nick76

It’s just crazy the lack of stock, in the shop and online. I’ve been twice in the last month to the shop and nothing above large really, talk about losing out on money. Do they just not want to sell anymore!!!

We played badly, away from home, with 10 men and if not for a dodgy refs decision we would’ve come away with a draw. Got to be a positive there surely.

Just want to highlight this again today after the result. Don’t linger on one game, it’s about the season.

We aren’t getting fair calls from the refs, Billing re Bournemouth and this ref today especially for the goal. Costing us badly needed points.

We were not good enough but that ref was a disgrace. I can’t remember such a poor/biased/corrupt ref performance than that and we should’ve snuck away with an undeserved draw.

Been hard playing against 12 men, especially now we only have 10 men. We should’ve been able to deal with that situation with Ayew though.

That ref is shocking!!!

Friday was still magical, it wasn’t forced, it wasn’t set up, just 40k Villa fans starting to believe again and falling in love with our club again. End of last season was the dating, playoff final was the third date evening special and Friday we realised we were in love and told the whole world. My 40 year love affair of the Villa has had highs and lows....Friday was certainly a high. I know there will be more highs to come and more lows throughout the rest of my life but Friday will be a game I remember just like those other special games down the years. What’s more it was just a regular season game, not a final or a local rival game but there was something special to it. One thing I think we all should remember though, this doesn’t mean we are back, it means we got 3 points. We could just as easily lose the next 5 league games so we need to enjoy the night and memories but remember this is marathon not a sprint. We get high because the atmosphere of the game but not too over the top about the result, just as we shouldn’t get too disheartened or abusive if we lose some games. Target is 40 points, we are 3 points closer to that. Bring this atmosphere to each game and the 40 points is more than achievable. Embrace and enjoy what Friday was, it was amazing...we are all in this together...owners, management, team and fans, and that’s how we’ll survive this season. We celebrate together, we commiserate together. We finally have a connection between fans and the club, it’s going to be a hard season, let’s stick together and as fans let’s bring that atmosphere to every game because we are the 12th man.

My thoughts exactly.

Just got back.....11 out of 10 for all of them.....who gives a toss, we friggin well won, kept a clean sheet, Wes scored and the fans were magnificent. Just a great night!!!

Deciding whether a player is shit or not after 4 games is a little crazy don’t you think? It’s not as if all around him has been working great, that we are in a higher league and we are used to winning in the championship. The kid cost over 20m, new team, new country, new language, higher league for him and the rest of the team but before the end of August you could’ve written him off..... Added to that you are relying on Kodjia who hasn’t been the same for us since his big injury a while back. Yes, I heard he had a good AFCON but for us he’s been poor in the CHAMPIONSHIP since the injury and now you want him to perform in the PL. Give Wes a chance because at the very least we have no other options.

See that's where I'm optimistic, I can see that a few things here and there combined with cutting out silly errors and we will be ok. We did ok at Spurs given they are champions league calibre and we are newly promoted and even though we didnt deserve it in the end we couldve snuck out a draw almost. Against Bournemouth, a stupid penalty in the first minute and then the combination of a silly dummy and a deflection meant we were two down in 10 minutes. For me we were then the better team. Yes we need to see more from Wes but we can say that about almost all the players. Coming into the season expecting everything to click seems a high expectation whereas I thought we'll grow into the season and aside from the results that is what I expect to see. I saw us as the better team against Bournemouth who are an established premiership team, that's not a bad thing in our second game back. A bit of luck i.e. the second goal doesnt get the deflection and Bournemouth's Philip Billing getting sent off for one of his 3 possible second yellow card offenses before half time would've meant playing against 10 men for 45 minutes would surely have given us even more chance to score. So as i say a bit of luck and it couldve been so different and we would be here talking about a good start to the season with a good defensive performance against Spurs despite losing and then a draw or win against Bournemouth. I know all ifs and buts, but in the above paragraph I'm talking only about small slices of luck......... As for Wes, I'll start judging him after 10-12 games, not 2 games......to be honest I probably wont really judge him until January transfer window. I do agree we shouldve had a second striker brought in, we shouldve had options because for me, both Davis and Kodjia arent good enough

you are going to have a very long, rough season if you think this. It would be hard enough if the rest of the team was all cohesive and had been working together for at least six months rather than basically a new team in a harder league.

Yeah agreed, bad mistake but certainly paid up for it with his performance following that and the goal was a bonus. His performance though really impressed me, not for how the game went but his potential for the rest of the season as he grows into the role.

I completely agree. I'm even less fussed about him taking on players, just want him to influence the game more. I believe he will as the season progresses and I fully understand the stats some people are saying, just from my point of view watching the games he's been poor. I'm not expecting man of the match performances or anything like that but most things will always hinge around him going forwards because our team is set up like that. He'll get there.........

I think Wesley will be fine and really grow into the role. I think his link play is going to be vital to us this season and players will feed off him. Not expecting him to get a great haul of goals to be honest but I dont think that is what he has been brought in for....he's here to help the team score more goals. He was always going to struggle initially being a big step up in league for him and the team, he has to drop deeper to get involved as the rest of the team are also learning about the league so arent getting to him or utilising him effectively and they are all getting to know each other. I saw enough in preseason to see he has talent that now has to be brought out in the PL.

I know slightly off topic but watching the Man City/Spurs game, the 94 minute goal ruled out for handball by Laporte is just ridiculous. I know they have changed the rule that any handball/ball to hand leading to a goal is not counted is plain stupid. Ball to hand should never be an excuse to rule out a goal, it's just life. It should only be deliberate intention that should rule out a goal.....another bizarre rule change. The game has been brilliant for more than a century and yet the last twenty or so years they keep making slight changes, just leave it. Happy for VAR to come in as long as everybody understands and it doesnt slow the game but these other changes they can bugger off. On topic, Martin Atkinson was awful.....

Agreed

Need more from him. I’m surprised on the above stats because watching the game that didn’t come across. He’s our best player, we need him to be our best player but poor two games so far from him.

Lost the game in the first 12 minutes and then were the better team for the rest of the match with just no ability to score the goals needed unfortunately. I’m surprisingly not as disappointed as I thought I would be because I can see upsides. We need to cut out silly mistakes and we need to be better in the final third. Mings and Engels were great again and I can’t believe I’m saying that considering they have conceded 5 goals in two games but they were. We need Jack desperately but he was poor again today. He’s not my scapegoat before anybody says anything as there was other problems but we need him to perform for this team to click. We might rue not getting another striker in. still think once we settle and gel a bit better we have a decent team and IMO we were the better team today. We need to cut out mistakes, gel a bit and figure out how to score some goals. Great goal by Luiz though.

If Kodja goes, then this has to be considered a serious option.

We said that about a winger when Green went out on loan and the same again when Hogan went out on loan.

Sitting back? I thought it was more like we couldn’t get out because the quality of the opposition pressured us so much, on and off the ball that we couldn’t do anything. We know Dean isn’t a sit back type of manager which suggests we just couldn’t get out. Sometimes you have to realise that the opposition was better.

Where has my Jota gone from preseason ?

I was just writing the same thing...thanks, saves me finishing my typing.