Aston Villa 2-1 Sunderland Post match thread

[Clampy]

absolute turgid stuff, from both teams -  if this is the best that a team costing £50 million+ can do then oh dear,  but as he says Bruce knows best!

it pains me to say that for me Hutton was MOTM but then I expect that from a right back who cost us £9 + million (the most expensive right back in the league)

Davis looked as though 2 games in 4 days is too much for him at this stage of his career

Wolves look at the moment a class above, everyone else that I have seen is of an equal level - 3 wins and you are up near the play offs (look at Forest)

Fair play to the Sunderland fans who made the journey, it must have been a long journey home.

I'm not sure the team.that was out there last night cost £50m+ and Hutton didn't cost us £9m+ either.

Too many players were off their game but down at QPR, none of them had a bad game. It was frustrating to watch as you just wanted them to step it up a gear but the three points was the main thing.

[LeeS]

£3m for Hutton I thought. And it was 6 years ago. His price is irrelevant

[Chris Smith]

Having just arrived back home, I can honestly say it was a shit game. And, evidenced by the almost-silent crowd throughout.
Poor in possession and poor without the ball. We won because Blunderland's defence was rubbish.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

It was a game of missed passes and wrong decisions from both sides. Smith senior did not get his birthday treat but he did get three points.

We had two decent short spells of football and scored during both but otherwise the players looked lethargic. It seems clear that we are going to need bring in another forward to take the weight off the two youngsters. On the plus side Samba has coped well as a backup, Hutton had another really good game and Jedinak and Grealish are available again. Find a way to win on Saturday and it will have been a great week.

[andyh]

It’s worrying that the players looked tired and lethargic.
It’s only frigging November, and they have just come back from (another) 2 week break.

[rob_bridge]

£3m for Hutton I thought. And it was 6 years ago. His price is irrelevant

To be fair if we add in his wages we are probably talking 12m or so and counting

[PeterWithesShin]

5 of the starting 11 are free transfers or loans, it's hardly like we were fielding the Galacticos.

[tomd2103]

£3m for Hutton I thought. And it was 6 years ago. His price is irrelevant

Think Spurs bought him for £9m from Rangers earlier in his career.

[Richard E]

It was an atrocious game of football.

Apart from Grabban, who did well in the first half but we then got the measure of (albeit that I appreciate he then scored a goal), I thought Sunderland were as bad an away team as I have seen at Villa Park for a very long time.

Hutton was fantastic, a decent cameo from Jack when he came on, Samba was brutal but effective. Hourihane didn't have one of his better games. Taylor had a rocky first half but redeemed himself with a better performance in the second.

Job done!   

[Chris Smith]

It’s worrying that the players looked tired and lethargic.
It’s only frigging November, and they have just come back from (another) 2 week break.

Some had a break, others were away on international duty.

The biggest problem was the front two, for a combination of reasons, being below par and leading to a lack of options for the midfield.

[Walmley_Villa]

Grinding out wins.....makes promotions that does.

[Holte L2]

Great win last night.  Sod the poor performances. Its all about keeping momentum.  In this division you're not going to play well every match. It's just important to win ugly at times and we did just that.

The crowd were awful last night. It had to be said. We need to get behind them vocally when we're not playing so well.

Come you lions!

[Ads]

We looked tired and the passing, absence of pressing and decision making reflected that. Few days rest now, but we need to freshen it up for Saturday.

We never looked in any danger really, as Sunderland look as bad as any side I have ever seen. We've gone from the sublime to the hardworking in QPR to last night, but we ground the result out and have put the three teams ahead of us under pressure.

Taylor was probably the worst. Snoddy did ok with his effort and pressing and he of course produced a moment of quality for the goal, but Davis and Onomah were way off the pace. Hourihane and Whelan far too deep and ball retention was poor.

Still, result was all that mattered and I went home happy. I know we can play well, really well and I know we can win when we play poorly. That's how titles are won.

Its a long old season, but we're coping quite well with the injuries and still have Grealish, Jedinak and Lansbury to freshen up that midfield. Hopefully Gabby isn't too far away, as he will offer something in this league and then there is Green and his pace too. Wolves, Cardiff and Sheffield United don't have that depth.

[postal]

Grind out the points.

Snodgrass had a hand in both goals and should have got one

Players are coming back after injuries and thats part of having a squad.

[PeterWithe]

I thought it was a professional if uninspiring performance in which we were never really under too much threat, even with those few free kicks being swung in at the end. A typical Bruce type of win.

Sunderland reminded me very much of us over the last few years, not terrible throughout but always capable of dropping regular individual clangers that shatter any confidence built, they weren't as bad as I expected them to be.

Despite the strength of the bench it was concerning that Bruce had no forward options to change a clearly out of sorts young partnership.

Some decent individual performances, Snodgrass had his best game for us I've seen and the centre halves were solid. MOM by some distance though was Hutton who was excellent.

[The Edge]

We looked tired and the passing, absence of pressing and decision making reflected that. Few days rest now, but we need to freshen it up for Saturday.

We never looked in any danger really, as Sunderland look as bad as any side I have ever seen. We've gone from the sublime to the hardworking in QPR to last night, but we ground the result out and have put the three teams ahead of us under pressure.

Taylor was probably the worst. Snoddy did ok with his effort and pressing and he of course produced a moment of quality for the goal, but Davis and Onomah were way off the pace. Hourihane and Whelan far too deep and ball retention was poor.

Still, result was all that mattered and I went home happy. I know we can play well, really well and I know we can win when we play poorly. That's how titles are won.

Its a long old season, but we're coping quite well with the injuries and still have Grealish, Jedinak and Lansbury to freshen up that midfield. Hopefully Gabby isn't too far away, as he will offer something in this league and then there is Green and his pace too. Wolves, Cardiff and Sheffield United don't have that depth.

Good point. Right now I think the injury situation is dictating things. If Cardiff /Wolves etc suffer the kind of injury list we've had to deal with it could change the complexion of the leaders board in our favour. Here's hoping anyway.