Strongly suspect neither Onana and Barkley were fit enough to play as the formers presence and the laters guile would have been points of difference.
Really frustrating to lose to Stoke Redux. Awful side with one ball; long over the top looking for the gap between centre half and full back. Playing percentages, taking an eternity to take a throw (which was often a foul throw), knocking lumps out of people and being anti-football. I take heart that these ****** will, eventually, be flushed down the league like every other Mickey Mouse nobody. ******. Beat us twice by defending deeper than your average coal mine and getting a lucky bounce. Fucking ******.
Bogarde was their best player first half. Broke up every attack we had. Tammy unlucky not to score, not sure the Kopite in goal knew much about it, equally Konsa. What was that?! Goal came as no suprise- its just the Villa way to concede massively against the run of play and with their only effort at goal all fucking game.
Deserved red, horrible little bastard.
We struggle with our fab four out in midfield. Who wouldn't. Watkins running in behind equally missed. He terrorised Newcastle last week. Felt everything was so samey though- not enough confidence in crossing the ball to compete with their lumps at the back which made it too easy.
VAR has had a lovely guess. Looked out, potentially to me. Absolutely zero conclusive evidence though, so naturally the goal that was given on the field...is overturned. What the fuck does "phase of play" mean. 19 seconds and 100 yards of pitch. Just fuck off.
Monumental frustrating day.
