Aston Villa 2 Chelsea 2 Post Match Heart Massage.

[AV84]

Frustrating cos Chelsea are shit.

And letting that yapping Yorkshire Terrier Gallagher score again is infuriating. Overrated little shit-heel...

Still, a point is better than losing, so small mercies.

We have to look for stronger competition for both Diego Carlos & Olsen for next season though.

Neither are anywhere near good enough.

They're clearly not shit against us.

When they click they look a decent team.
They did last night.

Most of the season they've put in a decent performance for one half of a game. Very occasionally they manage a full 90 minutes. Unfortunately for us they've managed it every time we've played them. Although we did our fair share to help them at times.

[Monty]

Everyone gets injuries though. Obviously, ACL FC is a bit of a mental situation, but every team is always going to have players out.

[VILLA MOLE]

When we did manage to get out of the press we looked dangerous, it was just getting out we struggled with .  We are not the finished article and Unai has said that .  We are top 5 in 18 months I am buzzing !

[Somniloquism]

When they click they look a decent team.
They did last night.

I've stated before, they are a big game team. Poch can get them playing well against "big" teams in one off matches but then poorly against others. Their problem is apart from Palmer, no one is consistently putting the ball in the net, and as we showed, the defence for them can be non-existent. I honestly think no injury changes last night and we were coming out of that match with all three points.

I think the Spurs match will be a high scoring draw or one team will win 3-2 / 4-3 as both teams play the same way, lots of goals, not as good in defence.

[LeeB]

Well Spurs is a big game for them so fingers crossed.

[Mister E]

Regarding the last minute Chelsea ‘goal’. In the ground I thought it was a foul, I’ve seen the VAR slowed down replay and it looked a foul, however just catching up on MOTD and I feel we may have got away with one tbf. It was a foul but it was soft and Carlos didn’t cover himself in glory in those 2 mins

Dave, it was a nailed-on foul. Seeing it the first time, it was a foul; 20 times' later, it's still a foul.

[Ads]

Isn't it three times this season we've lost a 2-0 lead? Not to mention going 3 up against Forest and them clawing it back to 3-2. It's an area to improve on I'd say!

When you distill it down though, you sort of realise its a moan that we're not going to win the league. So while I'd absolutely love for us to improve upon that for next season, to challenge for the title, it feels a bit off moaning about it, with our highest finish in 30 years, 70 wins 70+ goals etc.

Well, it might be a moan as to why we don't finish top 4, which could actually be damaging to our ambitions. Underperforming teams might be better than us next year, this might be our only real chance in these years to get into the CL, and I just don't want a repeat of the last time we came close but missed out.

Emery's a miracle worker, but that's kind of our problem - the performance of this team is a bit too close to miraculous for us to feel comfortable about the future.

Odd take given the way we are has got us 4th, 20 wins, 21+ goal difference, 67 points with 3 games to go. If we don't get 4th then it's because Spurs have been exceptional.

[Lsvilla]

Regarding the last minute Chelsea ‘goal’. In the ground I thought it was a foul, I’ve seen the VAR slowed down replay and it looked a foul, however just catching up on MOTD and I feel we may have got away with one tbf. It was a foul but it was soft and Carlos didn’t cover himself in glory in those 2 mins

Dave, it was a nailed-on foul. Seeing it the first time, it was a foul; 20 times' later, it's still a foul.

I thought it was a foul both live in the ground and subsequently on TV. Where we potentially got away with it was that the VAR didn't stick with the on-field decision. I doubt they would have sent a supposedly'top' referee eg: Taylor / Oliver to the monitor.

[Smithy]

Isn't it three times this season we've lost a 2-0 lead? Not to mention going 3 up against Forest and them clawing it back to 3-2. It's an area to improve on I'd say!

There is always improvement to be made, obviously, but I think the point others are making is that our record at keeping leads when we get them, AND coming from behind to get draw/wins, is just about as good as anyone in the league. 

We are literally the BEST in the league at keeping a lead. We've taken the lead in 23 games, won 20 of them, drawn 2 (yesterday and Brentford), and lost only 1 (away at Man Utd). No one has dropped fewer than the 7 points we've dropped from winning positions.

The fact that in all three of those games where we dropped points we were 2-0 up makes our record FEEL worse, but honestly, our track record of holding leads is very, VERY good.

We're also the 5th best team at gaining points from a losing position.  We've gone behind 17 times, and still won 4 and drawn 5 of those games.

None of this points to a flaky team that crumbles when facing adversity, or that needs to learn how to handle a bit of pressure.  Sure, in one-off games we've had a few shockers, but so does everyone.  The fact is, we're a pretty solid outfit these days (and yes, it feels very weird to write something like that).

[London Villan]

Just points to missing experienced defensive midfielders…

[Somniloquism]

Everyone gets injuries though. Obviously, ACL FC is a bit of a mental situation, but every team is always going to have players out.

But it depends on the players who get them though. Mings so we lose out captain at the back, Kamara so we lose the midfield lynch pin, probably less on Emi2 although he would have thrived with the way we were playing. And JJ who was a big reason we finished strongly last season as well.

Give those injuries to Rodri, Stones (or whoever their best defender is), and Silva; or Saliba, Rice and Saka and how well would those teams do? Liverpool showed it a few seasons ago when Van Djik missed most of their season after they won it and they finished well back on City and Manure due him being missing.

[Mister E]

Isn't it three times this season we've lost a 2-0 lead? Not to mention going 3 up against Forest and them clawing it back to 3-2. It's an area to improve on I'd say!

When you distill it down though, you sort of realise its a moan that we're not going to win the league. So while I'd absolutely love for us to improve upon that for next season, to challenge for the title, it feels a bit off moaning about it, with our highest finish in 30 years, 70 wins 70+ goals etc.

Well, it might be a moan as to why we don't finish top 4, which could actually be damaging to our ambitions. Underperforming teams might be better than us next year, this might be our only real chance in these years to get into the CL, and I just don't want a repeat of the last time we came close but missed out.
Emery's a miracle worker, but that's kind of our problem - the performance of this team is a bit too close to miraculous for us to feel comfortable about the future.

Odd take given the way we are has got us 4th, 20 wins, 21+ goal difference, 67 points with 3 games to go. If we don't get 4th then it's because Spurs have been exceptional.

I'm with Monty on this: we have had a tendency to concede leads recently; and it's easy to see why - we look knackered.
Last night, I got why we set up in the first half to absorb the pressure and frustrate Chelsea. I expected a different approach second half, with a more dynamic / proactive game-plan. Continuing to sit back made a Chelsea revival almost inevitable.
With Dougie struggling, I think I'd have preferred to see Tim come on early for Diaby and give the midfield more ballast. We didn't and conceded.
I don't think Spurs are exceptional or will be given the games they have to play, but - like you say, Ads - I'll happily accept that they'll have been impressive if they do grind out some results in their last 6 games.

[Ads]

Stats above show absolutely everybody else in the league is worse than us at giving up leads.

[Risso]

The problem such as there is one this season has been the defence. We've conceded more goals than Everton and double Arsenal's goals against figure. Hopefully the return of Mings will help put that right, but we also need more strength in the middle of the park.

[Somniloquism]

I'm with Monty on this: we have had a tendency to concede leads recently; and it's easy to see why - we look knackered.
Last night, I got why we set up in the first half to absorb the pressure and frustrate Chelsea. I expected a different approach second half, with a more dynamic / proactive game-plan. Continuing to sit back made a Chelsea revival almost inevitable.
With Dougie struggling, I think I'd have preferred to see Tim come on early for Diaby and give the midfield more ballast. We didn't and conceded.
I don't think Spurs are exceptional or will be given the games they have to play, but - like you say, Ads - I'll happily accept that they'll have been impressive if they do grind out some results in their last 6 games.

Without the injury to Tielemans and Emi, I think we would have seen the second half difference. However Diaby on early meant our planned tactics went out the window early. That and Poch's change to overload the midfield by moving Sideshow Mel inside for the press meant we lost the same way of play we had against Arsenal second half where Emi would be the extra man at the back Tielemans could do a pass punch through midfield.