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

[RichardBatchelor]

That’s arguably out best half in years. Outstanding.

[Astnor]

What a team! Super and pro performance. Xelent from everyone, no one xcept Mings where troubeled as far as I could see.
CP gave up but you could see that they could give us a match somewhere middle of first half, so wont put this down to a underperforming Palace.
I give MOTM to Watkins; three assist, a lot of good running and taking care of the ball as good as anyone when long ball coming IMO. I like him a lot and think he s a big part of our free floating attack. Important that his "misses" dont get to his head as a thing, Dean and compay must get the messages over so to behold his confidence. 9
Martinez a lot of impressvie saves 8
Back four untroubled ish (2 half) 7,5, Mings 5
Mc ginn at his best 7.5
Grealish 8 his usual impressive self, fantastic really that he can hold that performance level game in and out
The rest seven then
What a thunderstroke from El Ghazi as "in the corner" it gets
And some Classy stuff and early rest from Traore 7,25

[villabear]

Don’t know if it’s been said already but we are becoming far more (and I apologise for using the word) streetwise in how we manage games. There was Jack taking the team into the corner at the Wolves game after the penalty and today I don’t know if anyone noticed near the end of the game Benteke shoots and hits the side netting. Martinez then slaps the ball well away to waste a bit more time.

Nice to see us being a bit more professional. There seems to be a great team spirit. Long may it continue.

[Lastfootstamper]

All the pundits go on about the recruitment being much better this summer, but really? Much better? I’ve mentioned it before but Konsa, Hausa, Target, Luiz, Trezeguet, Mings and AEG is not looking too shabby is it?

I think it's been better in that the players bought have been more accomplished. Without wishing to sound a bit wolves, they're next level. 4 of them have gone straight into the team and improved it almost immeasurably, with the 5th not taking too many playing minutes to get right up to speed, and then some.

[Toronto Villa]

What's even better about today's performance is that Jack played a role, but it didn't need to be about him. That for me is the greatest compliment I can pay this lot. That last season if you stopped Jack you stopped us. Now you can stop Jack or slow him down (I don't think anyone actually stops him), but you still have to account for every other player. And it starts by having the best keeper in the league all the way through the squad.

[Ian.]

All the pundits go on about the recruitment being much better this summer, but really? Much better? I’ve mentioned it before but Konsa, Hausa, Target, Luiz, Trezeguet, Mings and AEG is not looking too shabby is it?

I think it's been better in that the players bought have been more accomplished. Without wishing to sound a bit wolves, they're next level. 4 of them have gone straight into the team and improved it almost immeasurably, with the 5th not taking too many playing minutes to get right up to speed, and then some.

What the pundits do not say though is we had to rebuild and start somewhere in that first season, survival was crucial in adding the quality to what we had started to build.

[brian green]

Well said TV especially the bit about Martinez.  Everything builds on the confidence the team gets from its goalkeeper.

[SaddVillan]

Keep these performances up and we'll have quite a few agents calling us on behalf of their players.

Wonder if Milot Rashica's opinion of us has changed?

[Toronto Villa]

Well said TV especially the bit about Martinez.  Everything builds on the confidence the team gets from its goalkeeper.

He is just incredible Brian. 8 clean sheets. Just superb. And some of the goals that have beaten him have had to be outrageous shots.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Really suited us getting the early goal as palace were forced to push on exposing their back line to our pace and quick breaks. Stuck in the habit of always thinking the worse as I expected a palace equaliser although Martinez never had a save worthy of the name to make, though his handling of everything was impeccable.
Hard to pick a M.O.M as, to a man, they were all fantastic. Solid at the back, grafted and covered in midfield, and penetrated and exposed their defence up front. Thought McGinn, who appears to be gaining some form and Doug quietly had great games and gave us a good platform, as well as those who were a bit more obvious.
Nice to see that we had a great performance that wasn’t solely all through Jack, although, like in most games he was again superb.
A joy to watch.

[Drummond]

Absolutely fantastic performance today. To a man fantastic (apart from Mings' foolishness).

As a side note, I suspect our reaction to Zaha is how other teams' fans react to jack.

Absolutely, he played the game. We fell for it.

[exigo]

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.

[PaulWinch again]

Up to 5th at the moment.

[Martin Carruthers]

Imagine most watched Premier League game ever as well (apologies if this has been posted before).

[Rich6by7]

Martinez is in danger of becoming my favourite Villa keeper ever, having been a fan since the Bosnich era. He commands his area and makes good, clean saves and catches. The team plays with confidence when he’s between the sticks.