Blimey, a positive post from Oohaah.
Relish the moment;
As someone who gets slated for always being negative, I have always said “give me something positive and I will run with it”. Well today is that day. What can I say!?
Firstly congratulations to Lambert and the players on a fantastic performance and result. After going a goal down in 5 mins we all thought the writing was on the wall where Villa would capitulate, losing 3 or 4 nil and doing a damage limitation exercise. But not a bit of it, as this is ‘new’ villa that are more resilient and street wise than last year.
As expected, the defence looked shakey for most of the match but the noticeable thing was we did the basic school boy stuff when we needed to. When lunar and Clark were under pressure on the left they produced no nonsense clearances to concede a throw-in. Compare that to last season when Bennett and Clark would try a dribble the ball out and get into trouble by being caught in possession.
Another noticeable difference was we fouled them when we were in trouble and took a booking for the team. I’ve often criticised the Villa as being a nice team but today was different; today we actually bullied Arsenal all over the park with Delph being immense and deservedly getting motm.
Even at 3.1 up with a few minutes left gabby bought one of their players down and took one for the team which stopped the danger.
Today this team was more professional and nasty with Delph leading the way. Gentlemen I think we have found our captain!
It’s interesting that you say that.
I was reading one of those free rags that get stuffed in your hand as you’re walking to the tube in the smoke.
And the article that caught my eye was “put your money on Villa to be the dirtiest team”.
Apparently, we’ve been very close over the last three seasons.
As for your post, I agree, we look a lot tougher.
Thanks badger. No more mr nice team for the first time in a long time we really dished it out to arsenal today and out fought them. That pleased me more than anything.
Lots of energy, lots of passion. A never say die attitude coupled with good technical skills and great pace = good team,
Yep spot on. One of gabbys best games for us
Ooaaah! I shouldn’t get you started, but I would like your overview on our defensive performance please?
Ha ha I don’t want to ruin it all but as u asked there were some more positives than negatives. Thought Luna who had a poor first half greatly improved in the second and did the simple things well, Lowton great going fwd but taken apart for their goal, Clarke was surprisingly better than normal he looked more solid and didn’t seem as error prone as last season and showed good resilience and did simple things well to and the best for last Vlaar Still not impressed I’m afraid was part responsible for their first goal and was marking space, gave away a needless foul and got booked, just ball watched in first 20 mins of second half and was like a statue in the middle as arsenal players run thru him for one on ones with Guzan it now seems that the younger players are covering for vlaar and it should be the other way round. I know il get slated for saying this but we won despite Vlaar rather than because of him. I will say he looked a bit more solid in last 20 mins thou but maybe because arsenal were down to ten men
Great result, especially vast relief after the Arseholes’ 8th minute goal; now can we PLEASE keep a clean sheet sooner, rather than later?
Tbf we kept a clean sheet for 85 mins
Oohah, as they kept telling me from primary school onwards, a game lasts 90 minutes [or used to – now more like 100 minutes].
I see Barry is being linked with a move to Everton; would like to see him back as our experienced defender.
Hmmm Barry could just be the missing link. That would def split opinion
Fecking hell oohahh.. stop it now.. 🙂
Stop what the positive article or my downer on vlaar 🙂
The positivity mate. 🙂
Luna booking really baffled me. It seemed that Chamberlain was the offender. Anyone shed any light on it?
Listening to the commentary on WM it sounded as if the ref was trying to appease the Arseholes…
Ardent,
we got a lot of calls, but not unfairly.
Decent ref most of the time, imo, but I think the crowd might have got to him a bit.
I don’t think he buckled much.
Seemed a surprisingly loud Arsenal support too.
Bear in mind they should of had 2 players sent of as they were last defenders. Though lunar s booking and their sending of was wrong
Badger, I thought the ref gave them an undeserved let-off when he didn’t show red for the first penalty.
The “Gooners” and Wenger in particular are always a bunch of hypocrites about refereeing decisions; according to BBC Sport, Arsenal under Wenger have the joint-worst red card record [64] with Blackburn, in PL history…
Ardent,
It’s always debatable mate, but I tended to agree with the ref. Gabby was going right, because he had to avoid the goalie.
Even though he had no choice, it wasn’t a direct shooting chance, hence no complaints from me.
If the shoe was on the other foot and our goalie was sent off, I’d be doing my fruit, put it that way.
the lineman gave arsenal freekick against moon then ref yellowed 2 please arsene whinger cos it was near the dugouts ~ ref had a good game got most decisions rite this one howerer was wrong, it was nothing more than a 50 / 50 and moon took a knee 2 chest
Rotterdam,
No light to be shed mate.
Poor decision, simple.
With the tempo of the game, it was no surprise that mistakes were made on the players and officials’ side, imo.
Bloody hell, we won at the Emirates!
Don’t encourage Oohaah with his defence stuff.
We’ll never be any good in that sense!
We’ve not done too badly at the Emirates since they moved there [gather we and Chelski are joint equal winners there, 3 times each]; I’m hoping this is the season when we finally start to win those sort of games at VP though.
That would be good ardent be interesting how we do at home I personally think we will win more away though and draw a lot of home games as we havnt got anyone that can unpick a tight defence
That’s been the case for so long… VP won’t rock until we see some real results at home. Still, a far better end to toady than I’d expected right up to about half-three this afternoon!
True our home form needs to improve big time even the lower teams do well at vp
Oohah… Great shout for Delph as captain. He is a born leader. Only worry would be that sometimes he is rash. Just a little more control and better decision making and great captain he could be! Vlaar does not seem like a leader to me. He needs to concentrate (and improve) his own game. Perhaps relinguishing the armband will help him!
Agree Rotterdam might be a bit to soon for Delph for I honestly couldn’t think of anyone better at the moment unless we sign an experienced head
I’ll just repeat myself – Barry is available, Citeh won’t stop him leaving…
Barry?
No chance.
Far too experienced and far too expensive for us.
On a different note motd will be its usual bollocks putting utd on first coz arsenal lost. Then it will be about how arsenal lost and no credit for us and at the end miserable bollocks shearer will say oh yeah villa played well thru gritted teeth!!
*relinquishing*
Just seen Wengers comments on sky about the referee. That bloke has lost the plot. Conveniently forgets the keeper should have gone.
An Arsenal fan goes into a travel agents and says ‘I need a holiday, but I don’t know where to go’ The agent says ‘You can’t beat a good villa this time of year
What the fuck is going on here? Oohah puts up a positive post and Terry Jones has us winning the league!
Am I on the right site?
Lol I always said I’d be positive if there is something to be positive about. Today is such a day
Had a feeling we’d get something today but to be honest I was think more along the lines of a point, todays performance exceeded all expectations but just one question oohah, would you still rather have Laudrup than Lambeth?
Ha ha yes despite today’s results I would still go for laudraup. We rode our luck against a poor arsenal today and still could if loss. But fair play we stuck at it for over 90 mins and got a great result. Swansea played utd who will steam roller almost everyone this season even if they don’t win league
Mate I think Man U will tick over on there own for 18 months as we did when Sir Ron left that’s when we’ll see if Moyes is up to it (personally I think the jobs to big for him) and we’ll have to agree to disagree over Lambert, I feel the fella has worked minor miracles with what he’s been given and the size of the job in hand.
Fair enough and agree re utd the team can run itself for at least a season even if they had a chimp managing them
Wahoooh. Great start Villa. We’ve got the passing game, we’ve got a great attack and midfield, we’ve got an amazing goalkeeper and now we are showing some muscle. Good things are going to happen this season. I can feel it.
No BWS they’ve had a bet, 365 Oohah that’s the posts I like, but I still think that big man in the middle needs to be given time with the team we have, Question ? how the hell did Luna see himself so far forward last match was seen to be out of position from that left back, again well up the field, don’t get me wrong he scored, I worry that we are exposed to many times in that part of the field.
Who knows BP perhaps it’s something they have worked on in training, spotted a flaw in Arsenals game plan and knew he wouldn’t be tracked,. We’ll see if they make similar chances during the season
We actually scored that goal defending a corner makes a fuckjn change. He was on edge of box when we cleared and just ran o to thru ball great composure for a left bk. vlaar totally responsible for their goal now iv seen highlights and Shoukd of had a second yellow. Unfortunately the useless twat stayed on
Lol Normal service has been resumed.
Terrific, back from the Emirates where I had to endure sitting amongst the moaning Arsenal fans, so was so sweet when Luna slid home the 3rd.
The strange thing is I don’t feel we played that well, Benteke wasn’t great yet still scored twice and there were quite a lot of poor decisions/balls in the final third.
Gabby was certainly the pick of the front 3 and the midfield trio were excellent, in particular El Ahmadi who broke up many attacks.
Defensively, I was surprised to see Clark brought on instead of Okore when Baker went off but tbf to Clark he coped really well.
All in all, a lot of optimism. Concerns remain about the back 4 but overall you can tell we are stronger mentally and physically as a team this year. Top half looks very likely IMO
Good post back 4 is always going to be a concern just no quality there except Guzan
My Villa Player Ratings for the game
Brad Guzan – 8.0 Exceptional as usual, making a couple of stunning saves and without him between the sticks we may only have a point from this. Couldn’t do anything about Arsenals goal.
Matt Lowton – 6.0 Looked good going forward, defensively struggled and regularly beaten.
Ron Vlaar – 5.0 Poor positioning sense, looked lacklustre and times and slow. Needs to improve. Worst in the Villa defence. Also picking up a poor yellow. However a good physical presence. Would like to see Okore playing instead.
Ciaran Clark – 6.5 Solid at the back, did the basics well and made few mistakes.
Antonio Luna – 7.0 After a average start had an excellent second half and grew as the game went on. He will be a solid left back as he adjusts to the premier league. Great going forward, often linking up with Delph. A beautiful finish for the Villa third goal gives him my highest rating for the Villa defence.
Fabian Delph 8.5 – Immense, crucially stopping Arsenal through the middle, getting back and helping defence and looked great on the ball. Was the most attacking of the Villa midfield, linking with Luna and the front three well. Unlucky not to have a goal.
Karim El Ahmadi 7.0 Very good game, did an excellent job defensively, impressive midfield tackling.
Ashley Westwood 6.5 Did his job, great sense of awareness to almost make a long range chip over Schzney.
Gabby Agbonlahor 8.5 His speed caused Arsenal problems all game. looked on from the word go and basically won Villa the game up front, Villas best of the three front men for the game.
Christian Benteke 7.0 Used his strength well to hold up and create space for the other forwards, sometimes a poor touch but converted both penalties though one only through deflection and a little luck,
Andreas Weimann 7.0 Seemed as the link between Gaby and Benteke, as the main creator of the front three. I liked his game and a beautiful ball for Luna’s final goal.
*Baker not rated
Agree mate but would give gabby and delph a 9. Iv been moaning re vlaar for ages people are now waking up to how crap he is.
I think a lot of people like too give someone time to adjust to the premier league, its faster and more physical than a lot of leagues. But now after a season, and a full pre season people are more willing to voice judgement. I personally think a Lowton Baker Okore Luna is Villa’s best back four partnership and could prove to be quite a solid defence once spending a bit of playing time together.
Agree Darren shame we can’t shift vlaar out on loan or sell him though he might go as he wants to play regularly for wc. If we coukd move him on a get another ch or dm that would be great for us. Vlaars been here a year now and if anything has got worse. I can see him joining the bomb squad soon!!
A quality DM is exactly what we need.. Hoping if we can move another bomb squad member on they will invest.. A quality DM and the improved back four and we could be challenging for top 8 in my opinion.. dare I say it.
Agree mate a decent dm and ch and top eight finish is a big possibility
The key word in your post Oohaah is ‘bullied’. Loads of moaning Gooners on 5live saying how rough Villa were – bloody great cos we spent most of last season having our bellies tickled. I hope we do it some more on Wednesday. I thought Delph ws superb, and is also my shout for skipper (surely Vlaar’s days are numbered?), and Gabby looked sharp. I too feared the worst after 10 minutes but fair play to the boys!
By the way, which of the backroom staff have told Lambert he looks a twat in his scruffy jumper with the sleeves rolled up and to put a shirt and tie on?
Lol. Your right sir earl just hope lambert has seen the light re vlaar though I can see him starting wed. He really struggled yesterday but I thought Clark did ok. Your right its about time we started dishing it out as we always get bullied but we refused to be yesterday and gave as good as we got
this as to be the way we play fast forward moving, using this style of play we will win more than we lose, because when we face our own goal we lose our heads and start to flap, was really impressed with the way the team stuck together and was fighting for each other, now we just need to keep it going, and not sit back on this great win. UP THE VILLA.
We looked good going forward,Defence I hope will get better but midfield was fantastic.Guzan kept us in the game again.Big big result showing how far we have come…UTV
On MOTD they agreed that both penalties were correct decisions. They did, though, say that Vlaar should have been sent off.
Responsible for their goal to
great start for us, we may have got the benefit of a couple of decisions although motd surprisingly backed the ref against arsenal and personally I think szcensney was lucky to stay on the pitch, when you’re 8 yards out with only the goalie to beat you’re running towards goal, I don’t care what anyone says, think wiemann having an opportunity to score let him out of that one.
see wienmann pick up the ball for the 3rd, no thought of hoofing it into touch, the moment he intercepted that ball there was only one thing on his mind and his pass with the outside of the boot for luna was sublime.
2 world class saves from guzan who tightened up his didtribution 2nd half and a great performance from gabby and delph.
id agree with ooah on vlarr, he was easily the worst player on the team for us and was lucky to stay on the pitch at 2-1 not what you need from a captain, positive defencivly was clarks performance, solid and no stupid errors.
great performance villa.
UTV
Asides from this morning’s hangover, I f’in loved that yesterday.
I hoped for three points from the opening three games, let’s beat red Scouse now and have a flyer.
Good God how I remember when this was a working class sport, don’t choke on the prawn sandwich make sure you wash it down with that Pimm’s.
Who’s that aimed at Billy?
Give you a clue mate, starts with V and ends in E,
I love prawn sandwiches. You know football’s gone completely to pot when your club counts the future king of England, its current prime minister and the governor of the Bank of England among its fans. Tally ho, what.
And what a load of old bollox that is, how many times you bumped into them in the Yew Tree?
It was a joke.