Arsenal v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[ktvillan]

This Season is really starting to look good. I still can't get over the 7-2 win against Liverpool : l 7-2 FFS against Liverpool !!!!!! Following that up with an Arsenal Tonking is even better. Sad about the Leeds and Southampton performance but so much better than our previous few seasons. team playing as a team. When we click we really are great when we don't we stink the place out. We seem to be all or nothing, but I am sure that we all need to keep our patience. We will soon learn how to have a mediocre game against a mediocre team like Leeds of Southampton. At least we didn't give up against Southampton, another 5 mins and we would have grabbed a point.
Overall - Happy

just change a little bit of luck in both the leeds and saints games and we would have won them both. Fine margins

Against Leeds maybe, if we'd got the first goal, things could have been different but Southampton was more about stupid needless mistakes and playing into Southampton's hands than bad luck.

[The Edge]

I watched MOTD2 last night and i cannot think of a time where they have gushed over a teams performance like they did over ours. I felt a sense of pride like my child winning an award at school and everyone saw it

I will watch it again tonight - and maybe every night until the next game

yeah I watched it and felt almost embarrassed by their gushing praise....blushing even

UTV
The Doc

Annoyed that I can't see this. iPlayer doesn't work outside the UK and I won't be back til a couple of weeks when it's been "taped over" by the Beeb. I pays me license!

Is there something similar to FootyTube (RIP) which collates tv highlights and punditry on one clip?

Try this mate. Works for me in Canada

https://highlightsfootball.net/video/bbc-match-of-the-day-2-week-8-08-11-2020/

Just watched that link thanks for posting. The comments from Alan Shearer made me feel so proud of the lads. That's got to be the best review of a Villa performance I've ever heard. "The complete performance" Wow.

[paul_e]

This Season is really starting to look good. I still can't get over the 7-2 win against Liverpool : l 7-2 FFS against Liverpool !!!!!! Following that up with an Arsenal Tonking is even better. Sad about the Leeds and Southampton performance but so much better than our previous few seasons. team playing as a team. When we click we really are great when we don't we stink the place out. We seem to be all or nothing, but I am sure that we all need to keep our patience. We will soon learn how to have a mediocre game against a mediocre team like Leeds of Southampton. At least we didn't give up against Southampton, another 5 mins and we would have grabbed a point.
Overall - Happy

just change a little bit of luck in both the leeds and saints games and we would have won them both. Fine margins

Against Leeds maybe, if we'd got the first goal, things could have been different but Southampton was more about stupid needless mistakes and playing into Southampton's hands than bad luck.

I think it's fair to call it bad luck when a team scores with every shot they have on target and your goalkeeper couldn't do anything about any of them. I completely agree we made needless mistakes and gave them chances but I'm willing to bet I could count on 1 hand the number of teams in the last decade that have scored 4 from 4 shots on target in the premier league, being on the receiving end of that is unlucky.

[Monty]

It was a mix I think, we weren't good enough first half but they scored two extraordinary goals, to which they added another when they had the advantage of a lead, opening the counterattack up. Fair play to them, mind-boggling efficiency, but we weren't playing like a 0-4 team whatever our flaws.

[paul_e]

It was a mix I think, we weren't good enough first half but they scored two extraordinary goals, to which they added another when they had the advantage of a lead, opening the counterattack up. Fair play to them, mind-boggling efficiency, but we weren't playing like a 0-4 team whatever our flaws.

Yeah, exactly, it's why I found the level of criticism towards the team and Smith a bit over the top, Leeds was a far worse performance and even that we had chances to take the lead and it'd have been a very different game if we had.

In both cases there was an element of us continuing to try to play the way we wanted to and not really worrying about the scoreboard. Under most of our managers in the last 25 years what would've happened is tighten up, keep it to 1 and hope for an equaliser. The reason we get games like Liverpool and Arsenal is because we don't have that mindset this year. Personally I'll take the odd embarrassing defeat if it means we dish out a few ourselves. If the choice is pragmatism or excitement then I'm for the latter every time, if we're not going to win trophies then lets at least make things fun, who knows, maybe that will lead to the trophies that playing it safe hasn't done.

[Monty]

I agree, I was very critical in the immediate aftermath of the Leeds game (though I calmed down a bit), and at half-time against Southampton. By full time however, I thought we'd fought gamely, never given up and showed probably more quality than they had, albeit when they were comfortably up and looking to see it out. They carried that positive purpose into the Arsenal game and got the rewards, and it's a really great sign for their mentality that they did so.

[Toronto Villa]

Dean Smith said much the same. We were initially very poor, especially giving away set pieces to a side very good at them. They converted their chances, scored a screamer an all of a suddenly the score line looks horrific. But it’s not like we played that way for the entire 90 minutes. We came back into it. Sure you could argue they weren’t as intense but we certainly increased our intensity at 0-4 when we could have just given up and they could have gone on to 5 or 6. But we played to the end, scored 3 times and scored 3 times at Arsenal. Technically we have scored 6 goals without conceding any and I’m pretty sure if we were still playing Arsenal would still not have scored. This season, the mentality of the side is much stronger. I still want to see us come back to win a game. Not that I want us to be behind of course but it’s going by to happen at some point. But the overall improvement is very encouraging indeed.

[Dr Butler]

TV I said the same to my mate,and as much as I hate us conceding... I'm waiting to see how we respond after going behind in a game.

It is great watching us play well and beat some of the teams at the top.

UTV
The Doc

[john e]

the Leeds game was the big downer for me as they played very well and deservedly won
even in that game we were in it for the first hour

the Southampton game they scored 3 unstoppable goals, Ward prowse won’t hit better free kicks as long as he lives and he got two that time
Ings goal was a superb finish

but we still rallied and in the end didn’t feel as bad a result as it could have looked
I think it gave us confidence for the Arsenal game and a mind set of getting of to a good start, get them on the back foot early
hopefully I think that’s what we learned from Southampton

[Bobby Boy]

All seven of our league games so far have been won by the team scoring first. Obviously scoring first is a big advantage in determining which team wins but I wonder whether it suggests something more about the psychology of being ahead (or behind) and the confidence or otherwise that goes with that.

We didn't go behind in any of the final 4 games last season which at that point was huge in giving us the confidence that we needed.

We are clearly light years better than we were last season. We have a settled eleven, everyone knows their positions, we have improved the squad and much in the garden is rosy.

I think that the main area of improvement is psychological. We lack the belief at present that we really are better than the teams we are playing which is why we are still vulnerable when we go behind.

The really great teams have had that inner belief that that would prevail regardless of the score or the situation and very often they would come back from being behind and get the result.

We are not there yet inevitably as we haven't established that inner belief but it is building. And when we get there, boy, we will really have something special on our hands.

[The Edge]

This Season is really starting to look good. I still can't get over the 7-2 win against Liverpool : l 7-2 FFS against Liverpool !!!!!! Following that up with an Arsenal Tonking is even better. Sad about the Leeds and Southampton performance but so much better than our previous few seasons. team playing as a team. When we click we really are great when we don't we stink the place out. We seem to be all or nothing, but I am sure that we all need to keep our patience. We will soon learn how to have a mediocre game against a mediocre team like Leeds of Southampton. At least we didn't give up against Southampton, another 5 mins and we would have grabbed a point.
Overall - Happy

just change a little bit of luck in both the leeds and saints games and we would have won them both. Fine margins

Against Leeds maybe, if we'd got the first goal, things could have been different but Southampton was more about stupid needless mistakes and playing into Southampton's hands than bad luck.

I think it's fair to call it bad luck when a team scores with every shot they have on target and your goalkeeper couldn't do anything about any of them. I completely agree we made needless mistakes and gave them chances but I'm willing to bet I could count on 1 hand the number of teams in the last decade that have scored 4 from 4 shots on target in the premier league, being on the receiving end of that is unlucky.

While I'm totally over that game now that was my take on it the following day. We did make mistakes but I honestly think it was just their day. 3 of the 4 goals were unbelievable and in no way reflect on the keeper. Loads on here said that how we reacted would tell us everything we need to know about the team. Well I think the boys answered that one with bells on.

[Mister E]

All seven of our league games so far have been won by the team scoring first. Obviously scoring first is a big advantage in determining which team wins but I wonder whether it suggests something more about the psychology of being ahead (or behind) and the confidence or otherwise that goes with that.
We didn't go behind in any of the final 4 games last season which at that point was huge in giving us the confidence that we needed.
We are clearly light years better than we were last season. We have a settled eleven, everyone knows their positions, we have improved the squad and much in the garden is rosy.
I think that the main area of improvement is psychological. We lack the belief at present that we really are better than the teams we are playing which is why we are still vulnerable when we go behind.
The really great teams have had that inner belief that that would prevail regardless of the score or the situation and very often they would come back from being behind and get the result.
We are not there yet inevitably as we haven't established that inner belief but it is building. And when we get there, boy, we will really have something special on our hands.

Good post - agree with your thoughts.

[stevo_st]

Good post BB