The College Dropout

Sancho has the heart of a pea. Feels like Pep rarely signs exciting players or if he does - he makes them boring. Silva, Sane, KDB, Aguero - exciting players in their pomp. To replace KDB for the enjoyment of the wider footballing community, would be like a Wirtz or someone. Bring us a real magician. (note: don't watch much of Wirtz, just going off the hype)

Can we have an official latest update in the title please? If Tindall said he's still in the hospital on Saturday - that should be it. Very selfishly, I think that would be the difference in us qualifying for the CL or not. We've had lots of bad halves this season. But I feel like Eddie would've went tighter/more defensive

It's never a bonus when we have players like Isak and Tonali. They've already got momentum. A draw is bad. Villa win is bad. Minimum requirement is finishing above 2 of the teams in the chase. That's most likely to be Villa & Chelsea at this point. Best likely case scenario at the end of the weekend - 2 points ahead of Chelsea with a better GD, 1 point ahead of City, 5 points ahead of Villa - effectively 6 points. a smaller gap to 6th. Think Chelsea are always liable to drop points though.

We want teams ‘eliminated’ from the race. Villa are bottom of the pack, we want them gone.

Agreed. I thought 68 to be safe. 69 might be the breathing space number. I don’t think 66 will be enough out right. Perhaps on GD.

Did you have them winning last week? I did. I had today as a draw or defeat but it’s levelled out.

Vila are reliant on others dropping points as they have the worst goal difference. Their odds will change drastically if they beat City. As it stands they have the smallest margin for error.

People keep assuming City will qualify but they are liable to drop a bunch of points. Having the best goal difference I think will save them. it might be that close. Lose to Villa and they will need to win their remaining ifixtures

The Chelsea draw last week was a bonus. We always would need to beat them at home and if we have no further injuries or suspensions and Howe back I’m so confident we‘ll do it.

They gambled on January and it’s paying off. If they don’t qualify it will be by a small margin

Qualify for the CL and neither is sold. 50-60 games next season. First attacker off the bench, first midfielder off the bench, 3rd CB etc. should be first team quality. Villa brought on Ramsey, Onana, Malen and Rashford which killed us off. Full strength we only have Gordon, Trippier and Botman of that quality off the bench.

Aye so they need a mega run of 9 wins in 10 or something right? Thing with Villa is they have a great squad. They didn’t look tired because they have quality in depth. 4 wins and a draw gets them to 70 points. Thats not a crazy ask from here.

If they beat City I think they will get a minimum of 69 points. I think both sides would be happy with a draw. Definitely City. I long assumed 68 points would be enough. Still think it will be but GD might play a factor.

We’ve needed Villa to drop points for awhile and they just keep winning. I think that’s 7 in a row? If they beat City they’ll fancy themselves to win all but 1 of their remaining games at least. For Villa to pip us (assuming we get 68 points) they need to win 11 out of 12 or so in total. So fair fucks.

You recover best at home. If they want you to stay in hospital you are sick to the point the Doctors feel the need to monitor you and/or you require ongoing care

If we qualify for the CL we need another quality athletic CM. Bruno plays so many minutes and has to cover so much ground. He needed subbing today but we don’t have the options off the bench

We really do need Man City to beat these.

It should be enough. And if it isn’t it means Villa have won all but one of their remaining games.

Gareth Bale is as a clean a striker of the ball as you can find in the game.

He RAN to send me him off all dramatic like a cabaret queen. Big moment that

Referee was delighted to send him off

Give him another £170m to sign 4 players. GK, CB, CM, attacker. He rotates players he trusts. He didn’t trust Tino or Hall back then. But he did rotate with Wilson and Barnes as he trusted them. My only issue with Howe is that he might not play young talents like Tino or Hall from the start (Osula isn’t that level). He was too quick to get Tino back on the bench and he essentially perma benched Hall after a few poor showings.

btw with this new CL format, I think 90+ point seasons will be harder for even the cartel clubs until they can all get tremendous strength in-depth. The PL is too tough. The semi-perm 16 teams, are all pretty good. They can't give Darron Gibson's 15 pl games a season anymore

I agree with this. I genuinely think, if Villa had this squad at the start of the season, they would have another 6-8 points. That takes them from the bottom end of the CL battle, to pushing hard for 3 major competitions and getting CL football fairly comfortably. We can get there with 1 good window and a bit of luck.

I'm being hyperbolic, but we are another couple of players and some depth away from going up another level. That 76-85 point range, depending on the season, is a title challenge. We speak about the cartel. Only three of them are capable of exceeding 85 points next season, and only one will do that this season. There's no point in having players like Isak and Tonali, then targeting finishing 4th or 5th for the prime years of their career. We can target a 76-85 point season next year, if we achieve that, can that unlock finances to go 85+ points?