Other Games - 2017/18

[pooligan]

Great result for Villa,Bad result for Small Heath  Good start to the weekend

[sickbeggar]

just shows you how getting into cup games fecks up your season. Well done to Bruce for avoiding it,

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, Man City are having a shite season in the league...

[sickbeggar]

i meant if you've got a squad NOT worth half a billion like us and Bristol City

[villan from luton]

just shows you how getting into cup games fecks up your season. Well done to Bruce for avoiding it,

Don't agree with that at all

[olaftab]

just shows you how getting into cup games fecks up your season. Well done to Bruce for avoiding it,

FFS man you can't be serious?

[sickbeggar]

just look at their league record since getting to the semi-finals. 8pts out of 27.   Co-incidence?

[olaftab]

I don't care about their League record. They are a small club. A club like the Villa must always compete specially in the FA cup. Winning is a habit.

[villan from luton]

just look at their league record since getting to the semi-finals. 8pts out of 27.   Co-incidence?

No, they over achieved, not got a big squad and their manager is a little c*ck, like his dad

[sickbeggar]

Sorry but we can't cope with a cup run any more than Bristol. We may have a bigger squad but the reserves aren't any better.

[cdbearsfan]

Where are Wigan in the league? They're still in the cup so assume they must have collapsed.

[sickbeggar]

well i guess its a matter of opinion. personally i wouldn't have wanted to play man city twice last month if it meant we didn't get the points total we got. i'm pretty sure  the likes of Terry would have had to have been rested at some point to cope.

[rob_bridge]

Where are Wigan in the league? They're still in the cup so assume they must have collapsed.

Wigan have dropped like a stone to first place on the back of this really good cup run.

As VfL said Brizzle have massively overachieved in the League cup on the back of overachieving in the League in the first half of the season.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Hoping Brentford play Vibe up front today. He wasn’t in the squad for their last match, as it’s rumoured he’s off to China (think their transfer window is still open).

[Ads]

1994 was an example of a cup run having an affect on league form. The arse dropped out of us and age took it's toll.

The extra games in 2010 in the FA Cup and League Cup probably had an impact on us not finishing in the top 4.

But in 1996 reaching the same stages didn't seem to alter what we achieved league wise.

I'm not sure if the club has been in a position recently where the financial difference has been so significant; finish 2nd and we're on easy street as even if we come down again we will be £100 million richer and with a fresh start at FFP in here.

Success at the higher levels is about marginal gains. The extra 0.05% you can squeeze out accumitively is what counts.

Nobody can say what would have happened, but removing the perils of fatigue and injury in a competition that would have delivered, potentially, a day out at somewhere meh like Leicester, the club could do without.

We weren't going to win it. We're not day trippers, so there's no glamour ties for us. The Albion away would have been arguably thr only interesting tie.

On balance we're better off out. People.dont like the pragmatism as there's a lot of cultural history in respect of the Cup; you cannot move for cliched stories about the only game a year on the box, the magic of it and all that twee guff.

But we have one goal, to get back to where we belong. Nothing should be allowed to compromise that. A tactical withdrawal was necessary.