Dirty Whites 0 - 1 Mighty Villa

[Footy-Vill]

Martinez 7.5
Brilliant. Justa  super solid keeper who battled on with a groin injury. Emi martinezzz the best goalie, Week to week! Made sure thou shall not pass with amazing reaction to Roberts chance. Which was a great stop. And on Leeds set plays takes the ball out of the air easy as!
Hardly called upon for anything major but super goalie.

Elmo 7.5 Wonderful.
Did what he had to do and is a credit to professional football. Dealt with Leeds best player and completely dependable. Showed all his nous. Love this guy. I refuse to mark him down for time wasting and booking. Team player!

Konsa 8
Back to his solid showing he has been most season today.  Matching Mings who has been the better for me in recent games. Well played Konsa-class.

Mings 8-
Superb marshaling of defence.  Owned Bamford and cleared everything in air  distributing could be better but effortless as a defender and captain today. Continues to be impressive in his defending and reading of game. I always watch with no added sound and its fascinating and super to hear him and his passion. Don't know a louder or more truer voice as a defender in English football. Those who watch without artifical sound getting the added thrill

Targett 7.
Range of brilliant tackles and reading play takes up his positions so much better Unfortunately was booked so marks down for that and maybe could have been sent off. Solid and played well.

Nakamba 7.5
Yes.played role superbly with interceptions and good discipline though in second half made a few stray and loose passes the worse aspect of his game. Excellent effort fully merited his inclusion

McGinn 7
Solid and played role well in assisting Elmo and covering for Traroe/doing BT work in shacking Raphina. Showed good energy and sense on the ball and in his position on right of 3 man midfield

Ramsey 7.5-
such a composed player and showed quality. Faded second half but brilliant shift and looked more than capable in midfield. Well played JJ!

AEG 8.5 man on fire. 
What a well taken goal. What a menace he is . When he plays in attacking actions and shooting he's Ronaldo-esqe stepped up in Grealish absence more than anyone in attack and fully applaud his contribution. Well played! First half he could have a hat trick. And he was tracking back and shown up tactically very well. Sweet revenge indeed for that ridiculous Red card last time at Leeds.

Traore 6 -
Engima. Possibly his worst performance showed only glimpses. Sky gave him the big build up but didn't deliver and twice loose with ball could have cost us with the counter attack against us but others saved him. Cut inside with little impact than usual. Today was a sorry performance. Struggle to get into match. Pitch didn't help. Noticed he was even placed up front in the 3 after switching flanks as tactics to have him more involved.
Sum up was when he fell over trying to play ball out wide and gave away hand ball in the midst of a very promising attack just outside the penalty area. Oh well. He can do better next time. 

Watkins 7.
Endevaour had a struggle at times but works tireless only one real opportunity to score but was a brilliant team player and outlet with movement and created the goal. Tbh felt he was a little jaded and mainly an excellent showing but was up against it and seemed slightly off nothing major bit could do with some managing of minutes for Ollie. Well played again . Great signing.  And always kept opposition defence occupied
 
Subs
Trezeguet 6.5
Sanson 6. 5

First half 8/10.
Second half 7.5/10

Dean Smith 8.5/10
Exactly the right team selection!
Though I feel Traroe should have been hooked as he was the weakest of the players today.

Elland Road pitch in parts was really poor surface which impacted things. Constantly players slipping!
Southgate there to watch and impressive showings from Villa players

Wonderful Deano!

[remy]

What a MAGNIFICENT Performance from the lads.

I was dreading this game a bit as they battered us at VP combined with the shit show against the foxes and Deanos persisting with the Barclay-McGinn-Luiz midfield.

Young kid Ramsey played very well.
Another clean sheet - defence and goalie kept them at bay constantly.
12th win of the season- Europe in sight
Link up between AEG and Oliie excellent
Bertie can’t be shrugged off the ball
Revenge for VP
Targett - nice to have a hard bastard to stick it to them, refused to give them an inch
Deano for finally changing them and coming up with a great gameplan
No Jack or cash and we coped with it - good depth
Another away win at a difficult ground
Pitch was abysmal
I’m now on a high the whole weekend!!!!
Can’t fault a single player who all contributed
Future looks bright with Wes, Cash, Jack and Samson all to come in at some point.
Hate Leeds.

[Lastfootstamper]

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith told BBC Sport: "Not many people would have fancied us against Leeds and they make you work hard. We got an early goal and showed lots of character.

"We've got the chance [to finish in the top six] but there are some top teams in there. We'll just take it game by game."

Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa told BBC Sport: "We dominated 80% of the game and the goal they scored was opportunism. In the first half we created enough chances to score a goal but in the second half we couldn't finalise the attacks."

“Dominated” - not really. You had a lot of possession, but produced very little.

They were arsenal, but with more energy. As someone earlier alluded to, we could've played til midnight and they wouldn't have scored. We made them look quite weak. Been a while since a Villa side's done that a few times over a season.

[itmustbe_it is!]

Tyrone Mings, my Lord.....

[Brend'Watkins]

This may sound controversial but I think if Jack played tonight we might not have got the win. The way we set up tonight was to contain them and stop their slick pass and move game. With Jack there our mindset would have been different, more attack minded leaving space and holes for them to exploit. Jack obviously plays once fit but I like the energy and effort of that midfield. With the return of Jack Berti would have to drop down I think.

[The Edge]

In the pre-match thread in the week I was getting a bit pissed off with our lot buying into the Leeds media wankfest and went for a battling 1-0 Villa win just to be defiant. Just sayin'. But seriously we should recognize just what a fucking brilliant season we are having after years of struggle. Well done to Dean, his backroom staff and the players. Fucking brilliant effort from all of them.

[Exeter 77]

A great defensive display. Especially good bearing in mind we appeared to be up against a renamed and peak, Mexico '70 Jairzinho who is now called Raphinha.

[LukeJames]

We wrecked the game. Superb tactics.

[CT]

A great defensive display. Especially good bearing in mind we appeared to be up against a renamed and peak, Mexico '70 Jairzinho who is now called Raphinha.

He looked decent, apart from the fact he had his socks up way above the knees and seemed to have sellotaped the inside of his shorts up too.

[Neil Hawkes]

Earlier I watched the Man city - West Ham game, once Man city went ahead they didn't give a toss what West Ham did, until they scored. Then Man City went for another goal, got it and went back to not giving a toss to what West ham did. We did exactly the same tonight, scored and let them do what they wanted, with us stepping in whenever something became mildly threatening. Excellent game-plan that shows we are not a Jack team and can do what is necessary when required. What a difference from last season (and last Leeds match).

[brontebilly]

This may sound controversial but I think if Jack played tonight we might not have got the win. The way we set up tonight was to contain them and stop their slick pass and move game. With Jack there our mindset would have been different, more attack minded leaving space and holes for them to exploit. Jack obviously plays once fit but I like the energy and effort of that midfield. With the return of Jack Berti would have to drop down I think.

Jack is possibly the best player in the division at keeping the ball. He would certainly have given us a counter attacking threat in that second half. Unfortunately for AEG, he hasnt impressed on the right wing at this level. So will be interesting as to what the selection is midweek if Jack is back. I wouldn't be against McGinn playing in Traores position either.

I liked our flat midfield three tonight. Ramsey and McGinn pressed well at times but also kept a good shape. Our CBs were well covered which hasn't been the case for a number of weeks.

[Proposition Joe]

Also, 39pts now.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and call it John King / CNN style, and say Aston Villa will not be relegated this season.

[Fasth56]

The comments page under the BBC match report is amusing.  Villa are awful to watch apparently, anti-football and divers. Aw did we not roll over for super attractive Leeds?Diddums. And as for diving and play acting, I give you.... Llorente.

To be fair, a lot of the comments on Marching On Together gave grudging acceptance that our tactics and shape worked, they also called out Llorente for the rolling round. All in all a good days work, safe from relegation, onward and upward to Europe

[Exeter 77]

A great defensive display. Especially good bearing in mind we appeared to be up against a renamed and peak, Mexico '70 Jairzinho who is now called Raphinha.

He looked decent, apart from the fact he had his socks up way above the knees and seemed to have sellotaped the inside of his shorts up too.

More a comment on the commentary than the player. Raphinha does look to be a decent player but the way Ssky were hyping him was excruciating.

[TonyD]

I think Leeds were easily the worst team we have played for at least s8 games.

Because we didn’t let them play.