r/avfc

Myself included in said meltdown, but we're now 10 points clear when we really looked like doing an Arsenal and barely managing 7th with how we were playing, Tielemans and McGinn really are World Class and the difference in our midfield is night and day, can also see Emery's resistance to subs after that Sancho disasterclass yesterday..

A second week for the discussion thread, this time featuring the funny drug number! Use this post to say all the things you want to that aren't post-worthy themselves: missed connections at the weekend's match, thoughts about matches around us (or any other great matches despite their relevance to us!), the price of mutton in world markets.

A lot have been saying, as long as we're top 5, that's all that matters.

However, if we finish 5th and win the Europa, then 6th place also gets Champions League.

We finish 4th, and it's top 5 only.

Mostly we don't care about others. But imagine if it's Chelsea. We don't want to award them with anything.

If it's a Brentford etc, then it's not as big a deal, but still.

Top 4, we need to be selfish. Pull that ladder up behind us like they've been trying to do for years.

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen; Onana, Tielemans; McGinn, Barkley, Rogers; Watkins

Sunderland Starting 11 Roefs; Mukele, O'Nien, Alderete, Mandava; Xhaka, Sadiki; Rigg, Diarra, Le Fee; Brobbey

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Bailey, Bizot, Bogarde, Buendia, Digne, Luiz, Lindelof, Sancho

Sunderland Subs Ballard, Cirkin, Ellborg, Geertuida, Hume, Isidor, Jones, Mayenda, Talbi

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Previous fixture, that was played in September ended up with a 1-1 draw as Villa could not break down a 10-men Sunderland. Cash scored in that one, before Isidor equalised.

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Aston Villa 4-3 Sunderland

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Match Events

Kick off

2 min: WATKINS! Cash passes to McGinn as he runs down the inside right of the box, he chips in a cross and Watkins at the back post to head in.

9 min: Rigg scores. Its a well worked goal. Diarra works well to beat Maatsen then his cross is knocked back by Sadiki to Riggs who takes a touch and curls it into the corner

36 min: WATKINS! Again he's on fire. This time it was all Rogers who did a great job in shielding and finding the run of Maatsen who crosses the ball and Watkins heads it into the goal

Half time we lead 2-1

47 min: ROGERS! Great goal again. McGinn steals the ball, passes to Barkley who drives forward, passes to Watkins and Watkins immediately finds Rogers who made the run in behind who then aims bottom right corner

62 min: Alderete has an injury and is replaced by Ballard, other tacitcal changes include Rigg and Reinildo and Talbi and Hume come on

65 min: Yellow for Sadiki for a tactical foul on Tielemans as Villa were countering

69 min: Double change for Villa, Digne and Buendia come on for Barkley and Maatsen

79 min: No hattrick for Watkins today, Abraham comes in for Watkins, Sancho also comes on for McGinn

83 min: Brobbery is replaced by Isidor

85 min: Oh no, Hume scores... He intercepts the ball from Sancho in our defence, Hume then charges forward and laces a shot into the top right corner doing well to get it around the keeper.

86 min: Isidor scores.... Villa kick off after Humes goal, from kick off Lee Fee intercepts again from Sancho, then sends in a through ball to Isidor sending him through on a one on one and its converted.

92 min: ABRAHAM! What a game. Digne sends in a cross and Abraham squeezes between the defenders and pokes it past the keeper

94 min: Mukele is booked for fouling Rogers just outside the box

97 min: Yellow for Ballard and Onana for confrontations

Full time what a game

Probably a stupid question but will the Europa semi tickets be more expensive than the quarters? I paid 67 for the quarter, how much roughly would you guess it would cost for the same seat for the semi?

I also want to get tickets for a friend. I've attended the Europa league matches before so I can get early access, but he hasn't. Would I be able to buy his ticket earlier or would I have to wait until general sale to buy him one?

Thanks

Well that was quite a game. One that should've been controlled but ended up giving us a huge hit of dopmine as we almost turned a certain 3 points, into 1, into 0, then into 3 in the space of 5 minutes. Let me explain. First half Villa scored very early on with Watkins scoring from McGinns lobbed cross. Rigg scored a few minutes later after Sadiki set Rigg up for him to place it into the net. Before the break Watkins scored his second after Maaten set up Watkins for his second header. In the second half we were largely in control, (thank you /u/EngimaT1m) and kicked off the second half in style, as McGinn intercepted the ball at the halfway mark, passed to Barkley, then to Watkins who then first time passed found the run of the overlapping Rogers to score our third. We had more chances to score during the second half but those became more challenging after Ballard came on. We also made some subs, and the one that was impactful was Sancho... for Sunderland. In the 85th minute, Hume intervened Sancho in our right side defence, Hume went forward and curled it into the top right corner. From kick off, Sancho again lost the ball to Le Fee, who sent a through ball to Isidor and he scored the one on one to make it 3-3. In the 92nd minute Diarra also had a one on one, but this time Martinez did an amazing job in stopping that shot, giving Villa time for one more opportunity which was crossed in by Digne and poked in by Abraham. Wow. What a rush, what an end to the game.

MOTM goes to Watkins. Absolutely changed man since the International Break and again today was the difference. Great movement, great positioning, was involved in almost everything and secord a brace. Rogers is a close second, created a ton and those goals did come from Rogers involvement. Credit to Onana as well for really giving us more solidity in defence, protecting the backline and also in build up play.

Huge, huge result considering Chelsea's result yesterday. We're still in 3rd place with 58 points. Tied with United, 3 points ahead of Liverpool and crucially now 10 points ahead of Chelsea. Mathematically we need 5 points (if we have a better GD) to guarantee Champions League, 6 points to make it definitive in the last remaining 5 games. We're in pole position now for that place.

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Results around us

Man. City vs Arsenal

Everton 1-2 Liverpool

Most consistent striker we’ve had in the Premier League

why is nobody talking about rising cost of raw mutton..before holi it was 700 n on holi it was 800 and today for 900.

As per title, due to his recent performance against Sunderland and saving himself from being lobbed, he has increased his price by TWO whole chops and if any move was to transpire in the summer, Villa may be looking at a wolf in sheep’s clothing (I don’t mean wolves ffs, it’s just a joke line and I found it funny, p.s. fuck molineux)

Love you all UTV

I gotta say, today was a good day.

The chasing pack would have to be perfect to get ahead of us, and let’s face it, that ain’t happening.

One win. One draw.

UTV!!

Just been brilliant these last few games!