Aston Villa v Manchester City Post-Match Thread

[Rudy Can't Fail]

There's a reason we were poor in the final third, we were up against the best defence in the country. They've the most clean sheets and have only conceded 13 goals away from home all season. Have a look on Bluemoon, they're singing the praises of the two centre backs. Most on there also believe we should have had a penalty at the end. They're complaining about the poor performance but we have to take some credit for forcing them to make so many mistakes.

Gutted with Delph getting a yellow card, he once again showed he's finally turning into the player we all hoped he'd be. Is there any way we can appeal the decision?

[Ads]

Zabeleta was particularly impressive. They were typified in the last ten minutes; every man behind the ball, with the space being strangled completely. If they had been as organised as that all season then they might be closer to Yanited.

And yes, if there were a God or Karma existed, we would have had a penalty, all things considered.

[JUAN PABLO]

It was a penalty .

[Clampy]

The ref was'nt interested in givng Benteke anything all night apart from a booking.

[Ads]

From what I could see, he was booked for winning a header.

[fredm]

The problem was it was only Benteke who was getting stuck into them up front. So they were easily able to mark him tight and then he started to get frustrated. Not enough movement off the ball from the other 3 attackers or getting around Benteke for the loose ball/flick on.

[JUAN PABLO]

The ref was'nt interested in givng Benteke anything all night apart from a booking.

agree , rarely got a decision . I saw a Man City player keep barging him and getting away with it.

[JUAN PABLO]

. Not enough movement off the ball from the other 3 attackers or getting around Benteke for the loose ball/flick on.

nail on head

[PaulWinch again]

Benteke spent far too much of his time completely isolated.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and you can also see he's starting to get frustrated with the weakness of the rest of our team.

[Mister E]

Oh and you can also see he's starting to get frustrated with the weakness of the rest of our team.

Yes. Several players in the second half seemed keen to express their frustration at other colleagues. Holman and Weimann did so several times, in addition to Benteke.

This worried me as much as anything else: what team cohesion exists seems to be ebbing away, if those things are anything to go by.

[PaulWinch again]

Holman's got a nerve having a go at anyone.

[PaulWinch again]

The only real positives from last night were, we didn't get hammered, we didn't wilt away like we have in the past, Guzan and Delph. Unfortunately the latter was negated by Lambert not substituting him instead of Westwood and him picking up a yellow which will now keep him out of two critical games.

[supertom]

We never gave City the need to come out of second gear. To me we looked as ineffective as most games this season up front.
I don't see enough positives to gain much optimism going into the next two.

6 points from the next two games will be massive. 0 points and we're fubar. The latter probably looks more likely.

[andyh]

I hate slagging off ref's and blaming them for our own shortcomings, but that ref last night was totally in awe on Man City.
At one point he appeared to apologise to one of their players for giving US a free kick.

Definitely, one of those who favours the big boys !