Aston Villa Sunday 2pm (not on TV)

Lukerz

Pretty sure that Ramsey scores identical goals each time I see him.

Shame about the goal as, short of Zouma selling himself, we were very solid today.

EXETERHAMMER

That was a great win.
Not a fan of Villa, glad we stopped them in their tracks.

Dodger58

A good Brummie day as West Ham Ladies beat Birmingham 1-0 🙂

ScotHammer

For the pure emotion of it Yarmolenko’s effort must be a contender for goal of the month?
(Words I never thought I’d say - must be getting more emotional as I get older!)

MIAHammer

That was a very nervy injury time. Most of it brought on by ourselves.

Lukerz

I feel like, the injuries, actually helped us. It seemed to unite the whole place & almost created a siege mentality & you just knew Yarmo was going to play a part when he came on.

MIAHammer

Fabianski has to play against Sevilla.

Slacker

MIAHammer said:

That was a very nervy injury time. Most of it brought on by ourselves.

Or possibly the opposition throwing everything at it ?

MIAHammer

Lukerz said:

I feel like, the injuries, actually helped us. It seemed to unite the whole place & almost created a siege mentality & you just knew Yarmo was going to play a part when he came on.

I thought Johnson was better when he moved over to the left. He was getting very little joy beating his man in the first half.

PrestonHammer

You cannot question this teams resilience and never say die attitude, however many times they shred our nerves.

Slacker

Really good win in adversity. Proper gritted teeth stuff. As some on here have said they showed terrific spirit against a good side and a dodgy ref.
Only just stopped blubbing over Yarmo.

OldCastleSwift

Looking forward to seeing the highlights later. Just seen the second goal and it's absolutely beautiful to see Declan sitting John McGinn down in the build-up.

Lukerz

Martinez can’t like playing us. Every game he plays he should do better with our goals.

Rice in October, Lingard last season, both goals today

Pengeman

Good win but shame about the injuries. I fear that Antonio's season could be over.

jay_in_cpt

Great for us and Yarmolenko…….
Happy for him with what he and his fellow Ukrainian people are going through…
Have to say IMO he along with switching Johnson to LB and bringing on Fredericks made the difference.
A decent performance, pity about the injuries but well played to the rest and subs for stepping up..
Also, how poor are Villa re play acting… Hideous team managed by a weasel
⚒️⚒️⚒️

OutcastLondoner

I really didn’t like Villa today. So much time wasting. Reminded me of how Stoke used to be.

Benrahma looked up for it when we started then was really awful for a while and I was surprised he wasn’t off by 50 mins. Ends up with two assists after Yarmolenko came on. I think Yarmolenko played his best for a long while and the movement of the attacking line up was more fluid and allowed for more decisive passing.

Lukerz

Yeah Cresswell wasn’t fit today, you could tell, which didn’t help the understanding with Benrahma as there was lots of breakdown in our left sided attacks. I thought he started well & ended well. Lots of miscommunication in the middle third of the game.

PrestonHammer

Why don't we try Longelo at left back on Thursday if Cresswell isn't available?

Lukerz

I felt Antonio was also carrying a knock today as he did a lot of walking about & seemed to go back to his old days of pulling the shorts up above his hamstrings, almost to give them room.

OldCastleSwift

PrestonHammer said:

Why don't we try Longelo at left back on Thursday if Cresswell isn't available?

Because it's Moyes. And he'll choose Johnson, Masuaku and Fredericks ahead of an U23 player. And to be fair, the Sevilla game may be too much for a player that has had so little first team football.

Plus, judging by recent U23 games, I think he's probably injured.

Lukerz

Yep, Johnson goes to LB & Fredericks comes in. He could go Masuaku & a back 3. He won’t bring in an U23 or play Masuaku if he can help it (he’s still battling a dodgy knee).

MIAHammer

If we can beat Spurs next week, I think we have a shot at 5th.

PrestonHammer said:

Why don't we try Longelo at left back on Thursday if Cresswell isn't available?

Too big a game to try something new and untried. We’re still in the tie.

MIAHammer

OutcastLondoner said:

I really didn’t like Villa today. So much time wasting. Reminded me of how Stoke used to be.

Notice how quickly they took their goal kicks once they went behind!
And then their players were crying to the ref when we started taking too long with our throw ins.

Yeoldhammer

Didn't see the game but sounds a decent performance. Hopefully the injuries aren't big. If Cresswell and Antonio are out alongside Bowen i reckon we might see Fornals at Wingback again with Diop coming in for a back 3 with Johnson playing higher up on the right.

Yeoldhammer

Also anyone know what Vlasic was dropped from the squad ?

steve

I did hear Vlasic was injured

horshamhammer

Yarmo's goal a very special moment. Cracking finish too. And a very emotional interview after the match.

OldCastleSwift

horshamhammer said:

Yarmo's goal a very special moment. Cracking finish too. And a very emotional interview after the match.

Just seen it now. Tell you what, there aren't many players at our club that could have done that. And that's probably my biggest frustration with Yarmolenko; bags of talent and ability, but so few moments of genuine brilliance.

But I'm really pleased for him. I'm one of his biggest critics but it's too easy to forget he's still a young man in the grand scheme of things and is going through something that thankfully so few of us will ever understand. Fair play to him for coming onto the pitch and delivering when we needed something.

IronHerb

I thought we basically cruised that game. Only when we scored the second did Villa really show any real intent. Two lovely goals, both well made and well taken, and Coutinho kept relatively quiet.
One down two to go this week. Bring it on.

COYI

OutcastLondoner

Watched highlights and just realised how good that Yarmolenko finish was.

But also want to note how important his run is for the second goal. By sticking with his run and not checking back to get the ball, he's created the space that Fornals was able to get into. Antonio constantly comes to the edge of the box to link up and it's causing all sorts of problems. I'm really surprised Moyes hasn't got it out of him yet. He'll get more goals and others will as well.

I thought Yarmolenko's movement in games earlier this seasons was terrible but today he did his job very well and hope we can see more of this now he's got a goal.