Aston Villa vs Newcastle United pre match thread

[cdward]

Just had a quick look at one of their forums, and they seem quite bitter that Emery turned them down. I'd completely forgotten about that, but it obviously hurt them.

Why do they take everything to heart so much? They are so easy to wind up. It will be funny as f*** if we beat them.

[paul_e]

Luck works both ways.

Indeed.

If there's a definition of luck here, what kind of luck does going ahead against Arsenal twice, being at 2-2 on 93 minutes and having a shot bounce down off the bar, off the back of the keeper's head and in represent?

Yep, I agree, that's the biggest action of luck in any of our recent games.

[LeeB]

That along with the blind linesman and VAR at the same time is an outrageous slice of luck which could be the difference in them winning the title.

[AV82EC]

Just had a quick look at one of their forums, and they seem quite bitter that Emery turned them down. I'd completely forgotten about that, but it obviously hurt them.

Why do they take everything to heart so much? They are so easy to wind up. It will be funny as f*** if we beat them.

I wonder sometimes if being stuck up in the far wastelands of England (don’t get me wrong that part of the country is achingly beautiful) makes Geordies and probably the Cumbrians and Cornish that little bit different in terms of their psych when it comes to being part of England. I dunno I couldn’t stand Newcastle back in the 90s as the club was the very definition of all fart no shit and had the media lapping them up but I’ve mellowed over time and realise much of the bullshit around them comes from media hype and some of the rather more mentally challenged end of their support and to a man/woman the geordies I’ve met and worked with have been some of the most solid gold people you could wish to meet.

Anyway, should be a good game think they may have too much for us but Unai can craft us a point as a minimum. 1-1.

[SamTheMouse]

I know what Chris means - it feels like we're being lucky all the time.

But what is undoubtedly true is that the way Emery has us playing is tipping the odds in our favour - making our own luck, I guess you could say.

[Brend'Watkins]

That along with the blind linesman and VAR at the same time is an outrageous slice of luck which could be the difference in them winning the title.

And, if the loss of those 3 points cost us a Europa place as a result then we'd be extremely unlucky wouldn't we?

[PeterWithe]

I had a look at one of their forums yesterday. Like all football forums, there were plenty of sensible comments, as well as some by brain donors.

A couple of them hate us because we're all Tories, apparently. One has a Baggie mate, and he and other Albion fans principally hate us because of the strong Tory element amongst our support. Nothing to do with spending more than a century in our shadow then.

Right, I'm off to piss on a homeless person before objecting to a planning application for new social housing in my area.

In a city that's got one Tory MP, and he's in the only constituency Small Heath can claim as one of their own.

2 Tory MPs?

[amfy]

Also - of Chelsea’s ‘27’ shots - how many of them were actually anywhere near the goal? They were shooting well wide and over mainly because we limited them to difficult chances.

[London Villan]

In isolation, it could be said we have been lucky in games to come away with wins, but that doesn't work out over a period of 6-10-16 games. You don't win 5 out of 7 away games in the Premier League just by being lucky or win 5 games out of 6 home and away.

We may have a result go against us that we don't deserve, but we are doing much more right than wrong.

[RamboandBruno]

Well it depends how you define luck (and I'm not looking for a debate on semantics Paul!)  I think payers passing directly to Bertie for his two goals is fortunate.  So is players missing open goals / easy chances - Souttar's miss was remarkable (I know it shouldn't have been a corner).  I think we were fortunate that Young got the foul for the push in the box to chalk off a goal.  VAR also disallowed Southampton goal for a pretty soft foul on Ramsey.  The Solanke offside decision was correct, but incredibly tight and could have gone either way depending on the frame VAR chose to use. 

You may not think any of this is luck, but they are moments in games that could have gone either way.  It feels to me that more have gone our way than I'd usually expect.  I've certainly been walking away from games thinking we've got away with it a bit there, which is really the only barometer I need.

I also think Watkins is taking chances at an unsustainable rate.  That's certainly not luck, but I don't think it's realistic that it will carry on either. 

You say those misplaced passes are fortunate, but at Leicester we'd had them pinned in since the sending off with our measured, controlled play. The pressure leads to errors.

In addition, the luck of Niddi passing to Traore completely ignores the fact that it was a brilliant finish from Traore, that many players in the Villa Team or other teams wouldn’t of finished. Apart from the odd extreme bouts of luck, Arsenals 3rd goal against us or the Sheff Utd non goal against us, luck is generally made.
Its an incredibly glass half empty view to regard us being lucky in the last couple of months, and that is no matter what the newcastle result at the weekend.

[Chris Smith]

I had a look at one of their forums yesterday. Like all football forums, there were plenty of sensible comments, as well as some by brain donors.

A couple of them hate us because we're all Tories, apparently. One has a Baggie mate, and he and other Albion fans principally hate us because of the strong Tory element amongst our support. Nothing to do with spending more than a century in our shadow then.

Right, I'm off to piss on a homeless person before objecting to a planning application for new social housing in my area.

In a city that's got one Tory MP, and he's in the only constituency Small Heath can claim as one of their own.

2 Tory MPs?

Yes, if you include Sutton otherwise it’s just Sambrook.

[eamonn]

Luck works both ways.

Indeed.

If there's a definition of luck here, what kind of luck does going ahead against Arsenal twice, being at 2-2 on 93 minutes and having a shot bounce down off the bar, off the back of the keeper's head and in represent?

Yep, I agree, that's the biggest action of luck in any of our recent games.

Maybe, but Arsenal completely controlled that second half and you just knew that Martínez time-wasting at 2-2 just before injury time, was going to come back to haunt us.

I can see where Chris is coming from, I know people think xG is bollocks but it is an indicator of sorts, and we're outscoring it in almost every game on this run.

We haven't been swash-buckling in any of our wins but maybe that isn't the Emery way and hard-fought victories where we're more ruthless than the opposition is probably going to be the order of the day under him. Not complaining - we're winning consistently and are remarkably scoring in every game since he joined, I just hope if/when the wheels come off, it's not going to be a car-crash. It's the Villan in me, I'm scarred from years of trauma y'see.

[ChicagoLion]

There has been a little bit of the Martin O'Neil about some of our away performances although I think the Emery approach is far more sophisticated than the rope a dope and nick one on the break.
What I love is that we always look dangerous and that is why we never fail to score and that is not luck.

[Brend'Watkins]

Also - of Chelsea’s ‘27’ shots - how many of them were actually anywhere near the goal? They were shooting well wide and over mainly because we limited them to difficult chances.

Correct. I would say our defending resulted in them taking shots such was their frustration at not being able to break us down.  Even when they had that one clear run on goal from Mudryk and he sees Emi in front of him looking like a Double Decker bus he is thinking "he's the current best keeper in the world, what do I do?"

[chrisw1]

I don't think it's glass half empty at all.  We are clearly well coached, prepared and playing well, but you can only over-perform stats for so long - and we are doing so at both ends of the pitch.  To do so you need an element of luck.  I feel we've had that at key moments in a number of games.  I'm surprised I seem to be alone, but that's how the tinted glasses work.  I don't think I'm being pessimistic, just objective.