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

[pauliewalnuts]

On Football First, Niall Quinn thought that Brad Guzman played very well.

I have just read the Sun on Sunday and their reporter Antony Kastrinakis in his Ratings gave Matthew Lowton a 5. Apparently he only lasted 19 minutes before hobbling off to be replaced by Clark.  Meanwhile Baker earned a 7 with an impressive display showing maturity beyond his years.  Ashley Westwood got a 7, another good display from the England ace.  Luna got a 7, scored a superb solo goal but booked for his out of control tackle on the Ox.

They know the Arsenal players alright, ours are a bit of a mystery to them.  I don't suppose Antony gets paid for his report. Surely he is not doing this for a living ?

Yeah I read that, and thought it was pretty unprofessional. However at least he said Villa deserved to win.

I saw the BBC's graphic prior to the match had Craig Gardner playing at RB for Man United against Swansea, and Kagawa being some random black bloke.

[frank]

He was on the local radio on the way back yesterday and he didn't sound a happy chap. It wouldn't surprise me if this was his last season.

yep, i think this is the first season where he could be in trouble if things continue to go wrong

Villa have form here. In 2007 we got Jol, Mourinho and Bruce the sack in quick succession

[olaftab]

Meeting "Pat McMahon" and "Chico Hamilton" yesterday was another highlight as both were my childhood heroes!

[Grande Pablo]

Just reposted this from a Chelsea supporting pal on Facebook - hope you can get to it.  It brings a tear to your eye...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=606079772777032&set=vb.189064121134452&type=2&theater

[olaftab]

Good bloke. I like him as he looks like a real fan and I bet he pays through the nose to watch them every week.

[Matt Collins]

Just watched the game on Arsenal TV - with hilariously biased commentary (though the quality of the coverage puts AVTV to shame).

The most pleasing thing was that we won through a performance of grit and being streetwise, while our passing was some way off it's best. And we looked relatively dangerous despite Benteke and Weimann looking ropey. I should say that I thought Vlaar played really well, though he was lucky to be on the pitch. And Arsenal should have had at least one more goal. I thought we were a bit lucky to win to be honest, but we seldom saw a performance like that last season so I'm not complaining. But we'll need to be a couple of steps up on Weds to compete there.

Ratings:

Guzan - 8 (two very good saves in one on ones)
Lowton -6 (did ok, not much of  a threat, no real mishaps)
Vlaar - 8 (thought he was steadfast)
Baker - 6
[Clark -7] - no mistakes, good positioning.
Luna - 7 (good on the ball, quality finish, kept Walcott very quiet)

KEA - 6 (battled away)
Westwood - 7 (not usual standard on the ball, but played the defensive midfield role well)
Delph - 8 (a constant problem for them, got all over the pitch in the absence of Sylla)

Weimann - 5 (one of those games where he just looks very clumsy, one decent pass aside for the goal)
Benteke - 5 (thought he was quite poor too to be honest)
Gabby - 7 (played well, especially for the pens. Though have to say I can't quite see the "best performance I've seen in years" that Lambert was going on about. Still a bit ropey with his passing).

[Pat McMahon]

Meeting "Pat McMahon" and "Chico Hamilton" yesterday was another highlight as both were my childhood heroes!

It was great to meet you Aftab. Hope your Saturday night at the Savoy was as good as mine!

[Olneythelonely]

I think I only agree with about 2 of those ratings, Guzan and Delph. The rest are either very harsh or extremely generous. Benteke 5 and KEA 6 are the stand our harsh ratings and 8 for Vlaar is strange, I thought he was our worst player by some margin.

[paul_e]

Those ratings are just silly, there is no way you win away at one of the top 4 with half your team getting 5s and 6s.

Everyone in the team deserved at least a 7 because the main plan for the game was to put pressure on them in possession and counter at pace when we got the chance.  Both things that we did well as a team.

I also disagree on vlaar scoring above clark who came on and dd a much better job of organising the defence, we looked a much better unit with him on the pitch.

Benteke was dominant like he can be , but he ran mertesacker and koscielney all over the place and created a lot of gaps for gabby to run into.  The key thing for this is to watch how often benteke moves onto the outside shoulder of a defender and then subtly edges deeper and wider, he does it well because he often has the full back step in and the centre back step out, with gabby collecting the ball deep and being at pace running at the other defender the tiny gap is enough.  To understand it watch the positions of Benteke, Mertesacker and sagna for the first penalty, Benteke times a run across the front perfectly which means Mertesacker can't cover behind koscielney.

[Matt Collins]

It's all about opinions! Though I do admit perhaps the KEA and Benteke marks were a touch harsh.

I thought Vlaar did well though - and I hadn't when I watched MOTD

[Dave]

Those ratings are just silly, there is no way you win away at one of the top 4 with half your team getting 5s and 6s.

I'd agree with him.

We can, and will play much better than we did yesterday. Arsenal just weren't very good.

[Olneythelonely]

Those ratings are just silly, there is no way you win away at one of the top 4 with half your team getting 5s and 6s.

I'd agree with him.

We can, and will play much better than we did yesterday. Arsenal just weren't very good.

KEA - 6? Benteke - 5?

I agreed with your comment about us not actually playing that well, but they are extremely harsh, no?

[paul_e]

Those ratings are just silly, there is no way you win away at one of the top 4 with half your team getting 5s and 6s.

I'd agree with him.

We can, and will play much better than we did yesterday. Arsenal just weren't very good.

I don't disagree with you that we can play better but I do disagree with anyone coming away from that with less than a 7 because we played to the plan  we needed to get 3 points and the whole team played a big part in that (except for Baker and Bacuna who weren't on long enough to get a rating really).

I just think it's being overly harsh to give 5s to Benteke and Weimann and 6s to a couple of players.

[Dave]

Those ratings are just silly, there is no way you win away at one of the top 4 with half your team getting 5s and 6s.

I'd agree with him.

We can, and will play much better than we did yesterday. Arsenal just weren't very good.

KEA - 6? Benteke - 5?

I agreed with your comment about us not actually playing that well, but they are extremely harsh, no?

No, I'd not agree with the ratings specifically. If I were to give marks out of ten then I'd give another point to each of them.

But following a 3-1 win away to Arsenal I'd expect to be giving eights and nines and there are only a few players that would get that sort of score.

As I said in an earlier comment, this is a great thing. If we're winning comfortably away to Arsenal and not being any more that just good, then well done us.

[Stu]

I don't care about Arsenal....


What a day.