Champions League Contention

[Villan82]

Obviously, we were lucky to get the point in the end. The injuries are a complete joke at this stage, never seen anything like it and probably cost us a genuine tilt at the league title to be fair.

On last night, I was surprised by how good Chelsea were. I'd go so far as to say their performance last night is probably the best by a visitor to Villa Park in over 12 months.

[TopDeck113]

Spurs won't get nine points from their next three games. I reckon four.
Draw against Arsenal - local derby and all that
Win against Chelsea - Chelsea back to their inconsistent best
Lose against Liverpool - after a poor run this is when Klopp gets back to winning ways

[eamonn]

It would be very very Villa to lose to Brighton, send us into a state of panic, thrash Liverpool and seranade that Klopp wankshaft with a round of fucks, before scraping over the line at Palace thanks to a Jordan Ayew own goal from 45 yards

Apparently Netflix have ordered this scenario to play-out before committing to a 10-part £8m drama-series on our historic 23/24 campaign.

[Ian.]

Obviously, we were lucky to get the point in the end. The injuries are a complete joke at this stage, never seen anything like it and probably cost us a genuine tilt at the league title to be fair.

On last night, I was surprised by how good Chelsea were. I'd go so far as to say their performance last night is probably the best by a visitor to Villa Park in over 12 months.

I’ve seen them play well a few times and terrible as well. They have it in their locker to do so and I had a feeling they would be up for it and getting a stuffing in the week.

[AV84]

Spurs won't get nine points from their next three games. I reckon four.
Draw against Arsenal - local derby and all that
Win against Chelsea - Chelsea back to their inconsistent best
Lose against Liverpool - after a poor run this is when Klopp gets back to winning ways

Liverpool look the most likely to lose at the moment. Probably 4 point from 9, but I'd go 0 from Arsenal, 1 from Chelsea, and 3 from Liverpool. At which point, it won't mean anything, hopefully.

[Smirker]

Open the champagne.

[Brazilian Villain]

Open the champagne.

Prosecco, Cava, and English sparkling wines are also available.

[Somniloquism]

Isn't the best Champagne from Russia?

(made with potato)

[Demitri_C]

Open the champagne.

Put it on ice ... for now.

[Smithy]

Obviously, we were lucky to get the point in the end. The injuries are a complete joke at this stage, never seen anything like it and probably cost us a genuine tilt at the league title to be fair.

On last night, I was surprised by how good Chelsea were. I'd go so far as to say their performance last night is probably the best by a visitor to Villa Park in over 12 months.

I’ve seen them play well a few times and terrible as well. They have it in their locker to do so and I had a feeling they would be up for it and getting a stuffing in the week.

When you spend a billion quid assembling a squad, you would expect it click every now and again as a minimum - even if it was being managed by Steve Bruce.  Unfortunately, of the few times they've done that this season, two have been against us.

(we have the 9th most expensive squad in the league, so we're overperforming against our financial outlay, definitely)

[langleylions]

Worry about spurs 😁😁

[Smirker]

Open the champagne.

Prosecco, Cava, and English sparkling wines are also available.

What's that Brazilian drink? Caiporinha or something? Anyway, time to celebrate now. No way Spurs come back from this.

[Brazilian Villain]

Open the champagne.

Prosecco, Cava, and English sparkling wines are also available.

What's that Brazilian drink? Caiporinha or something? Anyway, time to celebrate now. No way Spurs come back from this.

Caipirinha, but if you've no cachaça to hand, you can make a Caipiroska (vodka) or a Caipirissima (rum).

[ChicagoLion]

Open the champagne.

Prosecco, Cava, and English sparkling wines are also available.

What's that Brazilian drink? Caiporinha or something? Anyway, time to celebrate now. No way Spurs come back from this.

Caipirinha, but if you've no cachaça to hand, you can make a Caipiroska (vodka) or a Caipirissima (rum).

how is it different to rum?

[SaddVillan]

3 times this season we've been two-nil up

Man U 3-2 Villa
Villa 3-3 Brentford
Villa 2-2 Chelsea

7 points lost from positions where proper, professional game management should have seen us over the line.

Wouldn't have changed our current league position, but 4th spot would be pretty well guaranteed and we'd be a point behind Pool.

I do think that the next step in the development of the team is for us to become tighter defensively. It's something that Unai should be working on for next season.

Obviously having a (relatively) injury free back 4 would go a long way towards achieving that goal.

Being better defensively will help in terms of the effort players need to make in order to see out games. Retaining posession, knocking the ball around whilst running diwn the clock must be better.

Improving our gamd control will have a positive knock on on terms of fitness, fatigue etc. and that might also help with injuries, bookings and suspensions.