Football can do funny things to the mind and the least of it’s abilities is to take you through a whirlwind of emotions; from massive lows to the ultimate highs when you win games you really didn’t expect.
And we’ve seen plenty of that already this season.
Beating Man City and Arsenal were very unexpected on my part at least and it was a great feeling, knowing that it really looked like we could challenge.
And then we had that massively disappointing draw against Sheffield.
Still, not to worry, my confidence was high that we’d beat Man Utd. At 2-0, it looked like we were going to win fairly easly, only to capitulate in the second half and let them go on to win.
So while only taking one point from six isn’t good, the reality is it’s probably only two points down from what we’d normally expect. And the Arsenal and Man City games more than balance it out.
I look at things and we’re doing remarkably well. We’re third in the table, only a solitary point behind second, which is something we’d have snatched hands off for at the start of the season.
But then, the negative, doubting side kicks in and I see that City are two points behind, with a game in hand and I start to see that when you consider how tired the lads have looked lately, other teams will creep up and overtake us.
Yet returning to reality, only Liverpool and West ham have better form over the last five games.
My mind is seemingly playing tricks on me again.
Team news then and Digne is out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury. Pau is not yet fit and Emery seemed to be giving a bit of a mixed message, I thought. Basically, he’s a couple of weeks away from being fully fit, yet he made the bench last time out. I suppose that tells us two things. Pau is massively valued and it shows how short of backup we are in certain areas.
It’s not the end of the world, as Lenglet will come in and we have Moreno, who’s very decent, yet not fully up to speed.
Tielemans is looking like he’ll be out for a few weeks, which is a shame, as I felt he was just beginning to get in the groove and Kaamara, the idiot, is still suspended. I can’t help but think we’d have done better in our last two, had he been on the pitch. Still, I can’t complain too much. It happens and he has been pretty much excellent this season.
One bit of good news is that we have Matty Cash back. As much as his form hasn’t been good recently, I still prefer him over Konsa playing in his place. Konsa is just way better in the middle, imo and we miss something when he’s not. We seriously need another right back. Not just a so-so loan either. Spend the money on an improvement on Cash, as much as I know winter is not a good time. I just feel it’s a higher priority than a striker, as much as I’d like one of those too.
And the rest is as per usual, with the long-termers.
Burnley have no new problems and Jack Cork could well make a return today.
Johann Gudmundsson and Aaron Ramsey came on as subs for Liverpool, so there’s a good chance they’ll feature, which gives me the shudders. What odds on him doing an Archer, I wonder?
On paper, this ought to be very straightforward. Burnley are generally a poor side, as much as I quite like watching them play. They battle for everything, but ultimately just aren’t good enough.
So it has to be a Villa win, doesn’t it?
Except I said pretty much the same about the Sheffield game.
I worry that we’ve just run out of steam and while we can muster a good 15-20 minutes, we can’t manage a full game.
So while I’m full of doubt again and have a sneaky feeling we’re going to drop points, I can’t face the thought of that, as I know I’ll just be even more gutted than I have been over the last two games. It’s why I didn’t write reviews for either game. The feelings of despair can have a tendency to make my thoughts nonsensical. That’s what Football does to me.
So, I have to continue to believe. A 2-1 win it is then.
And just in case we do draw or lose, I’ll say Happy New Year to everybody now. Because I’ll probably feel too gutted to talk about it.
UTV!
Comments
35 responses to “Villa – Burnley; The doubt returns”
Don’t worry, it’s not like thoughts of suicide or anything.
It does play with my emotions more than anything else though.
Can we keep in the race or begin to fall away?
I really don’t understand why Villa’s results in the last few games seem to have confused “experts” and fans. Villa have a terrific SYSTEM. We don’t see individual moments of brilliance, although we do see some pretty special ones. Our play from the back is much better than the early days. Our high line, or whatever the latest name for it is, is the best in the League. We are brilliant at creating chances. That’s our system and it works well when he have the players that it was created for. But, suddenly, we don’t have those players available. Suspensions and injuries have left us without Boubacar, Douglas, Pau, Youri, John as well as the long term absentees. Suddenly some of the cogs of our system are missing and the replacements have not been as good. Ollie hasn’t kicked a ball since his encounter with the fan. Amazingly Emi is the one player unaffected by events even though he created the situation that lost us Kaamara. Of course we will get it right again and I am confident that today will be a good one. Other results have gone well for us so really we have lost nothing but we could have gained so much.
Also going to wish everyone a Happy New Year and Badger I now realise it was this game I called a draw (couldn’t make my mind up which of the two if I recall correctly).
Anyway fear not we’re going to smash it today.
UTMV
No Matty Cash so assume he’s picked up an injury. Diaby comes into the side with Dendoncker on the bench. So definitely a more attacking approach. Let’s hope Moreno and Ramsey can rediscover their link up play from last season. I’m guessing Luiz or McGinn will be the holding midfielder or they will alternate.
Let’s hope Villa are at it today and get an early goal. If it’s still 0-0 or worse going into the second half, the fans will get restless and nervous and that transcends down to the players.
Cash unwell.
One for the conspiracy theorists 🙂
Happy New year one and all. Thank you Badger for running this site. It’s a great stage to vent our spleen.
Without doubt the drop off between the first 12/13 players and the back up is significant. Add in key players being absent Torres and Kamara, plus fatigue since the Man City match then we are where we are. Amazingly 3rd in the league. Who knows what the season will bring us but I am enjoying the experience.
Bailey!!!!
1-0
And then we let them score so, so easily.
Villa all over, that is.
What pair of idiots , all they needed to do was tap it in Diaby and Watkins
Our right flank shite
Yep, I’ve seen that Bill. It’s a weakness.
Watkins was offside Bill and he knew it so understandable.
Offside, but I’m beginning to think other teams have worked us out.
Moussa!!!
2-1
That goal put use 4th
That should not have even been looked at by VAR.
Clear and obvious?
No way and I hate it.
Missing Kamara, Torres and Cash.
Lenglet is a liability – even with Cash, Konsa could have moved to CB instead of Lenglet.
Still onwards and upwards.
Our left side is looking vulnerable. Lenglet has no pace but is okay with the ball at his feet. I would be happy with the score as it is although I can see Burnley scoring again. So we might need a 3rd to be sure.
Not happy with us at the minute, oops second yellow off get off
Deserved red – he was lucky not be dismissed in the first half
Yep, they’ve totally worked out how to get in behind us.
They’ll be unlucky if this is called off, imo.
2-2 with 10 men and if you don’t take your chances, that’s what you get.
Wouldn’t surprise me if we bottle this, with our defence who have been utter shit every time they’ve been attacked.
Unbelievable how we are so sloppy at the back all of a sudden. What’s going on? Constantly losing concentration. We should have scored just before that as well, what’s with trying to hammer the ball in to the top corner all the time.
So poor from Villa.They gave 10 men, we have had at least 5 clear chances to score and waste them all.
Is this becoming a habit?
Our backs are rubbish so is the halfbacks, we are lucky sods no doubts about that.
I f#cking knew it we are not anywhere good
Enough by a long way . Players that don’t work hard for the team . Now I’m predicting we will finish 6th in the league.
A pen (soft?) which Luiz puts in off the bar.
We needed that big time.
3-2
Blow the bleeding whistle ref.
Yeeeeeesssd wooooo