We have qualified for the CL.

[eye digress]

To the 20 that voted NO.... SHAME ON YOU!  😄

Without checking all the posts, PWS and I were among the few whose faith never wavered.

For ease of navigation, the crucial thread page is no. 200.

[Neil Hawkes]

It’d be great to have Rashford back. 

That would be nice.

[olaftab]

The great thing is that we are in the Champions League and no one is surprised by that, it's almost as if the press and other fans expect us to be there. This is how seismically Unai has moved the Club. Now is the time to keep our best and sign 3 £50M plus players in their mid 20's to  move on upwards.

[lovejoy]

Do we think the qualification has given us capacity to sign quality players for £150m or to back fill the overspend from previous years breaches?

[cdbearsfan]

To the 20 that voted NO.... SHAME ON YOU!  😄

Without checking all the posts, PWS and I were among the few whose faith never wavered.

For ease of navigation, the crucial thread page is no. 200.

I'm not waiting 96 pages for it.

[Somniloquism]

Mashiters unique passive aggressive coverage strikes again.

How overperforming Villa returned to Champions League

Edit: Sickbegger making friends in the BBC comments as well.

[aj2k77]

Lots of stats involving teams who are midtable and curiously Forest, who are shit and we destroyed. They're not relevant to us, we are a top 5 side who play in a specific way and Emery gets the side set up to get the players in the most optimal position for them to use their talents.

Stats are nice but don't tell the full story. Hence why Chelsea, who statistically are valued hundreds of millions of pounds more than our side finish below us again.

[paul_e]

Add Nick Mashiter (to the shock of absolutely no one) to the ever expanding list of people who have no idea what the stats mean or what they're for, pushing yet more people into thinking the stats are trying to tell a story that they absolutely aren't. I have absolutely no issue with statisticians and analysts creating metrics and using them, with appropriate context, to add value for coaches and managers but whoever decided to let those stats be used by people who can't count to 11 with their shoes on deserves a slap.

[Sexual Ealing]

Add Nick Mashiter (to the shock of absolutely no one) to the ever expanding list of people who have no idea what the stats mean or what they're for, pushing yet more people into thinking the stats are trying to tell a story that they absolutely aren't. I have absolutely no issue with statisticians and analysts creating metrics and using them, with appropriate context, to add value for coaches and managers but whoever decided to let those stats be used by people who can't count to 11 with their shoes on deserves a slap.

It's a bit like the Richter Scale only being used by the media, and earthquake scientists (that's what they're called) haven't gone near it for decades, if they ever did. This stuff is boring, and if you try to make it interesting you're misrepresenting it.

[LeeB]

Add Nick Mashiter (to the shock of absolutely no one) to the ever expanding list of people who have no idea what the stats mean or what they're for, pushing yet more people into thinking the stats are trying to tell a story that they absolutely aren't. I have absolutely no issue with statisticians and analysts creating metrics and using them, with appropriate context, to add value for coaches and managers but whoever decided to let those stats be used by people who can't count to 11 with their shoes on deserves a slap.

It's a bit like the Richter Scale only being used by the media, and earthquake scientists (that's what they're called) haven't gone near it for decades, if they ever did. This stuff is boring, and if you try to make it interesting you're misrepresenting it.

People seem to love being boring twats, see also 'my fantasy football team'

[walsall villain]

Mashiters unique passive aggressive coverage strikes again.

How overperforming Villa returned to Champions League

Edit: Sickbegger making friends in the BBC comments as well.

What’s this guy’s background? Everything I’ve read from him has a bit of a dig at us.

[Sexual Ealing]

Add Nick Mashiter (to the shock of absolutely no one) to the ever expanding list of people who have no idea what the stats mean or what they're for, pushing yet more people into thinking the stats are trying to tell a story that they absolutely aren't. I have absolutely no issue with statisticians and analysts creating metrics and using them, with appropriate context, to add value for coaches and managers but whoever decided to let those stats be used by people who can't count to 11 with their shoes on deserves a slap.

It's a bit like the Richter Scale only being used by the media, and earthquake scientists (that's what they're called) haven't gone near it for decades, if they ever did. This stuff is boring, and if you try to make it interesting you're misrepresenting it.

People seem to love being boring twats, see also 'my fantasy football team'

Oh God, it's the worst. I'll fucking captain you up the arse with a wide fucking broom the next time you try to use captain as a verb in my company, dickhead.

[Vegas]

Add Nick Mashiter (to the shock of absolutely no one) to the ever expanding list of people who have no idea what the stats mean or what they're for, pushing yet more people into thinking the stats are trying to tell a story that they absolutely aren't. I have absolutely no issue with statisticians and analysts creating metrics and using them, with appropriate context, to add value for coaches and managers but whoever decided to let those stats be used by people who can't count to 11 with their shoes on deserves a slap.

This is spot on. xG is a useful stat to gamblers as it usually predicts future goal outcomes slightly better than actual goals. This is not unexpected given the lumpiness (technically, stochastic variability) of football outcomes.  However, it has been embraced enthusiastically, but sadly incorrectly, by people as meaning “who’s actually best”. There are several methodological weaknesses to it (that have been discussed here and elsewhere), but the biggest one to my mind is that in football goals are actually scored or not, and that effects behaviour in the rest of the game. If we go a goal up, we often slip into control mode under Emery, limiting future xG creation. So looking at xG of a match with hindsight does not actually tell you who should have won, because if we had not in fact been ahead, we’d quite likely have created more.

[Jon Crofts]

Mashiters unique passive aggressive coverage strikes again.

How overperforming Villa returned to Champions League

Edit: Sickbegger making friends in the BBC comments as well.

What’s this guy’s background? Everything I’ve read from him has a bit of a dig at us.

I'd guess he's had a falling out with someone at the club, the sad little man.

[PaulWinch again]

It is weirdly present in his writing on Villa - ironically this is probably one of his least critical articles.

The most stark contrast was his comments on Forest and Villa in the lead up to the second leg.