Arsenal v Aston Villa Post-Surrender Thread

[russon]

Pathetic

[mr underhill]

I think the Fulham comparisons are beginning to have a ring of truth.

[kippaxvilla2]

He looks a bit rattled here.  And Luiz was just left out!

https://mobile.twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1175848133772959745?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[ChicagoLion]

First time I have been disappointed with a DS post match interview.
Complete abdication of responsibility and the tired excuse of blaming mistakes.
Disappointing

[Rudy65]

Really over the top reactions.

We spent all the second half against 10 men, the 10 men did us 3-1 in that half, what reaction are you expecting?

and against a shocking and often bottling team such as Arsenal

Arsenal are shocking? Fucking hell, you're in for a long hard season then. They will finish top 6. We won't. There's a gulf to make up from getting promoted. It's the start of the season. We've lost narrowly this season, there is enough ability all round for the team to improve and start turning around a poor start. Panic and we will shoot ourselves in the foot. It will be a tough season and at times we won't look coherent.

Smith isn't shit. We've spent months waxing lyrical about him.
Engels and Mings aren't shit.
Grealish isn't all tippy tappy and nothing to show for it, we've spoken about him being able to play for the national team.
The list goes on, every mistake doesn't need to be poured over and over and reacted upon because we're all pissed off that we've fucked up an opportunity.

If we'd have won or even drawn, with the same performance, the reactions would be 180 degree different. I'm not saying I'm delighted about how we are playing but we are definitely not terrible as is being made out and the manager isn't a fool as is being made out. And please let's not start the ''what do they do in training'', '' we aren't fit enough'' rubbish. It get's rolled out by every team whenever they lose.

So why do we look totally knackered against 10 men. We have an extra man FFS for the whole second half which we lost 3-1. You are defending the indefensible

Arsenal may finish top 6 but are bang average. Did you see their surrender last week SH against Watford, it was awful, and only beaten by ours today

[pooligan]

The thing that worries me about Deano is that he never seems to learn when it comes to game management.People rightly go on about the West Ham game and how we failed to take advantage and could so easily have lost let alone win but i go back to the Sandwell Town play off semi final .Sandwell must have played for getting on nearly a hour in that game with ten men and we still managed to lose the game .His substitutions also baffle me at times,,he seems obsessed with Elmo ,surely Lansbury would have made more sense at the time

[ROBBO]

Got up early to watch the replay and paused it 10 minutes into the second half and well in control to find out the final score. Needless to say I won't be watching the rest of the game. Gutted that's the word but the signs have been there all season, Smiths handling of substitutes is terrible usually leaving it too late and the same old same old. Wesley is not prem standard yet and has to be dropped, Trez works hard but a winger who cannot beat a man is not a winger. I expected to lose today but not to ten men after playing well for sixty minutes.

[olaftab]

Really over the top reactions.

Not at all over the top. It was embarrassing today and when you add it to our other 10 men performances it’s deeply worrying.

[Luke8]

Hugely frustration result given the position that we were in. We really shouldn’t be losing a game like that.

Always find it difficult to rationally analyse a game like that given the emotional investment, but some thoughts on the game for what it is worth.

Coupe of positive points:

- First half performance was decent against a good team. We restricted them to very little (only real chance I remember was the one in the first minute), moved the ball well and generally looked a lot more positive than the last few games, although the final ball/general creativeness in the final third was still a little lacking.

- Thought Nkamba, Grealish and McGinn all had pretty decent games. Think a combination of them and/or Luiz has the making of a good central midfield.

- Wesley’s work rate, hold up and link play was improved from Monday night until he got completely isolated later in the game. Nice little finish for his goal as well.

The less good:

- Game management is so poor. Really important at this level and we seem very naive so far. Think both the coaching team and players have to take some responsibility. Dropping deeper, the lack of composure on the ball/not retaining possession well, timing of substitutions and players involved. Compare to Arsenal once they went 3-2 up with their tactical foul, time wasting and how they look after the ball - think we only had the Hourihane shot in the 12 or so minutes that were left.

- Don’t think Smith has been using his substitutes well. Have we seen one this season where it has had a big influence on the game?  Definitely needs to be more proactive as well. Easy to be wise after the event, but think it was obvious that a/some changes were needed before they actually happened. Also, just think the El Mohamady sub was strange - surely Jota or Lansbury would have helped retain the ball better which we were struggling with at the time and both maintained an attacking threat and been enough to defend vs. 10 men.

- Obvious thing to say, but you don’t get away with the poor individual errors from Engles and Mings against decent teams. Engels initial clearance in the lead up to the penalty followed by the challenge and Mings header for their second were not good decisions at all. Shame, as they have been excellent so far, and we do need to defend better as a team in order to relieve pressure on them, but those two moments did cost us today.


Positives to take, absolutely, and parts of that performance will be good enough to take points in lots of games this season, but we need to maintain them over longer spells and sharpen up in a few areas in order to make that actually happen enough times.

[villadelph]

Really over the top reactions.

Not at all over the top. It was embarrassing today and when you add it to our other 10 men performances it’s deeply worrying.

[Bad English]

Naive. Not good enough. Not fit enough. Not enough managerial nous. Not even a fucking point from that? I'm not wetting my pants yet but fuck me we are not good enough.

And I'm really pissed off that the boring, silent Tarquins got to sing 'You're not singing any more'.

[olaftab]

And who fucking lined up the wall for that free kick?🤦🏻‍♂️

[Bad English]

What about that handball that should have been a penalty for us? Fucking ******!

[themossman]

I dunno, think it would have been harsh. High up on his shoulder and he was trying to retract his arm.

Still, ******!

[Steve67]

We still lack leadership on the pitch.  We have to be much more ruthless in defence, the second Arsenal goal was embarrassing, the first one was bad enough with the hairbear bunch running through several Villa players unchallenged before Engels blows wind on him.  The wall for the free-kick was where we needed some leadership as we are too nice.  We have to toughen up and be antagonistic, ruthless and arrogant. I know we didn't lose against West Ham but this week has been about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  In truth, not many of us expected anything from today's game, and that's what makes it all the more galling because a situation presented itself and we failed to take advantage.  not good enough.  The substitutions were a bit baffling today too.  Agree with others, we don't look fit enough to me.