I find this one intriguing.
Yes, I know some of us are on a bit of a downer, because we’ve lost our last two games.
We have to remind ourselves who we were playing though and things haven’t gone anything other than expected, if you think about it.
We lost to Man City, as most teams will and pushed Liverpool to the wire, which many teams won’t.
So now we’re about to face a team that is currently on a par, league-wise and this is much more a realistic test of where we really stand.
Beating the Old Gold, who to my mind have always been our biggest competitors, along with the Albion in who is the biggest Midlands club, is a big thing (notice the joker in the pack doesn’t get a mention or even deserve the name) and always important.
We all know there’s no debate to be had.
The Villa are by far the biggest and the whole football world knows it.
But this “mind the gap” stuff has irked me over the last couple of years.
To be honest, I’m not even sure what it was about, but if it was about league placings, well, that isn’t holding up very well, is it?
I think the Wolves are there to be taken, if we have a good day.
Squad news says Grealish is 50-50, but to my mind it’s what Dean Smith thinks.
I suspect this might be a good game for him to play in, but if he’s going to be clogged, it might be better to wait for the Newcastle game on the 25th(!).
Davis is still out and it’s too early for Jota.
As for Wolves, I really don’t care, but they have their Jota back after suspension and Ryan Bennett is fit again.
While there’s been a bit of pessimism lately on the site and we’re all worried about where we are in the league, I think this is a very close game to call.
So close, that I’d say it comes down to Wolves home advantage, which makes them favourites.
The Carabou cup game was meaningless for comparisons, so we can’t judge anything by that, but I’m very confident that Wolves will at least know they’ve been in a game.
Given that Wolves have drawn their last three games 1-1, you’d think that’s a safe bet again.
It sounds about right too. It’s probably what I would have predicted.
But they surely aren’t going to go 4 games on the trot with that score are they?
I’m going for 2-1, either way. I just don’t know who to, though.
Cup half full and all that, it has to be to us.
UTV!
Wolves appear to be managing their involvement in the Europa Cup pretty well although results in the league maybe slightly disappointing after last season. This year’s draw specialists – well so far anyway.
I would have liked to call this as a draw but, as you say, what are the odds of four in a row?
Love to say we will win but with JG likely to be missing then, unless Wolves suffer fatigue from Thursday’s game, I fear we are likely to lose this by the odd goal.
It’s a must win game, looking at the table.
I remember reading an article once which basically said – if you want a guide as to the teams likely to be relegated then look no further than GD. Now if you look at the Prem table there are three teams that stand out in this respect – Southampton, Watford and Norwich – so using the GD factor they are the teams under real threat.
Of course we would like to get 3 points to create a buffer but I’m not convinced this early in the season that this is a ‘must win game’.
I think I’ve now convinced myself that defeat wouldn’t be a disaster as long as it’s only by the odd goal!
anybody see the massive errors again by var sheff utd first goal that was level. they var say his big toe offside, that is dependent on who is putting the lines on and where he is taking them from. took 3 or 4 mins to decide either way.trust me had the incident been for the home side it would have been awarded. talk about keeping the small down and repressed,while keeping the cream at the top. sheff utd finally scored again and deserved their point, but it should have been all three
can’t wait for the wolves game,today will be very hard as the last two. also a very different one. wolves like you to have the ball. so they can suck you in and hit you with fast counters. we will need to be well aware of this.
i hope grealish is back, but if he isn’t iam not worried, last game both wide boys stepped up.in a funny way grealish missing for a few games will help us. the team can been too reliant on grealish. playing without him will improve us and he returns we will be even better. under smith its a team game always so losing grealish inst as much as a issue as before.
villa will win today 2 1
anybody remember langsford ? i think he had a saying” we won’t be relegated”. that goes more under smith than ever it did. first half of season we were always gonna have a sluggish start to season.players adapting to english top league and playing in the claret and blue.
second half of season, we will pull away from the troubles at the bottom. what we don’t want to happen is to increase the nerves. our football is about wanting the ball. we the fans cant allow the anxiety & nervousness to filter on to the pitch.
were villa have come from in smiths first 12 months is remarkable, he has had only one window to mould his style into the club. we have to remember this and stick with the team and all the players all season. if we do get dragged into the fight at the bottom. we are the 12th man personally i see us pulling away well before winter thaws
I actually believe this could be the first season in many where a team on 40 points could be relegated. I agree with Hitchen that goal difference is a key indicator. Are there many like me who groan every time Newcastle win? I hoped they would be bed blocking one of the bottom 3 places.
I think it will come down to Wolves don’t know how to loose and we don’t appear to have mastered seeing our a win. One these outcomes has to fall today.
i forgot to say the Bournemouth corner goal was well worked. shows you don’t have to be a big team to score corner goals. you just need to work on them and movement is key
Wolves are a tough team to score against which is why I think it will be a very tight game. I don’t think Grealish will be risked so other players need to step up if he is excluded. Wesley needs to perform as well because if he doesn’t bring our midfielders further up the pitch I worry we will struggle today.
I’m starting to get a bit worried. Today’s match will be tough and I would be happy with a point. Talking with some Wolves fans last night and they are not confident at all so I take some comfort from that. Next up Newcastle at home. They have started to get some results so that won’t be easy, and we could really do with all 3 from that game as the following 4 games will be tough to get anything from (Man U, Chelses, Sheff U away and Leicester at home). I think we will be stuck in the bottom 3 at that point, with a run of games that we should pick up points from.
We really need to go all out to get a striker in January who will deliver the goals to keep us up, as I really can’t see the current attackers delivering enough. Only takes 3 teams to do worse than us I guess. The current bottom 3 look poor but you can probably bank on at least one of those turning things around, particularly when manager sacking season kicks off.
No Grealish.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/astonvillafcATCB/permalink/2490810931163890/
No Heaton, Engels or Grealish. That’s worse than we all expected. Suddenly the game looks tougher and Wolves will be expected to win. DSVilla is right in saying we could well end up in the bottom three over the next few weeks. The problem if that happens will be tempting quality players to come and sign for us in January when they might end up relegated.
I believe that we have a good enough squad barring the goalscoring department but confidence is as important as quality to get the results needed.
What we will start to discover is how strong our squad depth really is. It’s unrealistic to think that we can continue to pick the preferred first 11 week in, week out. It affects all teams the same over a season and the quality of the whole squad (or lack of it) is ultimately one of the principal reasons teams finish where they do in the league.
A draw would be a good result today.
Oh no Nyland
I’m beginning to get the feeling we are a very unlucky side at the present time. Jed Steer – good safe pair of hands – Nyland oh dear me.
And Guilbert gets booked on 10 minutes – this game has a very bad feeling to it.
I’ve lost all hope looking at Wesley input.off side, what a wolly.
I’d be taking El Ghazi off and bringing on El Mohammad. Ghazi is not tracking back and poor decision making
Sid, problem for Smith is that he’s already down to 2 subs therefore too early to make a tactical substitution.
Can’t watch the game but according to BBC we haven’t even managed to get into the Wolves area yet let alone have a shot.
I can tell you this we are not going to win this game, we don’t have a plan . They do, its down the right . Wolves are known to turn the game with minutes to go.
Well, that was always coming, wasn’t it?
We’re getting ripped to pieces.
1-0 Wolves