m sure we’ll tighten up. Sounds like there’s still an argument for 3 CBs with the two excellent full-back on the wings. Hourihane would probably have to be sacrificed. I doubt Smith will try it, but it’s one option for tightening up. The pundits have had the same discussion about the England defence this week. When it’s a bit shaky, reinforce it with a third man. Simple. We’d still be potent going forward.
just hearing on bbc that 4 glaring mistakes by var. doesn’t surprise me. that hourihane goal was stonewall. wesley was adjust to have fouled the goalie. that was bollocks, both referee and linesman didnt see any infringement. replay showed they touched lovingly but not foul.
Sick of VAR, Nath. Everyone knows it’s a steaming pile of shite. Technology in football should’ve stopped at goal-line technology to make sure all goals are given. After that, it’s all subjective. So VAR is pointless and ruins the game. The sooner the morons in charge realise, the better. But I won’t hold my breath!
It hasn’t been said yet, but how many times over many years have we lost goals in the dying seconds. The timing of both goals today is massive – shows we never stop until the whistle is blown. Man U style resilience – a key ingredient of a winning team!
We have to tighten up next week against City. I fancy Smith to go with Marvelous and Luiz to shield the defence with Conor giving way, otherwise it’ll be a cricket score. Like Nath alluded to, the gaps between defence and midfield have to stop. Teams like City will exploit that all day long.
Watched the goals and VAR non goal here in Africa but whole match was not on. Ridiculous comment that Wesley was holding the GK down hence VAR was justified. Well, if that was a foul then almost any contact is!
Good win but agree we have to tighten the defence. Still one can argue that the team is still learning to play together.
UTV
i don’t know the stats of games, but i think brighton cut us open more than any other side this season sofar, its nothing major and it can be amended. its balance thing more than anything else,
Brighton game plan was to drop into this area, between defence and our midfield. where they found lots of space either side of nakamba in the old inside right and left positions.
we are finding our feet still in this league, playing against very good sides. i am so looking forwards to playing man city next. i reckon both teams today will be midtable. both will surprise many teams this season