Aston Villa v Arsenal Post Match Thread

[dave shelley]

Morning Tarquins! Have a drink and cry watching Tarquin TV.

Surely that label should read Tarquin's McGinn.  I'm not clever enough to amend it.

[VillaTim]

His passing last night was awful, only a 40% completion rate. I think I'd rest him for Thursday, he looks knackered.

He was been hounded by, Saliba, possible the best centre back in the world at the moment so I think he did well.

he's decent but he's not the best CB in the world LOL

[dave shelley]

Apologies if I'm repeating anything posted previously, but I've just noticed that Digne was the only player that didn't get a touch in the build-up to the goal. Fantastic stuff. Fantasy stuff, even.

Interesting observation, what a man to have in charge, passion but still cool head.

I counted twelve passes starting from Emi to SJM.

[olaftab]

Has Diaby gone off the boil a bit? He was on fire at the start of the season but as we have got better as a team he has faded a bit

No, Mousa is fine. He's been rightly not selected ahead of Leon. My be the intensity of PL caught up with him a little bit but he is class.

[exigo]

Important not to get carried away, but it's incredible to think there could be 3,000 Villa fans in the away end at Palace on the last day, and only a handful will be able to see us lift the trophy.

[Risso]

Important not to get carried away, but it's incredible to think there could be 3,000 Villa fans in the away end at Palace on the last day, and only a handful will be able to see us lift the trophy.

Unless we have it wrapped long before then so they can present it at VP against Liverpool!

[AV84]

Important not to get carried away, but it's incredible to think there could be 3,000 Villa fans in the away end at Palace on the last day, and only a handful will be able to see us lift the trophy.

Unless we have it wrapped long before then so they can present it at VP against Liverpool!

Or it comes down to us vs them, winner takes all. (We win, obviously)

[Ads]

Bailey has gone up a level. If we add more £50m level players like Diaby, one or two more might increase in levels too. Which would be scary, for everybody else.

OK, fuck it, I'll say it. If we want to win the league (ha, imagine?!) I think another forward who can play all across the line, a Moreno type at right back and a younger more mobile replacement for the Donk.

[pablo_picasso]

Risso, you can always be relied on to find something you aren’t happy with even after a superb win.

Similar to our manager...

[Ads]

Risso isn't moaning, he's just posting while touching the area below his ear and demanding more and more, while connecting with us, the supporters of H&V.

[Clampy]

I thought Watkins was quiet on Wednesday as well so he's probably not 100% fit. Save him for the Brentford game.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Bailey has gone up a level. If we add more £50m level players like Diaby, one or two more might increase in levels too. Which would be scary, for everybody else.

OK, fuck it, I'll say it. If we want to win the league (ha, imagine?!) I think another forward who can play all across the line, a Moreno type at right back and a younger more mobile replacement for the Donk.

Indeed, strengthen from a position, of well, strength.

[SoccerHQ]

Probably in the wrong thread but I don’t care - next week I will be 74 and so I think I deserve to be cut a bit of slack

After the full time announcement (thanks PWS) I had a couple of glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon and reread the introduction to Simon Inglis’s “Villa Park 100 years - a great Midlands Sports Ground”

We must never, EVER, move away from VP

Thank you - and what a fantastic few days

We were talking about this on the way home. Completely agree. The transport links are shit and all the rest, but we cannot ever move from Villa Park to some souless bowl by the NEC. The 150 years at that location is everything and what we can hold onto.

I do genuinely think they'd delay knocking down the North Stand for a few more months if we make CL.

We'd be back in Europe's premier competition for first time in 40 years so why hinder things by having an empty stand behind one goal and be playing infront of just 30k when you factor in having to rope seats off and away fans?

If it's going to be an 18 month job and fully operational for start of 2026 season then I assume January-Feb is feasible if you give everyone sitting there option just to purchase half season tickets or something like that.

I think our capacity is 36,000 without the North. In my view, we need to press on regardless. It should have been done a long time ago really. Villa Park is a special, special place and present it isn't big enough for where we are going. With inflation etc we need to just get it done asap. If we delay it again fuck knows what problems we could be looking at down the line.

Lockdown was the ideal time given we had 18 months without fans in but of course we could've easily been relegated in that period, infact it was looking far more likely than not.

We'd still have to give european fans the same allocation as we've been doing in europa and of course the front 3-4 rows of Holte and North Stand are sealed off for the bigger advertising hoardings so it would be a significantly reduced capacity.

The goal obviously is to get it ready for Euro 2028 so we do have decent amount of time for that.

[tomd2103]

We're so lucky to have Ramsey and Moreno coming back to fitness now, that could be massive in the coming weeks. In fact, other than Trossard and maybe Jorginho, I thought our bench was a fair bit better than Arsenal's last night.

With Cash, Moreno and Ramsey coming on we had a real injection of energy and pace at a critical time of the game.  They were just starting to exert some pressure, but once we made the substitutions I thought we dealt with them. 

We probably need am option in central midfield to cone on and contine pressing in the closing stages.

[Risso]

I thought Watkins was quiet on Wednesday as well so he's probably not 100% fit. Save him for the Brentford game.

Exactly. He’s run himself into the ground and we need him at his sharpest.