Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars at http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ or with FIFA Ultimate Team for FIFA 14.
Following on from six back-to-back defeats, Aston Villa have once again found some good form in the league, and go into this fixture unbeaten in the last four league games. Their win this week over South London based side Crystal Palace will provide them with the confidence they need to get and repeat that achievement in front of their home fans against newly promoted Leicester City.
The Villans will be thrilled that their star striker Christian Benteke is back to scoring ways, and the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows why he is such a threat. Whilst not having been involved as much as he would like through injury, Benteke will always be a threat up top due to his work rate, which has also seen him win 75% of his tackles this season. He has hit a top speed of 32.88km/h so far this season, and his strength, pace and work-rate could see him add to his goals tally this weekend.
With Benteke being absent for a large part of the start of the season, the goal scoring responsibility fell on the shoulders of Andreas Weimann , who has duly delivered. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index reveals that the Austrian international has hit the target with 60% of his shots, converting 20% of his overall shots on goal. He remains Villa’s joint top scorer and his work rate remains the same, having won 68% of his 25 tackles so far this term. Villa will want to see his attacking side prevail this weekend rather than defensive duties, and he is 47/20 to score anytime with 888sport.com.
Behind the two Villas threats up front, Ashley Wetwood has been quietly getting on with his business, as revealed by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. The 24 year old English midfielder has covered just over 150km already this season, and will look to make his fitness count in the match, certainly as it wears on. He has also won 68% of his 22 tackles this season and made 20 interceptions, and will be hoping that his work rate can see him come out on top in the battle for the midfield.
Sunday’s visitors to Villa Park are fellow midlands based Leicester City, who will be looking to re-capture their early season form that saw them beat teams such as Manchester United. However, the Foxes are now without a win in nine games and will be hoping that they can reverse their fortunes come the weekend.
Key to Leicester getting anything out of the game will be solidifying things at the back, and they will look to Ritchie De Laet to deliver this for them. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index reveals that the former Manchester United full back has won 71.2% of his 66 tackles, making 77 clearances. He has also made a staggering 41 interceptions, which may present him with the opportunity to get forward and double his assists tally for the season.
In midfield, Leicester will be hoping that wide man Riyad Mahrez can continue his bright start to the season, as noted by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. The Algerian international has both created and scored a goal a piece, and he will be looking to add to his five completed crosses so far this campaign to turn provider again. He has also completed 22 dribbles so far this term and will give the option of delivery or taking on the man, which will make it tough for his opposing full back.
The man he will be looking to provide is Argentinian forward Leonardo Ulloa. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows just how important he is to The Foxes, having scored five goals so far this campaign. He has also won 23 tackles so far this season, made 21 tackles and nine interceptions, but the Leicester faithful will hope to see him going forward rather than defending. He is 5/2 to score anytime with 888sport.com.
The Author
Matt Turvey
Matt is the owner of, and chief writer for, Aston Villa Life. He is also a columnist for the Wolverhampton Express & Star, appearing in the Kick Off pullout on Saturdays and the Final Whistle pullout the Monday after Aston Villa play, as well as every Thursday as a blogger on their website. He has previously been featured as a writer on Football365 and Life's A Pitch, and was a regular pundit for Sports Tonight TV on Sky.Comments 96
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A week or so ago you wrote about your growing apathy towards Villa and I’m sure that rang true with many supporters, including myself.
I nearly wrote at the time that whilst I felt exactly the same, I was sure that it was easily rectified. . . . by a couple of wins.
Let’s hope Villa test that theory today with another win.
We should win this one on form but a home win??
Clive,
Not sure we have “form” but simply a way of (once in a while) preserving a one-goal lead. 😉
I see a repeat situation today, except that other clubs have caught on to the fact that we only score in the first half and I suspect that they will be out to out-Fox us by preventing a first-half score at all costs.
I still expect Villa to squeeze through by the narrowest of margins.
Just heard Tony Cascerino on TS whilst eating my breaky. He summed up perfectly where AV is. Nine goals all season – abysmal for a Premier League club (who have been in the PL since it’s creation – not a up and down club like the baggies) A team with non performing players -and he named Gabby , and a team which in his opinion is not set up properly and whose basic structure is all wrong . (The managers responsibility ). But the biggest damnation is that AV have been like this for four seasons – and nothing is changing . Regardless of how much PL has had to spend , in Cass’s words – we should be doing much better .
Leicester are favourites to go down , they can’t score goals (save for their burn out against Man U) and they can’t win away. Most pundits have it as a dead cert for AV , as do I. But a win will only paper over the cracks and mask the reality , we are an under performing club , and as Cass said , the fans are staying away because the football is ugly and there have been four seasons of ugly . It’s not going to change whilst the manager stays – regardless of the odd win here and there. Yes other managers have turned it around , and Paul mentioned Pardew yesterday. But Paredew hasn’t had 4 bad seasons – they finished 10th last season. Our position is different – a villa win and an excuse not to change to continue slumbering around 16th position .
And by 16th I mean where we will be end of season.
I see Nigel Pearson believes that the Villa fans can win the game today. . . . for Leicester!
They say the table doesn’t lie, and that would put us right now competing with the stokes, liverpool, everyone’s and spurs of this world between 9th and 13th.
In a strange and surprising way. . . I suppose we are.
We’ve beaten two of those and lost to two (would probably have won 3 but for Benteke’s sending off.
The only game we’ve lost against teams below us is against QPR where we dominated much of the play.
No. I’m not saying everything I as it should be, but maybe the perspective of some fans is a little out of focus.
r0bb0,
No I wouldn’t say “the perspective of some fans is a little out of focus” at all despite what you state – which can’t be ignored.
If we do finish in the top-10 this season then that would indicate that the Prem contains a lot of rubbish in depth. The number of goals we’ve scored and those we’ve conceded, and lack of playing method, all indicates that the Villa team is playing rubbish. Even a finish of 10th would not make us non-rubbish. There, I’ve said it … I feel better now! 😉
Glad you feel better John. . . . .
But I don’t agree with you.
I don’t think that Villa are a rubbish side. I do agree that at times we’ve played rubbish, but at times we’ve also played well. . . . . just not for whole games.
We’ve not been creative enough and our attackers have not been able to finish but we now seem to have a decent defence and an improving midfield.
With Benteke and Delph back I reckon we are capable of doing ok. Vlaar returning would be nice but is no longer essential, and that’s a measure of how much our defensive options have been improved.
r0bb0,
A “decent defence” is admitted and I’ve said that myself in the previous article, but a defence isn’t the measure of a good footballing team, I wouldn’t have thought. I don’t see how you can see we’re not rubbish just on the basis of the defence … who have certainly improved but have still given us a -10 GD.
Midfield? How improved? … Especially in the absence of Delph. And the only time I’ve seen Villa play reasonable football in the last 10 matches was in the first half vs Burnl;ey last week … when Cole played probably a rare match and when Burnley gave us far too much space.
If the manager doesn’t select a team with at least one imaginative player in it then there’s not much hope in my book.
we have far better players than leicester we are a far bigger club so we should win the only problem is the must not get beat mentality of our buffoon of a manager if we went at leicester from the start with grelish and robinson with tekers we would win by 3 or 4 goals but we will go out and play them as if there champions of the world like we do against every team we play with 10 men behind the ball and try to hit them on the break i am fed up with this way of playing it sends you to sleep and all home fans if they bother to turn up should be let in for free to watch this garbage Lambert out
Not going to VP this time, but will watch it on Sky with a couple of beers. Let’s hope for a great result, for the fans and for the team, and in spite of Lambert’s failure to get the team to play with the belief and the tactics they should be….
Are Aston Villa going to rename the Holte End?
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-going-rename-holte-8241185
More dissipation and a case of not knowing the value of anything?
Yeah, 16th sounds about right.
John
I’ve seen flashes of good play on a regular basis throughout the season, particularly in the first half of games. This is evidenced by the fact that if games finished at 45 minutes we’d be in the European places now!
I’m not sure if the problem in second halves is player attitude, player stamina, substitutions or managerial tactics. My view is that the first and last of these reasons are where the majority of the fault lies.
There are certain things in life: economics, religion, politics and football where real facts are hard to come by but opinions are plentiful.
One thing you can guarantee in the absence of unarguable facts is that when opinion is strongly and unanimously on one side of the argument. . . . . . it is almost invariably wrong.
That’s how economic bubbles are inflated, wars are fought and football fans forced to eat their words.
John
I saw that article on Stand naming rights too.
If part of the price for being taken over by a wealthy benefactor was playing at the Red bull villa park I’d be prepared to pay that price for seeing Villa back where we should be.
That’s not the same as giving away our history to put just a few paltry millions into the pocket of our owner with minimal improvement to the playing squad.
The table doesn’t lie – it gives you a position based on who you have played and how good and balanced your squad is overall. But it is only a true reflection of where you stand on the last day of the season. So in that sense it is misleading. I don’t think we consistently perform like a mid table team – and watching WH and Swansea God forbid we are far behind . As such, we will struggle to attract good players and hold on to our best .
Jenny, you’re right on all counts there. Our performances have been far too patchy and inconsistent and we do seem to be a long way short of west ham and Swansea.
The run into the New Year will start to give a better view as we will at least have played everyone once and if we play to our potential we should be firmly mid table by then
You’d prob get good odds on that Robbo 🙂
afternoon all
I can see both sides of the argument/discussion 😉 as robbo states the full facts are not there to make a true judgement on why we are poor, there are plenty of potential reasons but non concrete. I will say this, the mood Benteke looked in against palace, cool collected and fit should ease the scoring problems if given the chances. the return of our injured players will also change the dynamic. I can’t help but think a fit benteke in the side that started the season would of got a bigger points haul by now, and also more opportunity for the likes of grealish and robinson.
if leicester are as poor as people say we should see 3-1 today, that said we will probably struggle and scrape it 2-1 or our favorite 1-1 🙂
I give up,I really do.We are playing the bottom team,dreadful away,and Grealish still can`t get a start?Cautious,negative,spineless.
Have to agree with Mark and jenny. If Villa do well this afternoon, I am sure that Grealish will get a run-out.
Off to watch the game now. UTV. VTID…
Mark: the full facts are not there to make a true judgement on why we are poor
Agreed, but the argument was not about “why” but simply the fact that we are poor – or “rubbish” as I put it, perhaps strongly, but when it comes down to entertainment value they are rubbish i.m.o.
brasil- at least him and robinson are on the bench, you know the bloke wears pampers at night just in case. he just said you know what you can get from charley? and that means he should start? 🙂
R0bb0,
The chairman can’t even spend properly what he’s got, so whatever value there is in the Holte End name will soon get dissipated or go into his own pocket.
The ABG stand.Anyone But Grealish.
JL- maybe thats the half the problem on here, nobodies a mind reader and so much can be read into a statement. we are generally rubbish as to why take your pick. 1/4 of an hour and the seats are empty can’t be all getting a bovril
Can’t see a loss for us today = tekers back and we have a bit of fight in us — losing would be a shock result
Jen and st75 there are some more tunes online for you
brasil- how about the bus stop end ?
well that makes a change
this game is made for grealish
Well it’s been an entertaining first half
Let’s hope we can keep it going second half
In the Holte End for a change and hoping to see lots of close up action !
Disagree Mark
The 2nd half is made for LC.Cautious,regarding them as good.We approach games like a non league side hoping for a replay.If we attck we will win.However ,we are set up to contain,and defend.72 percent of the ball,but less shots than the visitors.A leopard and spots that is Lambert.
disagree on what mate? who’s lc? 🙂
we’re not moving the ball quick enough or in the right direction
LC are the team we are playing.
JG on ,finally.
Andi W.,Flabby that is how to finish.
Gabby is still important to this team but Benteke is the straw that stirs the drink, very good footballer. Can it really be that Lambert is actually using his subs properly. First Grealish on and then Bacuna. I’m in shock! Benteke has had 3 very good chances this half and he’ll start to finish them off as he gets his rhythm back. Encouraging. Hold on pls lads!
We have the extra man yet we allow Schmeicel to take the ball almost to the half way line to kick unchallenged.Come on Lambert be more offensive FFS.Another goal might do it.
Going to focus on the positives – played more attacking football, less hoof ball, a goal in the second half, two goals from our defence and 3 points. 11th place.
Lamberts still there though.
Jasus that was really hard work you would swear we were playing with 10 men and not Leicester
Woody,
Absolutely agreed. 65% possession and Benteke somewhat profligate. OK, he’s still rusty.
And r0bb0, says “Well it’s been an entertaining first half”. Well, this is the bottom of the league team we’re playing and we must have expected Villa to have ruled the match as we have pretty well all agreed that our players (man for man) are much better than Leicester’s.
But after the first 30 minutes it was heavy going for Villa. Grealish did open the game a bit, and Bacuna an improvement on Zoggy I thought.
Now for Albyun.
PHEW!
so it was the scrape a 2-1 version of the game then, made hard going of it and the constant putting our own players under pressure by not looking up before passing in the first half was terrible, I counted 8 in the 1st half one led to westwoods injury.
Clarke and Okore continue to impress, clarke is reborn have never seen him so confident and assertive. question is if Lambert is making good players bad how come Clarke has improved? marshall maybe?
gre;ish must start with tekkers up front build the team around them did not miss westwood at all as i said him and cleverly are clones only one of them should ever play still want lambert out we would have beat these 3 or 4 with the right team
Villa have scored 10 goals and conceded 19 and they are 1 point above a team that has scored 24 and conceded 23 !!! None of this makes sense . I’m delighted we won today , but we all know how shit we are ,,,,,,,,,,how shit must most of the teams around us be? We should change our motto from ‘Prepared ‘ to ‘Counter-intuitive’ If we beat the baggies and on form we should , we could then have a right go at utd in villa park. If lambert and co want the fans back on side , there’s a golden opportunity. I hate those fockers using VP as target practice.
11th and above everton and they have played pretty much the same teams as us, very strange league.
JL- N’zogbia is poor isn’t he, the whole injury to westwood and cleverly situ forced Lamberts hand, would love to have seen grealish on from the start with the space leicester gave us.
John, you’re right about Benteke still being slightly rusty. On another day he’d have had a hatrick. We weren’t short of chances today so we can’t complain about that.
Still not happy about the lack of composure in the second half though.
When’s delph due back ?
I hate to sond like a Fleet Street twot,but Clark looks so focused.He looks confident beside Okore,not nervous and pancked-if there is such a word.
JD agree about Tekkers and JG,but we will miss Westie,not today,but in the coming games.
LC were over physical,Hutton for England,or for Scotland,or for The Falklands,or for the Orkneys,or for someone,ha,ha,.
CNZ don`t persist with this player,give JG an extended run,let`s see what he can do with an 8 game stint,then rest him if needs be.
prox- he’s back in training maybe manure
Positives – great goals by Clark and Hutton . We have reached double figures in goals scored and Benteke nearly back to his best. More possession and played like the home side for once . Leicester were awful but actually played better with 10 men and gave us a good few panics those last 10 mins!
‘but we will miss Westie,not today,but’ someday and for the rest of our lives ? Hmm , not so much mate , we have his twin , Notso , and it kinda forces lamberts hand now . The ship is steadied , we need to start cannibilising teams around us , we have a tough patch from late jan on and we better have close on 30 points in the bag or we could have issues.
We did show some more attacking intent in the first half. Sanchez was further forward and we had some real width.
I’d like to see us breaking quickly every now and then though.
I don`t pay my BBC licence fee,obviously,but wouldn`t those revenues be better spent than being lectured by Jermaine Jenas on the BBC website about how Villa fans should react to Hutton.Utter knob-if I may use that word Steamer.Typical parasite reaction,a total knob.If it was Romario,or Johan C. saying this then,ok I might listen,but JJ?Get off the stage you knob.
Brasil ,
Maybe Hutton is the reason for Keanes departure , could’nt see him taking too much crap from anybody.
Mark ,
I know villa wont win anything for a long time , but i’d love to see them target certain games to end long running hoodoo’s or failing that to kick seven shades of shit out of big reputation teams.
we have a lot of players on 4 yellows, hope westwoods injury not bad.
JG and CB on the same wave length I think weiman would be a better fit with those 2 than gabby. would go weiman and tekkers up top grealish to link the mid
richardson was poor and sanchez was everywhere, still makes a few cock ups but is improving
Just seen your post Runtingz – thankyou – will look forward to listening to them 🙂 x
Mark
I liked the look of Sanchez today,but I think he lacks a bit of confidence.A bit too hesitant at times for me.A win at Albion would give evryone a bit of confidence,in terms of selections and use of subs one of -Lambert`s big weaknesses IMO.
Hey … I’ve just woken up! … we scored a second half goal – AND it’s the latest in a match so far! Wow, we must be getting fitter!
prox- we have bucked some of our recent trends this season, beating teams around us but losing to top teams, maybe its time for a villa win against manure? long overdue.
against manure
same defence
sanchez
cleverly grealish delph
weimann/robinson benteke
I was never a fan of westwood but like him alot now. His delievery is much better.
Cleverly and nzog should be gone. A midfield of sanchez, delph and westwood should be a bit more positive. Need to play with a quicker tempo and more forward passing……..ah whats the point of getting excited. We will spend 8 mill on cleve and delph will be sold.
Im just going to be happy about winning today and have a bit of breathing space from relegation battle
Mark,
More-or-less agree with your Man U match team selection, but sorry, I’d still think that Gabby and not Weimann/Robinson would be better. Maybe Robinson to come on as sub for Gabby after 60 mins.
Good selection Mark. I’ll go with that.
Just a thought , could we use Hutton to anchor midfield if we were stuck?
prox- don’t think hutton is good enough on the ball for that position, he caused a few problems with his passing today as did a few.
JL- gabby was given MOM but I can’t work out how, clarke played a great game could of had 2 goals to boot. got nothing against gabby I just think in the past weimann has worked well around benteke and robinson has elements of the two with better finishing, he is unlikely to get the shout over those 2 though. gabby on 4 yellows along with hutton at the moment
has clarke got quicker?
“How shit must you be, we’re winning at home ”
“How shit must you be, we’ve scored more than once”
How shit must you be, we’ve scored down the Holte”
Okore, top class tonight. Fantastic. Lamberk will probably drop him though when Vlaar is back. Hutton, a new man. Great finish as well
Benteke. Legend. Top class is everything he does. Gabby, shocking and clueless as usual. We are so much better with no Wiemann wide right. Grealiah, scuffed his chance. So wanted the kid to score. Nearly got a nice assist to the beast to but a great save.
Still parked the bus even when they went down to 10 men. We can’t keep the ball.
Now let’s go and beat WBA and get 10th place like we should have done last season.
Grealish
Frem,
Well, I can’t agree with you quite on CB and certainly not on Gabby. Gabby did provide Grealish with a good op to score and made a couple of other raids of significant value and worked hard. Benteke has much more ability and didn’t score to take advantage of that ability. But I’ll allow he’s a bit rusty.
Agreed on Clark though, closely followed by Okore and Sanchez.
Hutton, though, if you look closely, was remiss on his covering a couple of times and might have given them opportunities. Otherwise very good.
Aw gee they won. Happy for Hutton, Sanchez is getting better. Okore and Clarke-who would have thought? Clarke got a goal. I liked that.
Confidence is coming back. Got all excited mid second half.
I think the ref got it right. The player who fouled Hutton was worth a yellow and then he decided to go a little ape shit. That to me is an instigator and now deserved a red. Hutton’s retaliation was a yellow and that was fair. I thought the ref did a good job. Benteke does know the off side rule doesn’t he? I suppose going offside stops play and that could be a good thing but still.
That liecester keeper is off next season if they go down.
John- Was it a miss by the Beast or a very good save ?
He’s just wonderful in my eyes:) his hold up play is top draw, he got the assist for Hutton, he’s just a huge threat
Gabby- I can’t see what he did. I said to the guy I was with today I haven’t seen two worse footballers in the league than Gabby or Wiemann yet and he agreed. Gabby has no first touch. He controlled the ball in about the 60th min and the guy behind stood up and shouted ” Jesus, that’s the first thing he’s controlled in 5 bloody seasons”. He seemed to of gave the ball away pretty much every time he got it. His movement of the ball is non existent. He jut generally doesn’t look like he knows where he is on a football pith. And to play him in a creative role says all you need to know about the Berk.
I’m gunna re watch the game now I’ve recorded on Sky. Didn’t see that on Hutton but you don’t see everything live
Okore and Clark. Keep them. Sell Vlaar
As Dwight Yorke said before the game, Lamberk needs to get bums back on seats by attacking at home and not parking e bus
Nice to see Cleverly not stuck wide left either. Useless there.
Jan, yet again, we need a right winger. Wiemann and Zoggy are useless there. Maybe start Bacuna. Richardson. Got to stop bringing him on.
Hello again.
Good to see Villa have some football in them after the atrocious display at Palace. As most have noted, the lack of composure at the end is still troubling. If they can just keep playing this way, they will probably be able to speed things up. Lack of confidence, mainly.
There was much more attacking intent, and if it weren’t for some great saves, we’d have had three or four. Sanchez looks as though he’s starting to settle in. Okore is starting to come up to speed. Benteke will only get sharper. Lovely unselfish layoff to Hutton.
Not going to get excited…just hoping the flashes we’ve seen the last two weekends can be built on.
Ian…many apologies, owe you a line. Finally moved in and unpacked. Long haul, but enjoying the house immensely.
JL- feel the same as you on hutton john, still 4 times the defender lowton is but wish he had lowtons delivery.
gabby has turned into a jack of all trades to his detriment as a pacey forward, he is without doubt expanding, why he won’t drop a stone god only knows. he was still out of breath receiving man of the match and he’s got zits!! that my friends is poor diet.
frem- nice to see you with at least a small smile on your face mate, Vlaar can defo go baker and senderos enough cover. to many injuries not enough influence as captain for me. would love to keep him fully fit but he ain’t.
what was the gate?
27 thousand Mark. Wonder if Lamberk will say it’s because of the cold again.
Only his 13th home win as manager. He is one shocking football manager
Mark, agreed … What? I agree??? Somats wrong! 😉 The gate was 27k I think.
Frem: “Was it a miss by the Beast or a very good save ?” Both i.m.o. mate. CB put the ball much too close to the keeper – he was not challenged for the header and should have buries it in the corner. Clark, in fact, showed how it should be done – he put the ball well out of reach of the keeper, and his was more difficult to control I think.
Frem – on Gabby. I agree that Gabby is due criticism – in particular there are many times when he just does not seem to care how he controls the ball or how he runs with it. The next moment he runs down an attacker and gets the ball off him. He’s a mixed up player. But today (against the league’s bottom side, admittedly) he did a lot more as I saw it, including the set up for Grealish.
JC- as much as the team gets knocked last season we would have made an utter
mess of that game. this time we looked like the only ones that would cause us a problem. among many things we need to find a greater level of competency, we look panicked in possession but surprisingly its an improvement on what’s gone before. if we can’t shake Lambert we have to hope circumstance forces changes in his thinking and we begin to place trust in the likes of grealish.
JL- agreed again, benteke went for the wrong corner of the goal. clarke has great movement in the box for a defender and being able to pick your spot while watching the flight of the ball is a skill few achieve even at this level.
Great result, even if its was a pure scrap. Clarke outstanding again for me , and Hutton….How the f**k was Gabby MOM?????
Guzan, mixed, made some good saves, and also let in a soft one. The rest are getting there, but Zoggy was poor, and Cleverley not much better. Glad to see Grealish come on, hopefully, he will start against the baggies.Bacuna could be ok with Hutton behind him.
Was the goal against Villa slightly deflected? to me it looked like Guzan set up only to have it go to his left. I watched replays and couldn’t be sure.
Gabby is a reflection of Villa as a whole. Great and full of energy at times but lacking in concentration and application at others.
Starts really well but tends to run out of steam in the second half
Can compete with anyone on a good day but doesn’t score enough goals.
He’s still a good player and still scares defenders but I’m not sure he can do it for a whole game
John
Agree about Benteke. . . . he should have scored the header. He was angry at himself for missing it and it took him a few minutes to get over it.
If it had been Gabby who didn’t score from the one on one then some one here would have been having a right go at him. . . . . naming no names.
Benteke exudes class though and will score plenty for us this year.
ian- defo deflected off of clarke, guzan has spilled a few of late though.
robbo- maybe if gabby was put on the bench and used as an impact sub he might lose a bit of chub and fight for his place
Have just received a text from friend who was at the game “if you took away the stands and the supporters you could have been watching a game down the local park “. Made me smile .
Having just watched motd it looks as if I owe gabby an apology. He created some of out best chances even late on in the second half
Could it be that Koncheski was getting a yellow card for the tackle and then both he and Hutton were given yellows for the argy bargy turning Koncheski’s yellow into a red? I guess the ref would have had to show both cards to him if that was the case
Good job Nugent didn’t score from that shot that Guzan saved as he was offside.
There was a worse missed offside in the Swansea game. Carroll was more than a metre offside for the ball he flicked onto Sakho to score.
Funny how if you look on the west ham sites now there’s nobody calling for Allardyce to go because of his poor managerial skills and negative tactics.
Amazing what a few wins can do
i agree about scabby but as kean said and you could see he was out of breath he is not fit if he was to lose a stone he would be fitter and quicker keane was only telling him the truth and spotty face is bad diet we where better with grelish and bacuna on going forward grelish has to start games and robinson to come on
“Gabby, shocking and clueless as usual. We are so much better with no Wiemann wide right.”
You must have been watching a different game to me mate.
Weimann? If I’m honest I just don’t get him, just what does he offer other than running around like a headless chicken?
Young Mr Greailish the potentials there for all to see but he’s just far to casual, he looks likes he still thinks he playing for the under 18, reserves or what ever they call it now, he needs to quicken up in not just his play but also his thinking.
R0bb0,
Dead right about Benteke … hs is real class, no doubt, and for that I (we?) expect more of him perhaps.
Gabby mostly did well i.m.o. – but I’d have said Clark for MotM.
Ian,
Yes, their shot for the goal *did* have a slight deflection … but it was very slight and Guzan had time to correct himself i.m.o.
But Guzan made up for it afterwards I think.
Agree about Sanchez improving but it looked to me that everytime he got the ball, our momentum slowed down. He looks better as a holding midfielder than going up front. Plus he committed another unnecessary foul near the box late in the game, he gives the opposition one every match in those areas.