Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace Post-Match

[Small Rodent]

It’s definitely a run down old ground. Pretty grotty really!

[Drummond]

Best team won.

[Matt C]

Nice stat from the Guardian match report - Luiz the first player to score in four consecutive home league games since Gareth Barry.

[ROBBO]

This is the kind of result that builds teams, behind, looking down and out, one piece of brilliance and it lifts the whole team. Good players almost ready to come back from injury, it's all positive.

[Somniloquism]

Nice stat from the Guardian match report - Luiz the first player to score in four consecutive home league games since Gareth Barry.

Gre Evans tweeted out that Torres played more passes into the Crystal Palace final third then any other premier league player this season. Slightly meaningless as I assume he means only the CP final third and not all final thirds so they have only four other teams top compare to (Albeit one is Arsenal). However it does show he seems to be our go to passer these days, even ahead of Luiz.

[Somniloquism]

It would have been interesting the results if us and Wolves had reversed our last two opponents. They had Palace before the break and we had Plop, then reversed this week. We then wouldn't have had to put up with TAA passing through us easily, but Palace would have had Guelhi in defence.

[ROBBO]

I know it must have happened before but that is the first time for me that a ref has gone to the sidelines to view the recording and stuck with his original decision.

[SoccerHQ]

Did my eyes deceive me or did MOTD not even show the Watkins shot that hit the post and then hit Johnstone and went out for a corner?

I know there's editing constraints and most matches had to fit into 5-6 segment but no idea how you can leave out a shot that hits the woodwork.

They showed the Duran shot that was comfortably saved which was odd unless they wanted to highlight the impact he was having before the fantastic equaliser.

[tomd2103]

Did my eyes deceive me or did MOTD not even show the Watkins shot that hit the post and then hit Johnstone and went out for a corner?

I know there's editing constraints and most matches had to fit into 5-6 segment but no idea how you can leave out a shot that hits the woodwork.

They showed the Duran shot that was comfortably saved which was odd unless they wanted to highlight the impact he was having before the fantastic equaliser.

I was surprised they didn't show it as well.  Was at the game earlier and although we didn't play well, I thought we probably created enough chances overall to be deserved winners.

Think there were a few warning signs there today in that performance though.  We are going to get a lot of teams coming to Villa Park this season and put ten men behind the ball like Crystal Palace did today and we played into their hands a bit by moving the ball too slowly. We just became a bit aimless at times and although he has his critics, I do think we miss Mings' leadership at times when he's not there.   

It didn't help that Matty Cash was our main outlet in the first half, but just couldn't get past their left back.  Torres found Cash really well with diagonal balls on a number of occasions, but the former's lack of pace is a bit of a concern.  He got caught out for their goal today and wasn't up against someone with blistering pace.  I've been trying to think over the past few weeks who his running style reminds me of and it came to me today - Kent Nielsen.

[Somniloquism]

Did my eyes deceive me or did MOTD not even show the Watkins shot that hit the post and then hit Johnstone and went out for a corner?

I know there's editing constraints and most matches had to fit into 5-6 segment but no idea how you can leave out a shot that hits the woodwork.

They showed the Duran shot that was comfortably saved which was odd unless they wanted to highlight the impact he was having before the fantastic equaliser.

They could have removed a couple of Cash poor efforts, but I suspect the "all Villa first half, barely Villa second half until the end" was the narrative they were going for.

[Louzie0]

Glad Ollie had another shot.
One of these days he’ll score again and the drought will be over.

[tomd2103]

I know it must have happened before but that is the first time for me that a ref has gone to the sidelines to view the recording and stuck with his original decision.

He was at that screen for what seemed like ages.  Really have no idea why it took as long as it did.

[Percy McCarthy]

Yep it was definite penalty. He doesn't touch the ball at all in the first phase when he takes Watkins down. He then does after he's fouled the player, but so what? As an example, if you pull a player's shirt back in the box, it doesn't stop it being a penalty if you then kick the ball.

The Palace assistant manager saying "the fact that it took five minutes tells you all you need to know." Well actually, no it doesn't. Firstly, it was a nailed on penalty, correctly given by the referee. Secondly, the fact that the VAR review took five minutes meant it wasn't a clear and obvious error, so that doesn't back up his view at all.

When he said that I said to the babby ‘yes it does. It tells you it wasn’t a clear and obvious error’.

[Monty]

The penalty's one of those that, were it against us at the Etihad, we'd be moaning about as well. But I do think it was a penalty honestly. He goes through him and only when Ollie's already been chopped does he get the ball.

And the ref does deserve credit, as they mentioned in the Graun, for sticking with his decision rather than changing it just because that's the done thing.

[Percy McCarthy]

I know it must have happened before but that is the first time for me that a ref has gone to the sidelines to view the recording and stuck with his original decision.

He was at that screen for what seemed like ages.  Really have no idea why it took as long as it did.

There was no reason for him to be there. Even if there was an error, which IMO there wasn’t, there’s no way it could ever be described as clear and obvious.