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2023-24 Premier League Thread

That was the kind of match I'm almost glad I watched on replay and didn't have to sweat out the result.

I hear what you’re saying, but man I wish you could have seen it spoiler free….it was wall to wall adrenaline. Already looking forward to throwing the replay on here shortly for my workout.


I'm curious what the record for offsides by opponents is for a season, cause villa are on pace for 184 which feels like it has to be the most. I've never seen a team be so disciplined with their defensive line and so good at catching teams offsides.

Yeah, normally I’ll complain about how “good” goals were and how annoying it is to see them called off for minuscule offsides….(to me, I’d rather see both the Watkins & first Son goal stand for instance, as neither is a level of offside as to intentionally gain any real advantage…..so they’re more legit goals, than most pens that are awarded)

….but I’m not going to complain one iota when it’s Villa and such a large part of how they play and how well they execute it. Like it doesn’t matter how close those offsides were, they were very much by design & Villa earned every one of those inches, with their discipline on the day.

I got nothing but respect for everyone on the pitch that game. Both teams, the refs, the coaches everyone was great……think the Matty Cash foul was the only one a bit over the top, but nothing that egregious (think Tottenham fans/players only complained about it so much because it was Cash who injured Doherty with a similar tackle years ago, that ended his season when he and the team were in their best form.)

On its own tho, it’s a perfectly fine “bad” tackle we see every week, and I’m glad that was about the extent of it…..aside from Spurs players complaining there, I thought both teams were pretty good minimizing their complaints too….which was refreshing.

When people talk about Emery's tactics and what he's brought to Villa, not nearly enough is mentioned about it. Just idiots going, you're going to get in trouble with such a high line cause they have dinosaur brains and can't accept that the sport is different than when they played.

Yeah, complaining about high lines is so cornball….it makes for exponentially more entertaining football, (including getting to witness the best your CB’s have to offer, skill wise)…seeing Romero or Van De Ven make huge tackles at full speed, that stops a big chance the other way, is every bit as entertaining to me as the added offense we get from the high line, on the other end.


The more success Spurs and Villa have, the more teams that will hopefully take the leap and try their hand at entertaining their fans this much.
 
Watching two teams equally committed to playing THAT high a back line was ... something. It almost started to resemble hockey for a bit. In a good way.

There was a number of times I recall registering surprise at the pace either of them would be attacking with, because of how intense the prior few minutes had been, and you just naturally expect to see the other squad slow things down, play it back, and regroup…..but nope, pedal to to metal over and over.

It’s days later, and I’m still high off it. 😆
 
Well City vs Spurs was definitely entertaining. Crazy ending with a shocking ref decision late as Haaland gets fouled and the ref allows him to play his advantage and then blows it dead as he releases Grealish who would have been in behind on goal. Rodri and Grealish to miss the Villa match for accumulated yellows which I appreciate.
 
Just proof that the refs don't need VAR to eff things up.

Villa finally looked like their Euro Thursdays are catching up to them ... mentally at least. At least they got the draw at Bournemouth.
 
Yeah, not a great Villa performance, but they had to rotate the squad and our backups just aren't at the level we need. Kamara being out really hurt our tactical flexibility, I was expecting McGinn to play next to Luiz, but Tieleman's was back there to mixed result. Ref was too afraid to give out second yellows and Bournmouth should have had at least one player definitely sent off, but Villa looked flat and tired so a draw is fair I guess.
 
Yeah, not a great Villa performance, but they had to rotate the squad and our backups just aren't at the level we need. Kamara being out really hurt our tactical flexibility, I was expecting McGinn to play next to Luiz, but Tieleman's was back there to mixed result. Ref was too afraid to give out second yellows and Bournmouth should have had at least one player definitely sent off, but Villa looked flat and tired so a draw is fair I guess.
Sweet header by Ollie to get the draw though. What an adjustment.
 
Almost made it to Christmas without a manager being sacked. Paul Heckingbottom got the sack at Sheffield United and was replaced by former manager Chris Wilder. He managed United from 2016 - 2021. Since getting sacked at Sheffield, he spent almost a year in charge at Middlesbrough and 2 months at the end of last season at Watford.
 
The league has signed new UK TV rights packages starting with the 2025-26 season, worth £6.7 billion. Sky gets the bulk of it. getting rights to 215 matches, including all Friday and Monday matches and 3 rounds of midweek matches. They’ll also broadcast all 10 matches on the last day of the season. TNT Sports, formerly BT Sport gets 52 matches, including all Saturday 12:30 matches and 2 rounds of midweek matches. BBC Sport got highlight rights to all 380 matches. Amazon did not retain their current package which has rights to 20 matches.

While the Saturday 3 pm blackout remains in place, all matches played outside that window will be shown live in the UK.
 
Well City vs Spurs was definitely entertaining.

was a wild one, and I think a key stepping stone in Spurs evolution under Ange in that the confidence they’ll now have coming off that draw while down so many key players including a bunch from our best XI (Romero, Maddison, Van De Ven, Sarr, Bentancur, Manor, etc)….should cement in the entire squad their faith in Angie’s philosophy if it wasn’t already.

Bissouma has had a bit of a rough patch now over his last handful of games, which stings given how pivitol he’d been for the majority of the season, so hopefully he gets back on track. Brennen Johnson has been playing pretty well and coming up in huge moments in just the kinds of ways the team was lacking. Lo Celso seems to have won his way back into Angie’s good graces which I love as I’ve always been a big GLC fan and always thought we could see more of the international version of him under the right gaffer/system….was a terrible fit for Mourinho & Conte and just couldn't stay fit. So if he can continue to step up in Mads absence that’s huge for us. Similarly Kulusevski being comfortable playing more centrally has worked out well, and adds another chess piece for Ange, but I’m not sure how much longer Bryan Gil on the LW will last. When healthy I think Richarlison on the left with Son & Brennen, and Kulu & GLC centrally will be our way to go for the best version of us until Mads is back.

Crazy ending with a shocking ref decision late as Haaland gets fouled and the ref allows him to play his advantage and then blows it dead as he releases Grealish who would have been in behind on goal. Rodri and Grealish to miss the Villa match for accumulated yellows which I appreciate.

has anyone heard what his justification was for that?….seemed bizarre in real time, but made me think of NHL plays where a refs intent to blow the whistle is when the play dies, not when it actually blows.

only thing I could think of that made any sense.
 
has anyone heard what his justification was for that?….seemed bizarre in real time, but made me think of NHL plays where a refs intent to blow the whistle is when the play dies, not when it actually blows.

only thing I could think of that made any sense.
It also made me think of an NHL game ... but only in that a whistle blew and I didn't have ANY idea why, and I'm convinced that the ref didn't either. That happens three times a game in the NHL.
 
Still no statement about it other than to fine City 75k which I'm sure they found by looking under their couch cushions. The crazy part is if he had blown it dead for the initial foul, nobody would have had an issue. He brings the whistle up to call the foul and then realizes that Haaland still has control and motions to play on and then waits until the ball gets to Grealish to blow it dead. I keep rewatching the clip and it gets more baffling each time. I'm thinking, did he maybe accidentally blow it slightly at first and feels like he needs to stop it because of that, but I can't hear any first whistle and the players all react like the play is still going.

Boy would I love the release of all that audio, but that will never happen.
 
I'm still shaking. That was magical. Without Rodri, City's midfield is SAWFT. Even with that, I've never seen a team set the tempo and control a match against City. Even when they lose, they usually control the ball and the pace of a match. I don't even know what to say.
 
Normally when teams try to take the game to City rather than just concentrating on defending, they eventually get worn out ... or beat like a drum on the counter. City certainly miss Rodri, but even so Villa did a great job pinching out the options on the counter. Amazing game. Maybe the best I've seen from Villa since the O'Neill days.
 
Villa hang on to nip Arsenal 1-0 to set the club record for longest home win streak at 15. It won't hang on the wall next to that mid-week masterpiece against City, but style points are for suckers.
 
Villa with a very different 1-0 win over Arsenal. Same starting lineup as against City and noticeably tired after getting only two days off of a very intense match, but toughed it out to hold on to the win. It would have been nice to get one more goal against Legia so we could send the youth team Thursday, but I'd be shocked if we don't send at the very least a heavily rotated squad for that one. We just finished an insane stretch of five matches in fourteen days that included Spurs, City and Arsenal and only managed to drop points to Bournemouth. Unreal. Also, Youri Tielemans had a hard on, so I guess we both are feeling the same way about Villa right now.
 

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lol ... please let's get a better uniform supplier next year, yeah? On that subject I continue to HATE those Arsenal bee costumes.
 
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