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

[KevinGage]

Cheeky.   

He's given the keeper the eye. 

[LeeB]

95-96 all over again.

Man, this season's going to be fun.

[TheTimVilla]

The Liverpool win temporarily dropped us down to third in the league, from second, and now we are back to our rightful place at the summit! What a win! UTV!

[dr.chekov]

We were very much in it from the 25th minute. Second penalty should never have been given but we fully deserved the win.

Delph was terribly unlucky not to score but man of the match by a mile!

Absolutely this. Signing him could be the best thing O'Neil ever did for us.

[PeterWithesShin]

[rjp]

I thought we looked much tighter defending crosses and corners but there's still a lot of work to do in that area.  Whatever happens at Chelsea it won't be 8-1, it might be 8-7 though.  Bring 'em on.

[taylorsworkrate]

We must be the team who neutral fans enjoy watching the most in this league. Never a boring match

[supertom]

Well how about that then? Pretty convincing in the end. Arsenal for all their possession only had about 4 shots on target. That to me sums them up. Giroud was put clean through at 1-1 but fluffed his lines, where a top class forward would have buried it.

As for us. I thought Tony Moon was poor first half, excellent second half. His goal was very similar to a couple of chances he had in pre-season too.
The defence has a lot of stick but to be honest I thought, their goal aside, we defended quite well. Guzan was imperious. The big difference for me was Clakky. I thought he made us more solid, and in all honesty I'd always felt Vlaar and Clark is our weakest combo, but it proved very resolute today.
Everyone worked hard. KEA eased into the game. Delphy did well and also was unlucky hitting the post. Westy was tidy.
Benteke was very good. Andy worked his balls off and Gabby was a menace. Concrete was concrete throughout the 2nd half.

The pens? Both penalties for me. First one nailed on. The second is one of those where the ref has to make a judgement. I mean replays show they touch the ball almost at the same time. For me though. You DO NOT make a challenge from the position that the defender was in. He's behind Gab, so unless he gets it 100% clean, it's always a danger at that speed. And honestly, had he stayed on his feet, Gab would have had to do very well to keep it under control and score from a tight angle. For me you don't make a challenge like that. 7-8/10 you'll give away a pen, even if he could claim he got a little touch of the ball.
Penalty for me.

Dirty game. Ref was mostly right, aside from the fact the Arse keeper should have gone.

Overall, we were good value. As for man of the match. Delph, Benteke and Gabby are obvious contenders but I'm gonna say Clark. For all the stick he gets here, he came on and made us look better at the back. He was vocal, he was organising, he was on it. He was doing what you'd expect Vlaar as captain and senior man of the back line to do more of.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The Liverpool win temporarily dropped us down to third in the league, from second, and now we are back to our rightful place at the summit! What a win! UTV!

We've moved up one place from where we were before todays games started.

[Tucson Villain]

Feckin wonderful

[rogfromb6]

In New York watching the game with my Arsenal supporting brother in law. Thought we were brilliant. In the second half apart from one or two Rosicky scares we were fairly comfortable and looked the more likely to score. Brother in law can't decide whether who to blame most - Wenger or the referee.

[edgysatsuma89]

I'm going to get smug.

Who's glad that they bet on the villa winning with odds of 8/1?

ME.

[Dante Lavelli]

Delph is turning out to be absolutely class.  Glad it wasn't a blip last season.
He's lightning quick.  Skillfull and most importantly is happy to receive the ball under pressure.

Lambert clearly wants us to playing a high tempo pressing game which is personified perfectly by Delph.

[bertlambshank]

Ron was shite,rest of the side good on ya.

[CJ]

Guzan was MoM for me. Just like last season - his saves kept us in it