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.

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Chelsea come in to this weekend’s match after picking up a point at the Etihad last Sunday. They sit top of the league with a total of thirteen points from a possible fifteen. Villa, however, are only three points behind Chelsea and a win this weekend would see them go level on points with the Blues.

Chelsea’s main attacking outlet was yet again through Eden Hazard against Manchester City. Hazard added seven dribbles to his tally for the season. His seven successful dribbles was more than anyone else in the league last weekend, and means he has now completed 31 successful dribbles this season, fourteen more than anyone else, according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Ramires recorded a pass completion rate of 93.8% last weekend, and the only player to top that was Eden Hazard. The Brazilian midfielder is beginning to show a vast improvement in his passing accuracy, with his pass completion being 79.8% prior to Chelsea’s fixture last weekend, and he will be hoping to continue this in to the Villa game.

Cesar Azpilicueta was the player to record the most sprints of any Chelsea player against City, racking up 54 sprints over the course of the 90 minutes, according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, and the fullback is likely to start again this weekend.

Aston Villa forward Gabby Agbonlahor has clocked the fastest speed out of any Aston Villa player. This season, he has been recorded running at 34.4km/h this season, which puts him right up there with the fastest in the league according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Despite being pipped to the title of being the fastest player at Villa, Fabian Delph has sprinted more than any of his teammates, also placing himself second in the Premier League for number of sprints. According to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, Delph has sprinted 277 times so far this season.

Lambert’s style of play is evident this year, with fullbacks pushing on and delivering balls in to the forward. The two wingbacks, Aly Cisshoko and Alan Hutton have more crosses between them than the rest of the squad combined, with sixteen apiece, according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Comments 121

  1. Well I am off to the The Bridge today for the first time.

    It will be interesting to see how we bounce back or otherwise from last week.

    Updates thru the day!

  2. Well I’m dreading it. Lamberk has lost all four times he’s managed at the Bridge. Who can forget the 8-0? Then a few few days later, 4-0, the a few days later 3-0, then came Bradford, then Newcastle and saints beat us at VP who at the time were relegation strugglers, then came Millwall. All that in about 4 weeks. Great times.

    Anyway, I see Lamberk has said we were top open against Arsenal ? Mmm. I can’t remember us doing anything in the second, anything what so ever. He says we won’t go there and play free flowing football. LMAO!!! When have we ever played free flowing football ? He says we have to go back to basics. I’m thinking it’s going to be an extremely ultra defensive system again where Wiemann and Gabby so are attackers, actually tasked with defending duties for 90 mins

    Start Grealish. Start Grealish. Start Grealish

  3. I don’t think so Frem.

    Much as I would like to see Grealish’s skills, would you trust Phil Dowd to protect him from being constantly hacked by Chelski defenders?

    We need some grit on the pitch today to deal with them, and need to attack their weak spots.

    Looking forward to the game and a couple of beers.

  4. A fleet of buses will be well and truly parked at the bridge today . Lambert will go and try and shore it up from the off and pray for a point, it won’t be pretty and ultimately it won’t work, but what options do we have??? He doesn’t know any other way, the players aren’t good enough to play any other way, we have very little fire power or creativity in our ranks and what little we do have Lambert fails to utilise properly or get the best out of. Today is men against boys, princes against paupers( relatively speaking) and I fully expect a thumping, which will kill any confidence or belief they had, the cracks that were papered over are coming back through and I foresee another season of struggle, we simply have to try and get through these next few games with some integrity intact, and a couple of points would be nice.
    5-0 Chelsea 🙁

  5. frem- life must be a non-stop round of fun for you 😉

    what does this mean mate ? just asking as I haven’t a clue 🙂

    “Anyway, I see Lamberk has said we were top open against Arsenal ?”

  6. Probably get a bit of a hiding, but it won’t be 8-0. I’ll be truly happy to be proven wrong about the hiding. If Villa can at least get a point, it’ll be a moral victory given recent results at Stamford B.
    The defence, especially Hutton must get it right today. They’ll be running their arses off , so apt positioning and marking will be the key.

  7. as I see it as long as today isn’t embarrassing that’s 3 points from 3 games where we were are not expected to get any, even if we lose to man city its the same points as three draws as long as the goals against don’t get stupid. no its not a great way to look at it and if we had tekkers i’d view it differently. still we have looked more compact and organised and usually give them a game bar the 8-0 so who knows. Chelsea have improved from last season where we should of took 4 points but were cheated in the bridge game. we may get nothing from these three games and then get something from the everton,qpr and spurs games and tekkers will hopefully back to prove a point, grealish will prove invaluable as a 10 and we will all live happily ever after

    COYVB

  8. Mark- to open against Arsenal. We didn’t cross into Arsenals half in the second half so I don’t get why he said that. I don’t get why he does a lot of things to be fair.

    PP- dowd is a twat but Grealish has more ability than anyone at Villa. He should be in place for Wiemann on the wing. He’s utterly painful there to watch.

    As B62 says, Lamberk only knows one style and it ain’t pretty

  9. Before Lamberk took charge, we had some great games at the Bridge. Even Mcliesh won there, Houllier got a 3-3 with a Clark late late equaliser, 4-4 under MON.

    I hope it’s another one of hose magical displays

  10. We embarrassed them last time they came to VP – Willlian being sent off , another who I can;’t remember being sent off and Morinho being exited to the stands – and we got three points to boot. According to the DM they are out for revenge. Well let’s see about that. I agree with Ray Parlour – AV should go for them at the start and try and get an early goal – he reckons this is what PL and RK (how often are assistant managers mentioned in this context) will try and do. I hope they do and don’t just park the bus from first minute. I hope RK gets them fired up, stand proud – and dont take any prisoners.
    Have a great day Superbox – hope you see some good football !>

  11. frem- the fact torres scored meant things must of been in the stars that day 😉
    painful as it is we were to open against arsenal especially after their first goal, second half was never going to be us going shit for broke as all the players feeling rough would of felt shite after stopping for 15 mins. it was damage limitations and Gabby said as much

  12. Don’t show them too much respect either. We will know when to pull down the drawbridge when and if we are 3 down – but as Leicester showed last week – anything can happen. We must have a go – and the away fans haven’t paid all that money and spent 6 hours travelling to see us camped outside our goal for 90 mins. An early goal will put them off their stride – and from what John L was saying – Schurler had about 9 shots – all misses the other night. Let’s hope his bad form continues.

  13. jen- I think that is pretty much what we have done all season so far, going defencive as the other teams gain a foothold on the game, sounds like fighting talk coming from chelsea, bring it on

  14. Jenny- Lamberk doesn’t care how much fans pay or how far they travel. He doesn’t care about entertaining them. As long as he’s still in his job picking up his ££££££ , he couldn’t give a feck about us. How many games go by when we have no shots on target, or one if we are lucky? It seems like every game and not just this season

  15. Remember when he said the players should proud after getting thumped by Spurs on the last day and after we lost 8 of our last 10 games. The fans weren’t proud that’s for sure

  16. That’s nothing I be proud of though Mark, not in your second season in charge. Were you proud we stayed up last season ? I was disgraced by Lamberk and the players displays last season. First season I was proud yes, not the second time around though

  17. i’m amazed we stayed up at all frem, we played virtually the same team as the previous season with an injured then missing benteke plus many injuries to a light squad. the only additions that played much were bacuna and bertrand. it would be hard to be proud but seeing as everyone including our own fans had us going down from the off i’m not surprised Lambert said that, it does get them and us when you get continual criticism whether its warranted or not, its called team spirit. Everton are useless? what with such a good manager? 😉

  18. Great result pool ev draw. No Mark, there have been useless, but will get better

    Mark- I don’t think Okore is going to make it with us. Shame cus him and Vlaar could have been great

    Lambert didn’t sound to good on Vlaar and Delph contracts. Just said we will see. Why would they stay ?

  19. delph more chance of going IMO he’s got England fever, to be honest he wouldn’t fit chelsea or man city and probably not arsenal, more chance liverpoo.
    Vlaar to injury prone to risk £1015mil although thats nothing to manure

  20. I think Lambert already has his january targets in sight, Vlaar and Delph out if not signed. new centre half if Okore not cutting it plus cleverly replaces delph and we buy a decent 10. a lot depends on tekkers giving them villa fever, if I was a betting man i’d say they are going in jan but you never know

  21. Ah. We held out for 7 minutes. 7 fucking minutes. They get paid a load of money to do one job for an hour and half and crumble after 7 mins

  22. Is all Lamberk is about is defensive so when you can’t hold out 2 mins then it’s a mountain to climb cus I doubt we do much on the attacking side of things in training

    He said we have nothing to lose so Attack, attack, attack.

    Grealish will only get a few mind if he’s lucky

  23. Oh yes – thank you Matt !
    Watching the game – 10 men camped permanently in front of goal but tbh – their players are so good that only conceding 1 is an achievement . They are having difficulty finding a way through – and have had quite a few shots off target . I’m watching with radio 5 live commentary on in background . Ray Parlour said we have to get more players forward 2nd half . I just can’t see us being brave enough to do that though . It could be worse .

  24. Lol – we certainly haven’t been attack attack attack Frem – I think the ball has been in their half about 2 mins in total ! But with the likes of Costa, Oscar, Fabregas – one goal conceded isn’t that bad ,

  25. Prior to their 2nd goal we wasted corners and freekicks and I think Westwood was the culprit. Worked so hard to make those chances just to waste the opportunities… still lacking some real ‘quality’ when needed.
    🙁

  26. 6 games, 8 shots on target. Another toothless, impotent performance. Would still love to know why Weimann is an automatic choice.

    Mind you, the teams that beat us dont statistically have many more shots on target, Mark King…shame that they score from most of the shots they have, and that the rules award the points to the team who scores most goals.

  27. well, no excuse today.

    Sounds like a very poor setup and performance.

    We have made no attempt to win the game. I bet Keane must be fuming to be associated with such a dismal display.

    3-0 will be a let off today again.

  28. Well poo, eh? It was a poor showing but when the other team allows you absolutely nothing for your game plan (if there was one) your knackered from the start. Unable to get untracked against a far superior team. I can’t get mad when the game was so mismatched. Mourino must be so proud. The league needs fixing.

  29. Probably had a runny nose and and bit of a saw throat this week. Useless little feckers

    8 shots in 6 games. Lamberk didn’t add a single bit if quality to this side in the summer going forwards. He’s all about parking the bus but we still leak like a sieve.

    We have this style for another 4 years yet. No possession, no shots, no goals and park that bus. Never any intent to pass or excite. New contact is utterly sickening

  30. When we did have possession we were poor . Aimless passing from us with no desire to get it into the box . Roy Keane sitting arms crossed looking v unimpressed. Yes it’s Chelsea , we defended ok but more like a damage limitation exercise than gojng out to get a result . Maybe they’re still having nightmares about the 8-0!

  31. And 4 more years of his dire substitutions

    If you are purely set up to disgrace football by having no intent to attack then at least be fecking decent at defending.

  32. Maybe that is what it was about Jen,

    but Lambert and Keane should have prepared a team that was ready to go out and cause problems for Chelsea.

    I am now losing my positivity once more,at least last season, against the best opposition we did offer some fight, but this season, we look like lying down.

    I even wore my new shirt today..glad I got it as a freebie…!!…I certainly will not buy another, until things change…

    Thank goodness I am looking forward to a change of scenery next week.

    After next week, we will have dropped from 5th to at least 10th, which may be the most we can hope for this season…

    Sadly disappointed with Lambert…..shall look forward to sharing a drink sometime in the future..

  33. paul whiting-funny enough we have hardly had any shots on target but have scored from 70% of them up to the last two games, and up to the last two games teams haven’t had many shots on target and we scored the only one that went in (sisoko against hull). frem asked me in the first half so I told him the total shots at the time got a problem with that?
    nothing up top again looks like the park the bus is a busted flush can’t wait to get benteke back, gabby can’t play with his back to goal

  34. This season is all about consolidation, Paul. This team will get enough points off the bottom 10 or 12 teams and that’s it really.

    Anyway, Europe are doing well in the golf! 😉

  35. Paul / it was like they’d been told the aim was not to embarrass themselves . Very disappointed as the fight and team spirit we saw against Liverpool just wasn’t there today . I can’t see RK being happy with the lack of bottle we showed . It’s not losing to Chelsea that’s disappointing it is way we did it. Our away fans were brilliant – heard them singing loud and clear – with a long journey ahead of them !

  36. Jenny,

    Chelsea are simply the best team have played so far (putting the Gunnerrs match behind me). Liverpool have since proved they’ve gone down a peg or two so we’ve only gained points from average teams so far.

    We’re not in it as far as the top few teams are concerned – fight along is not enough.

  37. jen- same as before, we looked ok for 1/2 hour commentators impressed blah blah blah but we just have no cutting edge. a benteke on the end of some of the early crosses etc and who knows but overall deserved nothing and got it. chelsea are a very good team make no mistake

  38. If not, why would the kid stay ? I hope he goes somewhere where he played and becomes a world beater and puts two fingers up and Lamberk when he does. The kid has more attacking ability in his little toe then anymore bar Benteke but still doesn’t get any game time what so ever

    Grealish, Vlaar, delph. Why stay ? I’d be gutted if I was player knowing Lamberk signed a new deal

  39. frem – no he didn’t, I thought Grealish would get on with ten to go but they’d given up by then. bent has to start either in front of gabby or weimann don’t care which. yes he’s a lazy bastard but he takes up good positions in the box and might get on the end of things.

  40. No surprise Mark. Lamberk goes for tried and failed week after week instead of being brave and different. Same thing last season. Lost game after game after game but no change to the line up

    Agree on Bent. I think we should go 442 but that’s being ambitious and attacking. Lambert will stick with 451 all in our own half

  41. Awful awful football. The man is a complete fraud. I am totally indifferent and just waiting (more in hope) for a. takeover to see the back of RL and PL

  42. That Chelski team is brimming with confidence, 3-0 isn’t such a hiding against the probable champs. They’ve got a lot more fire power than Villa and they used it effectively, today.
    We were just beaten by a much classier outfit.
    Be nice when our real striker returns,

  43. The gulf in class showed today.

    Bent looked lost when he came on but the game was well over by then.

    Grealish needs to be brought through slowly. He isn’t the answer to all our problems on his own. I was surprised not to see him get game time to be honest.

    On the pluses I thought Baker showed some good defending, getting out to head a few times. Otherwise we were average.

  44. superbox- most of the dead ball deliveries were flat . baker should of buried that header though. by the time bent came on we had given up he does look like he’s given up on football in general though. what was weiman like? he had a couple of promising moments

  45. Mark. With bent on he ayes in the middle three with gabby And CNZ.

    He didn’t bring much energy, didn’t seem to press much and was largely anonymous. He didn’t get much service but didn’t really get stuck in either. We don’t know how to play to get the best out of him and he is one dimensional. We needed Benteke to rough them up a bit.

    Wiemann was his usual self. Energetic but doesn’t create enough going forward for me. Does provide good defensive cover.

    Set pieces were woeful. Cleverly and Westwood both guilty of overhit balls.

    Delph was the brightest of the middle 3.

  46. pretty much how I saw it mate, we need benteke and to let the defenders defend, we lose one early goal and we are dead. I think teams have sussed the counter from us and don’t over commit. the top teams have more than enough not to

  47. You look at the schedule and think blimey it’s a tough old league and not going to get much easier after this with West Ham, Palace, Saints and even Leicester all playing well. If Benteke isn’t back and Vlaar is still out then it doesn’t look really promising does it? What ever happened to Okore? I hope he doesn’t turn into one of these mystery men like Gardner and Helenius or that really will be a waste of a decent prospect. Oh well.

  48. Our loser manager yet again happy with a defeat

    Said we were comfortable and that he can’t fault there effort ( usual BS line) comfortable? What was the score again ?

  49. Just watched the first half. Walk In the park for Chelsea. We had 11 men in our half at all times. Only thing that will change when the beast is back is Gabby will be moved out wide in parking the bus formations

    There is no way any footballer can enjoy playing in systems how we ate up like Delph who only has 6 months left on his contract. Why stay

    When managers and players see Wiemann and Richardson on the wings, the must love it. They know they won’t have any problems. There’s no fear there. You need players with stunning pace who will run at teams, opposition players are scared then. Not when your a slow winger. Easy to play against. Chelsea and Arsenal won’t have two easier games all season

  50. Watching the highlights,

    Was disappointed to see the easiest clear cut chance was when Delph had Gabby to his left, who could have scored quite easily, and instead he takes a shot, when it could have been 1-1.

    This often seems to be our problem when chances are few you have got to make the most of them.

  51. John, you say that we have ‘only got points off average teams so far’ as if that is a terrible indictment of our team.

    Fact is, we’ve taken 10 out of 12 points from ‘average teams’ so far and that sort of form would get us into Europe.

    I hope we can continue to depress our fans with such awful results for the rest of the season

  52. For the first time I listened to Ian Taylor commentating on the match yesterday. This will be an unpopular thing to say, but what a miserable so and so he is!

  53. r0bb0,

    It’s the way you choose to interpret what I said, mate. I was merely replying to Jenny and pointing out that though Villa’s wasn’t a bad performance at Anfield, Liverpool have shown themselves not to be such great shakes this season. Our points, therefore, have been obtained against lesser sides and we’ve just suffered 0-3 back-to-backs against the better sides – though the Gunners match is not to be taken too seriously i.m.v.

    I doubt that we would get into Europe this season. There’s just not enough creativity, though the team is a much better proposition than last season.

  54. Looks like the end of the world on here JL.

    We need to bring it to life…maybe now the price has come down, we can make a bid and save our beautiful club….and get everyone who is willing to back a move and buy shares, along with a local benefactor…..

  55. Off topic … Europe wins!

    Marvellous stuff!

    See http://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2014/sep/28/-sp-ryder-cup-2014-europe-v-usa-day-three-live

    It’s utter bedlam on 15! Donaldson, for the record, has won 4&3. Rather deliciously, during the impromptu interview that Sky conduct amid the scrum, he breaks off twice to hug and kiss his mum and dad. Then a hug for Paul McGinley. Then there’s a rather poignant shot in slow-motion: seconds after Donaldson hit his career-defining winning shot, he stood with one hand in the air, a finger pointing to the sky. Then in front of the camera, Keegan Bradley crosses, eyes fixed to the Gleneagles grass, a picture of desolation.

  56. Even west Brom play better footy than us

    How Lamberk sets us up is painful. No intent to attack or pass, retain possession. It is just defend, he packs our attacking players on there defensive attributes and couldn’t care about there attacking ability. Wiemann and Richardson on the wings will bring no success to us what so ever. They aren’t wingers. Gabby is one of the quickest players about but never gets in behind. What’s the point of him then cus he can’t do anything else

    West Brom, burnley, west ham etc will all pass us of the park.

  57. I don’t want a manager until 2018 who has no interest in buying creative players, who has no interest in playing creative players what so ever on a football field. We are playing strikers in creative areas, left backs in creative players, we have 3 centre mids who have creativity. That’s not football

  58. Frem,

    I am sorry, to bring in West Brom – who’ve just defeated the bottom team in the table – is not really appropriate.

    The opposition has a heck of a lot to say whether you will be allowed to play footie or not and Villa’s opponents (Chelsea) were a cut or two or three above Burnley in their all-round play.

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Villa beat Burnley 4-0, as did Albion.

    The priority this season was to get the defence and also the midfield sorted, and to a large extent this has been done, despite the events of the past 2 matches.

    Please give the new team and their coaches a few more matches before slagging them as u/s.

    Thanks, Frem.

  59. Even west Brom play worse footy than us

    How Lamberk sets us up isn’t painful. Only intent to attack or pass, retain possession. It isnt just defend, he packs our attacking players on there offensive attributes and couldn’t care more about there attacking ability. Wiemann and Richardson on the wings will bring no end of success to us. They are wingers. Gabby is one of the quickest players about but always gets in behind. That’s the point of him then cus he can’t do everything else

    West Brom, burnley, west ham etc will all not pass us of the park.

  60. Villa isn’t bad. Chelsea have a team capable of winning the Champions League, so 3-0 isn’t anything to panic about.

    We do need to sort our goal difference before it blows out like last year. I’d start playing Benteke off the bench in two weeks time.

  61. So do/can we sign A Young? Can’t see how any of the teams apparently interested could afford his wages. Would he just be a high earner getting in the way of the likes of Grealish? I really hope Lambert/Keane decided not to play Grealish in an effort to build his confidence gradually and getting him involved in wins. When we play mid table opposition however he really does need to play at least 30 mins and depending on performance should be given the chance to start matches soon!
    UTV 🙂

  62. Hopefully next week Keane will push Lambert to change tack and use a little more flair, as I am sure he is not happy with Jose saying he did not expect us to roll over so easily…

    We need to find the centre ground and not leave ourselves to open like we did in the end with Arsenal, but be able to contain, and then use our limited chances wisely.

  63. Well rumors are delph will go to arsenal – i reckon we can safely say vlaar will be off – jack grealish’s long dely means he may now go too

    Iike frem says you cant blame them for leaving as villa is far from a progressive club that will allow good players to develop and reach there peak

    New stoty about learner dropping his price may hopefully get us closer to a sale – just hope whenever it happens the person isnt worse than randy

  64. My apologies. I thought I logged on to a Villa forum and not a blue nose one.

    Even blue noses don’t slate Villa as much as certain individuals on here. There are several other teams you can support because it’s obvious you have no love for Villa.

  65. Young coming….Vlaar going…

    Randy going….

    which is why he had to give Lambert a new 4 year deal…..otherwise he would have been offski…and Lerner did not need that..he needs stability for a sale..

  66. Runtings. Like you I left TVB because of the constant slating of all that is Villa. It was refreshing to come on here and have a good debate. Even when we were second a lot were coming on here whinging. We are very lucky we have not followed Portsmouth or Leeds.

    We lost to a team that has one player worth more than our whole squad.

    There are times when I’m not happy but to constantly slate the team, the management and the club is not being constructive at all. I know bluenoses who are less venomous that what so called villa fans spout out. It’s actually quite shameful.

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