Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace post match fat chewing

[Villan82]

We didn’t play that well but another three points and a clean sheet, and we mostly handled Palace’s tricky front players very well. Not a classic but it will more than do.

Dean Smith was sitting about 4 rows in front of us, he seemed to enjoy the day.

Great article about the ten in a row on The Athletic. I can't believe the club didn't put out a DVD or a download of that season.

last year I was moaning on a thread somewhere about this. There isn't enough 'content' these days that you can purchase and own. I used to have all those villa videos/dvds back in the day, they were great to own and dig out at Christmas etc.

[UK Redsox]

Well done to the Sky editor for finding two minutes of highlights out of that.

[Olof's Beard]

It was turgid but they were kicking the shit out of us and turned it into a battle. When we do click onto gear, we look good but it is fleeting moments rather than sustained quality. Positive that we are winning though, we can only improve under this manager.

Given where we were when Gerrard left, we have to be grateful to be safe with 12 games left. Other sides like Leicester, Forest and West Ham have put little runs of improved form together before getting sucked back in. It could have happened to us but we have recovered from our little blip with two wins and a couple of clean sheets. I reckon we will see a couple of big performances before the season is out an'all.

[Beard82]

Just back didn’t think it was that bad - I thought we looked like clicking a few times but still a work in progress. When Ollie hit the post that was a lovely move - and I think that Ramsey and Alex M weren’t on the same wave length often enough but could become a great link up.

Think SJM and Cash were good.  We didn’t do well against the ten men - but I think that was more because Kamara got injuried - he makes such a difference - and the down grade from him to chambers is ridiculous - he gave the ball away a few times when he shouldn’t have.

Thought Duran looked good but overall a clean sheet and 3 points I would have taken that before the game

[Hillbilly]

That foul on Kamara was a Ben Mee special. Could have had the same result.

[LeeB]

Was worried with Chambers coming on but fair play he did alright.

[Sexual Ealing]

We didn’t play that well but another three points and a clean sheet, and we mostly handled Palace’s tricky front players very well. Not a classic but it will more than do.

Dean Smith was sitting about 4 rows in front of us, he seemed to enjoy the day.

Did he celebrate the goal?!

[Risso]

We didn’t play that well but another three points and a clean sheet, and we mostly handled Palace’s tricky front players very well. Not a classic but it will more than do.

Dean Smith was sitting about 4 rows in front of us, he seemed to enjoy the day.

Did he celebrate the goal?!

Didn't notice him until the second half to be honest.

[eamonn]

Must be weird for Deano, back being a fan in the stands at VP.

What about Juan Pablo Angel, any sightings?

[eamonn]

Good teams play badly and still win.

Every three points we take pushes us that little bit further up the table and increases the likelihood of the manager being able to attract the players he really wants playing for him in the summer, rather than having to put something together from (almost entirely) Gerrard's squad.

It's about points and points only for the rest of the season as far as I am concerned.

Exactly. We’ve had plenty of games in the past where we’ve played alright and lost, I’m quite happy to have it this way round.

Yes but that sort of cliché omits the fact that good teams more often than not win while playing well. We're still quite ropey looking at home under Emery.

The good thing is that he knows it and talks about it publicly before/after every home game. Given his pedigree and work ethic, I'm not too worried at the moment that it will be something that continues under him.

And as for it being about points - it always is. You could argue that being stuck in the middle of the table with only a glimmer of Europe, maybe now is the one time where performance should be emphasised before results if it embeds a long-term style.

Most of us want us to win every game though, but having both result and performance is greedy and we're not allowed nice things at the Villa, as the saying goes.

[Risso]

The defence were good today, after the wake up call of the early disallowed goal. I thought Cash especially had a very good game. Moreno, I think he's the latest in a line of left backs who are alright, without looking miles better than the one before.

Buendia is frustrating, when he starts matchs, he seems to struggle to impose himself on the game. McGinn on the other hand continues to perform to a very good level. Ramsey is getting back to some sort of form. His running with the ball is great, just often lets himself down with the final ball.

Watkins ran himself into the ground again, but that was an absolutely horrible miss in the first half, when it seemed easier to score.  All in all though, a decent win and a huge improvement from the game against Palace earlier this season, when they could have had 6 or 7 quite easily.

[Risso]

Must be weird for Deano, back being a fan in the stands at VP.

What about Juan Pablo Angel, any sightings?

Yep, he was in with the directors.

[ROBBO]

The only pressure we had was self imposed, we go at snail pace across the backline and were very lucky on a couple of occassions. A win is always good but we desperately need to spend in the summed. Good to see McGinn back to form.

[Gareth]

Bizarre that we’ve got 6 points this last week with two pretty poor performances.

For me this biggest positive is you can see how Emery wants them to play and it’s equally obvious that a few won’t be first choice next season - Konsa is not good enough on the ball and has never been a responsibility taker at the back, Buendia is just to easy to dispossess and Bailey has average control and little to no ability to get his head up.  Suspect he will feel he can improve upon Cash too.

Think as a fanbase there is some adjustment required, people screaming ‘wide’ or ‘forward’ all the time are going to be wasting their time with Unai :-)

McGinn excellent, motm by a country mile for me

Palace were horrible to watch….and dirty! Olive looked way better then zaha whose body language was very much someone treading water to a £ transfer in summer.

[ChicagoLion]

Today’s performance showed the challenge taking this squad from mid table cloggers to challenging at the top end of the league.
Our central defenders are not good enough with the football, Cash did ok but showed his limitations, our central midfield has a huge problem without Camara and Luiz was unconvincing either controlling the tempo or as a playmaker.
Anther poor display from Ramsey but we don’t have too many options and Bailey is obviously not good enough.

The positives are Moreno, Mcginn Camara Watkins Buendia.

That’s 5 players we need to really push on.