Aston Villa v Arsenal Post-Match Thread

[Mister E]

Guzan - superb. Benteke - brilliant at times if a little "raw". Bannan - best I've seen him play. Great whole team performance but fully expected to see Ireland come on and disappointed he didn't. A good point today and could/should have got all three.
Must win game on Tuesday!
UTV!

Agree with this.
I thought Lowton looked very dodgy until he moved into CB.
I thought Cieran Clark played very well.
I thought KEA was poor - I agree with comment above which wishes to see BB, Westwood and Herd in CMF.
Stevens was effective in a workmanlike sort of way.

[eastie]

Westy is something we've needed for a long time. A replacement for Barry. He's classy, comfortable has a fantastic range of passing & works hard. Bannan, who prior to this season, has normally flattered to deceive is really shining under Lambert. The discipline instilled in him is fantastic. He can pass a ball, but prior seasons he went for the hollywood pass to often, now he's smart with the ball and his workrate is brilliant. A midfield of two of Bannan & Westy - on paper - should be too lightweight and not defensive enough but they're both working so hard and reading the game well that they're really doing the job out their. Fantastic to see. They play well together.

Lowton continues to impress. Looks like he's played at this level for years.

Totally agree, eastie thinks westy is a great buy.

[Archie]

Westy is something we've needed for a long time. A replacement for Barry. He's classy, comfortable has a fantastic range of passing & works hard. Bannan, who prior to this season, has normally flattered to deceive is really shining under Lambert. The discipline instilled in him is fantastic. He can pass a ball, but prior seasons he went for the hollywood pass to often, now he's smart with the ball and his workrate is brilliant. A midfield of two of Bannan & Westy - on paper - should be too lightweight and not defensive enough but they're both working so hard and reading the game well that they're really doing the job out their. Fantastic to see. They play well together.

Lowton continues to impress. Looks like he's played at this level for years.

Yes. I remain convinced that our midfield is not strong enough as it doesn't protect the defence but yesterday Westwood and Bannan were classy. Now we'd need someone better than KEA for the holding role. 

[Jarpie]

I thought KEA looked very good until his yellow card and after that he seemed to take his foot off from the pedal a bit and got more careful not to get second yellow which is understandable. I was very impressed again with Westwood and Lowton. In the attack we seemed to lack Ireland, he tends to bring the necessary link-up play and could've made the difference today.

Holman was again very good after coming in and gave the lift to our players we needed at that point in the match, he isn't completely comfortable on the ball yet but for me it looks like he's gotten better with the passes and attacking play, I wonder if he could be transformed into the box-to-box central midfielder.

[Ron Manager]

To be honest Ive never concentrated on Westwoods game that much since he came in but I will do Tuesday night Yesterday I made a point of watching Lowton as much as the game allowed me. He looks confident and assured, something of the Gareth Barry about him. Doesnt panic and doesnt fall to pieces when things go wrong.

Bannan has upped his game. Still dont think he is physically strong enough to complete at a high level throughout a Premiership season but credit to him for improving over the last few games.

But we have to start winning games. To do this we need to push the midfield up the pitch and tell them to shoot on sight. Holman is capable of doing this and obviously Benteke up front needs some help. If the dour scot intends to get rid of Darren Bent in Jan and despite what he says it certainly points that way he needs to try Bowery to see if he could solve the problem in the short term.

I have said this countless times. To win a match you have to score at least a goal or even two or three.

Benteke is capable in this respect but no one else appears to be.

So it doesnt matter how well the team or individual players perform if you dont have a consistent scorer you are going to be in trouble in any division

[Percy McCarthy]

Thing was with KEA, the moment he got booked we effectively lost him as a tackler. Might as well have brought Holman or Ireland on then.

[Dan England]

Guzan - been better than I expected
Lowtown - looks like Delaney, fine
Vlaar - Good and will get better
Clark - have had my doubts, was a man today after Vlaar went off. Needs to concentrate
Stevens - did ok, glad Walcott werent playing
Westwood - excellent
Bannan - very good, except for a couple of bottling it challenges
KEA - Average, not a playmaker
Weimann - battled hard, good team role, nothing more
Gabby - as above
Benteke- Not his best game, but he is such a threat and thought he bullied them again today
Lichaj - did fine
Holman - Should have started if resting Ireland IMHO
 

Sums it up for me.

[TopDeck113]

Pleased with the clean sheet and the point.  A ship-steadying result.  Now for some wins!

[olaftab]

Totally agree, eastie thinks westy is a great buy.

Aha the iron curtain is lifted once again!

[Ads]

I said to the chap in front of me that Westwood is Barry without the arse. A very good player who was playing in the old 4th division. Him, along with Lowton, prove that there will always be a place for lower league garbage at the top table for clubs brave enough to pick them up.

As for the game, I thoughy we were in it throughout. We did really well to limit a side to barely anything of note on goal, after they had put 5 past one of the best sides in the league last week.

There were plenty of positives to take.

Three games we need to win coming up and we're more than capable.

[Big Dick Edwards]

What's ther verdict on Concrete Ron's injury?

[silhillvilla]

Worse than 86?

On a par for me

[Clampy]

What's ther verdict on Concrete Ron's injury?

I was wondering that earlier, he'll be a big miss if he's out for a while and defensively it's the last thing we need.

[Matt Collins]

I think the interesting thing over coming games will be whether we can pack enough of a punch in the final third to get some more goals and points on the board. Yesterday's team would struggle to do that, partly because KEA isn't really suited to the no 10 role and partly because Weimann and Gabby's quality on the ball was poor.

If you could find a way to get Ireland, Bannan and Holman in the side, I think the creativity and chance creation would improve. But I think that means a diamond or the sort of 4222 we saw in pre-season but not since. Given that - in my view at least - the quality of performances has improved since we moved to 4231 I'm not sure whether that's a wise move. It would allow Bent to come into the side which would also increase our goal threat, but I'm not sure what on earth is going on there!

[eastie]

What's ther verdict on Concrete Ron's injury?

I was wondering that earlier, he'll be a big miss if he's out for a while and defensively it's the last thing we need.

Calf strain being assessed today, not too serious.