Aston Villa v Chelsea Post-Match Thread

[brontebilly]

Emery doubled down and the consequences were predictable. At least he shifted Buendia and Rogers around but that aside same team that flunked it v Leeds. Very strange. Kamikaze tactics at best that verged on a rabble in the second half. Going with a man less in midfield than a technically superior Chelsea was silly. Injuries in midfield aside his team is firmly in decline now. Taking off Luiz again early beggared belief. No idea where we go from here. Further down the table most likely.

Martinez 5 - couple of great saves but an unnecessary parry finished the game.
Cash 4 - roasted by Garnacho but tactically Emery had to address the space over there
Konsa 3 - miles off it in recent games, played onside for one of the goals
Mings 2 - sad but playing against a top forward tonight he was brutally exposed. Finished at the highest level
Maatsen 7 - kept trying to do the right thing, a rare positive on the night throughout
Onana 1 - charlatan of the highest order.
Luiz 7 - fine goal and was setting a good tempo - reward - hooked on the hour
Bailey 5 - fortunate assist. Better I thought, from a very low base mind
Rogers 2 - shit attitude from the start, gave away the ball constantly all night. Stayed on naturally
Buendia 5 - decent first half I thought, gave away horrible ball for one of the goals, put Ollie through
Watkins 6 - hard to rate, did a awful lot right. Movement much better, key to our goal, but horrible at the key moments

Bogarde was destroyed at right back, Sancho lovely touches and no delivery, Alysson ok, Barkley nice cross for Tammy but can't play in midfield, Tammy, maybe should score when he hit the bar

Emery - awful night, selections, subs, tactics - heart and legs gone from the team and possibly the coach.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

Hindsight wasn't needed for this one. As soon as I saw that Bailey and Watkins were starting (and I don't like Luiz and Onana as our midfield 2), I was pretty confident of a defeat, as I think many were. I didn't quite think it would be that embarrassing, though.

[curiousorange]

I could sell my soul to Satan for a win at Old Trafford and I think even he couldn't make it happen.

[pauliewalnuts]

Onana is playing like a man who get injured a lot but wants to go to the World Cup in the summer.

[PeterWithesShin]

The start of the match thread shows that virtually no one was a fan of the starting 11.

[Steve67]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

Hindsight wasn't needed for this one. As soon as I saw that Bailey and Watkins were starting (and I don't like Luiz and Onana as our midfield 2), I was pretty confident of a defeat, as I think many were. I didn't quite think it would be that embarrassing, though.

If you read my pre-match team selection, you will see that it was very different to the one selected tonight.  When we went 1-0 up, I bet there were a few who thought Emery had, in fact got it right.  The selection was wrong, plain and simple, to rely on players who might have done it at some point in the past is hurting us now. 

[Ian.]

I actually enjoyed the first half. At least we played with energy, although there were plenty of signs to tighten up at the back.

Another day, we go in at half time 2-1 to the good, but when you’re on the run we’re on, we go down 2-1 with an almost identical decision to make by VAR.

Second half we have been extremely sloppy with possession and our back line was even more shocking than the first half. Is that down to Mings or Konsa or both? Who’s in charge of that back line?

Buendia and Rogers have been so careless with the ball and it was harder for Ollie not to score than score. Suddenly instead of 2-3 we’re 4-1 down and fucked.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

Cash was walking a red card tightrope as Garnacho was seeing a hell of a lot of the ball. He didn’t show much attacking threat in the first half but that option was completely out of the window when Bogarde was put there, that attacking option was then gone, which in turn limited the options in midfield. I didn’t think either midfield was great but Dougie in the limited (2nd) time he’s been here always makes me think he’s likely to do something than Onana who’s struggling, along with the majority, at the moment.

[PaulWinch again]

That was absolute crap after the first 15 mins. It pains me to say it but smirker is right - Watkins is finished. The only players that come out of that shit with any credit are Luiz and Barkley - and McGrath only knows why Emery decided to sub Luiz. Rogers and Buendia were woeful. The reffing was also so biased it invites suggestions of corruption. Unai has been tremendous for us, and yes we do have key players missing, but we have shown nothing over the past couple of months to convince that we are Champion's League pedigree. Emery can definitely turn it around but right now his stubbornness and predictability are killing us.

I definitely think we can turn this around and I think Man Utd are going to be on the sharp end of this up turn, wait and see.

We go to Old Trafford and we win.

Ha ha ha.

We’ll get absolutely pulped in that game. 

[brontebilly]

Onana is playing like a man who get injured a lot but wants to go to the World Cup in the summer.

That and a complete absence of footballing ability. Cheers Unai

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

Hindsight wasn't needed for this one. As soon as I saw that Bailey and Watkins were starting (and I don't like Luiz and Onana as our midfield 2), I was pretty confident of a defeat, as I think many were. I didn't quite think it would be that embarrassing, though.

If you read my pre-match team selection, you will see that it was very different to the one selected tonight.  When we went 1-0 up, I bet there were a few who thought Emery had, in fact got it right.  The selection was wrong, plain and simple, to rely on players who might have done it at some point in the past is hurting us now.

I really don't think, even at 1-0, that many will have thought he got the selection right. We've all seen it too often in recent weeks to know what was coming. They cut through us willfully most of the game.

[PaulWinch again]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

There’s no hindsight about it - it was very evident, and called out, pre-game. Sadly the manager is inexplicably unaware at the moment.

[Woody17]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing…..

Go have a look at the first 4-5 pages of the match thread.
There wasn’t just the odd eye brow raised, pretty much everyone who posted said the same thing…..suicidal team selection.

[Steve67]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the side selected was not the right one, we were schooled by Chelsea this evening and failed to lay a glove on them.  Weird choices as subs, unless Cash and Luiz are carrying knocks and needed protecting.  Poor passing, poor finishing, poor movement.  Chelsea were superior in every department, we gave the ball away twice in their half and they cut through us really well to score twice.  If you start with Bailey and Buendia, as they are inferior players, we are likely to fall behind eventually, despite our positive start.  We seem to lack bottle and I hope Emery can get this lot into some sort of shape for the Lille game or we will be going out in the round of 16.  A real 1 out of 10 performance tonight.

Hindsight wasn't needed for this one. As soon as I saw that Bailey and Watkins were starting (and I don't like Luiz and Onana as our midfield 2), I was pretty confident of a defeat, as I think many were. I didn't quite think it would be that embarrassing, though.

If you read my pre-match team selection, you will see that it was very different to the one selected tonight.  When we went 1-0 up, I bet there were a few who thought Emery had, in fact got it right.  The selection was wrong, plain and simple, to rely on players who might have done it at some point in the past is hurting us now.

I really don't think, even at 1-0, that many will have thought he got the selection right. We've all seen it too often in recent weeks to know what was coming. They cut through us willfully most of the game.

Yes they did, we were far too passive.  They were absolutely dominant, possibly and embarrasingly, the easiest game they've had for a while.  Villa were absolutely horrendous tonight.

[pauliewalnuts]

Again.