Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Kingthing]

Fuck em, I'm drunk , happy and couldn't give a shit who played well.

[pauliewalnuts]

"Dominance of the ball" is a fact. We had 67% possession in the first half and 54% overall.

I saw the match and found that stat hard to believe, as Monty pointed out, though (via reference to another stat, admittedly of a type I had never heard of), almost all of it consisted of having the ball just inside our own half.

I am not having any suggestion that we were lucky tonight - we weren't. It wasn't like we were constantly clearing off the line, Palace had absolutely nothing to offer up front.

However, at the same time, I am not about to start pretending they didn't put us under immense pressure. They did. And what's more, we made it really easy for them to do so by constantly doing two things in particular - giving the ball straight back to them, and dropping too deep.

I am extremely relieved to get the three points, and happy we did, but let's not kid ourselves, until we sort that out, with the exception of the odd result like tonight, we are not going to improve with any longevity.

[David_Nab]

Sanchez was brought as a DM yet he constanstly seems to be the only midfielder willing to be proactive with the ball.Cleverly and Westwood are far too similar , they run around a alot and play tidy pass's but neither can take control of a game.In an attacking sense they just don't drive the team on ..

However this is not helped by Gabby and Andi who are all energy but little footballing intelligence.Andi IMO is being completely wasted he is a striker who should be in and around the box but due to his high energy and willingness to run around his sent out wide the problem is he provides very little.He hasn't the ability to run at players or put a decent cross into the box

Great result tonight and maybe it will bring some confidence into the side and we will play a bit better going forward 

[peter w]

great shitd put in by the defence but in particular Clark who I think has started to look like a decent centre-half since the QPR game. never mind Vlaar going or not I think we're set fair with Okore, Baker, Clark and Senderos. Hutton played well but the two full-backs we have do not overlap enough or get any crosses in, means we have no outlet but the ball through the middle. Good turnout tonight also for a Tuesday night at Palace. And, finally, after 10 or 11 visits, I've finally witnessed a win at Selhurst.

[St AustellAVFC]

Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.

Sure we won there in 96/97 when Wimbledon played there

I thought the game in 92 was at Plough Lane.

Nah.

we did beat Wimbledon their. It was a nihht game and Savo scored the first, I remember cause I had 50p on him at a huge 3/1.

[RussellC]

"Dominance of the ball" is a fact. We had 67% possession in the first half and 54% overall.

I saw the match and found that stat hard to believe, as Monty pointed out, though (via reference to another stat, admittedly of a type I had never heard of), almost all of it consisted of having the ball just inside our own half.

I am not having any suggestion that we were lucky tonight - we weren't. It wasn't like we were constantly clearing off the line, Palace had absolutely nothing to offer up front.

However, at the same time, I am not about to start pretending they didn't put us under immense pressure. They did. And what's more, we made it really easy for them to do so by constantly doing two things in particular - giving the ball straight back to them, and dropping too deep.

I am extremely relieved to get the three points, and happy we did, but let's not kid ourselves, until we sort that out, with the exception of the odd result like tonight, we are not going to improve with any longevity.

It wasn't just dropping deep that was the problem. We stopped leaving any players up when defending corners, meaning that even when winning the first ball it was inevitably coming straight back. Our back 4 stopped offering Guzan short options for the ball, meaning that he had to kick long (and seemed to be aiming for the dugouts). We're just not very savvy as a team, and don't know how to adapt to different situations during a game. For example, what was Gabby's role in the second half? Surely his pace would have been best utilised on the shoulder of the last man or out wide, not in the hole where the game just bypasses him. He gets a lot of stick but I do wonder what's being asked of him by the manager.

On the plus side I thought Clark and Hutton were excellent. Clark's really bulked-up of late hasn't he? Starting to look like a Premiership centre-back at last.

[ChicagoLion]

Same here, I can think of many ways to describe our performance tonight and "dominance of the ball" is not one of them.
If those are the stats so be it. Yes I did think we played shit and got away with it because Palace could not turn their attacks into decent chances, our central defence did very well and we have a Top Class centre forward.

[PeterWithesShin]

Palace were lucky and got away with it when their keeper made a great save from Benteke and when Andi shot straight at the keeper from close range. I just don't buy this we were lucky and got away with it stuff. We won because we deserved to. Just because we were crap doesn't mean Palace were any better than us or deserved a result. They didn't score because they weren't good enough to tonight. Our defence and keeper were better than theirs, our striker was better than theirs. So we won.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Just back.
Horrendous traffic through north London and M40...
We won!
We got three points!
Don't care if Palace ran the second half...and failed to score!
We are 12th with a couple of 6 pointers coming up and I hope we're a little more confident after showing we can actually grind out a much-needed win when we need to.

UTV! 

[passitsideways]

It depends what you mean by luck. I certainly believe we were lucky that neither Bolasie nor Zaha managed to produce a single good cross all night, even though they were constantly allowed to get into positions to do so - but that's based on my assumption that they're usually capable of doing so.

And certainly, I'm of the belief that when you start sitting very deep, expunge yourself entirely of attacking ambition and invite the other team on you like we did, you subject yourself to luck - it doesn't matter how organised and solid defensively you are as a defense when you're maximising the possibility that a deflection or a mad scramble in the box results in a goal.

[Gregorys Boy]

Just got back from London and first off all... "[/i]CHRISTIAN BENTEKE! OH CHRISTIAN BENTEKE!"[/i] "VILLA, VILLLA, VILLA!"

And on to the match itself.  First off all the travelling Villa supporters were fantastic tonight and a credit to the club.  We started the match really slowly, and had a big slice of luck when Guzan made that early error and they had the goal disallowed (as odd as it sounds that early in the game, I just had a feeling that could prove a big moment).  We then slowly got back into it, and too be honest its been awhile since I have watched us pass the ball like that,  but the reason we had so much of the ball at least first half was because Palace let us have it in areas they knew we weren't doing any damage.  Also, they were sure that we would make sloppy errors to let them back in and sure enough we did just let, but credit to the defence for holding tight and Guzan for redeeming himself, by looking sharp and making some fine saves.  But once we were able to get Benteke into the game things changed, and oh that class flick!  His goal was great and for awhile we were on top while still looking wide open and sloppy in midfield.  Second half we were awful, but thanks to some wastefulness from Palace, some more fine Guzan saves, hard work and a bit of luck we held on for our most crucial win of the season to date.  That we followed the pattern of the last two games, but this time managed to escape without dropping points should prove a warning to us for the future.  One thing I can't fault is the work rate of the team, and that included the attacking players who really did their bit to track back and try and make something happen.  It was the same sloppy errors, and poor tactics by Lambert which almost cost us.  Benteke looked good on his return and earnt his money with the goal.  He did fade second half, but that was partly because we hardly got the ball to him.  Gabby was solid, working hard, and decent on the ball without making much from an attacking sense.  Shancez put in maybe his best performance so far in a Villa shirt, and was easily the best of a poor midfield.  But because of the quality of the saves, and their importance I think I would not for the first time give MOTM to Brad Guzan   As for whether we were lucky or not?  We were because if Palace were not so   wasteful then they could have at least got a point even won the game, but fact is you need your luck when you have been on the run we have.  It was important to win and ask questions later, besides once again we did look better at the back, and at least in one case had better quality up front.  Now lets not fuck it up against the Foxes

Player ratings

Guzan 8
Clark 6
Okore 5
Cissoko 6
Hutton 6
Westwood 4
Cleverly 3
Shachez 7
Weinmann 3
Gabby 6
Benteke 7

Cole and Richardson no rating.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Palace were lucky and got away with it when their keeper made a great save from Benteke and when Andi shot straight at the keeper from close range. I just don't buy this we were lucky and got away with it stuff. We won because we deserved to. Just because we were crap doesn't mean Palace were any better than us or deserved a result. They didn't score because they weren't good enough to tonight. Our defence and keeper were better than theirs, our striker was better than theirs. So we won.

Agreed...in many ways.

But paulie gets it spot on, and probably in line with 90% of us who watch The Villa...we give possession away too easily and defend too deeply once we go one up. That's got to come from on high hasn't it? It makes no sense to me to play as well as we did at Burnley in the 1st half, to then go and stop doing it unless told to do so!
On Saturday...we were by far the better side for 75 minutes, 5 minutes even, Burnley looked good in the last 10. Did they deserve to win? No. Did we? Yes. Did we win? No.
Tonight...we had fewer, but better chances. If Palace didn't take theirs, tough.
Did they deserve to win? Not really. Did we? Sort of.
Thought we were a bit shit 2nd half - but weren't helped by giving the ball away far too easily, including Guzan, and hoofing it out rather than holding on to the ball as Hutton did several times...almost to show the rest of the team how it should be done! Nice that the Villa supporters acknowledged his display tonight.
As the kids up my end say: he was cool!

UTV!

[Gregorys Boy]

Just to clear things up this was our first win at Selhurst since 97, but actually the first time we have beaten Palace there since the 80s right?

I don't think we played half as bad as some of you drama queens are making out.  It was a very flawed performances, but there were a few postives too, and luckily they were enough to get us the all important three points tonight.

[BC54 VFC]

We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.

Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.

Lowton didn't play.

...but his brother was in the Prince George before the game.

My return at 03.06 hours has beaten my return from QPR by 94 minutes.

[VancouverLion]

Thank fcuk for that!!!! Now we have a platform to build on, come on Villa don't let us down!

UTV