Champions League Contention

[paul_e]

We drop points in games like Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth though. Would probably have been adding Brentford if it weren't for the red card too.

Everyone drops points in games like that, that's why it's rare to see more than about 35-40 points from away games for anyone.

[john e]

Well we need to make the most of it while we can because we’ll be defo struggling from January onwards when Ramsey has gone to Arsenal Watkins gone to Chelsea, Martinez pissed of to Spain and Luiz has turned up at Liverpool,
Not to mention the captain box to boxing at Old Trafford dressed in red

[Drummond]

One of Man City or Liverpool are likely to go on a very long winning run, and possibly even be unbeaten for the second half of the season. We need to maintain a very high standard.

[ChicagoLion]

We need to be "lucky" with injuries.

We lost two players for the entire season who were first 11 regulars last season, so I think we've had our fair share of bad luck already.  I think it would be par for the course not to lose anyone else for anything more than a week or so at any point.

Edit: And Moreno and Ramsey for almost half a season, so in the overall scheme of things we've probably been pretty unlucky so far!

I agree we have been unlucky, but we have a few players that would be extremely difficult to maintain form without (just as Citeh struggle without Rodri) Ours are Ollie SJM and Martinez..

[PaulWinch again]

I think Pau is absolutely essential to our style of play - hopefully his knock is very minor.

[itbrvilla]

We need to be "lucky" with injuries.

We lost two players for the entire season who were first 11 regulars last season, so I think we've had our fair share of bad luck already.  I think it would be par for the course not to lose anyone else for anything more than a week or so at any point.

Edit: And Moreno and Ramsey for almost half a season, so in the overall scheme of things we've probably been pretty unlucky so far!

I agree we have been unlucky, but we have a few players that would be extremely difficult to maintain form without (just as Citeh struggle without Rodri) Ours are Ollie SJM and Martinez..

Some interesting data on injuries this season.

[Dogtanian]

Aside from our consistency over the other contenders this season, another advantage we have had has been our ability to take points off the 'big' teams.

If we take the 'traditional' six, plus state-funded Champions League failures Newcastle, so far it looks like this;

Team	Arsenal	Aston Villa	Chelsea	Liverpool	Man City	Man United	Poocastle	Spurs	Total	PPG
Aston Villa	3		3	0	3		0	3	12	2.00
Poocastle	3	3	3	0	0	3		0	12	1.71
Spurs	1	0	0	3	1	3	3		11	1.57
Liverpool		3	1		1	1	3	0	9	1.50
Arsenal		0	1		3	3	0	1	8	1.33
Man City	0	0	1	1		3	3	1	9	1.29
Chelsea	1	0		1	1	0	0	3	6	0.86
Man United	0		3	1	0		0	0	4	0.67

[Nunkin1965]

We drop points in games like Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth though. Would probably have been adding Brentford if it weren't for the red card too.

Everyone drops points in games like that, that's why it's rare to see more than about 35-40 points from away games for anyone.

There is an element in certain thinking that because we haven't played 17 and won 17 there's a problem.
Well we almost have at home!

[AV84]

We need to be "lucky" with injuries.

We lost two players for the entire season who were first 11 regulars last season, so I think we've had our fair share of bad luck already.  I think it would be par for the course not to lose anyone else for anything more than a week or so at any point.

Edit: And Moreno and Ramsey for almost half a season, so in the overall scheme of things we've probably been pretty unlucky so far!

I agree we have been unlucky, but we have a few players that would be extremely difficult to maintain form without (just as Citeh struggle without Rodri) Ours are Ollie SJM and Martinez..

I know people disagree with this but I think we were actually somewhat "lucky" with our injuries already. They happened basically preseason so we've been able to be fairly consistent with our team selection all the way through. The only changes being based on form and more recently, suspensions. Moreno and Ramsey coming back has been a bonus too.

A big injury to a key player at this point would be massively disruptive though.

[Dave]

F356's "club mood rankings":

1. Aston Villa (6)
Haha, what on earth are they playing at? Ridiculous behaviour all round from Villa, who right now really do appear to be the second best football team in the land having beaten Manchester City and Arsenal back-to-back and then showed their feistier, combative side to come back and sort out Brentford. They find themselves slap bang in the middle of a title race and do not, unlike certain other teams who have at times found themselves in such a position this season, appear to play a brand of football likely at some point to go catastrophically awry for a bit. With the flaws evident in all around them, Villa should absolutely be able to keep themselves in there.

Couple of things that make this even better. First, that they lost their first game of the season 5-1 to a team now nine points behind them. Second, that Villa fans are in the envious position of being able to simply enjoy it all because there is no expectation upon them. They are not quite, for many reasons, Leicester City at this point in 2015. They are a far bigger club coming from a stronger starting position. But the similarities are there. It is wholly unexpected to see them up there, yet suddenly with some retrofitting hindsight quite reasonable when you consider the evidence from the previous season in which relegation fears were eased by a run of form that, sustained over a season, would absolutely put you there or thereabouts.

The difference is that Villa’s run of such form started earlier and was sustained for longer. But the relegation fears were there. On November 1 last year, Villa sat outside the bottom three by a single point and were sandwiched, level on points, between two teams – Southampton and Leeds – who would eventually go. It’s a startling turnaround. And, like Leicester, they’ve done it with a manager who was ridiculed and mocked when he ‘failed’ at one of those snooty Big Six clubs.

[paul_e]

We need to be "lucky" with injuries.

We lost two players for the entire season who were first 11 regulars last season, so I think we've had our fair share of bad luck already.  I think it would be par for the course not to lose anyone else for anything more than a week or so at any point.

Edit: And Moreno and Ramsey for almost half a season, so in the overall scheme of things we've probably been pretty unlucky so far!

I agree we have been unlucky, but we have a few players that would be extremely difficult to maintain form without (just as Citeh struggle without Rodri) Ours are Ollie SJM and Martinez..

I know people disagree with this but I think we were actually somewhat "lucky" with our injuries already. They happened basically preseason so we've been able to be fairly consistent with our team selection all the way through. The only changes being based on form and more recently, suspensions. Moreno and Ramsey coming back has been a bonus too.

A big injury to a key player at this point would be massively disruptive though.

Not for me, we've been been pretty much bang average in terms of injuries and have had 2 games where an early injury to a central defender had a big impact on the result. The link above backs that up as well.

[Monty]

F356's "club mood rankings":

1. Aston Villa (6)
Haha, what on earth are they playing at? Ridiculous behaviour all round from Villa, who right now really do appear to be the second best football team in the land having beaten Manchester City and Arsenal back-to-back and then showed their feistier, combative side to come back and sort out Brentford. They find themselves slap bang in the middle of a title race and do not, unlike certain other teams who have at times found themselves in such a position this season, appear to play a brand of football likely at some point to go catastrophically awry for a bit. With the flaws evident in all around them, Villa should absolutely be able to keep themselves in there.

Couple of things that make this even better. First, that they lost their first game of the season 5-1 to a team now nine points behind them. Second, that Villa fans are in the envious position of being able to simply enjoy it all because there is no expectation upon them. They are not quite, for many reasons, Leicester City at this point in 2015. They are a far bigger club coming from a stronger starting position. But the similarities are there. It is wholly unexpected to see them up there, yet suddenly with some retrofitting hindsight quite reasonable when you consider the evidence from the previous season in which relegation fears were eased by a run of form that, sustained over a season, would absolutely put you there or thereabouts.

The difference is that Villa’s run of such form started earlier and was sustained for longer. But the relegation fears were there. On November 1 last year, Villa sat outside the bottom three by a single point and were sandwiched, level on points, between two teams – Southampton and Leeds – who would eventually go. It’s a startling turnaround. And, like Leicester, they’ve done it with a manager who was ridiculed and mocked when he ‘failed’ at one of those snooty Big Six clubs.

'Ridiculous behaviour' made me chuckle.

[Risso]

Champions of mood rankings, you'll never sing that!

[Rigadon]

F356's "club mood rankings":

1. Aston Villa (6)
Haha, what on earth are they playing at? Ridiculous behaviour all round from Villa, who right now really do appear to be the second best football team in the land having beaten Manchester City and Arsenal back-to-back and then showed their feistier, combative side to come back and sort out Brentford. They find themselves slap bang in the middle of a title race and do not, unlike certain other teams who have at times found themselves in such a position this season, appear to play a brand of football likely at some point to go catastrophically awry for a bit. With the flaws evident in all around them, Villa should absolutely be able to keep themselves in there.

Couple of things that make this even better. First, that they lost their first game of the season 5-1 to a team now nine points behind them. Second, that Villa fans are in the envious position of being able to simply enjoy it all because there is no expectation upon them. They are not quite, for many reasons, Leicester City at this point in 2015. They are a far bigger club coming from a stronger starting position. But the similarities are there. It is wholly unexpected to see them up there, yet suddenly with some retrofitting hindsight quite reasonable when you consider the evidence from the previous season in which relegation fears were eased by a run of form that, sustained over a season, would absolutely put you there or thereabouts.

The difference is that Villa’s run of such form started earlier and was sustained for longer. But the relegation fears were there. On November 1 last year, Villa sat outside the bottom three by a single point and were sandwiched, level on points, between two teams – Southampton and Leeds – who would eventually go. It’s a startling turnaround. And, like Leicester, they’ve done it with a manager who was ridiculed and mocked when he ‘failed’ at one of those snooty Big Six clubs.

Thanks for sharing that.  It's the most accurate thing I've read about us all season (including clarifying the increasingly annoying 'doing a Leicester' talk).   

[Lastfootstamper]

It's better than "doing a Fulham".