This really is how it feels to me.
I don’t remember the last time I faced a new season with such expectation or trepidation (yes, both go hand in hand for me).
There have been times where I’ve had optimism, but that’s not quite the same as it feels this season.
I keep harping back to a certain fact and I still can’t quite get my head around it;
If we look at results in this current calendar year only, we would have qualified for the Champion’s league.
That is some statement that I still have to keep mulling over. And then I consider that we hardly changed any players.
I know. We’ve said this before. It’s a sign of how a top manager changes things. But Emery has been adding to the squad. Maybe not as fast as most of us would like, but no doubt we’re all enjoying what we are getting in Moussa Diaby, Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans, all at very reasonable prices.
I don’t know who’s proposing these deals, but apparently Emery has the overall say. If this is the quality/price ratio we’re going to see, who cares? but it’s another sign that things are working well.
Have we finished our signings? I honestly don’t know what to think there, because Emery strikes me as the sort of man who wants players in quickly , so he can spend time explaining exactly what he wants. Yet, now Jacob Ramsey and apparently Buendia are both long term injured, you would have to suspect another midfielder is on the cards. And then there’s a striker too, as much as I’ve proposed that we might not exactly need one, with goals being expected from all over the pitch.
But these are the same old sort of questions that we always ask ourselves.
Let’s go back to that expectation.
Tomorrow, we face a tough game in Newcastle away.
I suspect their owners are itching to sack Eddie Howe and sign some “massive statement” type manager. But they can’t, can they? because he’s done extremely well for them. Certainly better than I expected, as much as I rate him.
He’s bought well and seems to have done the same again, in signing Sandro Tonali from AC Milan, Harvey Barnes from Leicester and Tino Livramento from Southampton. Hardly marquee signings that I’m sure the club could afford if they wanted, but very solid players.
But it doesn’t concern me in the slightest.
I could go into the ins and outs of how I think the game will go, but it would be pointless.
I’ve always said that first day games don’t count, because anything can and most likely will happen. Freak scores always happen on opening day.
Except I don’t think tomorrow will be a freak score.
I’m going for a straightforward 2-1 win.
Why?
Because I genuinely believe.
And if we don’t get it, it’s no big deal. It’s first day, remember.
Roll on the Burnley game.
This ashes thing is all well and good. But in the words of Sinead, “Nothing compares”;
Mings has gone straight to a Newcastle hospital for treatment.
That has to be a really bad injury, you’d think 🙁
Really bad luck. It looked a nothing tackle on the replay. Looks like the cheque book will need to come out again.
It’s the oldest football trope about taking your chances. Virtual open goals for both Wilkins and Cash and both missed, something we cannot afford going forward.
We haven’t coped with the press at all today.
Defensively poor and as much as I like Cash, I’m now beginning to think he doesn’t look the same class as most of the players around him.
Either that or he’s being hung out to dry. Not being at the game can mislead.
Barnes is off. VAR is bent. Simple as. Where are the f****** lines?
Shambolic.
F****** ell. Kamara looks like he’s given up.
Badger, your posting of Sinead O’Connor has proved to be prophetic. It’s all ended in tears. 😢
Sadly, yes 🙁
Philogene on for Cash.
We could be seeing the future there.
We haven’t matched them in terms of tenacity and it’s turned into an embarrassment. Defensively it’s been a disaster and at 4-1 the players heads dropped. Pressure is now on a performance against Everton.
Oh dear. I was just about to say I get the impression they wanted revenge for April. I really believe we pissed them right off that day. It did get messy, as predicted.
Bill, thought the same! I’m nearly laughing and it looks like Emery is too!
Who on earth are this team on the pitch???? I think yr right, Mings has been badly hurt and it’s affected the team.
5-1. Shocking.
That’s 5.
How many have come down our right with Cash nowhere to be seen?
Tactically wrong today, surely?
We know Tyrone organises that defence. All the stats were rolled out when he was dropped. If he’s out for the season, that’s an even bigger blow than Buendia, who was missed today btw. There may be trouble ahead…
So much for champions league absolute shite
All that fucking optimisation disappearing right in front of us
Players look shellshocked. On the up side, it is traditional to receive an opening day spanking at SJP. Anyone care to recall Carrol’s hat-trick and a John Beresford screamer against Bosnich? Should have known…
Moreno. Ramsey. Mings. Emi.
We’ve zero choice but to make a couple of additions. Hope they’re the right one. Today was utterly bizarre. Emery looked totally bemused. What the hell was that??????????
Key moments in the game have cost us dearly. Two very debatable offside calls that VAR should have gone in in our favour. Cash and Watkins lacking the clinical touch, Konsa’s appalling defending for Isak’s second goal, which killed the game for us and picking the useless Bailey in the starting line-up was the first key moment.
Great start to the season, bottom of the table, even behind Everton and Luton.
Excellent summary, Mark.
Good summary Mark. Bailey starting and playing a big part in their first goal set up the rest of the game.
We got lucky with injuries last season but now it seems to be all happening at once. We need new players in now to try and compensate for this. I worry about our defence especially without Mings. Suddenly we have CB’s not familiar with each other and they were all found out today. Torres looked shellshocked and Cash was really poor.
Can Emery lift them up because the morale must be rock bottom now.
It’s obvious now that mings is the control of the defence without him before we rubbish and it definitely rubbish today.
That’s why I didn’t believe the hype of villa being dark horses, they were lucky last season but now teams have sussed them out.
Those goals conceded during preseason it seems was not because of tactics being practiced or players involved.
They looked more like bottom 4 than top 4
And why the hell not buy Barnes especially as had tillimans from Leicester
Rubbish performance and team
Reality! It didn’t take long for Villa to collide with it. After 30 minutes we were 2-1 down to two strikes from right in front of goal, i.e. by strikers Mings is supposed to be marking and then a second season ending injury, at first guess.
Urgent need for a stopwatch at BMH to time Villa’s defensive players over 50 yards. Because the warning was there in the 6 goals we shipped in the US friendlies, when Newcastle sprung the high line for two goals and about six attempts.
The risk v reward for playing out from the back: risk losing ball near our goal with keeper badly positioned v reward of building via possession does not appear to be worth it, but it is debatable. No arguments about the high line – opposing forwards are faster than our defence, especially when the latter must turn. Risk far greater than the return.
Plan B anyone? Unai – your turn.