Aston Villa v Arsenal Post-Match Thread

[olaftab]

Friedel was too slow for their 3rd. As Chamakh broke through, sittiing in the North Stand,  I felt  no danger  and expected Brad to  get to the ball first. The mix up for the first was unfortunate. Nasri shot after  Friedel made a world class save  fron
m Chamakh's header, was  top draw however  not as good as Clark's.  I thought  we may have nicked a draw  as Aresenal were vey shaky  at set pieces it is just that we didn't  create  many of those in the last 20 minutes.  The 4th goal doesn't count in the scheme of things!

[TimTheVillain]

Don't know where to start - that was some crap display by a very strange looking Villa team.

For obvious reasons, Clark came through with flying colours - Ash tried but was playing with a load of numpties and I thought Ireland looked good when he finally came on( he should have started).

GH has some real work to do, hope he's up to the task.

[alanclare]

Oh dear! Was I the only person at the game who enjoyed it? No, 'cause there were lots of others around me in the Lower Holte and they weren't at all downcast. We were playing a better team, but there were times when we believed in ourselves and showed that we could still be competitive, particularly at the beginning of the second half.

I should not be surprised if we have seen the last of that former idol, John Carew. On the other hand Ireland started to look like the player that we know he can be, and Ciaran's volley was a gem. Let's give M. Houllier a chance, for Pete's sake.

[adrenachrome]

The first half was embarrassing, and I can't remember feeling that way about a Villa team for a long, long time. The 7-1 away at Chelsea was bad, but it did not seem as bad as that first half. I don't agree with the idea that we were lacking passion or effort: what we were lacking was a fucking clue.

Leon Trotsky coined the concept of Permanent Revolution, then the NeoCons invented Permanent Pre-emptive War  and now Warnock has become Permanent Disaster In Progress.

Carew was beyond dismal.

We need Petrov and Reo back sooner rather than later.

[dutchvilla]

we were too content to sit back and let them play it around. We needed the same pressing and vibrancy as in the Man Utd game.

as others have noted, the weak points are the senior pros (L Young, Carew, Warnock, Dunne). These are the ones who should be stepping up to the plate.

Gabby will be ok for Wednesday, right? what about Reo-Coker?

[Yeltzer]

Load of wank

[avfc_1874]

Sky Sports reporting that Collins picked up a calf injury and could miss the game Wednesday...

[villajk]

I hate to say it, but after today's game I think that we are lucky that Wolverhampton, West Ham and probably either WBA or Wigan are in our league or we might be feeling the relegation heat.

You can't just relegate teams because they begin with W

Three of those won today.

[Bad English]

A Norwegian claiming he is cold?

[Toronto Villa]

A Norwegian claiming he is cold?

this whole gloves, and now scarf business is embarrassing to say the least.

[CJ]

Just about thawed out - it was bloody freezing there today. First up, we have to admit that Arsenal are a different class to us at the minute. Their movement, confidence on the ball, and one-touch passing even when under pressure were all impressive.  However, that's no excuse for us helping them look even better.

Defensive jitters in the first 15 minutes could have easily seen Arsenal 2 or 3 up. This followed by comedy capers between Collins and L.Young for Arshavin's goal (well taken), and lack of marking of Nasri for his volley from the edge of the area (again well taken). That first half performance was just embarrassing - poor passing, lack of fight, bottling out of challenges - but at least we came out looking as though we meant it in the second half. Carew was a waste of space again- he can go in January as far as I'm concerned, injuries or not - and Pires (apart from one good run) looked knackered. We looked far better when Fonz, and later Ireland came on. 

Should have held on to the one-goal deficit for longer after Ciaran's first goal, but then having clawed one back again it was pretty inevitable we would concede again when chasing for an equaliser, with Dunne up front acting as a target for hoofballs.

Not good. I really fear for Wednesday

[Legion]

Awful first half performance from us and they could have had 4 or 5. Much better second half. Ciaran Clark looks the business. It was very cold indeed.

[Linus]

I didn't go today. Made the decision late last night when the weather looked dodgy and didn't feel like changing my mind this morning. When they scored their first I actually turned over to see how Wimbledon were getting on, and stayed on ITV for a bit. Yes, we're reaping what O'Neill sowed in the summer - lack of signings, leaving us in the lurch - but I can't help but think that Houllier was the wrong man. I was briefly optimistic at first but it's become clear we're going to need a battler to survive this season. The Albion next - can I be bothered?

[TimTheVillain]

A Norwegian claiming he is cold?

this whole gloves, and now scarf business is embarrassing to say the least.

Acceptable IF you're playing well.

Carew is far from that.

[luke25]

The only time we looked dangerous was Young on the rite and Downing on the left but for some reason we only played about 15 minutes this way