If I was to say “I don’t know what to think about this one”, you’d probably think “crikey Badger, you’ve said that a few times this season”. And you’d be right, because I have.
The trouble is, my immediate thoughts are to say I think we’ll win this game.
But for pretty much all of the season, Villa have failed to do what the average fan has expected. It’s worked both ways, mind and just as we put up an excellent fighting display against Liverpool when I think many expected a sound beating, so we’ve failed to win games that we would have assumed to be a shoe-in, such as Ipswich at home. That one particularly sticks in my mind and it’s that sort of result that really rankles me.
Squad news is that Konsa and Bailey both face late fitness tests. I’d say that Bailey won’t get a chance now we have the newcomers, but Unai seems to love him, hence I’d guess that if the player is fit, he will start. Konsa, of course would be a welcome return, albeit I don’t think he’s been at his best this season. Pau, Kamara and Onana are all a couple of weeks away at best and Disasi is ineligible against his parent club.
As for Chelsea, Noni Madueke is out for a few weeks with a Hamsting issue and Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu, Benoit Badiashile, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana (the only one I’ve heard of) are all long term injuries. Not that it matters much, as they have stupid amounts of players to call on. Which is something else that rankles, because I’ve literally just read that we face a big fine by Uefa for a financial breach.
Anyway, as I said, I fancy us to win this one, but I just get a sneaky feeling that we won’t and a draw seems most likely. I don’t see it being a high scoring game either and it’s most likely to be a tight affair.
Hence a 1-1 seems most likely to me and in a game where it would good to pull some points back against another Europe contender, I would be disappointed with just one at home.
Then again, watch Villa do the unthinkable again and either win easily or get soundly beaten.
It’s what we do.
UTV!
2-1 down and it’s because McGinn is faffing around with the same pass and they saw it coming.
VAR screwed us again 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Turned the Comms off.
VAR against us again – surely Munoz fouled Ramsey as he went to shoot?
Ramsey still not producing like he was 2-3 years ago. Will he ever???
Game over.
3-1 and game over. They have our number and it could be 4 or 5 now.
Palace’s aggressive and direct football is killing us.
Correct.
Oh it’s tight, is it? But that’s OK, right?
VAR isn’t going to give us anything tonight BFR.
It’s Villa hating Gillet moving the lines around.
Far too easy – turned it off.
Crap performance and top 10 best we can hope for but it might be worse.
Europe has been enjoyable while it lasted.
Cardiff and Brugge are loving this. Season could be over in a couple of weeks.
Had enough tonight. I called the 3-1. Got it the wrong way around…
🤦
Don’t underestimate the absence of Kamara. Defence is non existent.
End of, forget going anywhere we are crap not just at the back but blame goes to Emery from me . I’ve lost the enthusiasm now over bad team selection.
McGinn constantly getting caught in possession. A number of times he has got lucky with free kicks given our way.
McGinn on the field 30 mins too long. We have absolutely bottled this.
I’m struggling with the substitution of Garcia – why?
Why weren’t Rashford & Asensio on at the start? It’s like Emery plays with the tried and tested not quite good enough this season to start each match. Let’s concede before we show an attacking threat.
Just really annoyed . This was the final match to secure Champions League and we’ve blown it.
Wharton makes them tick. McGinn and Tielemans have failed
Badly missing Bouba. We could do a lot worse than go for Wharton in the summer.
Palace must love watching us roll over so they can tickle our tummy.
Glasner has Emery’s number unfortunately. We can’t compete against teams like Palace and Newcastle. We are a soft touch!
We scored a goal from the big kick. Yet they still play out. Despite all the free goals they’ve conceded through the season. The mind boggles.
How many times does Olsen play for us and we concede 3 or more? I think he makes the entire defence jittery.
If they’re jittery, they should clear the ball instead of farting around, Holte.