Aston Villa Sunday 2pm (not on TV)

MrsGrey

I hadn't known that he'd flown to Poland to get his family and that they'd managed to get across the border.

Let's hope UK govt restrictive immigration controls allowed him to bring them here. Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't, though.

Fortuneseeker

"His family are safe at the moment, he tells me," said Moyes. "He wants to make sure everybody is fine and he has a lot going on.

Slacker

MrsGrey said:

I hadn't known that he'd flown to Poland to get his family and that they'd managed to get across the border.

Let's hope UK govt restrictive immigration controls allowed him to bring them here. Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't, though.

There’s an article in today’s Observer regarding The Home Office’s reaction to the the refugee crisis Mrs G.
To be honest it made me feel ashamed to be British.

IronHerb

I'm never ashamed to be British but am often ashamed of the people who run this country.

OldCastleSwift

OldCastleSwift said:

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.

I've watched it again, and if Antonio was in that position instead of Yarmolenko, there's no way that ends up a goal. He'd probably try to back into the defender, hold up the ball and lay it back to Lanzini or Rice. Not saying it would be the wrong thing to do, but I'm sure he wouldn't have even thought to do what Yarmolenko did.

Lukerz

Surprised not more was made of Soucek’s offside positioning for the opening goal.

MIAHammer

I thought the players reaction to Yarmo scoring was great, after immediately scoring and before the restart. As he was walking back to the center a couple of players went up to him. You can tell the camaraderie amongst the players.

MIAHammer

Lukerz said:

Surprised not more was made of Soucek’s offside positioning for the opening goal.

That’s because we weren’t playing one of the big 6. VAR would have called that interference if we were playing one of the big boys.
Or maybe it’s because we are now one of the big 6!

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

Surprised not more was made of Soucek’s offside positioning for the opening goal.

I thought that. And I think to some extent we have to be a bit grateful to Martinez and the Villa defence, actually. Some 'keepers (Schmeichel as a prime example), would have had their arm up straight away or would have run to the ref, almost forcing the review.

Just a couple of other notes on the game now I've seen the highlights; Dawson's pass to Benrahma for his assist wasn't mentioned at all in the MOTD2 comms or analysis. One of those whereby if it was van Dijk or Matip, it would be spoken about for weeks. Brilliant pass completely overlooked.

And although I didn't watch the game, I followed it on social media and it sounded like the cheating from Villa was off the chart, so it was really pleasing to see that the build-up to our second goal began with their No31 failing to get a free-kick for a blatant dive.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Villa were terrible in the first half for time wasting and going down with so called injuries yet fine 20 secs later worst i have since since Brentford. Ref bought it all match long and was generally poor even getting throws in wrong . Was pleased to get a much needed 3 points hoping Benny's two assists and Fornals scoring gives them a confidence boost

IronHerb

From Twitter -

Villa’s top 5 distance covered today;

5) Ramsey 9.2km
4) McGinn 9.4km
3) Coutinho 9.8km
2) Cash 10.2km
1) Gary the physio 11.4km

😁

BubblesNeverDies

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but what a difference between the Villa fans and Chelsea's.
Yarmo scores a truly great goal and the Villa fans applaud - class.

Meanwhile at Chelsea (can't call them Chelski anymore, can we?) they hang a banner saying "The Roman Empire", that because of Abramovich's association, they might just as well have hung one with "Putin's Empire".
They must have thought they were being clever, instead they just showed themselves to be crass and moronic.

ASLEFshrugged

BubblesNeverDies said:

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but what a difference between the Villa fans and Chelsea's.
Yarmo scores a truly great goal and the Villa fans applaud - class.

Meanwhile at Chelsea (can't call them Chelski anymore, can we?) they hang a banner saying "The Roman Empire", that because of Abramovich's association, they might just as well have hung one with "Putin's Empire".
They must have thought they were being clever, instead they just showed themselves to be crass and moronic.

Don't know if its been mentioned but that banner has been there for over ten seasons and was put there by the club not the fans.

I've found photos of that banner from 2011 when it looked a lot newer than it currently does and if you look at those photos it's clearly attached at the top and the bottom. Either it was put up using scaffolding, etc. or someone had their mates dangle them over the sides by the ankles while they tied it off!

According to football.london website one fans group asked for it to be removed and it will be gone for the next home game against Brentford.

Even if it was the fans there were 40,026 in attendance at the weekend and only one banner. If we condemn all Chelsea fans for the actions of a few morons then all West Ham fans are anti-Semitic racists who sing about gas chambers.

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEF, didn't know about the banner being there that long. Even more moronic then that it has not already been removed.
Btw I wasn't condemning all Chelsea fans (a good mate of mine is one), just the ones who I mistakenly thought had hung the banner.

steve

Noticed Rice got another yellow ,How many is he upto now must be getting near 10 and a 2 game ban

IronHerb

He's on 7.

Fortuneseeker

FYI - "Players who accumulate 10 yellow cards in PL matches up to and including their team's 32nd fixture will serve a two-match suspension in the competition."

steve

Thanks guys thought he was more then that ,Also did not know about the 32 game cut off

ASLEFshrugged

BubblesNeverDies said:

ASLEF, didn't know about the banner being there that long. Even more moronic then that it has not already been removed.

Sanctions were imposed on Thursday evening so they only had two days before the Newcastle game, probably not enough time to get the scaffolding (or whatever) in and out again.

Also I suspect the board had a lot more things on their mind than a banner

IronHerb

IronHerb said:

This is a huge week for the Hammers. Three wins and we'd be in an unbelievable position.
We are definitely in the race for 5th/6th place with 7th as a nice fall back position. We must go strong in all three games, no time for messing around.

COYI

Two down, one to go.

COYI