So it’s Brentford away with Villa on a five-game winning streak and seven to go. More impressive, Villa are unbeaten in the last eight, with just the West Ham draw keeping the streak from being almost incredible. Well, it is incredible, all things considered. It could’ve just been even better.
Yes, there’ve been some dodgy moments in a number of the matches. Yes, what goes up must come down. But. Villa just put in their most complete performance in years last week against Newcastle, so there’s every reason for optimism.
When it comes to numbers, Villa could win out and still be overcome in the improbable race for Europe. Villa sit sixth, but Brighton obviously have two games in hand and are just one point behind. So, all Villa can do is go out one match at a time and claw for every point. And it’s a very interesting run-in.
If we’re being arrogant, we say Brentford, Fulham, games we could expect to win (yes, many caveats). Then Wolves would be next on the list. Normally, we might say we’d be lucky to get anything from United and Liverpool. Maybe Spurs, too. But we’ve beaten United and Spurs already. And then we have Brighton at home on the final day, who we’ve beaten already, as well. Don’t think any of us would’ve thought that game might’ve held the key to Europe.
There’s a lot of football between now and then, but I’m not betting against Villa in any of these. Like I say, setbacks are inevitable, never know when you’re going to lay an egg or face a buzzsaw, but Emery’s tapped into something with this squad and if you can keep the pressure on, it’s up to who’s chasing to keep pace and not falter.
Brentford have only lost twice at home, I believe, and Emery has praised their setup. They’re a good team, well coached, and coming off two losses. Maybe a draw would be the best reasonable expectation. But I think Villa will be looking at the fixtures and not fearing any of them. Doesn’t mean we’ll go unbeaten by any means. We won’t (in all probability). But it seems like it might be fun for a change and that we could very well be in the mix up until the final day.
That prospect alone might be all it takes.
Over to you.
The Author
John Clark
John is co-owner of AVL, and has followed the Villa since the '70s. A journalist by trade, he is, by most accounts, a very nice person. You can follow me on Twitter @JClarkKohoutek. It's an astonishing experience. Or a complete waste of time.Comments 52
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Thanks JC, Spot on, If we go unbeaten it would more likely mean 5th but its very doubtful hut one of those we might regret betting the house on also, either way its no hardship to watch as we combine the steel we showed before with the attacking flair we had with Jack in every game. I think at least for now we remain a hard side guess and stifle, with the two rear triangles at play its hard to press without committing a lot of players which leaves you open if we get out, which we have done more of and done it better recently. would love to end above Liverpool whatever but they are on a charge as there newer players settle. I won’t fret, seen what pressure and relegation threat can do to teams, its by no means a done deal for any team at present.
Robbo- There is loads of research on Vit D on pubmed (actually a hormone) but its also hard to research apparently so diverse are its roles. Its protective for many cancers, colds, flus, covid, sleep, arthritis, depression, diabetes, Inflammation of every kind, I’m currently taking about 40,000 IU with K2 (another fat soluble vit) lowers joint pain no end. The current 1000iu recommendations are predictably to low considering we can produce 20,000+ in half hour of direct sunlight on our bodies. This was due to 3 products for cancer with 50,000 iu in them years back being launched, the amount you could get through supplements easily was lowered, usual shithousery.
Winter in the north means zero production from the sun and few eat enough dietary sources to make a difference. So unless you have plenty stashed in fat stores you will get ill. Its a throw back perhaps to survival and hibernation. If your depressed and sluggish your less likely to charge about using up reserves.
So as we wear clothes, sun tan lotion, eat crap, and stay out of the sun because of Cancer etc modern mans pretty low. Probably one of the reasons we have so many people with disease today. Its literally a better option than flu and covid Vaccines but obviously to cheap and effective 😉 .
I would recommend at least 4000iu to anyone 10,000 even better but with K2, and magnesium which is also low in practically every diet.
Agreed JC. Under normal circumstances, a draw today would be a good result. But if we want to keep our 6th position, draws are no good. We’ll be going for the win I’m sure. COYVB.
https://youtu.be/qD5JB26TxUg
This is great. John Gregory interview
1-3 Villa win today
thanks for the tip on vit D MK. I have taken a tablet every day through the winter, Vit B supplement, and omega 3 oils, all topped off with Tumeric and androchotonin. The vit D were probably 1000iu. Not sure.
Looking forward to today’s match, but not sure of how it will pan out. Hopefully, Villa will continue in the same vein, and we will get a good result.
PP- no worries, low doses when your deficient doesn’t cut it and in your case you have nothing to lose and maybe everything to gain good luck and if you need to ask anything fire away.
I hope we smash Brentford 🙂
Another take on Unais initial impact at clubs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLiX1u7Mfdk
Dodgier again today playing out. Bees getting good pressure around the pitch. I need to focus on what they’re actually doing.
Interesting half…not in the best of sync, but Brentford have something to do with that.
Brentford pushing right up on us even on the keeper , marking Watkins even doubling up on him, targeting the gap Moreno leaves and the ball out to him. Also isolating young against there quick young player whose name escapes me. We have carved at least three good situations and taken the wrong option each time, need to calm down in those positions. Interesting to see what Unai try’s next as it’s clear Brentford’s coaches have done their homework just as Unai does.
Poor. Need Unai team talk
Options to change much from the bench are minimal unfortunately, the young midfielder Patterson I’ve never heard of .
oh bugger martinez ill Olsen on
Can’t say that wasn’t coming.
Dendoncker is useless. Glad he’s off
Olsen lets the ball through his lets. Typical
I’d like to think Emi would’ve saved that, MD. Young needed to do better just getting a foot on the ball.
How that wasn’t a foul, let alone a card, I’ll never know.
Good bounce-back. Lovely little pass from Emi, nice finish from Dougie.
Well, draw it is. On balance, glad to have the point, though there at the end thought we might get a winner.
Bit of the old Villa dna surfacing there. Huge performance one week being followed by a damp squib the next. Credit Villa for finally waking up at the end of the game. Point won for me. Luiz my motm.
Watkins crap game – SACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JC, point was probably fair. Ollie not at the races. Chambers a couple of levels above Dendoncker. Chambers also looks good RB
I thought we got out of jail. Brentford missed some great chances including an open goal. It was a lacklustre performance from us. We didn’t wake up until the last 15 minutes and eventually made the opposition pay for their missed chances.
We lost so many 2nd balls. And we didn’t press anything like the effort that Brentford put into it. So despite a poor performance we still got a share of the spoils. Can’t complain.
We didn’t have the game control that we’ve managed in previous games but I believe that was more down to the opposition’s performance.
If anyone was going to win it in the last knockings it was Villa, but it would have been a real Dick Turpin moment had we done so.
All things considered, I’ll take the point and move on to the Fulham game.
Plug,
Fair. I’ll actually try and watch this one back because I’m interested in Brentford’s approach off the ball, what we did well and didn’t in response.
Usually, I’ve got a better read (we were crap, unlucky, etc).
It did seem like they were bringing as many as six up into the press mix, but I couldn’t quite work out at game speed who was doing what and when.
And then apart from Brentford maybe laying back further late on, why Villa suddenly had so much space. Might be nothing more than that, them dropping back.
We didn’t lose,the run goes on,but by god we need some of injured lads back ,kamara especially
If we get Europe it will be a big shopping spree with a reliable backup keeper first on list
jbd,
Yeah, he barely got a look, Watkins. A couple through balls from Emi where they seemed to have different ideas. Maybe they were just bad passes, but it seemed more like misunderstanding from one of the two.
Strikers will always try to take the chance, but if he’d known Emi was behind him there at the death, might well have walked away winners, deserved or not.
Small squad hurt us ,midfield needed fresh legs
James, I think our 3 subs in one go did have an effect and our control improved.
JG,
Yeah, a little depth wouldn’t hurt, would it?
The thought came to me during the game, and this is why I want to watch it back, that we could just be seeing the limits of the squad. Might be partly depth, and having few ways to change things up (along with injuries), but I’m just wondering if the level of execution required might not be there week to week.
Could just be an off-day…They seemed a bit unsettled from the start, were maybe confused by the press they were seeing.
Plug
Subs worked a treat ,but think more to fergies utd and from O’Neil time here,mons team ran out of steam where as fergie swapped out players
Jc
An off day but still rescued a point and could have won it, young switched off for a second and got punished, I think it’s 25 this season appearance for him already too much for a nearly 38 year old
It’s a lot for him, JG. Like everyone else, can’t believe he’s lasted this long. And he was definitely being targeted time and again.
well done Brentford, gambled a lot with that high press in numbers, once Emi was off it really stopped the limited ability we had to play that way with so much pressure. You would of thought that we could of gone long but not one real corker as we have seen recently to pick out Ollie who seemed more static today than the norm. Soon as Dendonker played that blind pass you just knew his head was not in it. You would also think Brentford would have been stretched more but they fouled there way out of any positions we might have exploited. Liverpool a point behind with a game have to beat them and the fact they concede is promising.
Morning, well we are still in the mix so no need to panic, we don’t give in regardless of our form on the day which is good, we are developing the nasty habit of wanting to win and some of the players get it more than the others but its coming.
In another matter are all the Villa fans in the UK ready for their Pavlov’s dog alert at 3pm? Why are they doing this? is it a mass test of the system? could they not just say in event of a disaster we will sound this alarm? It seems to me they like to instil fear into the people or there is something afoot that they are just not telling us, all in all I did not vote or ask for this so why does big brother feel it has the right? I am sick of the downright dishonesty of the politicians worldwide and their do as we say not as we do attitude, and your not allowed to know why, plus the implementation of policies also not voted for like Net Zero, 15 minute city’s , Ulez, insects, meat and much much more.
Think about it, If the threat is so great we have seen that they can shut the world down as they did recently, so if climate change is such a threat why are they pissing around? probably because its not, Have a nice day 😉
Reflecting on the game yesterday and I’m concluding it was a point gained. We didn’t get them on the rack until the last 15 minutes, but it was enough to keep our forward momentum rolling.
Anyone who wants a bit of light entertainment, go onto any of the Spurs blog sites. Wonderful reading. Plenty of their fans vacating St James’ Park after just 20 minutes today.
Mark, I agree with you about powerful vested interests seeking to mislead us about climate change.
there we go. . . . common ground 🙂
Just took another look at our final run in. With our final games against Spurs, Liverpool and Brighton, we really will have earned a place in Europe if we manage to achieve it.
Let’s face it, odds are against us. . . .beating those 3 is such a tall order and may well be what is needed when you consider their games in hand. Emery and the players have done brilliantly to get us to the point where we’re even thinking about it, and even though 8th still looks the most likely outcome, you wouldn’t put it past them to over-deliver again.
rObB0, I’m definitely up for the final run in. I don’t think we have anything to fear from the 3 teams you mention. Spurs are currently a basket case. The bindippers were holding on for dear life at the end against Forest. And the Seagulls have to complete 9 league games in four and a half weeks, rather them than us.
It’s 5th, 6th or 7th for me if I’m a gambling man.
I like your analysis Plug. I hope you’re right about them all, but especially Spurs, as we’re venturing out of the West Country to watch that one
Fulham again,what a transformation since our last visit ro the cottage, all upwards
Our small squad is maybe showing now,still no sign of cash kamara or coutinho back
But in emery we trust
Wow!!
What a goal from Archer! What is this boy going to be worth?
His skill, speed and ability to control the ball is superb. It my be Championship football, but this is class good enough for any level.
He will have been instrumental in Middlesboro’ getting to the play-offs, but what a difference he could have made in a Villa shirt this season, if he had been given the chance.
T certainly hope that he is a nailed-on for the future!!!
PP,
Yeah, Archer looks class. Team for tomorrow
Emi (hopefully fit)
Chambers Konsa Mings Moreno
Ramsey SJM Luiz Traore
Buendia Watkins
Young needs a rest. Dendoncker not good enough
VillaMD, it may well be a good idea to use the squad and give Young a break but I’d be wary of saying that any player “isn’t good enough”. If Emery thought that Dendonker was good enough last game then he probably was, and he may make the same judgement tonight.
Frem used to say that Watkins wasn’t good enough (but also resorted to unecessary insults too) and whilst he was right that he wasn’t ‘playing’ well enough, Emery has shown again that he was always ‘good enough’
Let’s hope he can bring the best out of Dendonker.
Arghhhhhhhhhhh! The accursed four letter F word. Just NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Jbd. . . . Sorry
Wash my keyboard with soap and water
r0bb0, MD.
Dendoncker…High praise for his Newcastle performance, and then a not-terribly impressive outing at Brentford.
Given he hasn’t played much, maybe that’s to be expected. Assuming if he’s in tonight that he’ll be better.
Plug, agree about the run-in. It is in our hands, and if we play well, then yeah, I don’t fear the fixtures.
Statistically, it would be a long and improbable run of results, but it is there for us.
JG,
It is a small squad on a quick turn. Would very much like to have Kamara and Cash back.
And a fresh page is up for Fulham.
COYVB