Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea post match thread

[Villan82]

We will regret not going for Potter in November 2021.

[ez]

If he calls out the strikers he has to call out Mings and Martinez too. that's a lot of players to throw under the bus.

[Paul.S]

There isn’t a manager around that could’ve done anything about that first goal. Started well and then your central defender does that. Then we get going again and your forward players miss chance after chance. Both forwards were on the pitch and neither could hit a barn door from 2 yards out at the moment. We had enough chances and got into enough decent positions to have had a hatful.
What I’m mindful of is that we said Man City was the turning point and it wasn’t and after our fixtures we should be at least 5/6 points better off.
Football is a results business and playing well and losing isn’t good enough, especially when you’ve thrown away so many points before.
I think the owners will act and very soon.

[Aldridge Villa]

Feel a tad unfortunate for Gerrard today. The profligacy of our strikers today will take some beating.

[LeeB]

Just fuck him off, we can sort everything else out afterwards

[HolteLower]

Despite losing via two goals which weren't just presented to the opposition but positively fucking gift-wrapped, the way we gave up after the second was inexcusable. Gerrard can't stop Mings and Emi looking like hung-over pub players, but he can be pro-active and change things up without waiting until the last 20 minutes. All the half-decent work in the first half for nowt. Oh, and Watkins is absolutely atrocious.

Potter realised Chelsea were very lucky to be leading at half time and made two subs and altered their shape.

How long before we get a manager who can do stuff like that?

I didn't look pre match, was Archer injured or dropped? We aren't using the 9 subs at all well. Gerrard seems content just to use it to cover every outfield position, do we really need all of Chambers, Bedanrek and the young CB there when Chambers can cover a few positions.

Exactly - I predicted he would make changes at half time and he did.

[HolteLower]

Feel a tad unfortunate for Gerrard today. The profligacy of our strikers today will take some beating.

Yes hard to blame Gerrard today but overall he is still responsible for the lack of consistency and lack of clear pattern of play and probably for not better coaching.

[VILLA MOLE]

Dendonker has the look of a man running in concrete,  he will have to play deep

[LeeB]

Feel a tad unfortunate for Gerrard today. The profligacy of our strikers today will take some beating.

Yes and to blame Gerrard today but overall he is still responsible for the lack of consistency and lack of clear pattern of play and probably for not better coaching.

If we'd have been better coaches and prepared we could have taken them to the cleaners today and chalked up a memorable win, they were there for the taking.

It doesn't matter what question the opposition asks, we're not up to taking the opportunity.

[rougegorge]

We were much better than Chelsea in the first half, and we deserved to be ahead on the balance of play and chances. As SoccerHQ pointed out, it was rather like Spurs last season. The disappointment was the resignation to a defeat after the second went in.

Both goals looked shambolic from where I was, and they look as bad or worse on the replay.

Even when Potter changed it at half time, Chelsea weren't that much better, but our lack of nous cost us.
There was bad decision making in attack in the first half (e.g McGinn choosing to shoot after his best bit of play) followed by bad defensive decision making in the second half. We needed to tactically foul sooner before conceding the free kick,  and that was followed by Martínez's bad error.

I'm not sure whether or not Gerrard should go now - yes if we have an upgrade in mind -  but those aberrations by the players will not help.

[PeterWithesShin]

At 1-0 up Potter made 3 or 4 subs. At 1-0 down, we made 0 subs.

[colin69]

Poor game of football by both sides but how we didn’t score first half I’ll never know.
Second half we were a joke and Gerrard really must go now.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

A plucky loss today.
Better in the 1st half and up to the hour mark than in recent games. Started to lose our way after the substitutions.
Maybe if we'd approached Forest and Leeds in the same way we might have come away with more much needed points.
Our manager's appalling record vs SLy6 teams continues.
Fans very flat throughout. A spark is needed and for me that needs to come from the ceo/owners. Accepting plucky losses and recent poor returns will see us in trouble.

[andyh]

A better performance?
Well yes, but let’s face it , improving on the shite of the last few games is not difficult.
Raising our game for the big boys but being dross for the rest isn’t good enough.

[jwarry]

He stays. 
We go down again.
Simple.

Chillingly true.

That or we will be perilously close and survive by the skin of our teeth relying on three teams to be even worse than the shitstorm of an omnishambles we currently are.

Yep, with more than a quarter of the season gone we're on less than a point per game and we've played six of the nine other teams in the bottom half. It's well within the realms of possibility.

 It bizarrely we’ve played better against the top teams