Aston Villa v West Ham Post-Match Thread

[Rigadon]

Villa played really well today. Very unlucky not to win. Sanchez was missed when he went off.
The whole team played well.
Bacuna is not a left back but he's better than Richardson.

Two wins in our next two away games would be great.

Thats the problem: we currently need the whole team to play really well to get a point at home v an understrength West Ham. 

To espouse a football cliche, you can' fault the effort yesterday.  The intensity was there, just not the quality.

[Villa Lew]

Just got round to watching MOTD, due to health problems not able to get to matches at the moment, having hardly missed a home match in the last 50 years. It looked like for once Mike Dean did us a favour, whilst I thought it was a penalty on Gestede, other refs might have let the defender get away with it. Then later on we got away with a penalty shout, when Westwood handled the ball.

If you can't put teams like an injury hit West Ham away, having been on top for most of the match, then we've got no chance of staying up. The last time one of our strikers scored other than Ayew was Gestede against Liverpool 3 months ago, which shows how dire our situation is.

[levico]

Maybe I'm in a minority but I thought we played better after Sanchez went off.

[Lastfootstamper]

Maybe I'm in a minority but I thought we played better after Sanchez went off.

Not for the remainder of the first half, we didn't. I thought we became a bit rudderless. And ultimately, that cost us dearly.

[brian green]

I agree levico once we had adjusted to the loss of Sanchez human JCB style of play we were slicker and smoother. Inability to put our chances away cost us the victory we should have got.

[stuart445]

It's also ironic that none of those 4 are setting the world alight at their new clubs.

I would still rather have them than not. This team is significantly weaker than the one than finished last season although that was not the mainstream view on here.

No it's not. It's a better team lacking a brilliant striker.

It's still not a good team, but stick Benteke in this year's team and Gestede in last year's and this year's would win comfortably.

I disagree, the defence is worse and we have no back up to the Goalkeeper who is a liability.

The defence is worse?  you say we miss Vlaar but I don't see how you can miss someone that played 1 game and was then injured for 3.

[Clampy]

Did anyone else think it was a deliberate handball by Westwood like Shearer and Danny Mills thought on motd? I thought it was more ball to hand than anything.

[Boz]

Did anyone else think it was a deliberate handball by Westwood like Shearer and Danny Mills thought on motd? I thought it was more ball to hand than anything.

Me to and presumably, so did Mike Dean

[papa lazarou]

Did anyone else think it was a deliberate handball by Westwood like Shearer and Danny Mills thought on motd? I thought it was more ball to hand than anything.

Me to and presumably, so did Mike Dean

I thought it was ball to hand too but if it had been a West Ham player it would have been a blatant penalty.

[Chris Smith]

Maybe I'm in a minority but I thought we played better after Sanchez went off.

Not for the remainder of the first half, we didn't. I thought we became a bit rudderless. And ultimately, that cost us dearly.

I agree with that.

Overall a lot to be happy with about the performance. The players and manager clearly haven't given up and with a couple of key additions I think we can at least make a fight of it. If that proves not to be enough then at least we can go into next season with recognisab pattern of play and some new found confidence.

[The Edge]

Hutton is leaving himself stranded on the forward line too often, it's all very well to support the forward line but his main job is to defend. Not knocking his effort but it's happening every game.

spot on

[footyskillz]

Hutton is leaving himself stranded on the forward line too often, it's all very well to support the forward line but his main job is to defend. Not knocking his effort but it's happening every game.

spot on

Its also, in part, Gil not doing his defensive duty. Similar to grealish and Gil weak tracking back against Everton. Or veretout against arsenal.

[rob_bridge]

Maybe I'm in a minority but I thought we played better after Sanchez went off.

Overall yesterday we did seem better but he was playjng well

[Pat McMahon]

It's also ironic that none of those 4 are setting the world alight at their new clubs.

I would still rather have them than not. This team is significantly weaker than the one than finished last season although that was not the mainstream view on here.

No it's not. It's a better team lacking a brilliant striker.

It's still not a good team, but stick Benteke in this year's team and Gestede in last year's and this year's would win comfortably.

I disagree, the defence is worse and we have no back up to the Goalkeeper who is a liability.

The defence is worse?  you say we miss Vlaar but I don't see how you can miss someone that played 1 game and was then injured for 3.

Any comparisons with last season have to be put in the context of whether looking at the Lambert version or the Sherwood version.

The current team is probably not a million miles from the Lambert team, but the Sherwood pre-Southampton team was more exciting. Benteke, Delph, Cleverley and Grealish hit a spell of decent form and we played with tempo and aggression.

The table doesn't lie though: we are poorer than last season.

[The Edge]

We all know that a draw was not enough but overall I'm pleased with what Remi is working on. We were a cohesive unit yesterday and you could see how much the team wanted it. Gestede was a real handful but had 2 great chances from headers which is meant to be the main part of his game. Veretout gets better and better. Overall I'm 50/50 on us staying up but either way I believe Remi will eventually do the business and we will get back to being a major force in English football.....In Remi we trust.