duke313 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, ender4 said: Only one of those teams needs to go on a run for us to fail with our season objective. We just gonna collapse aye? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Zatman Posted January 16 Popular Post Share Posted January 16 (edited) Its like the old relegation threads all over. Newcastle and United are going to hit prime Barcelona form while we will automatically revert back to 2015/16 Villa Edited January 16 by Zatman 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 11 minutes ago, duke313 said: We just gonna collapse aye? Nope cos I think we’ll finish 4th. Just saying that only 1 team needs to gain on us and that if one of them manages to beat us that will close the gap a little. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 5 hours ago, Zatman said: Its like the old relegation threads all over. Newcastle and United are going to hit prime Barcelona form while we will automatically revert back to 2015/16 Villa I've been criticized for pointing out the often over the top pessimism on here from some. It's palpable 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 16 hours ago, ender4 said: Nope cos I think we’ll finish 4th. Just saying that only 1 team needs to gain on us and that if one of them manages to beat us that will close the gap a little. One of those team likely will go on a decent run, but my point was people seem to think that, and think we won't also go on a run. We have the second most points in 2023, we're more likely to go on a run than any of those teams. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) 15 minutes ago, duke313 said: One of those team likely will go on a decent run, but my point was people seem to think that, and think we won't also go on a run. We have the second most points in 2023, we're more likely to go on a run than any of those teams. I think the big difference is we have those extra European games whereas Spurs haven’t. I mention Spurs as I think they are the only team that are a threat and have a big squad. Screw Man U, Newcastle and West Ham. Edited January 17 by Vive_La_Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 44 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I think the big difference is we have those extra European games whereas Spurs haven’t. I mention Spurs as I think they are the only team that are a threat and have a big squad. Screw Man U, Newcastle and West Ham. I think while it will force some tricky fixtures - it's not nearly as bad as the group games. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I think the big difference is we have those extra European games whereas Spurs haven’t. I mention Spurs as I think they are the only team that are a threat and have a big squad. Screw Man U, Newcastle and West Ham. Yep. Spurs are the only ones who could stop us getting top 4 at this stage in the season,given the number of games left. Newcastle, Man Utd, Chelsea & Brighton have too many points to make up. Even if we dropped to 1.6ppg and they went to 2.3 (similar ppg to Liverpool) it will be difficult for them to overtake us. I don't think West Ham is consistent enough to get top 4 either. Edited January 17 by Made In Aston 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 1 hour ago, DJBOB said: I think while it will force some tricky fixtures - it's not nearly as bad as the group games. In some ways i agree, but the intensity of the games will go up and we won't be able to play second string players as we get to the later rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 22 minutes ago, ender4 said: In some ways i agree, but the intensity of the games will go up and we won't be able to play second string players as we get to the later rounds. It will be an extra 7 games making it to the final of ECL, which is why it was important we bypassed that play-off round by topping the group. Likewise, it could be 5+ games getting to the final of the FA Cup, so which tournament should we priorities, as it will be hard to stay in both while fighting for 4th place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 36 minutes ago, ender4 said: In some ways i agree, but the intensity of the games will go up and we won't be able to play second string players as we get to the later rounds. It will depend a lot on the draw too. Something in Western Europe would be a lot better than hiking it out to Tel Aviv. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 On 16/01/2024 at 16:38, ender4 said: Only one of those teams needs to go on a run for us to fail with our season objective. Man. United had that 6/7 over October/November and still got nowhere near us. Chelsea are actually on a good run currently by their standards in last 18 months, 4 wins from their last 5 prem games, still 12 points off us. Guess only caution is this time last year we were 8 points off Spurs having played a game more: Aston Villa 2-1 Leeds United: Jesse Marsch praises 'best performance' in loss - BBC Sport Funny looking at that we finished above Spurs but couldn't get above Liverpool and Brighton who were only 2-3 clear of us at the time. Despite our mad winning run through March-April we still didn't get anywhere near Man. United or Newcastle, they were both 10 points clear for us looking at that table so we're in a very strong position currently. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 5 hours ago, DJBOB said: It will depend a lot on the draw too. Something in Western Europe would be a lot better than hiking it out to Tel Aviv. We play Spurs three days after the first leg so getting a long away trip wouldn't be that great unless UE gambles it all on the second leg and we send a similar mix and match team that we did to Warsaw. I think Spurs at home is actually one of our hardest fixtures left because of us playing them straight after europa resumes. If we get a home leg first that should be more manageable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWARLEY2 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Spurs are a big concern to be fair. They look good. Very open but good. Their form has been really consistent bar the 5 game nightmare in late November/december. But as usual Unai will find a way to win 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 16 hours ago, DJBOB said: I think while it will force some tricky fixtures - it's not nearly as bad as the group games. Also, this is Knockout Football. I would imagine it was quite emotionally challenging to get up for a trip to Mostar, (lovely city that it is), when you've already qualified. The next batch of European games are going to be electric for fans and players. Shit gets real now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) 9 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Spurs are a big concern to be fair. They look good. Very open but good. Their form has been really consistent bar the 5 game nightmare in late November/december. But as usual Unai will find a way to win We'll know if 5th is likely for the extra CL place after the next round of games in Europe. We need the Italian teams to go out. I'd be confident in Bayern dumping Lazio out. It's Inter Atleti and Barca Napoli which are the ones that can go either way. So come mid March we'll see how we've got on during the easier fixtures run with Sheffield, Luton, Fulham, Forest etc.. and ideally the 5th CL place is closer to confirmed. The tricky issues is our ECL games. Luton (A), ECL(A), Spurs(H), ECL(H), West Ham(A) We need to take the risk for that round and just go with the rotation in Europe and focus on the Spurs game as the must win and a point at Spammers Edited January 18 by CVByrne 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 We really have to get UCL this year after that start. Spurs buying well. Utd might stop being a mess at some point (not this season). Newcastle won't have the normal challenges we will going forward because they aren't a football club. Thank God we have Unai. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) On 17/01/2024 at 21:30, MWARLEY2 said: Spurs are a big concern to be fair. They look good. Very open but good. Their form has been really consistent bar the 5 game nightmare in late November/december. But as usual Unai will find a way to win I was thinking of a scenario. Say Spurs come 5th and we end up 6th. And we get to the ECL final. If we win it and get some euro glory that would be brilliant. But if that put up the co-efficient thingy which results in 5th getting Champions League that would indirectly massively help one of our rivals. We would get a nice trophy and some money but small feed compared to the CL. And if we got 6th that would usually get you Europa anyway. Would be peak Villa to end up doing something like that. Uefa should allow both winners of the Europa and ECL to the Champions League that would help out the smaller clubs too much. Edited January 19 by The Fun Factory 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 We would have to really collapse to go to 6th given that West Ham are the closest and they're already 9 points behind. I think the most likely scenario is that all 5 places go to UCL so all we can do is our part of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 (edited) Any chance that Crystal Palace can play well enough today to make Arsenal drop points? If Arsenal win they go ahead of us again. Edited January 20 by ender4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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