Are you worried?

[PaulWinch again]

Concerned. We are up against Spurs, Newcastle, Brighton, Man U and Chelsea for that 4th spot. Man U and Chelsea are going to be a problem. Money, depth of squad, Man U with a new manager. They will all be real contenders. We’ve got it really wrong for a lot of the season. Even some games we won, it’s wasn’t the free flowing football that got us to where we are from last season. Lots of time of course to fix it and get back on track. But we have start to get back on track.

Yeah but I’d say yesterday was a lot closer to that style, for a sustained period, than we have seen this season.

[PaulWinch again]

Helpfully as well the weirdness of the season with teams being very up and down means in this form slump we haven’t lost all that much ground in terms of points. Hopefully yesterday was the green shoots of us getting back on track.

[eamonn]

Is Leon going to be away with Jamaica next week? From a Villa perspective, I was disappointed to see in an interview he gave recently that McLaren had talked him into coming back to play for them.

Like Youri, he needs to stay at Bodymoor, rest-up, heal and listen to podcasts urging him to be the best version of himself.

[Demitri_C]

Is Leon going to be away with Jamaica next week? From a Villa perspective, I was disappointed to see in an interview he gave recently that McLaren had talked him into coming back to play for them.

Like Youri, he needs to stay at Bodymoor, rest-up, heal and listen to podcasts urging him to be the best version of himself.

I wouldnt mind him going. He has been crap maybe a goal for Jamaica might help him

[SoccerHQ]

Amusing to me that we've lost our way and Spurs still can't get above us in the league.

They have a wounded Man. City away next so looks very much a mid table season for them and they'll have to put everything into the cups.

[eamonn]

Weren't you saying on another thread that less than 4th is not mid-table and we shouldn't be so entitled?

Spurs will probably finish around 7th, above mid-table, below what *they* think they're entitled to.

[VillaTim]

Amusing to me that we've lost our way and Spurs still can't get above us in the league.

They have a wounded Man. City away next so looks very much a mid table season for them and they'll have to put everything into the cups.

They will sack Ange and get new manager bounce i fear

[Demitri_C]

Amusing to me that we've lost our way and Spurs still can't get above us in the league.

They have a wounded Man. City away next so looks very much a mid table season for them and they'll have to put everything into the cups.

They will sack Ange and get new manager bounce i fear

Good as ange seems to have unais number

[Villan82]

This season reminds me a bit of 1996-97. We followed up our 4th place in 95-96 with a sort of indifferent enough start to the following season. It took Yorke about 8 games to get his first goal (the 3 he scored against Newcastle). I remember us being about 9th around November time and then we strung together 5 wins in a row to get back among the top of the table where we generally were for the rest of that season.

We ended up 5th and in the Uefa Cup again. I would definitely be delighted with that for this year as it would probably mean Champions League qualification again.

[pauliewalnuts]

Because of the words.

"I am not worried and think we will be comfortably top 8"

Comfortably top 8?

Wow. Isn’t that sort of ambition for the Brentfords or Bournemouths of this world?

[pauliewalnuts]

Is Leon going to be away with Jamaica next week? From a Villa perspective, I was disappointed to see in an interview he gave recently that McLaren had talked him into coming back to play for them.

I didn’t know that.

I thought he’d told them to stick their international call ups so far up their arses there was no way back.

McLaren must have turned on the patois and done a proper job on him.

[PaulWinch again]

Because of the words.

"I am not worried and think we will be comfortably top 8"

Comfortably top 8?

Wow. Isn’t that sort of ambition for the Brentfords or Bournemouths of this world?

Indeed, that’s a nonsense ambition. We should expect to be competing for top 4, no less. I’m more encouraged after yesterday, it was an entirely different display to some of the recent dirge. But no inferiority complex, this squad should be competing.

[SoccerHQ]

Weren't you saying on another thread that less than 4th is not mid-table and we shouldn't be so entitled?

Spurs will probably finish around 7th, above mid-table, below what *they* think they're entitled to.

10th is mid table in my book. When you're actually losing to Palace and Ipswich in the space of a few weeks that suggests you're not going to be that much higher.

If we can pull ourselves together and get 9 points off Palace, Brentford and Southampton in our next three home games then the table looks much better and we should be a decent way clear of Spurs.

[SoccerHQ]

This season reminds me a bit of 1996-97. We followed up our 4th place in 95-96 with a sort of indifferent enough start to the following season. It took Yorke about 8 games to get his first goal (the 3 he scored against Newcastle). I remember us being about 9th around November time and then we strung together 5 wins in a row to get back among the top of the table where we generally were for the rest of that season.

We ended up 5th and in the Uefa Cup again. I would definitely be delighted with that for this year as it would probably mean Champions League qualification again.

Was watching TOTP on BBC 4 on Friday which has become a bit of cult viewing for me as grew up with the music in that era (most of which is terrible) and they had Nigel Kennedy of all people presenting.

There was a couple of things cut out from it and according to someone on Digital Spy who had watched the original it was Nigel referencing support for Mark Bosnich a couple of times.

Currently showing the October 1996 episodes and I looked at Soccerbase and it was losing to Spurs 1-0 when he turned round and did a Nazi salute at them!

Turns out he got a 10k fine and missed no games for us. Do that nowadays and it would be a 10 match ban or something.

[VillaTim]

Didn't we win that game 1-0 , the great lockout night