Aston Villa v Chelsea Post Match Thread

[Nii Lamptey]

I had a bet on a Chelsea win at HT - That's how confident in Dean Smith I was. Any glimmer of nervousness at my decision was eradicated the second he replaced Keinan Davis with Ally Samatta.

If this manager wasn't 'Dean Smith, One of our own', he'd have been hooked months ago. Even with the diehard Smith supporters, he's surely ran out of golden passes now?

The most frustrating thing is that our voices can't be heard - With the whole closed doors thing, we can't even vent our frustrations at the manager, chairman, players!

We're going down with a whimper... actually 'whimper' is probably too strong a word.

[exigo]

Just an idea, but maybe we should try tackling the opposition once in a while. It's embarrassing watching us just stand off teams and let them jog around passing between us.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I honestly believe last year’s team would beat this years. It may sound ridiculous but I really think they would. We don’t carry a threat whatsoever.

Excellent points Des and fully agree.

[Des Little]

I just wish we’d have a bloody go. Two up top, high press, get in faces. We are the polar opposite of a team fighting for their lives right now.

[themossman]

For the first time ever I just thought of Allardyce and didn't recoil in horror.

I'd take him now no problem. Spare me the eye bleeding football comments because what I saw today was worse by a long way than anything one of his teams as ever thrown together. Dean Smith is very much in Remi Garde/Black/McLeish territory.

Yep agreed. We’re down with a whimper. Smith is a rubbish manager, surely he won’t start next season. A good outcome at this point is having someone decent for the last few games and the small window between seasons, so that we don’t waste next season getting our shit together.

[David_Nab]

Smith is out of his depth , I have no clue how he watches that first 45 and can't see the MF are getting over run and Jack can't get on the ball and yet makes no changes.The first change just to change the lone striker , how the fuck was that going to help the no functioning mf?

How did Chelsea always have a man spare wide , Shef United did the same to us in the away game constant threat wide where we looked like we were down a man.

Overall most of the game involved us sitting back and hitting long balls into the channels if you had been stuck in a cave for the last 18months you would think Bruce was still the manager with those tactics

Newcastle now massive game its simply must win

[DB]

He should have gone months ago. Poor recruitment and a manager out of his depth.

[hilts_coolerking]

They had 74% possession and 24 shots, 5 on target.  I remember a long period before the break where we routinely conceded c. 20 shots per game.  How is this possible?

[rougegorge]

That was a Steve Bruce performance, keep bodies behind the ball and try to nick a goal !

Chelsea were nothing special, but we allowed them to look like Barcelona.

Sadly, the blames lies entirely at Smith's door.

Except Steve Bruce would've executed that tactic much better.

[Nunkin1965]

Looks like 2 from 3 for me. Us, West Ham and Bournemouth look equally as bad as each other so maybe we’ll catch a break somewhere that will keep us up.

[Nii Lamptey]

Looks like 2 from 3 for me. Us, West Ham and Bournemouth look equally as bad as each other so maybe we’ll catch a break somewhere that will keep us up.

If you look at the 3 managers in that list..... Smith , Moyes and Eddie Howe, who would you say would be your last pick? That shows how desperate we are.   

[Monty]

We really need to start turning 'respectable defeats' into points. Not good enough today.

Also, referee's need to enforce better distancing rules for Jack, absolutely absurd today as ever.

We're not going to though Monty, sadly.  Dean just doesn't know how to protect a lead or grab a game by the scruff of the neck and get back into it.

No I agree, we were just so passive and without plans or pre-rehearsed moves or thought-through game management. It was like watching the tight-as-fuck big band from that Whiplash movie against a bunch of sixth formers 'free-improvving' a concept album.

[Nunkin1965]

Looks like 2 from 3 for me. Us, West Ham and Bournemouth look equally as bad as each other so maybe we’ll catch a break somewhere that will keep us up.

If you look at the 3 managers in that list..... Smith , Moyes and Eddie Howe, who would you say would be your last pick? That shows how desperate we are.   

I’d say the lack of home support hasn’t helped us at all either.
I’m straw clutching but I’m hoping it works in our favour on the road.

[Bad English]

We could do with that evil bastard music teacher managing us Monty.

[themossman]

Our only hope is if Bournemouth and spam throw in such terrible performances we scrape through and stay up with an insanely low points total AND manage to put in the kind of gutsy performance against spam that is probably beyond us.