I have to apologise from the off.
There was no way I was going to pay fifty quid to sit in with home fans even though I’m working in London.
So I struggled to get a stream until about 40 mins in.
I did get one though, early enough to see Benteke’s goal, in a way.
The result of the game I saw was just a stutter thogh and all in slo-mo.
So much for the mobile internet being good in the UK.
Whatever, from what I could make out, we did OK.
They didn’t thrash us.
Please enlighten me.
Woke up this morning still buzzing.
We all agree that we was robbed by a ref the lost his bottle at being a the home game, Villa was in my mind the team that should have won that match only to be robbed by a prat of a FA ref,we have to start looking at out of the country referees the one we have cannot be trusted, Welsh, Scottish , and not ones that grow up being man united arsenal, Chelsea, supporter’s, I hope that the F A looks and acts on that ref that was poor in my mind. Villa I’m proud of was you did last night all the team did their part ,you played against 13 men and robbed..
Well said there are to many sky gout refs IMO
That ….
Agreed Bill mate, we deserved the win last night, it’s a big big shame. Two very key decisions went against us. Their goalscorer whould’t have been on the pitch and the ref completely bottle a stonewall penalty, obviously with influences that it might upset the “chosen one” and because we had 2 against The Arse on the weekend. Technically they only score one goal, also which was was offside.
Liverpool are gonna get punished at VP on Saturday UTV
Liverpool will be a tough game IMO.. Not as easy as some are thinking.. Couthinio is a class class act and will cause us problems..
Hopefully our first home game and we play well as a unit.. 2-1 to us I would love it..!!
Agree I don’t know why everyone thinks we will beat them ESP with our home form. I think it will be close and 2.1 to them
I hear that Jose thinks the ref made the correct decisions. This must come as a big relief to Kevin Friend and the referee association who will be able to continue going to Stamford Bridge and enjoy the hospitality. However, we must take the positives from the game and that was our midfield gave it plenty again, the front players looked lively and our defending looked a more organised. If we continue to play like this throughout the season we’ll give someone a good spanking.
By the way I don’t know if anyone heard the programme on talk sport on Saturday that talked about a study of all the games last year? Only 54% of penalty decisions were correct over the season – that is woeful but I can’t say I’m surprised if yesterday is anything to go by. UTV
Which is why the establishment don’t really want technology in the game for example last night if ref had replay he’d have no choice to award penalty. At least that gives refs an out without upsetting the sky 4
Watch Lambert get fined for his comments in his post match interview about the ref. yet fuck all will happen to the ref. Managers constantly get fined for comments they make yet the refs get away Scott free, these c–ts cost managers there jobs and very little is done about the refs. It’s time that refs came out after games and gave an interview and explain there “dubious decisions” but it wont happen because the FA know they’re in the wrong and the sky 4 get special treatment. If we play like that on Saturday we’ll win.
Spot on notice wenger didn’t get fined surprise surprise
Smashing performance from the lads again. The ref did miss some important decisions, and he did bottle it, but lets not take it away from the lads as they all gave 110% and a foot either side of cech and Weimann could have had two and we could have been looking at 1-3. Were on the up I would put us favourites against the pool, id also like tonev to get more game time as he looked good last night during his ten min cameo. UTV
Well Paddy Power think different mate – 3/1 villa so if you fancy it we’re a massive price at home! UTV
I don’t understand betting odds does that mean we are favourites to beat Liverpool?
3-1 for us at home is pretty big odds with the way we’ve been playing, i’ll have some of that i think. Unless Liverpool are bigger odds say 4/1 or 9/2 etc then no Liverpool will be favourites.
Liverpool are nearly even money and therefore clear favourites. I’ve got to say I can’t understand the generous odds as I didn’t think Liverpool looked any better than us at the weekend and Stoke weren’t nearly as physical as under Pullis. Our closing down speed was one of the things that MOTD highlighted so their playmakers won’t have as much time on the ball. Gerrard v Delph should be a great encounter, looking forward to it.
You have to look at past history especially at vp Liverpool have only lost once in about 15 years and that was a meaningless end if season game. Also our away form is better than home form we will struggle to win many at home this year but our away form will keep us up like last year
Tbh I would take a draw v Liverpool. I think even without Suarez they have 2 much quality for us to deal with and they have a fantastic record at vp. Remember Liverpool have a great chance of finishing 4th this year so a draw is ok
The first 25 min of second half we was all over them and that’s when we should of gone 2-1 up still I think a draw would of been fair.UTV
just to put a bit of perspective on it re the decisions, I didn’t see the elbow incident so cant comment, the handball I didn’t see at the time, I saw all the villa players shout for it and on analysis it was a pen, seen them given, seen them not given. the offside, again didn’t see it at the time but ivanovic seemed to start from an offside poition, very close, seen em given, seen them not given, just one of those things(or two in this case…..actually 3 including the elbow)very unlucky not to take a point.
great performance couldn’t fault anyone.
UTV
Can’t fault anyone either except the ref!!
p.s many very good performances last night, delph inparticular but wish to highlight okore, was hoping to see him last night and although coming on under difficult and unfortunate circumstances he gave a very good showing of himself, I was very impressed, he looked very composed on the ball, his passing and positioning was outstanding, got a great player in the making imo.
may see him start against lpool after 3 games in 7 days also might see something of tonev who looked bright for the time he was on the pitch.
Hopefully Okore and clark on Saturday
despite the 2 goals I thought the defence played well last night especially going one down so early.
got to admit even vlarr played well last night. would like to see okore/clark on Saturday, cant see lambert resting vlarr though he may do as he’s the granddad of the team 😉
as I said okore looked very composed on the ball even under pressure in hi own half something we rarely see from a villa CB, with the best of will clark, vlarr and baker never look convincing under pressure and you’re always thinking ‘oh, shit! oh shit! oh shit’ when we are in those positions, okore however just looked and played the part for me anyways and clark has looked much improved keeping it simple and giving a couple of solid showings and tony moon has made sure bennet can kiss that LB start goodbye, unlucky with the o.g, lowton of course gave a good performance.
Chelsea were lobbing those diagonals in all night, nightmare to defend against coz even if you get something on it there’s always a chance it’ll just provide a nice assist.
so on the whole much, much improved.
Agree even vlaar looked better last night but was still responsible for 2 goals but other than that he did well. Would love to see Clark and okore or baker and okore think to have 2 good young centre backs that can grow together would be brill
“they have 2 much quality for us”
Can’t see myself. a team that finished below Everton last season and if we were playing them we would hardly be shitting ourselves now would we?
They’ve got courtinho playing now plus Gerrard and Sturbridge are quality. Think a draw is best we can hope for and a likely result
Disagree completely, best we can hope for is a win, definitely. Liverpool aren’t that good, and their defense can easily be opened up. Even Stoke opened their defense up… They can’t defend against big strikers or fast paced players, which our forward line is complete of.
Liverpool will be a real threat and there key man is Couthinio.. keep him quiet and we win the game..
I would start K EA on Sat and tell him to do a number on Couthinio..
Tonev won’t be able to do that role..
true lionheart id say that’s a good shout, if the midfield performs as it did last night and get stuck in they should stifle Liverpool, im expecting a good open game and plenty of goals 🙂
Trying to be objective…. those 2 games last season left us 0 points and a goal difference of -9. But most of all shattered confidence and the Chelsea game was when we fell off a cliff.
This season the same 2 games give us 3 points a positive GD and bags of confidence. A week ago nobody would have expected us to win 1 and be upset at not winning the other (in fact most on here were predicting a hammering last night – even after Saturday.)
But most of all it sets us up for the season knowing that we can compete with anyone in this league. The team spirit, effort seems to have grown even from the end of last season. There’s goals in the team, battling qualities in midfield and the defence is showing signs of improvement (nobody shi**ing when we concede a corner now).
PL can bed in his new signings, not like last year were they were thrown in with no back up.
The future is bright!
‘PL can bed in his new signings, not like last year were they were thrown in with no back up.’ This is key to any success we have. Players who need confidence need a run out when things are stable You’re spot on that last year they were chucked in and expected to keep us up. KEA being the casing point – he got pelters last year when he was struggling to adjust to the move to a new country and a new league, by all accounts he looks a different player this season. We don’t look like we’re going to be kicked off the park many times this season!!
It shows how far we have come when we are all disappointed at not getting at least at point at Chelsea when last year we would of been happy with a 3.0 defeat
I think the main difference this year is focus, look at the players and every 1 of them seem so focused and determined to improve, except benteke if im honest, still a world class player but he seems just a little off pace at the moment even though he already has 3 goals, could be just that Lambert wants him to stay high and save his energy for the attacking side of the game who knows but every other player has been fantastic! Westwood has been quite too but probably just cause he is sitting deep against the big teams, and Fuck this bullshit of letting the sky 4 start their own league, villa are just as good a club to play against these teams and would hate to win the league but still only be the 5th best team in England!
No guarantee we would a league without sky 4 either but at least we wud have a better chance
Nicolas Anelka leaves West Bromwich Albion and could retire from football completely.
Thought he already had!
Agent reportedly passed away, he’s not retired, left on compassionate leave.
Oh I feel such fucking rotter now.
Amazing the difference a year has made. The players have a confidence to them, close on an arrogance, that comes with knowing you belong. All of last seasons new crop came from lower leagues and looking back, they were looking at some games in awe, like ‘ am I really here’. Now they are thinking, this team is there for the taking and I am going to help make it happen I said a few weeks ago that we could have 24 points from the first 12 matches and I stand by that prediction. UTV
The big difference between this and last is that the new players haven’t needed to be thrown in the deep end.. they can take there time settle in..
Look at K EA.. last year looked lost.. adjusting to the Prem from the off.. this season he looks a completely different player..
the general gist of the comments on here resemble the reasons why ianrobbo done a Reggie perrin. the premier league came about to fix a problem that wasn’t broke, sure we have all these exciting foreign players all earning obscene wages for something that they would do for free. i am not seeing anything better than i witnessed in the seventies and the eighties with mostly British players the premier league is a bit like the emperors new clothes we need something to enlighten the masses, with what Lambert is trying to do with unknown players embarrassing precious arsenal and Chelsea’s prima donnas people may take notice