West Ham v Man City (A) . Or the Paulo Wanchope Derby. Saturday 27th February, 12:30pm

yoyo

Fornals is one of those players who works hard but goes under the radar

jay_in_cpt

100 times better than the Liverpool performance, but zilch points from both.
I'm not upset or disappointed, we were beaten by the best team in the PL and possibly Europe/World, nothing to be ashamed about.
Johnson had a tricky game for sure, but this surely will be in good stead for his future...
Certainly not down with our performance.

IronHerb

Mind, when you're playing on your 'wrong' side with Mahrez in front of you and Cresswell behind you it's never going to be easy.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Seen a lot of compliments from City fans giving us our dues

Said we've given them the hardest test they've had in this run, and a lot saying that they fan see why we're are good value for the top 4

jay_in_cpt

Wasn't Fornals best supporter in the beginning matches where many raved about him, but I now sort of see he's the type of player that does a lot of work that goes unoticed...He seems to pop up all over the pitch making tackles/passes.
I do think there's another gear he can go to, but think he's a very vaulable member of the team/squad....

BubblesNeverDies

I don't know if this has been posted already:
Pep: "We were lucky to get all three points. The mathematics matter at the end of the season."

chicagohammer

Unfortunately I was unable to watch the game but in reading the reports, it seems like we showed up and made a decent fist of it and I am happy with that

COYI

Dodger58

We appear to play better away when playing as All Blacks

ASLEFshrugged

City average 15.2 shots per PL game, today they had 10

OutcastLondoner

I'm a bit surprised by Johnson criticism. He didn't look that bad to me. It was always going to be hard coming up against Mahrez but I thought he stayed with most of the time and made a few good interceptions, though he could've done better in starting a counter from them.

alderz

OutcastLondoner said:

I'm a bit surprised by Johnson criticism. He didn't look that bad to me. It was always going to be hard coming up against Mahrez but I thought he stayed with most of the time and made a few good interceptions, though he could've done better in starting a counter from them.

It was the poor passing in the first half particularly for me that tainted his performance. He gave it away a couple of times in the second half too. But defensively up against one of the trickiest wingers in the game, he did a good job. I think the issue for me is that he sometimes offers very little attacking threat, presumably because he isn’t fully confident on his left foot.

buffybegood

Johnson didn't have a great game imo, gave the ball away cheaply a good few times. As Alderz says though, it's not ideal for him playing on the left, as, when we're going forward, his natural inclination is to turn back onto his stronger right foot and pass backwards, costing us momentum.

So, not his finest hour imo, I just hope it doesn't dent his confidence too much.

alderz

buffybegood said:

Johnson didn't have a great game imo, gave the ball away cheaply a good few times. As Alderz says though, it's not ideal for him playing on the left, as, when we're going forward, his natural inclination is to turn back onto his stronger right foot and pass backwards, costing us momentum.

So, not his finest hour imo, I just hope it doesn't dent his confidence too much.

Plenty of players will have not their finest hour against that team, and against Mahrez. He’s had a good season for us, and has looked really lively a number of times. I think he’ll be a good player for us in the long term, and I really hope his confidence isn’t knocked from one tough afternoon

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Don't think there is any shame saying a player wasn't the best...think that's very different to digging someone out

Defensively he did well, for a 20 year old out of position, but as a WB he needed to do a bit better with his passing which really was poor in the first half, really didn't help us receive pressure

Was far from awful, but was argubaly the weakest on the pitch for us

EXETERHAMMER

Fornals was excellent today.

Kuchinghammer

I think Johnson was told to be careful, so he dithered on the ball and never tried to beat his man. A bit like England players from 1980-2000. Fornals was like the Duracell bunny, he never stopped...

ASLEFshrugged

I lost count of the number of times Johnson passed to a blue shirt and a couple of times he got drawn hopelessly out of position leaving acres of space on the left but that's hardly unexpected from a 21-yo who started the season with the U23s playing against the best team in the Premier League

The second goal was ultimately Diop's fault for trying to pass the ball out of defence when Coufal was surrounded by City players. That led to the handball, which led to the free kick, which led to the corner which led to the goal. Should have just hoofed it

Don't care, we played well.

IronHerb

On that basis Fornals was at fault for the first goal as he kicked off with a back pass. if he'd just hoofed it to Ederson the whole game would have been different.

IronHerb

According to whoscored.com Johnson completed 16 out of 20 passes, 80%.

Lukerz

The biggest disappointment from this game was the manner of the goals we let in. When you see their line-up & bench, but end up going down to 2 goals from CB’s, you just feel a bit disappointed. That first goal is a goal we haven’t really conceded for a long while, a ball into the box from open play & the CB’s not dealing with it.

Cuz1

ASLEFshrugged said:

I lost count of the number of times Johnson passed to a blue shirt and a couple of times he got drawn hopelessly out of position leaving acres of space on the left but that's hardly unexpected from a 21-yo who started the season with the U23s playing against the best team in the Premier League

The second goal was ultimately Diop's fault for trying to pass the ball out of defence when Coufal was surrounded by City players. That led to the handball, which led to the free kick, which led to the corner which led to the goal. Should have just hoofed it

Don't care, we played well.

I know an old lady that swallowed a fly, I don’t know why, she swallowed a fly, perhaps she’ll die 😂😂

chicagohammer

Luke, no complaints from me on their goals, that ball in from KVB for the first was an absolute peach, if anything, we could have got a point out of it with a touch more composure in front of goal, which is saying something when you are playing City

claretandbluesky

Yes that cross was as good and inch perfect as any free kick into the top corner. De Bruyne is just a joy to watch, we love and know in Rice we have a stand out player above anyone else in the team regard class, but to be that player in that City team is just yet another grade above the Rice and Grielish of this world.

My only real small issue is our player, Fornells I think, was ball watching instead of getting back to Stones until too late.

BubblesNeverDies

Further to claretandblue above.
In the second half when it was still 1-1, KdB made a run down the left and Diop made a sliding tackle that was surely only intended to wipe him out. de Bruyne simply jumped over it and carried on.
If it had been Grealish he would have gone done screaming.
de Bruyne however got to the byline and sent the ball across the face of the goal that luckily no one made contact with.

The point being that, as Lukerz or Alderz said recently, Grealish's antics break up the flow, the momentum and doesn't really benefit Villa at all, unless of course he cons the ref into a penalty.

alderz

BubblesNeverDies said:

Further to claretandblue above.
In the second half when it was still 1-1, KdB made a run down the left and Diop made a sliding tackle that was surely only intended to wipe him out. de Bruyne simply jumped over it and carried on.
If it had been Grealish he would have gone done screaming.
de Bruyne however got to the byline and sent the ball across the face of the goal that luckily no one made contact with.

The point being that, as Lukerz or Alderz said recently, Grealish's antics break up the flow, the momentum and doesn't really benefit Villa at all, unless of course he cons the ref into a penalty.

Or if he gets the player sent off and they gain an advantage that way

IronHerb

Grealish playing benefits Villa in a big way.