Arsenal v Aston Villa All-in-one Thread (Match #272) (Post-match #993)

[tomd2103]

He was "forced off" after 26 minutes.

I've got nasty visions of us playing Tonev and being 2-0 after about 20 minutes at the moment!

Really thought we could have done with Sylla in these first couple of games to be honest.

That doesn't sound too hopeful then.

[Matt Collins]

No, I mean it may be precautionary. But the fact he was playing doesn't tend to suggest he was front of the queue anyway.

[silhillvilla]

Bit odd playing Sylla in the reserves 5 days before the season opener ? Was he lacking match fitness ? Looked fine at Walsall ?

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I was hoping he'd be adding a bit of steel to our midfield against Arse.
Still hope he's in but now looks doubtful.
Bollux!

[Matt Collins]

I agree it was surprising.

I've just watched the highlights on AVTV of the Malaga game, and was left with two main conclusions.

We were very weak down the left of our defence, both Luna and Vlaar. So much so that I don't think we can play those two. I thought Luna looked more ropey than I'd realised in particular, and Vlaar just looked uncomfortable on that side. I'm not sure what that points to really. Bennett probably isn't seen to be match ready. So I'd play Baker there. That probably means Vlaar playing on the left again, unless he wants to try Okore there.

And we definitely need three in the middle. We were just too open. For example, on the second goal, we had two DCM's on the edge of the box trying to close the ball down. I think we'd have got there more quickly if we had an extra man in there. And we'd definitely have given our full backs better protection by shuffling across throughout the game.

So that points to KEA unfortunately. And so far I just don't rate him.

Confidence feeling a little shaken.

[Lizz]

1-1.

[Irish villain]

Bollocks, I think Sylla was a huge part of our improvement last season.

[SoccerHQ]

2-2 all.

Not the worst game to start the season off imo (that's coming 4 days later) as Arsenal tend to start seasons off slowly and we will create chances against them. They will too though and difficult to see us not conceding at least two goals really.

[silhillvilla]

Anyone know if the team are staying in London Friday to Wednesday or coming back and forth ?

[SoccerHQ]

There's 99 hours between Emirates finishing and the Chelsea game starting so I doubt the players will be making a jolly of London for a few days.

[danlanza]

9 points from the first 3 games, easy street. UTV.

[DeKuip]

Does the score matter, really?

I just hope the players all have a nice time and get plenty of fresh air and exercise, and the supporters all have an ice cream each.

[cdbearsfan]

I hope we've instructed Bannan and Hutton to kick fuck out of Wilshere and Walcott this Wednesday. May as well get some use out of them.

[VillaAlways]

3-1 Arsenal

[Dave]

So that points to KEA unfortunately. And so far I just don't rate him.

A couple of points, have we seen much of El Ahmadi in a midfield three until this pre-season? Most of the success that have had was when we stopped playing two in midfield (with him normally being one of those two), but are we absolutely sure that it's just the personnel rather than the formation?

He wouldn't be the first midfielder to look overwhelmed by a lack of numbers in a two only to look much better with an extra man in there. As an example, we've never really seen Sylla in a formation other than the current 4-3-3 and I'd expect that he would look a lot weaker set up that way.

The other thing that it would mean is Delph moving further forward. Lambert seemed to prefer Sylla as the most advanced, presumably to press and try to win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible. Having Delph in that role will have two benefits, firstly I think he's much better in an attacking sense but also his occasional crazy-Delph lunges will happen further away from our goal and therefore be less of a problem.