Aston Villa v Arsenal Post-Match Thread

[Dave Javu]

Ireland was a real problem to the Arsenal defenders, as he kept making great late runs behind their back 4, narrowly missing a goal on a couple of occasions.

Well done to Stevie for his huge improvement demonstrated by "narrowly missing" goals (one of which was an air shot, I think). 

When do do we finally get to see the "narrowly scoring" goals bit, I wonder?

[PeterWithesShin]

Easily the best we've played this season. A point would have flattered Arsenal.

Only down points, conceding from from a corner again, and Gabby was awful. Had he been on his game i'm convinced we'd have won but tonight he turned into Savo. Arms waving all the time when passes didn't reach him, turning his back on the game when he was tackled while his own play was poor. A total lack of effort to get on the end of that one cross in the first half.

As for the plus sides, pretty much everything else. Apart from Gabby I thought everyone played well, including Hutton. N'Zogbia had a good game, but should he have gone down for the pen? And Albrighton is starting to show us what he can do again. Bannan looks a much better player when he cuts down on the hollywood passes.
Most of us feared a battering but apart from all the corners Arsenal created very little of note.
Special mention to the crowd as well, while on the low side, there was no moaning and groaning that I heard even when we were behind. Simply because the players showed the right attitude.

Credit to AM, i've had no problem giving him grief for some of the insipid stuff we've had to watch. So fair play for picking the line up and sending them out with the right attitude. Just try and do it more often and we'll get along fine.

We shown what we are capable of if we have the right attitude and line up. Now we need to show we can do it more often.

[Dave Clark Five]

Hutton fuck off and die you c***!!!!

Ridiculous statement.

[Shoody]

Its going to be hard to justify changing the team around.

Our midfield has to be a 3-man midfield. Clark/Herd, Petrov, Bannan/Gardner/Ireland. We dont have the players for a 2-man midfield or they wont create anything (Petrov, Herd) or will be shit in defence. (Petrov, Bannan/Ireland). It wont work. Have to play a 3.

But then upfront. NZogbia, Gabby and Marc dont deserve to be dropped after their recent form. But Bent would have thrived today with the chances, unfortunately he doesnt offer anything else. Its a conundrum. You either

a) drop an in-form winger (CNZ or Marc) in order to play Gabby, Bent, CNZ/MA  - could piss one off
b) drop Gabby in order to gain Bents threat (play CNZ, Bent, MA) - Pisses off fans, loses our most in-form player
c) sacrifice an already shit midfield in order to play all four. But have an even shitter midfield.

It sounds like a weird conundrum but when CNZ, Marc and Gabby all look like they are playing well enough to not be dropped but we desperately need Bent it creates problems. We need Gabby to develop and become as lethal as Bent (we wish!).

If it were me I would drop Bent for the Stoke game. Play the same team as today and bring Bent on for a midfielder if we have to.

That or we start looking at formations with 3 defenders in order to get the best of everything. (would also give advantage of not having Warnock and Hutton wasting space on the field)

                 Guzan
      Cuellar Dunne Clark
                   Herd
           Petrov   Bannan
Albrighton                  NZogbia
                  Gabby
                   Bent

But considering NZogbia and Albrighton aren't the best at helping defenders it could really make us get battered on the counter attack. And if we lost it would look like an absolutely shit decision to play 3 defenders when we already cant defend.. Which is why I think Bent should be dropped.

[PeterWithesShin]

Also of note is 57% possession, against a team most of us would consider one of the best footballing sides in the country.

For about an hour pretty much their only shot on goal was the penalty.

[hawkeye]

for the most part there is a lot of optimism on here despite a defeat. This was always going to be a very tough month and we haven't helped ourselves for a lot of it by the manner of our play. But in defeat tonight we can hope that we will now start to see shoots of green emerging. That AM is realising that we don't have to play long ball, flick on, lose possession football. That keeping the ball on the deck and going at other teams with the talented players that we have can win you games agaimst most teams in this league, and as importantly win favour with the supporters. We're not top 6 material, but if we play like we did tonight and with a better brand of football then top 8 this year will be a good achievement. It is a good foundation from which to build on.

Yawn

I don't really know why you're constantly trying to wind him up, hawkeye, but carry on and it will end in tears.

Sorry it was a great post and to sugest anything else was totally out of order, my sincerist apologies

[monkeyboy]

Hutton fuck off and die you c***!!!!

Ridiculous statement.

Try reading the rest of the post and taking the comment in context!

Apologies if the language was a bit colourful  - but it was written pretty much at the final whistle, on reflection the comment was crass

With that said, Hutton was as unprofessional as it comes, he is an experienced international - he's been hopeless all year and blotted what was by far his best performance.

Sometimes the sanctimony on this board beggars belief it really does

[PeterWithesShin]

Oh and special mention to Robin Van Persie. Who showed the world what a classless cheating wanker he is. I wonder if the media will mention?

[Dave Clark Five]

Except Clarke is Irish...

Yes Clarke is but Clark is Half English, Half Irish. Has chosen Ireland though...but has he made his competetive debut yet? Shame as he captained England during his youth career.

Ok. Fair enough. Still a superb player whose presence meant a lot to us tonight. He just looks world class and he is going from strength to strength. What an asset to the club!

[taylorsworkrate]

Ireland was a real problem to the Arsenal defenders, as he kept making great late runs behind their back 4, narrowly missing a goal on a couple of occasions.

Well done to Stevie for his huge improvement demonstrated by "narrowly missing" goals (one of which was an air shot, I think). 

When do do we finally get to see the "narrowly scoring" goals bit, I wonder?

Well my response was to the assertion that he had been poor, which he clearly hadn't.

That is unless people believe Ireland has to score 2 or 3 in a game to qualify for a review other than poor.

As I said there were a couple of occasions where he made late runs into the box, which if the ball in would have been slightly better could have lead to a goal.

He also worked hard and rarely gave the ball away. It seems mad to me that when people have been criticising (righty) our inability to keep the ball, that one of our best passers of the ball is routinely castigated even when playing well.  Our best football this season (2nd half at QPR, home to Wigan and 1st half tonight) has come with Ireland in the side.

Maybe thats a coincidence.

[Dave Clark Five]

He was unlucky. It wasn't as bad as it looked. It was a late tackle. Although I bet he loves wearing our famous colours when our lovely fans are calling him a c*** on an evening he gave it his all to try and win a game for us.

You have to wonder if they were watching the same game.

[taylorsworkrate]

Except Clarke is Irish...

Yes Clarke is but Clark is Half English, Half Irish. Has chosen Ireland though...but has he made his competetive debut yet? Shame as he captained England during his youth career.

Ok. Fair enough. Still a superb player whose presence meant a lot to us tonight. He just looks world class and he is going from strength to strength. What an asset to the club!

Clark has a lot of potential, buts thats a bit over the top.

[villajk]

I really enjoyed the game tonight.  We certainly didn't deserve to lose.

Couldn't see the Hutton sending off so waiting for MOTD.

More of the same at stoke please.  It'll make the journey and silly ko time (for boxing day) worthwhile.

[Pete3206]

for the most part there is a lot of optimism on here despite a defeat. This was always going to be a very tough month and we haven't helped ourselves for a lot of it by the manner of our play. But in defeat tonight we can hope that we will now start to see shoots of green emerging. That AM is realising that we don't have to play long ball, flick on, lose possession football. That keeping the ball on the deck and going at other teams with the talented players that we have can win you games agaimst most teams in this league, and as importantly win favour with the supporters. We're not top 6 material, but if we play like we did tonight and with a better brand of football then top 8 this year will be a good achievement. It is a good foundation from which to build on.

Yawn

I don't really know why you're constantly trying to wind him up, hawkeye, but carry on and it will end in tears.

Sorry it was a great post and to sugest anything else was totally out of order, my sincerist apologies

Your first reply was tedious, the 2nd was a pathetic attempt at sarcasm. Well done.

[Legion]

Play like that every week & we'll have no problems.

Correct.

Great performance. Shame about the result. Albrighton bags the 20,000th PL goal and is donating the money to acorns. Villa and proud of it.