I don’t know why I find this one intriguing, but I do.
Last season I’d probably have described it as a run of the mill win for us, but this time, I wonder if Moyes can have a new manage bounce effect on the game and couple it with how awful we are at times and I think anything might happen tonight.
Let’s start with the good news and it is that we’ve signed Donyell Malen, who looks to be predominantly a right sided player in Unai Emery’s thinking, because the manager has talked about this being a “one in, one out” policy, adding Jaden Philogene into the mix, who seems to be an almost certain goner.
Or did he mean that this will be the policy for the whole of the window and all players involved?
Whatever, things are seriously starting to warm up now and we seem to have moved on from the 100% guesswork that we usually get at the beginning of the month.
Diego Carlos is apparently being chased by Fenerbache, if Mourinho doesn’t get the sack and my feeling there is that it’s probably the right time all round to do that deal. He could do a very decent job in Turkey and we recoup some much needed PSR cash. It’s win-win. I think probably a more salient point here is that Emery has said Carlos has a small injury. The player says he is not injured at all.
Things are not 100% happy in the camp, it would seem.
Not wanting to dwell on that, squad news and it isn’t great.
On the plus side, we should have Emi Martinez back and Jhon Duran has finished his suspension, meaning he’s available. Will he start? is another question and I suspect not, which will surely add to his frustration. It’s a tough life for a young lad on 100k a week or whatever it is, isn’t it? It would appear he’s going nowhere though and we’ve stuck an £85 million pricetag on his head, which, while putting pretty much all clubs off, might prove a disastrous mistake for them if he ends up as another Haarland.
Pau is probably going to be out for 2 months and McGinn is a week away from training again, if I read things right. I’m not sure how much that concerns me, to be honest, as neither have been great and they probably need the R&R.
And then, Ross Barkley is at least two weeks away from being fit, which is bad news, because as much as I didn’t fancy him when he came, he has done a very decent job and he’s being managed well and used sparingly to good effect. He’s a miss and the sooner he’s back, the better.
As for Everton, they’re not in great shape.
Dwight McNeil, James Garner, Tim Iroegbunam are all out., as is Armando Broja who was stretchered off after an innocuous challenge in Thursday’s FA Cup match against Peterborough.
The good news for them is that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is back in contention, although he’s only scored two goals all season.
What to think then and I ought to be hopeful, I feel. Everton play pretty decent stuff from what I’ve seen of them and have often been unlucky, I feel. But they can’t score for toffee and that costs them some serious points.
I’d normally go for a very straightforward win here, but my money says we won’t get one.
At best, we’ll scrape one and I just hope it isn’t as dire as the first half of the West Ham game.
But I’m going for a 1-1 draw if I have to choose. I just can’t trust us to get a win, I’m afraid, although our record is actually better than I make things sound.
As per usual, UTV!
Get Onana off before he gets sent off…
Yeaaaaaasssss we are so good 😀😀
We need fresh legs.
Bailey. Maatsen. Duran.
Now let’s hold on and get a clean sheet
Pretty much sums up a lot of the season.
We win and 3 points, but god, it was utter crap to watch.
I enjoyed it! I don’t know what u guys expect…?
Me too BUM BUM.
Not a classic but edge of your seat stuff for the last ten minutes.
Woo hoooo a win at our last time ever at goodison get innnnn
Quite sad to think the Villa will never play at Goodison ever again.
And we win with a clean sheet.
Great result. We had chances and could have scored a few more. Watkins does need to become more
clinical.
Good to see Ramsey putting a good shift. Kamara is brilliant!
Mings. Kamara. Chesty. All outstanding tonight.
3 very valuable points. Well done lads!!!
MOTM has to be Cash??
Whoever you think the MOTM was, oill give it foive.
Outstanding display mate, never put a foot wrong.
1-0 and a clean sheet away from home! Hallelujah!
It was a poor game with very little quality and Everton are definitely in a relegation battle IMO.
Cash and Kamara especially I thought were our best players.
Do we read anything into Duran not coming on?
Two tough games coming up away from home. We need to improve on tonight to get anything.
Bloody hell Emery sounds ill in the press conference.
I’ve had this shite for 5 weeks…
Predictably Moyes claims they were unlucky. They were rubbish and DCL is a Division One player.
3 points off 4th now. Long way to go. New faces coming in. Other teams around us guaranteed to have their dip too.
Villa grabbing 5th CL place by getting to the semis of the CL… Mystic Badger told me so…!
Chuffed with a very workmanlike performance. And that’s not an insult. Our collective defending was excellent. Mings looked like he’d never veen away thankfully! Kamara was monsterous!!!
Thanks Villa, now Unai, get some rest and get rid of that cold!!!!!
Watched it in the pub during the weekly pub quiz – maybe I should ask them to move the quiz to a Monday.
Anyway I didn’t contribute a lot to the quiz team and still managed to miss the goal 🙂
I thought we looked OK but made some poor decisions in the final third. Defence looked a lot better and Kamara was excellent – deservedly man of the match.
A wins a win and a clean sheet is long overdue.
Blimey, Unai sounds well ill in that video. Keep soldiering on chap.
Strangely, where I was always prone to colds, I haven’t had one for years after the jab.
Spooky!
On reflection, it would seem I’m being harsh in my assessment and some players were better than I thought.
But not much, imo.
Go on then, Kamara gets a 6 because he didn’t do much wrong.
And Mings gets a 6 because he headed the ball away a few times.
Hmm. I think some are easily pleased.
I know. I’ve been a right grumpy get all night.
I just like a bit of entertainment, that’s all. Is it too much to ask?
It would seem so.
Mate, that’s the drug of football, not winning 4-0 every game because (unlike Peps globetrotters you have a blank cheque book) it’s sitting on the edge of your seat for the last ten minutes when you have a one nill lead at Everton on a cold January evening.
Or sitting in the garden because you simply can’t watch that penalty shoot out.
That’s the fix mate.
A solid win away and, at last, a clean sheet. 🙂
Nice to see Malen in the stands. I still can’t believe that we got a Dutch international and CL finalist for less than we sold Philogene. I was listening to one of the Villa podcasts where they said that, with all the moving parts involved in these transfers, that Monchi is playing 4D chess.
If we can get Mingueza in and possibly Bade from Sevilla it will be the best January transfer window I can remember.
Philogene to Ipswich confirmed for £20m it seems. Made a tidy profit on that! Good luck to him.
Would be good to get some clarity on what’s happening with Carlos. He’s put in a very decent shift for us over the past few seasons. Messing him around doesn’t seem right…
Yeah, it’s a strange one Bum Bum.
On the face of it, it seems like there’s been a falling out but it might just be either Carlos wants a move or Emery’s told him he’s not in his future plans and felt it better to say he’s (slightly) injured rather than having to explain why he’s not in the squad.
Over to Badger – he likes a good conspiracy theory. 🙂
The thing is Hitch, managers say players are injured when they’re really not, all the time.
The question is why did Carlos come out and openly say he’s not injured?
You can only deduce that there has been some sort of fall out.
Basically I’d guess Carlos wants to play, wants out of the club and isn’t happy with the price we’re asking for him which is slowing things down. Don’t forget, he was told he could go in the summer.
And of course he wants that big fat final payday.
Probably right Badger – as long as we get an upgrade in first I’ve no problem with him leaving.
Apart from isolated top class performances (like against Citeh at home and Arse away last season) he rarely instils confidence.
Especially as we only have 2 fit centre backs. I’m not a fan but Mings and Konsa certain can’t do it all between now and the end of the season. Games coming thick and fast…
I’ve always been nervous about Carlos as a defender, he can move on for me. Badger I counted 3 times Mings made me gasp with mistakes but a good many times defending, it swings and roundabouts with him, Kamara MOTM with that performance may it continue, big games ahead keep the faith lads.
It’s incredible that we’re only 3 points off Newcastle in 4th when they’ve won 6 in a row! How?!
I can’t help but think of Bournemouth and Brighton at home, and Ipwich and Forest away. 7 points in the bin there. Which would have us in 2nd and potential title challengers. Not fantasy stuff – those points were very much in our hands before we binned them. 🤔
Hopefully, those lessons have been learned and we can have a stronger second half to the season, defensively and offensively.
UTV
Off topic but reading Sir Willian Dugdale’s obituary and what an interesting chap? I didn’t realise he was responsible for appointing Sir Ron and chaired over our most successful period of modern(ish) times only to be ousted by you know who in 82. The rest is history as they say.
Here’s an extract “Dugdale was ousted in 1982 when Doug Ellis, nicknamed “Deadly Doug”, returned as chairman and reputedly sent him a tie embroidered with the letters SBE (“Sacked by Ellis”).”
Deadly, what a twat?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11234167/Sir-William-Dugdale-Bt-obituary.html
Wow, you didn’t already know this?
Typical Ellis and the bloke was horrible mate.
How many times do you need to be told that our most sucessful period was specifically when he wasn’t there?
No mate, I didn’t know he was responsible Sir Rons appointment but I do remember in the 70’s him having a big headline in the Evening Mail, something along the lines of “I want to see Villa in Europe as Champions”
How prophetic was that??
Piece by TBR on Villa’s search for defensive reinforcements which makes interesting reading although I have no idea whether these players are an upgrade or not. TBR have been accurate so far with their sources.
https://tbrfootball.com/aston-villa-have-now-made-contact-to-sign-38-8m-chelsea-player/