The Magnificent Aston Villa 3-0 Crystal Palace Post Match Thread

[Risso]

The nice thing is we've finally followed up a really good performance and victory with an even better one.

[olaftab]

3-0 is a very impressive scoreline in any league. It shows total governance on the pitch  by one team. We have done that several times now this season. If we go back to our most recent successful era of regular 6th place finishes I don't remember so many 3-0 wins as we have already had this season. This is the gold standard of a very very good performance and hallmark of a competent team. Yes the team now arriving at platform success is Aston Villa.

[VILLA MOLE]

Magnificent but only what we’ve come to expect

if I’m honest I’m still feeling pretty pissed off with Brighton, West Ham and Burnley where we were the better side in all of those games and they were just jammy cheaters

by rights we should have at least a fistful more points on the score boards

Yep but you could say we nicked it against Leicester and wolves so it makes me feel better

[brontebilly]

Brilliant win, thought it was going to be a serious test in the second half after Mings idiocy but we completely outplayed them. Watkins bullied their centre backs, on another day he bags a hat trick. Finishing has gone a bit cold for him lately but will come again. Mings aside, there wasn't a weak link in the team.

Unless he had prevented Palace scoring? One for the team?

Hause was in a decent covering position but if he had any doubts he should have knocked that ball for a throw in. But of course he had to try playing it past Zaha on the half way line

[olaftab]

About a year ago a chunk of us (me included) would have taken Benteke to fill a gap.

How far have we come in that time?  Outstanding!!

And another half were ready to swap Dean for BFS.

[SoccerHQ]

Fitness levels are as good as anyone too. When you have players like the full backs, McGinn, Grealish and Watkins who just seem to run and run and run it makes such a difference. I thought as 10 men this would be a slog. It's testament to our performance that it wasn't and if anything we looked like we had more players. If O Neill's side were as fit as this lot, they'd have comfortably bagged top 4. This side, may just...

Think one of the best calls of last summer when signing 4-5 new players was to go for much more athleticism as you simply need that to finish top end premier league these days.

All the new guys can run for days and conditioning of likes of Luiz and Targett is way better than 12 months ago.

Certainly odd to see a Villa team finish the game so much stronger than the opposition on a regular basis this season. We've done it to teams at the top and at the bottom.

[Toronto Villa]

I cited a stat in the match thread that we are top for pressuring teams. Which fuck knows how how they actually calculate it but when you watch us now you just nod and say yeh, I see that. We are tenacious in closing opponents down and getting the ball back. An essential trait of all top teams.

[Ian.]

We’ve been the least fit team for so long too, it’s been a thorn in our side for years. Now though like you’ve just mentioned we are so fit and strong and full of energy.

[SaddVillan]

Did Jack get booked?
BBC match report line up page shows a yellow against him.

Got a notification from the Villa app to say he'd been booked on 44 about an hour after the game finished.

Just checked the Prem League official site.
The match report shows a yellow for Jack in the 45th minute immediately after Mings got his 2nd yellow.

We've got quite a few players heading towards a 5th yellow and a one match ban. 5 yellows in the first 19 games = 1 match ban.

Expect we'll cop a few suspensions soon.

[Percy McCarthy]

According to whoscored.com, currently the best performing team in Europe according to the stats. Might even not be counting today.

https://www.whoscored.com/Statistics

I don’t think it does include today as I heard that about us a few days ago. Liverpool were 7th apparently.

[baddowvillans]

So ahead of Spurs, Chelsea and Man City and with games in hand on the former two.  That's not a fantastic position after a third of the season.

[CT Villan]

For me in the Jack v Zaha debate...Jack embellishes actual fouls to ensure he gets the call. Often Zaha just plain dives to con the officials, and unfortunately it seems to work, big difference - not to mention that the gulf between their technical abilities is enormous. Plus Zaha always looks like he's about to cry.

Mings was still dumb for falling for the sending-off incident.

[ktvillan]

The improvement in Trez, and especially AEG this season is quite something.  The signings of Traore and Watkins seemed to make Trez realise he needed to up his game, and then the improvement in Trez seems to have had a galvanising effect on AEG.   The last three games he's been in the game way more, shown the skills he has and has defenders thinking about stopping him as much as Jack.  I still think his finishing needs work because although he's bagged four goals he could and should have had a lot more.  You cpoudl say the same of JAck and Ollie though.


As for Zaha I'll readily admit Jack goes down a little too easily at times but at least he waits until he is pushed or kicked.  Zaha was initiating contact and then throwing himself down (McGinn first half) and on one occasion I think he was barely touched on the chest and went down like a shot badger.  I can't believe refs still fall for that old trick.  Apart from the VAR penalty decision I thought the ref was atrocious.

[Dave P]

So ahead of Spurs, Chelsea and Man City and with games in hand on the former two.  That's not a fantastic position after a third of the season.

I disagree. I think it’s a fantastic position.

[baddowvillans]

So ahead of Spurs, Chelsea and Man City and with games in hand on the former two.  That's not a fantastic position after a third of the season.

I disagree. I think it’s a fantastic position.

Lol not sure where the NOT game from