Aston Villa v Norwich- Post Match Thread

[manic-road]

A back five of Guzan, Bertrand, Vlaar, Okore, Bacuna is quite sexy for next season I reckon.

How much do you think Chelsea would sell Bertrand for ? He has made a difference no doubt , I also think okore will be a huge player for us next season .

Yes with Bertrand at left back instead of Bennet or Luna certainly improves the defence.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The first 20 aside the other 70 was as good and comfortable as we're likely to see this season.

Or as Mister E put it, "A purple patch encased in shite". Whichever way you look at it, we got the three points and that's really all that matters.

[lovejoy]

So, are we probably safe?

[Legion]

We're safer than we were a few hours ago.

[PaulWinch again]

I've been critical of him before but I thought KEA was a major factor today, he was excellent.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

A back five of Guzan, Bertrand, Vlaar, Okore, Bacuna is quite sexy for next season I reckon.

How much do you think Chelsea would sell Bertrand for ? He has made a difference no doubt , I also think okore will be a huge player for us next season .

I've seen Bertrand play well for us, but I've also seen him not play well for us. He's better than what we've got, but he's not worth stupid amounts of money.

[dekko]

Some thoughts:

Benteke - Nothing needs to be said, more or less back to his best.
Bacuna - Lovely finish.  His defensive positioning has improved, and his strength and pace gets him out of trouble too.  Control and distribution improved since the summer too.
KEA - Easily his best game for us.  Popped up all over the place in the first half, hassled the opposition and broke up play.  Hes also one of the few players on the side who looks for the first time/one touch pass, which helped some of our better moves in the second half.  Probably MOTM for me.

Wes Hoolahan - He's ace, he'd improve us.  Buy him and a younger version of him in the summer.

The Bloke Who Sat Behind Me - Wouldn't shut up talking into the air about how shit everyone and everything is.  Silent after Benteke's 1st goal went in.  Didn't celebrate our goals.  Did find time to scream himself hoarse bitching at when Weimann missed a chance in the 2nd half though.  I don't normally approve of 'better fan than you' comments, but fuck it, he's a shit fan and needs to fuck off.

Would've been nice to have kept up the pressure in the second half, but we killed the game dead, which was good enough.

[ChicagoLion]

So, are we probably safe?

I think so, I reckon 2 more wins could be enough.

[olaftab]

Oddly I thought our second half display was better than the first half. Very professional, gave them no chance to put pressure on us.

Having said that it was injury time before I was confident of taking a point

This sums up my take on it as well except I was confident after 80 mins that they will not score 3.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

After 3 minutes + I thought we were well and truly fu**ed.
After our first goal we were a completely different team - the confidence on the pitch was tangible.
Good to see Benteke back instead of his shit twin brother.
Hoped for more goals 2nd half, but 4-1 is a darn fine win and 3 massive points.
Thought we contained things very well 2nd half without pushing for a goal which we didn't need to do - but at times we looked as if we had simply switched off...then we switched back on again.

And Norwich were really, really crap for a large portion of the game!

(Enjoyed our singing: "We're winning at home...how shit must you be, we're winning at home..." etc)
Would love us to stick it up Stoke, big time!
Thanks boys!
Happy, happy Villain today!
UTV

[pauliewalnuts]

Oddly I thought our second half display was better than the first half. Very professional, gave them no chance to put pressure on us.

Having said that it was injury time before I was confident of taking a point

This sums up my take on it as well except I was confident after 80 mins that they will not score 3.

Me too

In the second half, we showed some nous and maturity and effectively killed the game off.

[Bully2345]

I said on another thread during last week's manic depression that we'd win today. I'm absolutely delighted.

I also had a little wager that Marc Albrighton's name would be sang at 23 minutes. I was wrong. It was seven minutes. Bless him, he's a trier but he's not the messiah. He's becoming a cult figure for those against the manager.

[Marton]

So, are we probably safe?

10 games, might need 7-9 more points...
Good news is that we do play Stoke, Fulham, Southampton and Hull at VP among those 10 games.
Palace and Swansea might be some points away.
Love to steal anything at Tottenham too but realisticly as long as we not humiliated and still stay up I can repress a loss..

[olaftab]

I felt very despondent at about 15 gone and decided to take a passive role ilo shouting by sitting back in my seating and reminding myself that there is not much I can do its up to them on the pitch. I decided that Norwich were going to be up at HT so logged on Paddypower to place a £10 bet on them winning the first half hoping I would be wrong. No sooner I had pressed the confirm button a great equaliser. The rest is history.

[andrew08]

Oddly I thought our second half display was better than the first half. Very professional, gave them no chance to put pressure on us.

Having said that it was injury time before I was confident of taking a point

This sums up my take on it as well except I was confident after 80 mins that they will not score 3.

I was dealing with the second half in blocks of ten minutes. I was gutted when Gabby missed his header for 5-1 as I would have felt confident then of a point. As it was I relaxed at 90 mins.

I left at 90 as I had a lift to get. When I heard the cheer outside for full time I wasn't totally convinced that was not a cheer for 4-2 until I heard it confirmed on the radio.