Aston Villa v Chelsea Post-Match Thread

[olaftab]

Chucking away Champions League qualification from the position we’d gotten ourselves into would be unacceptable.

If unacceptable happens you would obviously  want Unai to be sacked?

No. I always find this type of reaction odd, you can be critical of the the team and still support it. The levels of performance of late, both tactical and physical, have not been good enough and yesterday’s performance and result was unacceptable. “Unacceptable” does not mean sack everyone - it means don’t do it again. Unai needs to reflect as what he’s doing at the moment is not working. I still think he’s the right man, but he’s not infallible and he needs to stop repeating very obvious mistakes.

But you said "unacceptable" which to me means you are saying his position is not acceptable?

[Steve67]

The only freakish thing about it is that our world class manager seems to have a blind spot. Both the Wolves game and the Chelsea game were inept performances. Utterly unacceptable, without heart or fight.

I dont accept that there was no heart of fight. We lack quality, depth and possibly a bit of belief. We were a inch from going 2-1 in front last night but like i said, the quality and class told in the end.

We definitely gave both clubs named way too much respect, no aggression whatsoever from Villa. For me, fight/aggression can be used interchangeably. Working hard to close down, disrupting their passing etc, all really poor.

[PaulWinch again]

Last night was unacceptable. Doesn’t mean it’s not recoverable.

[Des Little]

What pissed me off more than anything else last night was us standing and watching them take the absolute piss by delaying the kick off to hold a huddle on the centre circle, on our pitch - not once, but twice.

Says a lot about where we are mentally if we stand for that blatant disrespect. We need leaders right now and clearly we don’t. Lions my arse.

[simboy]

One thing we did do well last night? Make Garnacho look worth the money. Well done the right side of the Villa and all those associated with it.

[Clampy]

What pissed me off more than anything else last night was us standing and watching them take the absolute piss by delaying the kick off to hold a huddle on the centre circle, on our pitch - not once, but twice.

Says a lot about where we are mentally if we stand for that blatant disrespect. We need leaders right now and clearly we don’t.

You're wrong. When they did it at the start of the second half, two or three of our players were complaining to the ref.

[curiousorange]

Garnacho is going to be one of those McMana an/El Kaabi/Nakhi Wells players whose world class performances only come against us.

[brontebilly]

I’m not a huge fan of xG, but 0.78 vs 3.60 tells its own story. We had a few chances but they were cutting us open at will.

The way I saw it too. Pedro should have equalised soon after we scored. Far too narrow in midfield and our centre backs didn't know whether to stick or twist.

[Richard E]

What pissed me off more than anything else last night was us standing and watching them take the absolute piss by delaying the kick off to hold a huddle on the centre circle, on our pitch - not once, but twice.

Says a lot about where we are mentally if we stand for that blatant disrespect. We need leaders right now and clearly we don’t.

You're wrong. When they did it at the start of the second half, two or three of our players were complaining to the ref.

I couldn’t understand for the life of me why the referee just let them carry on with it. The half time break had been nearly twenty minutes as it was!

[PeterWithe]

I didn't think we were terrible, but we had Ollie on the end of our chances and they didn't. And he was one of our best players, apart from in front of goal. We tried, we battled, we ran, but weren't good enough. I give a lot of credit to Chelsea, who I thought were as good as I've seen at VP this year, they were brutally efficient at exposing our structural and individual weaknesses and it was something of a relief they declared at 4. Their speed in transition was something else, quickly getting the ball forward and wide to get us on the back foot and pinned in our half.

They had clearly identified that Rogers either doesnt get back at all or if he does, is attracted to the ball centrally leaving loads of space behind to get the full back into, and did it over and over without a reaction.

In all I thought that they did to us what we are capable of doing do weaker teams when we are on it, creating a few chances, taking them, then keeping the ball and killing the game. Someone said there is a smell of the end of a era and I can see something in that, we look a little old, lacking in vigour, pace, aggression and ideas.

I hope Unai sticks around to supervise a rebuild.

[PeterWithe]

PS, Ollie missed chances but Tammy missed the easiest of the lot, although there only seemed to be about half a dozen left to witness it.

[Duncan Shaw]

I thought we looked a lot brighter than we have, even at 1-1 we seemed to go again and were on the front foot, but the two VARs shot the team and then the crowd.  Where did he find 8 mins from?  After that it was as bad as it has been for a long time.  Dougie and Alysson the only ones to come out of it with any credit.  I disagree with a lot of what people are saying about Barkley - he was awful, giving it away, can;t run, the midfield poured through even more once he was on.  Yes he did a couple of decent passed once it was 4-1 and they weren't bothered anymore.  But most of my ire is for Onana.  Our record signing, who Unai urged to be "the man" in our hour of injury need, and apart from Newcastle away he has been like a league one player.  I also worry that Rogers and Konsa look like they can't wait to get away now as well.

Worst of all though, I bought my Lille ticket while we were having a pint in the Warehouse, when my son reminded me our window has opened, so I do it all again!

Then, M1, M40, M25 all shut so get home at quarter to one to cap the night off.

[PeterWithe]

Oh, and I got a parking ticket. Magic.

[brontebilly]

Agreed on Barkley, his lack of mobility is laughable in a midfield two. Bring him on as a 10 sure if we are dominating possession but we need to pad out midfield for a few weeks instead. He's never been any kind of solution.

It's the same with Sancho, lovely touches but a bit of space for a cross and he either duffs it or rolls it back to the full back. Broke nicely with the ball at one stage before he realised he was outnumbered and just stopped. A nothing player.

The two of them are poster boys for career underachievement.

[PeterWithe]

I didn't think Barkley was bad, he seemed to get the ball played forward pretty quickly, he has to be very careful when playing as a DM, he has to play the ball quickly to whatever is on at the time as if he gets caught in possession, he hasn't got the legs to get back and recover the ball.