Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Martyn Smith on February 20, 2025, 09:45:50 PM
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At The Centre of the Universe, Sat 22 February 2025, 17:30
[sotto voce: also on Sky]
In order to keep in sight of the Champions League places we etc etc...
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2-1
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Sticky please, boss
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Can see another draw here . I can see fatigue catching up on the players .
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Dont have a good feeling in this i am afraid. Wednesday night would have taken a lot out of us and chelsea have had week off.
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Fatigue won't be an issue. We've got plenty to choose from in the squad and there's been no traveling.
3-0 Villa FTF.
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malen and JJ and Konsa and cash to start
he wont rest Rogers so Marco and MArcos to come on 63th minute
2 1 Villa
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Dont have a good feeling in this i am afraid. Wednesday night would have taken a lot out of us and chelsea have had week off.
But they don’t have fireworks 👍
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Hahaha. That was so lame by slot. You just have to laugh 😂
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He was a bit graceless under fire, given his public comments up until Wednesday night.
Clearly 2 points he’d assumed were won before the result.
Hope the fireworks do their thing for us again!( Whatever it is)
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I appreciate him both looking and talking like an absolute bellend, it fits far more comfortably with my loathing of his club.
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Villa 2 Chelsea 0
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3-1 win, we look good going forward with the new additions and Chelsea look like they're missing Madueke and Jackson. We just need to not give Palmer a chance to find his form again.
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Slot is right on one thing, fireworks are really small time.
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I still can't believe he said that and the line about our injured players being fit cos it's Liverpool. We all slag off opposing players and managers, sometimes in a tribal one-eyed way but that's just bitchy bullshit.
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Ask him about the fireworks their fans fired into the Liver Building not so long ago and all the shit they left along the front there .
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I appreciate him both looking and talking like an absolute bellend, it fits far more comfortably with my loathing of his club.
Yep, fuck him and his weird pornstar name.
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Hirsute challenged twat.
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Hirsute challenged twat.
Paddy and I both object to your use of the word 'hirsute'.
We reserve the exclusive right to use it, and to do so, you must prove yourself as part of 'Club Hairy', as below.
(https://i.ibb.co/zTf3Xt8S/20250220-234851.jpg) (https://ibb.co/zTf3Xt8S)
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A Villa win and still a chance to grab fifth with top players to come back.
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We owe these feckers, that display at Stamford Bridge was probably our worst of the season. Made them look like worldbeaters.
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I think this is so difficult for us given we have a 3 day turnaround and they have 8. That’s a big advantage to them. Hopefully the motivation of them battering us at Stamford Bridge helps.
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We seem to find them difficult to play against. Their strength is their midfield and allows Palmer to find time and space.
We might need Bogarde along side SJM and Tielemens because Rogers Ramsey Rashford Asensio Malen do not look great defensively.
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Ask him about the fireworks their fans fired into the Liver Building not so long ago and all the shit they left along the front there .
I can’t, pretty busy at work today.
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We seem to find them difficult to play against. Their strength is their midfield and allows Palmer to find time and space.
We might need Bogarde along side SJM and Tielemens because Rogers Ramsey Rashford Asensio Malen do not look great defensively.
Bogarde might be an option. But I would hope we remain attack focussed in our balance. There’s pretty much no selection we can pick that’ll stop us conceding, I suspect. We need to focus on stressing them and pushing them back.
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I still can't believe he said that and the line about our injured players being fit cos it's Liverpool. We all slag off opposing players and managers, sometimes in a tribal one-eyed way but that's just bitchy bullshit.
We should be flattered that he became so shaken about us: it suggests we got under his skin. Great!
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2-0, Watkins, Rashford
Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Mings
Digne
Tielemans
McGinn
Ramsey
Rashford
Watkins
Rogers
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We seem to find them difficult to play against. Their strength is their midfield and allows Palmer to find time and space.
We might need Bogarde along side SJM and Tielemens because Rogers Ramsey Rashford Asensio Malen do not look great defensively.
Bogarde might be an option. But I would hope we remain attack focussed in our balance. There’s pretty much no selection we can pick that’ll stop us conceding, I suspect. We need to focus on stressing them and pushing them back.
I'd start with Bogarde because if he does a great job we win if he plays half decent I'll expect a ridiculous bid to come in from them which will be great news for our FSR figures.
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With Disasi ineligible, I really hope Konsa is fit. It'll be yet another change to the CB pairing although a familiar one. Even Kamara as the stand-in is missing through injury!
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Isn't Bogarde likely to have to play at CB in this one? No idea on fitness updates but if Konsa isn't fit, we're out of options there.
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"We come over here and I see fireworks. I don’t know if they do this every game, but I assume that it is because it’s Liverpool." If you don't know, maybe keep quiet.
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Sutton says we'll win 2-1. I have a feeling he might be right on this one.
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0-2
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"We come over here and I see fireworks. I don’t know if they do this every game, but I assume that it is because it’s Liverpool." If you don't know, maybe keep quiet.
Yeah, it's because of that. We only watched because it was Liverpool too.
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Enzo Maresca was very complimentary to us in his press conference, never knew until recently he played for the Albion in the late 90s.
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Enzo Maresca was very complimentary to us in his press conference, never knew until recently he played for the Albion in the late 90s.
Yeah, he wasn't a bad player either.
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Enzo Maresca was very complimentary to us in his press conference, never knew until recently he played for the Albion in the late 90s.
Yeah, he wasn't a bad player either.
Yes he was.
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Sutton says we'll win 2-1. I have a feeling he might be right on this one.
Yeah I thought that. Might be worth an exact score fiver
I have a feeling it'll be Score One More Than You in any case
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Enzo Maresca was very complimentary to us in his press conference, never knew until recently he played for the Albion in the late 90s.
Yeah, he wasn't a bad player either.
Yes he was.
Ha ha
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"We come over here and I see fireworks. I don’t know if they do this every game, but I assume that it is because it’s Liverpool." If you don't know, maybe keep quiet.
Yeah, it's because of that. We only watched because it was Liverpool too.
He's trying a bit of 'you've only come to see [our club]' schtick out. Whereas this works as a bit of tongue in cheek goading from the crowd, from a manager it feels a bit classless
Fat, bald opinionated twat. I'd hate to be like that...
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We really need to win this game I reckon we will win 2-1.
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Any squad news from Unai? The website have the headline comments but none are injury returns/concerns.
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Any squad news from Unai? The website have the headline comments but none are injury returns/concerns.
Team News (https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2025/february/21/Villa-v-chelsea-team-news/)
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I appreciate him both looking and talking like an absolute bellend, it fits far more comfortably with my loathing of his club.
Amen
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Balls we’re going to have one centre half aren’t we.
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Balls we’re going to have one centre half aren’t we.
Hopefully he's just keeping them guessing! Onana still 2-3 weeks away!
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Cash Bogarde Mings Digne I suspect even if Konsa is in the squad.
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A few people on this thread predicticing a win to nil....you've seen us play this season, right?
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If all those listed are on course, they should all be back for the CL matches and definitely back for the April / May run-in which might start getting packed.
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I picked out the Dandys to run Fireworks FC close in the title race but that's gone way off the mark. A lot of this probably down to Palmer not being in form so you know where our thought process goes from here.
Nah, fuck 'em.
2-0
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Cash Bogarde Mings Digne I suspect even if Konsa is in the squad.
Mings appeared to be struggling most of the second half against Liverpool. Could really do with at least one recognised centre half on the pitch.
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Who are the 2025 out of contract equivalents to Chris Samba and James Collins that we could sign to duff opposing forwards up on the pitch?
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Cash Bogarde Mings Digne I suspect even if Konsa is in the squad.
Mings appeared to be struggling most of the second half against Liverpool. Could really do with at least one recognised centre half on the pitch.
Mings took a stud or 2 to the side of his knee when he challenged Robertson at a corner. I don't think there's any real damage but it looked like a sore one and he might have a decent bruise from it.
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Cash Bogarde Mings Digne I suspect even if Konsa is in the squad.
Mings appeared to be struggling most of the second half against Liverpool. Could really do with at least one recognised centre half on the pitch.
Mings took a stud or 2 to the side of his knee when he challenged Robertson at a corner. I don't think there's any real damage but it looked like a sore one and he might have a decent bruise from it.
Yep, looked like a collision injury, rather than anything muscular (or worse). Hopefully a few days of rest and Ibuprofen as he's ready to go. As others have said, we really do need fit centre-halves for this one.
I think it's pretty remarkable that after not winning in 5 games, we're STILL only 4 points off 5th place. So despite not being great in the league recently, we're still right in the mix for a Champions League place. Beating Chelsea would go a long way towards that. I'm starting to worry about Bournemouth though, who have probably the best run-in of any team fighting for the European places. It would be sods law for Forest to fall away only for Bournemouth to sneak in there.
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Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Bailey/Malen, McGinn, Tielemans, Ramsey, Rogers, Watkins
I thought Bailey had some decent performances before his latest knock so if fully fit I'd play him on the right. Otherwise give Malen a go.
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On paper the strongest defence can be fielded though not sure Konsa will be 100% and Mings isn't 100% fit either .
------- Martinez ----------
Cash Konsa Mings Digne
--- Tielemans- McGinn----
Ramsey------------- marlen
--- Watkins ---- Rogers ----
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Cash Bogarde Mings Digne I suspect even if Konsa is in the squad.
Mings appeared to be struggling most of the second half against Liverpool. Could really do with at least one recognised centre half on the pitch.
Mings took a stud or 2 to the side of his knee when he challenged Robertson at a corner. I don't think there's any real damage but it looked like a sore one and he might have a decent bruise from it.
Yep, looked like a collision injury, rather than anything muscular (or worse). Hopefully a few days of rest and Ibuprofen as he's ready to go. As others have said, we really do need fit centre-halves for this one.
I think it's pretty remarkable that after not winning in 5 games, we're STILL only 4 points off 5th place. So despite not being great in the league recently, we're still right in the mix for a Champions League place. Beating Chelsea would go a long way towards that. I'm starting to worry about Bournemouth though, who have probably the best run-in of any team fighting for the European places. It would be sods law for Forest to fall away only for Bournemouth to sneak in there.
Would be a phenomenal achievement from Forest or Bournemouth to make the CL. Surpassing us or Newcastle really. Lazarus like managerial comeback from Nuno, Iraola will end up at White Hart Lane this summer I expect.
I wouldn't be surprised if Citeh fell away a bit yet, their team is breaking up this summer and maybe Guardiola might leave. Not a happy camp. Newcastle, Chelsea and ourselves aren't hitting any form yet but it's wide open for a late run.
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Man city could also be on for a points deduction too.
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A repeat of Wednesday night’s performance should be enough to see off these tossers.
3-1 Villa
Rashford, Watkins and Ramsey.
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We’ll need a massive performance here, they’ve got a significant advantage.
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No Madueke against us is a bonus. I'd drop Rashford and Ascencio and go for Ramsey and Malen from the start.
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Man city could also be on for a points deduction too.
If it happens at all (I still very much doubt it will), I think there is very little chance of it happening during the season and will be in the close season.
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No Madueke against us is a bonus. I'd drop Rashford and Ascencio and go for Ramsey and Malen from the start.
Rashford in particular did very well. Asensio also was about 5% off but did a lot of good work. Not sure why they’d be “dropped”. There might be some rotation as there’s a 3 day turnaround, but it’s not about dropping.
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I think they’ll do it this season to get it done. 30 points would be unprecedented.
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Three wins in the next week would leave me feeling very positive for the rest of the season. Win today, and it's eminently doable.
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No Madueke against us is a bonus. I'd drop Rashford and Ascencio and go for Ramsey and Malen from the start.
What about the lad who blows up balloons, En kunk oo ?
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Konsa i think will be only change
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Can see Marlen starting today .
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Can see Marlen starting today .
He's busy looking for his son, Nemo.
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Chelsea tend to have our number recently. It’d be nice to buck that trend.
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Dropped down to 10th as it stands. We really need to start picking up wins. 10th in the league is mot good enough lets be brutally honest with ourselves
Lets start that today
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Dropped down to 10th as it stands. We really need to start picking up wins. 10th in the league is mot good enough lets be brutally honest with ourselves
Lets start that today
Definitely this (though Wednesday's draw was very satisfactory in the end), though I think 5th will be the best we can do now, unfortunately.
Think we could win 3-1 today, though: got a feeling Malen (if picked) could score!
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Dropped down to 10th as it stands. We really need to start picking up wins. 10th in the league is mot good enough lets be brutally honest with ourselves
Lets start that today
Definitely this (though Wednesday's draw was very satisfactory in the end), though I think 5th will be the best we can do now, unfortunately.
Think we could win 3-1 today, though: got a feeling Malen (if picked) could score!
If we can win today thats a massive confidence builder for palace whoch wont be a easy game either
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Bailey and konsa back
.rash on bench