Aston Villa under-10's vs Arsenal -FA Cup Final Post-Match Thread

[Rudy65]

I think the next news we will get is who he intends to let go. Doesnt look like Alan Hutton is one of those judging by his comments. I would say for certain Phillipe Senderos,Charles N'Zogbia and Andreas Weimann are going. Possibly Joe Cole with Carles Gil and an outside bet of Jores Okore who I think TS doesnt rate too highly.

It is his decision and we may hear something tomorrow.

He must rate Okore to some degree, having preferred him over Baker

[Witton Warrior]

I heard about fighting, there were a couple of blokes having a go at each other on the way out.
Why would you go to a game and start fighting with Villa Fans, pissed I guess.

It seems to have been going off everywhere - we were in 530 and saw two incidents with Villa squaring up. Some random bloke started shouting at me and another fella as we talked about the first half at the bar - on the plus side were the dozens of other Villa we chatted and sang with all day and afterwards in the services...

[Richard E]

I think we'd all invested so much emotion in that game that it's inevitable that some people will get upset when their frustrations spill over.

[Witton Warrior]

It's the children I feel sorry for - really

All those little crestfallen faces did me in...

[CT]

I think we'd all invested so much emotion in that game that it's inevitable that some people will get upset when their frustrations spill over.

It's one thing getting upset. It's another to do what some did yesterday.

[Jon Crofts]

It's the children I feel sorry for - really

All those little crestfallen faces did me in...

The camera panned to a child after the third went in I think, poor kid didn't know where to look, it was horribly cruel on him.

[Richard E]

I think we'd all invested so much emotion in that game that it's inevitable that some people will get upset when their frustrations spill over.

It's one thing getting upset. It's another to do what some did yesterday.

Quite. I'm not saying it's excusable, but I can see where it comes from.

[Rudy65]

My thoughts and emotions were too raw to post on here last night, but after a good nights sleep...I'm still very pissed off with the pathetic no show performance but can afford to be slightly more reflective.

On the whole, it was a great day...from arriving at Wembley just after 10am, walking up a quiet Wembley way, chilled out coffee and chat at Starbucks overlooking Wembley stadium, breakfast at F&Bs...then a sun soaked afternoon drinking in the Green Man (my slap head is nicely sun burnt today!). Everything was going well until the game...and thats where things went well and truly tits up.

Everything has been said already, but the things that stand out for me is that our worst fears were played out right before our very eyes...we all knew that we had to get into them to stand any chance of causing a cup final upset, but the players simply didn't turn up...they played with fear and stood off them when we didn't have the ball, and we were clueless and sluggish going forward, losing possession as quickly as we got it, and never carried a threat. It looked as though Arsenal stopped trying after 70 minutes but we still looked beyond shite. Arsenal won't have an easier game against a non-entity of a football team for a while.

What really boils my piss is how we can go from playing some of the best football I've seen Villa play for years in the last couple of months to 3 of the worst against Southampton, Burnley and Arsenal...I really can't work out how we can go from being described in the media as "just like watching Brazil" to just like watching a Sunday league team. We were playing incisive high tempo pass and move football, and the players were playing with passion, work ethic and creativity...something must have happened behind the scenes for that to disappear as quickly as it appeared and to return to a team incapable of passing to each other and lumping hopefully long balls and crosses into Benteke.

We didn't really get a new manager "bounce" as such when TS first walked in...it took a while for performances and results to improve but I genuinely thought "we'd got our Villa back" and we were right in our thinking that the squad wasn't as bad as we'd feared. I thought the corner had been turned and the players were showing that they are actually decent footballers...but it appears that corner was more of hair pin bend if the last 3 games are a more accurate reflection of their abilities. We are told that form goes out of the window in big games like the FA Cup Final...but we simply carried on where we left off against Southampton and Burnley.

Pathetic. Embarrassing. Humiliating. Unacceptable.

...oh, and to end on a slightly more positive note...apparently the fact that we made it to the FA Cup Final and came second out of over 700 teams that took part should be something to make me feel better...but I tend to think that is very much clutching at straws and doesn't paper over the cracks that we were absolutely shite.

Agreed.

And worse still when everyone looks down the record of FA cup finals our result will be a constant reminder how Shite we were. There arent too many 4 nils in the stats. 1994 was the last one I recall.

I do wonder whether all this ' some players will be looking for other clubs' stuff might have been said in the week leading up to the Southampton game and has subsequently created a bad feeling in the squad. As you say it seems strange we go from playing like Brazil to West Brom in a matter of three weeks.

[tomd2103]

I heard about fighting, there were a couple of blokes having a go at each other on the way out.
Why would you go to a game and start fighting with Villa Fans, pissed I guess.

I was sat in Block K top tier and saw what looked to be some pretty bad fighting going on in the bottom tier at one point in the 2nd half.  What happens on the pitch aside, I've always found the Wembley experience to be a particularly unpleasant one at times.  Too many people drinking far too much with nowhere near the kind of crowd control seen at most league grounds. 

[ChicagoLion]

I think we'd all invested so much emotion in that game that it's inevitable that some people will get upset when their frustrations spill over.

It's one thing getting upset. It's another to do what some did yesterday.

This seems to be a new thing, most Villa  Fans I meet are Hail Fellow Well Met. I just can not get my head round why it isn't like that for all Villa fans.

[CT]

I heard about fighting, there were a couple of blokes having a go at each other on the way out.
Why would you go to a game and start fighting with Villa Fans, pissed I guess.

I was sat in Block K top tier and saw what looked to be some pretty bad fighting going on in the bottom tier at one point in the 2nd half.  What happens on the pitch aside, I've always found the Wembley experience to be a particularly unpleasant one at times.  Too many people drinking far too much with nowhere near the kind of crowd control seen at most league grounds. 

A really good point. Wembley stewards - what is their point exactly? It certainly isn't any form of crowd control.

[Rudy65]

I heard about fighting, there were a couple of blokes having a go at each other on the way out.
Why would you go to a game and start fighting with Villa Fans, pissed I guess.

Plus the ones in a group queuing for the train giving it large to a couple of Arsenal fans. Only the barriers held them back. Banter is one thing, getting aggressive is another altogether and bloody embarrassing.

[Clampy]

Regarding Guzan, I think he's a very good keeper but he wasn't as good this season as he was last season, but i'd still persevere with him.

[pauliewalnuts]

I've been a big fan of Sherwood since he arrived, but he was found wanting yesterday.  He seems to have the mindset that the 4-3-2-1 worked against Liverpool, so it must automatically work against Arsenal, and it quite obviously didn't.  The three of Cleverley, Delph and Westwood were completely bypassed, and Grealish and N'Zogbia offered nothing at all.  I know it's easy to say with hindsight, but the signs were there in the Southampton game, and so I'd have gone:

Given/Guzan
Bacuna Vlaar Baker Richardson
Grealish Sanchez Cleverley Delph Gabby
Benteke

I honestly thought we had a chance, and then when they showed the line ups before kick off, I realised we had to contend with a really excellent five man midfield with a fast player up front, and we were playing Delph, Cleverly and Westwood in our mid, with Grealish and N'Zogbia ahead of them.

I am no tactical genius, but I couldn't see how that was possibly going to work.

I'm not a massive fan of Carlos Sanchez, but if ever there was a game to play him in, this was it.

Didn't Sanchez have two very poor league games against Arsenal and get constantly caught in possession? Don't think he would have helped one jot.

Didn't they all have two very poor league games against Arsenal, though?

[pauliewalnuts]

I think my lasting memory of the final will be leaving stadium soon after FT and seeing Arsenal fans outside.

If we'd have won the cup I'd have stayed as long as possible and would have been dancing in the street - which I also didn't see any evidence of either.

My son had a big problem with that,
and let a few Arsenal fans know about it on the tube on the way back,
if any one happened to be on that particular tube and witnessed a pissed up 26 year old annoying everyone, to the point of offering a few blokes out then I apologise for his behaviour

You must be very proud.

To be honest, that just makes your son sound like one of the other idiotic, violent twats being described on here.

I get as annoyed as the next man when we're shit or when I see things I dislike at matches, especially when it involves horrible plastic-attracting teams, but getting shit faced and then offering people out over it just marks you out as one of the people who make football less enjoyable than it should be.