Another stupid kick off time means it has to be another Villa game.
I think the headline sums this one up pretty well actually.
I don’t mean I don’t have a clue in general (although some might think that), but it’s more that we’re capable of any result possible and we’re already showing major inconsistency.
My points prediction for the games up to christmas have already gone out of the window, after all.
We’re just so hard to predict aren’t we?
Look at the teams we’ve beaten and then the teams we’ve lost to and you’d pretty much say that it’s 100% the opposite of what you’d expect.
Add in the fact that we’ve lost three games at home and won three games away already and well, what chance have you got?
I think I’ve given up with predictions for a while and anything now will be more based on hope.
Squad news and Guilbert and Hause are both training, but won’t be ready.
Keinan Davis is apparently fit, so will almost certainly make the bench, but it’s doubtful he’ll start, although questions have been asked about Smith going with two up front. I just don’t see it.
I’ve just seens a report that Traore is doubtful, but I’m not seeing anything to back that up.
The main news(?) is that Ross Barkley is out and the question is who comes in to replace him?
The clever money says it’ll be Conor Hourihane, but it was interesting that Dean Smith preferred Traore over him when Barkley went off last week.
It makes you wonder how much the manager rates the Irishman, but there’s no other logical starter.
Lansbury was notable for his absence when the Mail did a training ground article and there may have been a simple explanation for that, but I don’t think he’d be in the frame anyway.
Our squad is horrendously thin isn’t it? and the question will inevitably be will we be entering the market for reinforcements in the window? but that’s for another day.
As for the Hammers, Michail Antonio could return tonight having missed three matches due to a hamstring problem.
Andriy Yarmolenko has been in self-isolation because of a positive Covid-19 test and it’s not known if he’ll be ready.
They’re fully fit otherwise.
So no predictions based on logic then and it’s purely heart-based.
Where, even so, I’ve got us to lose this one, 0-1.
Well, I might as well. Everytime I say draw or win, I invariably get it wrong.
UTV!
Comments
106 responses to “West Ham – Villa; I don’t have a clue.”
Must win on Friday now. VAR is a joke
Just weak. I can’t even be bothered to say more. Completely predictable loss against a team no better than us.
Ultimately we lost because of them scoring with their two chances and our defence failing to deal with simple crosses.
They had very little threat but how often did we work their keeper?
I don’t particularly rate Moyes but if he had our team he would make Watkins stick in the middle and bombard crosses. We have him running the channels but aren’t keyed up to get forward and give attacking options for him to bring in.
Way too passive and heading in the wrong direction.
We have a talented first 11 and a weak bench. We need to get out tactics right, and we need to be tougher mentally.
We were probably lucky that Antonio was struggling for fitness. Otherwise it might have been an easier win for them.
Pisses me off.
gutted with that result. we played good in the game. gave away two fast goals in both halves which unsettled us, we were the better the side for most of the game. pen missed and b/s offside disallowed goal.
end of the day i am pleased with our season sofar. you take the bad with the good nights. we are great to watch and very close to becoming a really top side. tonight we were robbed and very unlucky …chinsup
Nath, both sides were horrendously poor.
If I didn’t know it was the Prem, I seriously would have thought it was a pub game, about 2 minutes apart.
This is supposed to be the best league in the world?
I honestly don’t think it’s the best league in England.
It’s so boring, it’s ridiculous and even without fans, there’s no excuse for that.
I’ve seen more passion in something that has no passion whatsoever.
your site your opinion, but villa wasnt bad the general game play was really high and good. we made silly mistakes and that cost us. i think if the offside was offside then its a penalty cause watkins is in a tussle
if you think that was bad or boring ,you should not bother to watch cause it was far from boring. i dont mean any disrespect its my opinion. i gutted tonight but its just cause the mistakes the errors. but general play we was good tonight
just seen the offside back now. if he is offside then its a foul cause defender has two arms around watkins. its a foul and var missed it
That’s two games we’ve lost because we can’t put the ball in the net.
Sound familiar
That’s 4 defeats in 5 games and relegation form. We’ll soon be nearer the bottom than the top.
It’s going to be another long season.
I’m seriously losing interest in watching because of VAR. We should have won with Trezeguet failing to hit a barn door (again) and Watkins missing the penalty. Why didn’t we leave Hourihane on to take it? Surely he is the best dead ball specialist.
Why didn’t Jack take it?
Watkins has a poor penalty record
I would have been mad if that penalty was given against us. Really soft. Slight tug of the shirt and Trez threw himself to the ground.
You don’t have a clue, Badger? Nor does our defensive co-ordinator.
Corners 101, mark their big blokes with your big blokes.
Penalties 101, aim inside the goal frame.
Traoré? I have not seen anything that justifies his place in a Premiership team yet, and if it hasn’t emerged by now – it probably isn’t there.
VAR does stand for Villa Are Robbed.
Totally agree with you OLL.
Our position in this league is miles away from where we should be, imo.
Carragher and Neville both saying if it’s not a goal because of offside then it should have been a penalty anyway. The foul happens before the offside. Stockley Park continually rob us points.
Absolutely correct Holte66.
If Watkins stops, does not reach the ball and complains he was held, VAR has to assess – was he fouled inside the area? Clearly yes, so it is a penalty. The ref allows advantage since Watkins breaks out of the illegal hold and ‘scores’. But it is not an advantage if that ‘goal’ is disallowed for a subsequent infringement. Therefore play should be taken back for the penalty.
The camerawork at VAR is not the problem, it is brilliant in deciphering hairline facts. The problem is the inconsistent ***** at VAR HQ who cannot apply the laws of the game, and – it has to be said – the spineless refs on the pitch. Only one this season has reviewed his decision and decided he was still right.
I’m fed up with var it’s now spoiling the game,it was a clear and obvious penalty he had both arms around his neck. And anyway it was his arm they said that was offside,I thought you couldn’t score with your arm so that means he was onside. They should have ex players as well as a referee in stockley park. It was a very good cross and well taken goal and it’s ruined by var with their slide rule and quantum mathematics to see if a player is offside.
In fact why bother with linesman now.
I’m really mad tonight 😬😬😬
i disagree the game wasnt world class, but it was a very good villa performance and game. as in we played a tough hammers team. nothing much between the teams and when two teams are equally matched it can become a chess match. but i thought villa gave them a lift and lead in both halves. that said we dominated the rest of first half. second half started with us giving them a lead again. followed by us dominating the rest of the half.
hammers manager changed his system h/t which shows you we were dominating them.ok we didnt beat them 7 2 or 3 nil like pool and gunners. but this is premiership league and most teams are equally good. tough to win let alone win big and comfortably
i have seen the offside back and it is a penalty for sure. the defender is grabbing watkins this was inside the box, var were too concerned with drawing wonky lines to notice the foul. hammeers boss said his team played bad cause villa stopped them playing. and villa were good.
so you disagree maybe your beef is with the game not villa. maybe you should take a minute to absorb it when you are gutted to lose. missed pen var robbbing you are upset to start off with and your overall views is tinted.
anyways iam off to bed pissed off cause we should have won at least a draw but to lose is hard to take
Sooo disappointed with a bit more composure and without the damned var we would be top2 now in a very poor league
I totally agree with the comments on VAR – it makes a mockery of football but it’s not VAR itself but the way it’s being applied that’s ridiculous.
Now that I’ve calmed down – being slightly pissed probably didn’t help 🙂 – the result was a travesty but VAR notwithstanding we only have ourselves to blame for not getting something out of the match.
As against Brighton we failed to take the ‘big’ chances and, had we done so we would have won which our performances merited but merit doesn’t win you points.
I like Trezeguet, his honest endeavour and his willingness to work for the team and his ability to get into good positions in the box but, as against Brighton, his lack of composure in front of goal is costing us. Given his clinical finishing at the end of last season it’s a little surprising. It’s something the coaches need to work on.
We do need to turn these performances into wins otherwise that elusive commodity, confidence, may start to slip through our fingers.
Let’s also hope that Lange can pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat in January as our squad depth remains a concern.
UTV
The Telegraph saying we were robbed last night and should have beaten Wham. Only criticism was we weren’t clinical enough with our finishing. VAR stuffed us… Again!
Also Wham bench were calling Jack a cheat all night stirring things up. That’s why Terry was sent off, for near fisticuffs!
Moyes has apparently apologised but so what? W*ankers.
I hope the players are angry – really angry – and go out and stuff Newcastle Friday night.
The thing is you can say that about this side. They can go out and compete in this league. I look forward to every game these days
Villa v Newcastle postponed.
I think that might be to our favour.
I was annoyed when I first heard the game was postponed but we can get Barkley fit again for next game hopefully. Does anyone know how many players have tested positive for Newcastle? I read that it would have to be a large number of first team to justify postponement. I wonder if it had been Villa who had the cases, would they have postponed the game for us? Can’t help but feel sceptical after last two games!
I heard 5 and the team are banned from attending the training ground. I must say a postponement for those reason seems fair.
Let’s hope it doesn’t bite us in the bum!
Cant believe our own fans falling for the West Ham propaganda. God they are coming out with all sorts about Jack being a cheat……they say look at the video…1st of all they say he wasnt fouled then that he grabbed the wrong knee….he didnt……it was a clash of knees and as he spun round he grabbed the correct knee…it WAS accidental but he didnt know that at the time…
Who else is genuinely effed off at the Brighton and Wet Spam results? So bloody close but so bleedin’ annoying. It’s put me in a right bad mood.
Can we put both down to losing Barkley? If we’re that reliant on one player, it gives some credence to the argument about letting Jack go for top dollar, and replacing him with four Barkley quality type players.
(I will add I’d rather Jack stay until he’s an old man)!
i cant believe how our own fans can turn. we are moving in the right direction, but we are not close to where we want to be. we are in our second season after promotion. second season is usually the season most promoted teams come a cropper, if they didnt do so in their first year.
we are one of the 3rd or 4th best team with + goal difference in the league, so that one positive. we are playing good football yet when we don’t win some fans disagree with that. i cant understand the logic / thinking. it is possible to play well and lose. i honestly thought villa bossed hammers and we played well in general play. where i think we let oursleves down was lapses in concentration. particular starting both halves.
brighton and hammers two different games. brighton had the advantages of hardly any of their team had been away on international duty. where all our midfield had been away. plus goalie and defender, so we had 1 day to prepare they had a good week and more to prepare. that is a excuse i dont like using but it is the facts. we struggled against a good passing side. we never had the energy to close them down when they had the ball. saying all that we were robbed as i believe that trez was fouled and it was a 100% foul and pen.
hammers we made two errors and punished both times. we still managed to dominate the whole game and should have score a pen and either allowed the offside goal or given another pen for the foul on watkins. hammers are themselves fairly decent side. they are good at what they do and we completely had them on the ropes.
grealish falling down is b/s grealish is fouled and that is reason he goes down. had watkins gone down instead of being honest and trying to score which he did, we would have got a point. honest players finish nowhere. it has been a part of football as long as i can remember. if grealish stays on his feet, he will recieve stronger and stronger challenges, he will end up seriously hurt. instead of our fans berating on social media, they should be backing him. like terry was doing as all the hammers bench tried to make the ref and his assistants ignore grealish being constantly fouled.
finally barkley is a important key but we coped well against hammers and while it would have affected us. we just missed our chances that and we gave two goals away too easily. i also think traore is receiving too much criticism. he is getting up to speed and thou he still is a little off. you can see he has talent, try to be alittle patient. we want flair players but want them to come and hit the ground running and constantly be like grealish who is awesome every game. its never gonna happen like that. grealish is our heart beat and traore is finding his feet and his roles in the team.
i apologise for long b/s post but i wanted to cover a few things and ended up addressing the whole problems i red online ppl posting
I think most of us are frustrated that we lost two games 2-1 but had more than enough chances to win. Also the frustration of both games being denied at the very end by the arseholes who are in charge of VAR. Also defensively we have been dreadful. We haven’t had many chances against us but still conceded four goals. The first against Brighton was inexcusable. The second West Ham goal too was a lesson not learned from first goal they scored. Mings needs to improve although Targett doesn’t offer any reassurance down his left side. Konsa and Cash generally have done well considering they are both young and adapting to premier league standards.
We need reinforcements in January purely to offer a good alternative to first eleven. Another striker and a LB if it was up to me.
I agree with Nath that we probably got our expectations too high after our great start. We are still in transition and playing good football. I would like us to have a meaner and nastier side to our game. I think we are still more than capable of finishing mid table which would be a step forward. Our owners are moving us in the right direction and overall we are in a position we wouldn’t have dreamt of just 2 years ago!
After staying quiet and just reading post due to being ignored on comments, I have to say that Holte66 and Nath are absolutely right in their assumptions on Villa’s plight. 1-2 are not not good enough in our defence and I include Minns as one of the player’s, his attitude to the game is all wrong and not what it used to be, Taggett needs to find another club, personally our midfield not working at the same effort as our Jack , he must be down heartened with players missing open goals and it wont be long before he seeks a move. I’ve had to endure the mockery from my next door neighbour and his son’s who are Hammer fans but defended the fact we was robbed again and better days ahead. Keep posting lads I’m still reading your comments.
i always read /enjoy your comment bill and everybody else on this site. we would be boring with if always saw eye to eye. that what makes it a good read,reading posts opinions by other die hard villans
Good to hear from you Bill. In the feel of Bruce Forsyth “Keep posting”
Interesting article on the BBCs website about fans thinking on VAR
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55160134
also shows what i and most Villa fans believe , that Villa have more bad VAR decisions than most go against us.
while we got night off, we should welcome rest bite with open arms. newcastle would have got hammered, so hope they recover well and get fit and ready for us when they rearrange this game.
i would just like to touch on this season sofar. beating pool and arsenal like holte eluded too, gives everybody a false hope /dawn. yes we made improvements and as bill just posts stated,defense still is found wanting.
but i put it too you guys. we should stay calm and get behind the boys. we been through worst than this. main problems is we just came up one season ago. with a championship budget. we have been handcuffed with what we are able to achieve in transfer market. this project is heading in the right direction. play under smith is really really good, better the players we recruit,better and more competitive, we will become.
defence was only touched up this season with cash incoming, i liked him at forest and i predicted he will be a fans favorite as he really does give 100 percent like hutton , no disrespects to hutton cash offers loads tackling and going forwards.
we recruited well and in the correct areas. our defence will get us through this season and we will have more money to recruit better players with. improving the squad even further means we can become a force of old and beating pool and arsenal will not be one offs anymore. but we need to keep supporting and sure patience. yes we get angry at results but the bigger picture is much rosier
if we played newcastle i would have predicted 6 nil martinez two hattricks
It’s frustrating to have to wait till next Saturday for a game. We will have played 2 games less than most teams after this weekend.
With the transfer window coming up and with our fixture list getting even more congested, we will need a couple of signings good enough to push the first eleven.
I don’t know if I dreamt it or read somewhere that it takes 3 seasons after promotion to become a recognised premier league team on a financial level. So after next season we can compete with the big boys on a wage front. Our owners have already proven they are prepared to splash the cash on signings. Last season was more about quantity than quality while this season we have deliberately brought in players who will improve us where needed.
I’m very optimistic that we are moving onwards and upwards. There will be the occasional bumps in the road like we have had the last few games but we are still playing good entertaining football. UTV!
not sure we can afford to buy the quality players this winter market holte. but we might see one or two come maybe loan ? but the start oft he season we had surely will make players interested to come. i believe we will finish 9 downwards to 15 that will surely be a step forwards in my eyes. then we move forwards again next summer and improve our squad and team again like this season.
for those that think grealish goes to ground too easy, watch the city pen today. sterling goes to ground far too easy. but truth is if these players try to stay on their feet. they dont get the penalty and like i said before the tackers will end up hurting the forwards more as they try to stay on their feet.
i am gonna watch west spam hopefully beat utd. but i want to see how manure cope with them see if they dominate um like we did, i reckon west spam will win 1 nil
utd benefit from having utd supporters operating var, their equaliser was a punt by their goalie, but he hit the ball with serve down the line, ball defiantly went out and landing back on the pitch. var checked it but they couldnt draw their dodgy lines and hadnt a clue
they just scored again as i typed this, spam should have been 3 or 4 ahead, but moyles is still complaining the ball you see went above his head so he would know more than the utd var operators
uts dont get robbed like us thou lol do tjhey