Chelsea v Aston Villa Match Thread, Weds 4th Dec, 7.30pm | Page 24 | Vital Football

Chelsea v Aston Villa Match Thread, Weds 4th Dec, 7.30pm

danvilla2 said:
I didn’t get the Jota substitution at all. Trez was having some success down the right due to his pace and Elmo supporting him. It wasn’t as though we were building up lots of pressure to enable Jota to pick passes. I think Jota to be fair got in a few good positions but he didn’t touch the ball for about 10 minutes.

I assume Trez had run his socks off but surely we could’ve something different.
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Jota lacks pace to be effective in that game, i did not get that one at all.
 
zaijianforth said:
Listening to Charlie Nicholas on SKY after the game his assessment of our performance was not as damming as the consensus on here. He seems quite upbeat about our prospects.
Let's see what January brings us.
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It's wasn't mate. Charlie is correct.

Like I said in my post. It wasn't great. But it wasn't horrendous. It was somewhere inbetween.
 
Melon Donkey said:
It's wasn't mate. Charlie is correct.

Like I said in my post. It wasn't great. But it wasn't horrendous. It was somewhere inbetween.
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We weren't great, we can and will play better. As Villans we tend to go a little overboard when we play well and are very critical when we don't. We are about where most of us expected at this point in the season. Let's enjoy the ride.
 
Melon Donkey said:
So. Was at the game.
Firstly, wtf was that Chelsea crowd about . Utter silence . Genuinely shocked. If that's what 15 years of success does then keep it . I know a lifelong Chelsea fan and he wasn't exaggerating a few years back when he said the atmosphere has gone down there .

Wasn't great but wasn't totally horrendous in my viewing of the game .
Gave them too much room and respect and when injected some pace and impetus to our play we looked decent.

Chelsea were very good and there is no shame in still being well in the game at the final whistle which we were.despite their chances. We were all in the air when Luiz connected with that late header.

Wilian was utter class . Ran the show. Targett was however shocking and will be having nightmares of a big afro variety.

Get the criticism of Wesley at times but I will maintain that he too often, infact mostly gets a ball fired 50 yards in the air and he is expected to bring it down. retain possession against 3 defenders with none of our players within 20 yards of him . And again how many chances do we carve out for him ?.

Elmo was good , fair play considering how long he has been out of side. Great pro.
Hourihane. Sorry did nothing to disprove that unless we are at home against a weaker side with lots of set pieces then he is a passenger. Massive improvement when Dougie came on. We got a grip in the midfield and were picking passes in the middle and playing through them more. Mings far too casual. The biggest frustration again is our slowness at the start of the second half again. Ffs sort it out , getting stupid now.

We have a point from 2 away games in 4 days at Manure and Chelsea and we are disappointed?.
Shows how far we have come in a year. We were commenting after the game how competitive we have been this season in every game apart from Wolves and maybe Palace. And even in the palace game we were denied by that decision..

We are going the right way under Deano.
FACT.
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Not much to add to this really , although I must say Melon had the benefit of my expert in game analysis. !!!!!!!

In the cold light of day I think Chelsea were just better than us on the evening, Granted we did help them at times especially giving Willian the freedom of the right wing and he is so good he didn't need a second invitation. Class player. The good thing is we kept plugging away and looked so much better when Douglas came on. I agree with those who say he is not a defensive midfielder. Marvellous is , Douglas is good on the ball and uses it well , he is more use to us playing further forward.

Credit to us for still being in the game at the end , we nearly nicked a point as well and whatever you say , we didn't lack spirit . Kept going right to the end and arguably finished the stronger.

Shaky game from Tyrone , he is suffering a dip in form which has happened to everyone who has played sport ever. No drama but it happens so a bit of context is needed when people are saying he thinks he has made it etc. He will be fine.
 
zaijianforth said:
Listening to Charlie Nicholas on SKY after the game his assessment of our performance was not as damming as the consensus on here. He seems quite upbeat about our prospects.
Let's see what January brings us.
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We must be reading a different match thread, I don't think it has been damning at all, a great many acknowledge Chelsea are a class above us, that's just reality.
 
Deano frustrated that we failed to stop the crosses coming in for both goals.

You weren't the only one Deano.
 
From being there as well, we seemed willing to let them cross the ball, which with the quality of deliveries William was producing seemed bizarre and puts so much onus onto the two centre-backs and keeper. Talking of which, I stand by my point I made after Spurs that Heaton could become our Player of the Season. Likewise, I'm still convinced Engels is our best CB and I too would be edging towards knowing if he could partner with Konsa. Mings' mistakes aren't a recent thing, they've happened all season but he is clearly an important part of the leadership group.

I agree William was MotM and gave Targett a torrid time, so much so that he was then failing to offer anything positive in an attacking sense.

Chelsea's high press has to be applauded too it forced us into launching it to Wesley and turning possession into 50:50 duels again, we didn't seem to react and adapt to that. I don't really want to enter 'that' discussion again as it seems it's the only topic in Villa circles currently and I'm yet to be convinced by either argument, I think reality sits more in the middle. However, I am confused why Kodjia doesn't get any minutes. Last night he seemed to be warming up constantly from the hour mark. Yes, he is a different player; yes, his work rate might not be as high as hoped, but he is a maverick and scores goals out of nothing.

Another point to raise, we've now played all of the "Big Six". Five of whom we have done so away from home. Apart from City, we scored against them all and so far this season, the only teams to beat us by more than a goal are City and Spurs. At the start of the season would have you expected that? The key is can we nick "bonus" points against any of them when they visit VP...
 
Keeping clean sheets is our problem, we always find a way to score or seem to.

If we are going to build from the back we need a platform of Dougie and Marv and let the fullbacks and the other 4 attacking players go forward players. Building through Mings is suicidal and he's got worse since he teamed up with Pep Southgate and his equally suicidal way of playing
 
ASPINALL said:
Smith stuck Kodjia and Abraham up top last season and it worked - i just don`t see the harm to have another threat up there.

Don`t see the harm in having a go myself, easy to say after the even i know but no point having Kodjia on the bench if we have no intention of giving him any minutes.
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I was going to mention the Rotherham away game last season, as my opinion of Koj warmed, Yes it was only Rotherham but we had 10 men and he ran them ragged and Tammy had a mare that night. Banged in a Penalty battered their two CB's into submission. No, he's not the answer but persisting with Wesley isn't either
 
Villan57 said:
Keeping clean sheets is our problem, we always find a way to score or seem to.

If we are going to build from the back we need a platform of Dougie and Marv and let the fullbacks and the other 4 attacking players go forward players. Building through Mings is suicidal and he's got worse since he teamed up with Pep Southgate and his equally suicidal way of playing
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I would agree with all that 57 with the possible exception of Dougie playing from the back.
I think he looks the real thing when he is that thirty yards further forward and running at the opposition.
 
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