It’s all a bit of a rush, this.
I’m coming home from work and discovered that we’re actually playing tonight, when I thought the game was tomorrow.
Premier league footy on a Tuesday? I didn’t know there was such a thing.
Anyway, the story here is that there are apparently two players who have tested positive for Covid.
Rumour has it and I also heard the same rumour on WM that it’s Martinez and Konsa.
Losing Martinez is a blow, but I think Jed Steer is a competent back up goalie and I’m sure he’d be well up for returning to the club where he played as a kid in Norwich’s academy.
Losing Konsa on the other hand is a bigger loss. I know we have Hause and Tuanzebe as back up for him, but Tuanzebe in particular is nowhere near the same quality. Not that conceding should be our big problem here.
I was shocked to see that Norwich have only scored 8 goals so far into this season.
And then the other big issue is that Nakamba suffered a knee injury against Liverpool and has to see a specialist to see if he needs to go under the knife. If he does, he faces being out for the rest of the season. Just as he’s beginning to win those who don’t rate him over too. You couldn’t make it up.
Hopefully all the doom-mongering talk is just that, as we often see on the click-bait sites and he’ll only be out for a short while.
Otherwise, I think nothing else has changed.
Norwich are missing Grant Hanley, Christop Zimmermann, Andrew Omobamidele, Milot Rashica, Christos Tzolis and Mathias Norman.
I have to be honest, I know nothing about any of them, so how much that affects the side, I don’t know.
So Jed goes back to his home club, Buendia returns to the club where he shone so brightly last season and of course Dean Smith manages our opponents.
Will he have enough knowledge about the Villa to be able to wangle a victory? It might be a nice thought for him (as much as he loves the Villa), but I don’t see it happening.
8 goals in 16 games is horrendous, simple as.
And while I thought they’d been doing much better under Smith, the reality is that they’ve won 1, drawn 2 and lost 2.
So they’re only doing better because they were so downright awful before.
So while Norwich have only scored 0.5 goals a game, they’ve also conceded 2 per game.
Those figures alone tell me that we should have this one in the bag.
But with Smith having plenty of incentive and the fact that they have been doing better of late, it doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed.
I’m going to give Norwich the benefit, because we are always open to conceding, plus the fact that I like Pukki and say that they’ll get a goal.
But we’re capable of scoring if we can get the ball into their box often enough. There’s no way Stevie G will show the same amount of respect that he has done against Pool, Man City and Leicester, meaning we should go for it just a little bit more.
Of course, you always have to be careful, but I just seeing us having too much for Norwich.
Then again, I watched a large part of the Norwich-Man U game and the reds struggled to get the victory.
That said, I don’t rate them, so that’s meaningless.
2-1 to the Villa it is. I’m pretty convinced.
UTV!
Chucky sets up Watkins!
I love this kid. He’s the real deal.
Hope Gerrard can persuade him to sign a new contract.
He’s giving him game time and, with fixture congestion and injuries,only a matter of time before he starts a game.
Tuanzebe coming on for McGinn, who you have to think is probably injured after seemingly over extending.
Hope it isn’t serious!
Good win
Excellent result.
Badger, I’ve come to the conclusion Ramsey is starting to blossom and belongs in the team. The goal he scored demonstrates real talent. Stevie G has spotted it.
Hopefully Carney can now step up and secure a place.
Ramsey seems like one of those players who’s almost invisible in some ways – he doesn’t do anything wrong, which is quite something at his age – and then shows real coolness when it counts. Deserved MOTM for taht goal.
But I thought that tonight McGinn and Luiz were simply oustanding; massive effort and a lot of quality. Luiz was everywhere and at the centre of most things driving forward – which still makes me wonder why DS kept playing him as a defensive midfielder…
To be fair to Smith, he spotted Ramsey was a talent and bedded him in; Gerrard is now reaping the benefits.
As for Dougie and McGinn, I know I’ve got an annoying habit of saying ‘I told you so’, but it was so obvious that the two of them are old-fashioned ‘complete’ midfielders who can do what you said, Ardent: be everywhere and drive forward. I’ve been saying it for a long time. Waiting for Dougie to smash a 25-yarder into the top corner now; he’s not done it for two years – last time was Carrow Road, incidentally. It’s about time he and SJM started scoring from range on a regular basis, like Big Ron’s midfielders used to: Parker, Richardson, Townsend…ah, those were the days…
I’m writing this after the win, so surprised to see Badger’s comments on our midfield being poor. To me it looks like it’s really coming together, with SJM, Dougie, Marv, and Ramsey all getting loads of plaudits in the last month, not to mention Chuky starting to make his mark. The midfield is looking very strong, in my view!
UTV
Frustrating…….should have been two 7 nils tonight…..so many wasted opportunities and could easily been at 1-1 with that cock up at the back when their bloke poked it past Emi……came out right at the end though but feel Gerrard will not like a lot of it. As said Ramsey is now the one they all foul but Watkins needs to stop falling about all the time.
Bloody ‘ell; it sounds like Gerrard’s making a rod for his own back with all these wins in the bag. Come on guys, stop being so demanding! My only demand is 3 points per game at this stage. (which is quite demanding). I don’t give two shits how many goals we think we should have scored.
BFR……it wasnt the amount of goals I was thinking about…it was the lack of goals that would have put game to bed…in 1st half……as I said it almost backfired.