I’ll confess I’d never heard of our opponent until the fixtures came out and wondered from the name whether they were actually a football club or some sort of youth organization. But they are indeed a club sitting 12th in the Eredivisie following a mixed start. They have beaten Panathinaikos, though, so one would hope Villa are taking things seriously. You want all the points you can get.
You also want to sustain momentum. It’s been better since Bologna and Villa haven’t lost in eight, but with Pep & Co up at the weekend, Villa really could use a very solid performance. There’s belief, sure, but for me it’s still all about progression, being more settled and cohesive. With Rogers finally firing home, you’d like to think the goal-scoring burden could be lifted from Buendia and McGinn, and you’d like to see what he can bring helping out the rest of the side. Same would go for Ollie.
Now, no idea how Emery is going to approach this one with an eye on City. We know he often doesn’t make dramatic departures, but he’ll want to manage minutes for the main guns and it is an opportunity for Elliott and Sancho perhaps to do something useful. Like everyone, I’d have thought young Harvey would’ve had more minutes by now, but in Emery we trust and all that. Buendia’s also done his part in keeping Elliott out of the side, and, I’m assuming McGinn as well, set-up wise.
As we know, sometimes Emery introduces players right away (Onana, Guessand), other times he waits. While he’s talked about fitness and bedding into the system, it’s clear that for whatever reason, there still isn’t a high enough degree of trust to displace known quantities. And since I’ve been traveling and catching up, I may well have missed some injury updates in doing quick news scans.
Folks are quick to label the Spurs match as a statement victory. Might well be true, it looks good on paper and certainly better than the alternative, but so far, Spurs are still a bit of an unknown quantity. City, well, however they’re going it will tell you something.
So, however Emery and the players see tonight’s match and opponent, they need to go out, do a job and set themselves up for Sunday.
Over to you.
Europa League: Go Ahead Eagles vs Villa
Well that was a spiteful non professional tackle just because Bogarde had done some very good work. Karma can be so good!
Karma kicks us up the arse for being wasteful and compacent. 1-1.
Except for the very last kick of the half, I just haven’t noticed Ollie at all. Seems to be disinterested.
Useless Villa flailing around aimlessly. 1-2. Whatever the game plan is, it’s totally failing.
WTF does this new strip have to have dark blue in it? Why can’t I have claret and white? No toys in my cot!
Why isn’t cool calm precise Pau taking penalties?
When you can’t say anything good don’t say anything at all
Don’t notice anyone else making any observations. Trying to keep the blog going. Would love to know what you or anything else was seeing so I could learn the error of my ways.
Ha…yeah, that’s what I was hoping for (explanations). Sounds like we didn’t do much wrong except not convert. I got off the zoom call just as Cash won the peno, thought here we go. Was a little surprised to see Emi taking it, but thought his eyes looked good. Alas. Score there and I’m guessing there’s a fair chance we’d have got the third.
Well, I had to be on some work calls…Can someone please explain what happened?
I’ve just seen a snafu wrapped up in a clusterfuck. Shitty are obviously going to get marmalised on Sunday.
Yep. We just don’t learn the lessons. Just like Stevenage. Too many changes. We were a poor promotion of the EPL tonight.
Treat these lesser teams with any disrespect and it will bite you in the arse. Foul night weather wise but can anyone explain to me why Guessand stayed on ALL match?
I know he scored….just. But Unai surely needed to pull him from the game. We don’t even seem able to take a penalty. Extremely disappointed with what was served up in this game.
As anticlimactic as the result was, I thought that considering it was half of our B team, it was mostly okay and just missing the second goal. Decent passing, decent defending and decent positioning. Had Guessand or Watkins buried their chances we’d have been looking forwards to Sunday.
Priority number one for the summer is a penalty taker. It’s embarrassing for a professional team to not have one for so long.
Also thought the ref brought them back into the game by giving fouls that weren’t fouls.
Must admit I thought Malen was going to take the spot kick as he’s got a great shot on him.
Calmed down a bit now. It was definitely not our night. What could go wrong, did go wrong. I can only recall Emi having 2 shots to save and he stopped neither. They had some good fortune with their first goal as the shot looped up off Tyro’s back. And the free kick that preceded it was for hand ball against Pau?? Looked to me like the ball hit him in the nuts. However, we have to be able to defend the ball in and Guessand was playing the attacker on side.
Same with the second goal, a ball over the top into the space behind must be defended better than it was. Big shout out to the Eagles supporters. For 10,000 people, they made a real din.
Yeah…It should’ve been over in the first 20. But it wasn’t, and we know how that goes. I’m having to remind myself that it wasn’t a cup tie and let it go.
We now have a very interesting game on Sunday. Folllowing our revival, I’m going into the match with hope and optimism, which of course opens the door to the possibility of disappointment and a ruined Sunday😅. Manchester City are also having a ‘revival’, so on Sunday, I guess we’ll see which one is real…
And just to circle back to the penalties, it isn’t just that we’re misssing them, the goalkeeper seems to guess right every time. Emery named 4 other takers yesterday and I didn’t feel confident about any of them. Nanny McPhee has plenty of work to do – I assume pens are his remit also. And we conceded from a set piece again, that’s like 6 games in a row now (if you count Feyenoord’s wrongly disallowed corner).
Penos…ugh. That’s a weak spot that just shouldn’t be. I guess it’s only been Luiz who was reliable in recent years.
Sometimes it’s not bad to have a disappointing result prior to a bigger challenge. We’ll see how they respond, but you’d hope they want to put the embarrassment behind them.
Well, get in there Matty Cash. Nicely done.
Cash weak foot screamer. Obviously player of the season!
Shame about Buendia. He was our sharpest player and key to possibly beating shitty.
Yeah, he was playing well.
I’ll take that. Would like to see Sancho pull trigger when he cuts in, could be something there.
But rode out the opening surge, settled in pretty well.
Very satisfying footballing performance from Villa. They have more than matched shitty. Konsa looking ubersmooth. No stupid falling down free kicks and has physically matched haarland. Game made for Pau and he hasn’t dissappointed. Even put in a few rugged tackles. Key difference between the sides is that we have a player with the best weak foot in the league.
Pau did have a good half. If we released just a bit quicker, might have had some more really good looks. Digne’s final ball hasn’t been up to his best, but overall, yeah, been composed.
Shitty resorting to professional fouling!
Pau defensive blinder!
How that didn’t go in I’ll never know.
Gulp. Docu scares me.
Yeah, he’s dangerous, jbd. Also think Snacho’s being a bit of a liability, giving it away.
Oh so close
Oh dear. The sub is subbed.
Guessand showing good strength
Onana’s had a good game as well.
Haarland does an Ollie with the post but his “goal” wiped out for offside.
Watching, I thought we’d get the flag, then when it went in, I wasn’t so sure.
Get in
Deeply satisfying football performance from Villa. We outplayed Tiki-taka Pep. Stand out moments for me was the weak foot goal by Cash, miracle over the bar clearance by Pau and full face block by Onana. My potm is Konsa for an effortless Rolls Royce defensive masterclass.
Very happy bunny. I will now STFU!
Echo that, jbd…good performance, starting to look more like we should. I think what I like is that there’s still a better Villa in there. Spurs, City, 6 really big points at a critical juncture.
Defo been a critic, but kudos to Cash, did a good job defensively, as well. Two tough assignments.
THE VILLA BOYS FROM ASTON……WE TRAVEL NEAR AND FAR……
Nervous, tense, competitive, tight. An Unai masterclass. A defiant Villa Park. Haarland supply lines cut. We might have had a goal or two more. Floated out of the ground at FT.
Onana was immense. Buendia brilliant. Cash outstanding. Everyone on the money as you have to be against Citeh. I await to hear what the damage is to Buendia. The goal was fit to win any game.
I’m also a very happy bunny 656 but I will not join you in STFU!! Six points from Spurs and Citeh is going to keep my tongue going for some time.
YEEHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A penny for Dunnarunner’s thoughts. Two visits to VP this year and 2 defeats. Oh dude. A penny also for Elloitt’s thoughts, he was not even in the squad today.
Sure everyone’s seen the talk about the appearance threshold to make the transfer permanent, whether Emery really wanted him, etc. Very curious situation.
The log fire is burning, the bar is open, the first 2 glasses already dispatched. We’ve moved into the top half of the table. Two points off 4th place. We are in the Champions League hunt once more. UTMV.
Citeh chucked the kitchen sink at us yesterday from the first whistle. They swarmed over us like a rash. We bent but never buckled. Emi found a very effective way to beat the press by kicking the ball over it to Digne who then had acres in front of him. Nothing wrong with a longer ball when accurate, it’s very effective. And it neutered Pep’s plan.
Pep Guardiola:
“They are a Champions League team. Unfortunately they are not in the Champions League this season, but a top, top team for many years. It is a tough, tough place [Villa Park]. Unai always sets up good things. It is a really good team. I admire them – they do very good things.”
Sad to see Buendia leave the ground on crutches. It’s a nervous wait now to find out the results of scans/x-rays. Hopefully the damage is not serious. I didn’t notice how he got injured, just saw him sit down and take his boot off.
It wqas a thumping but legal (I think) tackle out on the left wing. City are such a bunch of anonymous foreign players that I don’t know who put the tackle in.
Or even “It was a …”
3 Points o’clock (CET) and i guess it is our revival that’s proved to be the real one in the end.
Lots of 8 out of 10s and a couple of 9s, so it’s good to see the physical sharpness and mental commitment from 11 players, playing in a coordinated way. Even Sancho did his defensive work and dropped in as an out ball when he replaced Emi B. Hats off to Unai, he’s an elite manager.
Great to see Rogers well and truly on the right path, Onana needs a month of great performances to build back up the credit that he had in his honeymoon phase. If his hamstrings last, we might have the best midfield in the league when Youri returns. I also thought Ross was good and did his jobs, running, linking and disrupting during the turnovers.
Finally, Ollie. Still looks low on confidence, especially in the box, but he does look like he’s recovered some of his running power, which is a game changer for us. He’s bringing the (improved) long balls down and recovering lost causes more regularly now. He’s occupying the whole back line again, and that’s a big deal for us. If he can add the fitness and have one go in off his backside, he’ll feel all the better for it.
Now they have a full week to prepare for Liverpool.
Ps I’m glad to see Unai using his full (apart from Elliot) squad and resting SJM. His mileage clock must be in the red zone. He gives 100% twice a week for us, then does the same for Scotland. At 31 he needs to be looked after. We ragged Dougie for 18 months and he’s fallen apart physically. Youri has this muscle injury after playing every game for 2 years, Leon Bailey played injured 2nd half of the CL season and lost his mojo…the list is endless.
Nothing magical, but fresh page up for the match.
COYVB