West Ham vs Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[andyh]

That's the most frustrating thing about this season. Apart from Everton away, we haven't been absolutely hammered in the league. With just a couple more decent players we could easily, as you say, have turned a few of those defeats into draws and draws into wins.

And if we hadn't sold Benteke, and if Gestede had been any good, and if Bacuna wasn't so shit etc, etc. We could go on all day with ifs and buts.
The sad fact is we have been in decline for years, circling the plug hole.
We have now been sucked down, and the 'leadership' of the club is completely to blame.

[Villa in Denmark]

We're not going to win another game this season are we?

It would be beneficial to all if we just resign from the league.

Week in / week out we have to put up with turgid performances, ill discipline.

When's it going to end ?

I would honestly take the relegation now if it meant no more. No Mįs.

What's the football equivalent of chucking in the towel? Starting with Gabby?

January 2016.

[fbriai]

That's the most frustrating thing about this season. Apart from Everton away, we haven't been absolutely hammered in the league. With just a couple more decent players we could easily, as you say, have turned a few of those defeats into draws and draws into wins.

And if we hadn't sold Benteke, and if Gestede had been any good, and if Bacuna wasn't so shit etc, etc. We could go on all day with ifs and buts.
The sad fact is we have been in decline for years, circling the plug hole.
We have now been sucked down, and the 'leadership' of the club is completely to blame.

True, Andy.

[lordmcgrath5]

First of all i'm very drunk

I'd just like to say how proud I am, regardless of how much the tickets were subsidised, of the Villa fans, the same faces that I know rocking up on a week day, while the game is on TV, and getting behind the team as they did tonight.

The London Lions had a cracking turn out tonight and I'm really looking forward to next year, where ever we'll be playing, I met some top Villa lads from Leicester on the tube who deserve a big hug and with whom we had great fun with on the tube in to Upton Park.

My mate had a corporate ticket and and was complimented throughout the game on our support tonight and it was mentioned how they wish their support was so vocal. I walked through West Ham station with a West Ham fan who was genuinely disappointed with us going down.

The more shit we are the more I love them, I've just rolled out of 5 guys slaughtered having met the best group of people I could ever choose to meet, sometimes the shitter we are the more I love em'

 I personally can't wait for next year, it may not last if we get stuck there but I'm going to have a lot more fun.   

Great post.

[Villa Lew]

Thought Sinclair did more in the 10 minutes he was on, than Gabby did all match. At least he did have a run at the West Ham defence. Without doubt Sinclair has been useless this season, but he did show at the end of last season he has got ability and can be a goal threat. I believe there is a decent footballer somewhere there , needs a top coach/manager to get the best out of him.

[Boz]

fbriai you can have all the possession in the world but if you have no cutting edge, it really does not matter, also what those stats do not show is where that possession is taking place. Teams are quite happy to allow us plenty of time on the ball, as they know we have neither the movement or the guile to get either through them or behind them.

Completely agree, PB. As much as anything, my point was that we shouldn't read too much into our poor pass statistics last night. As I said, we hugely out-passed Watford and still lost, while Leicester are clearly far more efficient than we are. In fact, we have out-passed the opposition in 75% of our matches under Garde, but have only won one of them.

Your point about where we have possession is clearly valid. It's no good having the ball in the middle of the park if you don't do anything with it.

This is where possession stats fall down, they should show a break down of at least which half of the pitch the possession was. Most of Villa's is in their own half.
 

[sendō WHU]

First off I'd like to say hats off to the 1800 away fans who made the trek down the M1 on a cold Tuesday night to watch that match. It must be soul destroying to sacrifice so much time and money to be let down in such a way week after week.

Up until the red card, Villa were looking reasonably decent. Pressing the opposition, pushing up the pitch, and threatening to create some chances, if they didn't quite look that much like scoring. Then a moment of madness from Ayew scuppers any chance Villa had taking a point from that game, by elevating what was essentially some girlish jostling for position from a throw with a forearm smash to the face. If I was Remi Garde I'd make him apologise directly to the fans that went to the game, or I'd fine him 2 weeks wages and stick him in the stiffs for the rest of the season.

After that it was hard to gauge the game as footballing spectacle of 2 teams both trying to win, as it wasn't. Villa defended manfully and looked well organised for the most part, which I suppose is a positive. I actually thought Micah Richards played very well and did a job on Payet, who suffered from lack of space (and trying too hard to showboat). Carles Gil also looked lively enough until the red card negated him playing an attacking role.

I was shocked to see how fat and slow Agbonlahor had become. Has he bought shares in KFC or something? Acuna also struck me as one of those footballers stealing a living. Is he always that bad? It's also hard to imagine that Kieron Richardson was once a highly rated youngster at Man Utd. Similar with Scott Sinclair.

The goals were inevitable. Antonio managed to lose his midfield marker when West Ham stole back possession as Villa looked to break, and West Ham were always likely to score on the counter from a Villa set piece given the man advantage and their advantage in midfield pace.

The referee on the night was inconsistent and poor, but I honestly think he called the "incidents" for West Ham correct.

The Antonio handball was never a penalty. I don't know who first came up with this "his hand was in an unnatural position" rubbish, but it worries me that professional referees such as Howard Webb still quote this despite the laws of the game stating that it is only a direct free kick worthy infringement if it is deliberate, which in the case of Antonio it clearly wasn't.

As to Noble, Robbie Savage seemed to be working himself into a lather ranting on about how Noble deserved a yellow card for almost every challenge - the irony obviously lost on him - in between telling us how he was in the Derby team that went down with 11 points, and bemoaning that Noble isn't in the England squad. Realistically, the late slide was worthy of a yellow. The tug back was a foul and nothing more, and the slide in later on was a genuine attempt for the ball in a 50/50 (all from memory). It would've been a very harsh ref indeed that'd seen him sent off in that match.

Nonetheless I'm happy enough with a comfortable 2-0 win, even if it did need Bilic to point out to the players at half time that they had a man extra, and the full backs should be creating width and attacking, rather than sitting deep and cutting inside as they were first half.

The most infuriating part of the match for me was after West Ham went 2-0 up and just wound down the clock keeping the ball, rather than trying to score again. A 3-0 win would've seen me £350 richer.

[KevinGage]

I know Sendo is not having a crack (ish)  but it comes to something when West Ham look at you as an easy three points.

No other club of our size has chickened out of the league to this extent, effectively down in February.

[saunders_heroes]

I know Sendo is not having a crack (ish)  but it comes to something when West Ham look at you as an easy three points.

No other club of our size has chickened out of the league to this extent, effectively down in February.

You've got a point. Can anyone ever remember a club as big as Villa giving up their Premier League (or even further back)  status so early into a season in such a cowardly way? It's scandalous.

[Deano's Mullet]

I know Sendo is not having a crack (ish)  but it comes to something when West Ham look at you as an easy three points.

No other club of our size has chickened out of the league to this extent, effectively down in February.

You've got a point. Can anyone ever remember a club as big as Villa giving up their Premier League (or even further back)  status so early into a season in such a cowardly way? It's scandalous.

Leeds come to mind in 2004. Sheffield Weds in 2000. have to have a look how many points they both had at same stage.

[Deano's Mullet]

Leeds had 17 points after 24 games. Four wins.
Weds had 17 points too. Four wins.

My god we've been shit.

[aj2k77]

One of the few times we've looked remotely threatening this season was Leicester second half. We don't have any pace, we don't have anyone who can unlock defences, we don't have midfielders making late runs in to the box, we don't counter attack. All this sideways passing in midfield is completely pointless. No wonder we have good possession stats. I'd let Gil and Veretout have the ball all day long, they don't know what to do with it and there's nothing in front of them.

[KevinGage]

Leeds were at the lower end of the table for most of that season, but I think they could still mathematically stay up going into their final game.

[Dave]

The Antonio handball was never a penalty. I don't know who first came up with this "his hand was in an unnatural position" rubbish, but it worries me that professional referees such as Howard Webb still quote this despite the laws of the game stating that it is only a direct free kick worthy infringement if it is deliberate, which in the case of Antonio it clearly wasn't.

That's not how the law is being interpreted though.

If the consensus is that it's only an infringement because a player is making a conscious decision of "rather than the kick or head the ball I'm going to handle it" then no, it wasn't a penalty but then nor is pretty much anything that is given for deliberate handball.

If the interpretation is that 'deliberate' means any movement which means that you've chosen to leave your arm in a position that gives you an advantage (say, a full-back spreads his arms wide so that a winger finds it harder to run around him) then it was. i.e deliberate is referring to the movement of the arm, rather than the intention to handle.

Whichever interpretation they want to use is fine by me, as long as it's consistent - but if we're going to concede a penalty because Mahrez thumps the ball at Cissokho's hand from two yards when he's on the ground, facing the other way (see photo), then Antonio's is also a penalty. We then take a 1-0 lead (edit - probably) and almost certainly don't go down to ten men.

[PeterWithesShin]

Leeds were at the lower end of the table for most of that season, but I think they could still mathematically stay up going into their final game.

They were gone after 37, 5 points from safety. After 36 games they could stay up on GD, but needed a 36 goal swing from the last 2 games.