Pata

Sheff U defending well, Villa hasn’t created anything. Best chances were from corners.

VAR desperate to help Villa.

I was critical of the Milan and PSG away performances but this felt different as we actually defended really well and Chelsea never looked like scoring in the second half until Trippier’s mistake. It’s not nice to watch but we were gifted an early goal and nullified them well. Obviously it would be easier if we could keep some possession but once again tiredness and available players didn’t really help. Ritchie played most of the second half and I can’t really remember him completing any passes right now.

Why’s that?

Today was the first time when I genuinely thought he must be ahead of Longstaff in the midfield pecking order right now. Interesting how Howe saw that Longstaff was struggling to get involved on the left side and was fine with trusting Miley to handle that role too. Moved Longstaff back to his preferred side where Miley had played almost all of his minutes this season.

Obviously Howe hadn’t worked with him before the transfer. This is getting really weird now, everyone says the clause is not appearance-based so the only reason he’s not getting to the pitch is that Howe has absolutely zero trust in him. If we ever get players back he’ll have trouble making the bench. Would love to know what’s going on, surely he should’ve been brought on before Ritchie.

One of the worst performances I can remember without a single massive blunder (Caicedo might have walked with VAR but think yellow is alright too). Was way too happy to whistle any slightest contact and ruined the flow of the game yet somehow didn’t seem to give us any of those extremely soft freekicks.

He’s going through a rough spell and is costing us games. I really hope it’s just form and not the start of a permanent decline. The errors are so silly that I’m inclined to say it’s all mental (and mental fatigue). I’m sure Howe does his best to correct it. Anyone saying people have short memories when criticising him, you don’t get to make mistakes like these and expect no one to say anything. He’s been a legit liability for few games now.

Fuck off man!

Well done Caicedo.

Ref with a strong start to second half ffs.

I think it looks like this when energy levels are low and we are trying to preserve some energy too. Being up 1-0 means I don’t really mind it here, more about the result than the performance but second half will be long if we play like that though. Need some relief from Gordon and Almiron in keeping possession and winning freekicks up the pitch but it could be impossible with this ref.

This ref is horrible.

Gordon needs a rest.

No idea how Mitoma gets a card for that when Saka is going towards his own goal. Arteta buys the card for Mitoma but gets carded too, makes no sense.

I don't think he even needs to be replaced, one of the kids should be able to step up and we still have Ashby. If I was him I wouldn't sign a deal either and look to get a move to a smaller team in one of the big leagues to get more minutes.

He was surprisingly good today but he's 29, I wouldn't give him another contract. His role as an emergency RB/CB should be filled by someone a lot younger. Fairly certain he can get a decent deal from Germany/Italy/Spain though which is great for him.

Why is MGW going down there ffs?

That’s a red.

It's a much more dangerous chance when inverted winger is cutting in from the edge of the box compared to being pinned at the touchline. You rather have him on his stronger foot when he's cutting in, teams don't really want to be in that second situation anymore. Only having one leg you can use is obviously still a massive disadvantage for a professional footballer.

He must’ve hurt himself in the collision with Giroud IMO.

He’s just simply brilliant, 100% confident he’ll deal with anything defensively and feels like we’ve only seen glimpses of what he can do going forward so far. That one poor control in the halfway line that resulted in the Leao chance shows he’s still a human but I’m not blaming him for it.

I didn’t mind the subs, Leao is their main threat and having Tino on him instead of tired and probably injured Trippier made sense. Gordon most likely wasn’t fit to play 90 and Longstaff for Miley is an obvious sub. Almiron didn’t deserve 90 but we had no else left on the bench to replace him.

I’ve been watching a lot of Roma for the past two seasons and they are honestly one of the most boring sides I’ve ever seen despite having some class players. Would absolutely hate it if Mourinho ever came here as a manager, he’s done at the top level.