Nine

Guaranteed booking for Young

And that’s what good teams do, one slack moment gets punished

The derbys of recent memory have definitely left a mark on some of our fans, I see the nerves are already showing. Just step back and have a think about it though, the differences of each club since we last played them. I don’t pay attention to their results or what system they play, but if they deploy a low block and play dirty it could be an edgy game under the circumstances. Having said that if we put out our strongest available side it should be enough to get the result, there will be no questions over mentality like there was during the Pardew reign of terror.

Finding and integrating the right keeper mid season is a gamble. There’s been more than a few hyped, expensive keepers flop in the PL in recent years.. the issue is that Dubs is injury prone also and this is an older version of him that hasn’t had regular football for a while now. Time will tell, we’ll have a good idea of how this pans out before the window even opens.

Beautiful

Willock is so under appreciated on here sometimes, as good as Miley has shown he is there is way to go before we can say that he’s ahead of Willock in terms of starting. They offer different qualities, but Willock is physically far more developed and physicality/stamina is the most important attribute that any of the front 2 midfielders can have in this system. Miley will get there and has lots of time to do so, he’s 17 and has had 4 starts so the potential on display so far from him is immense..

The way he was holding it and his immediate reaction to not get back up has me thinking it probably is.

Dislocated shoulder?

They were awful and we were solid throughout, a superior mentality on display all night from our 11. On another day that could have been 3 or 4.

To be fair I worded it very badly also, hence the sneaky edit

He’s contracted a disease known as dembabaitis, his knee is now essentially a ticking time bomb. God help us all.

I don’t expect us to rotate much if at all, just one look at the bench from the last two games says there is no other starting options and no one that’s out will be back to full fitness in time. I think we’ll grind it out with the same 11 for this and then re assess for Everton.

This group won’t mentally crash from that, if anything it will just cause the opposite. What a way to have that taken from us though, just can’t process that decision at all right now. Proud of this club.

Speechless

Come on

If Villa can maintain their consistency at home they should stay within touching distance of top 4 all season, as always though the common denominator will be down to luck with fitness and injuries.

Needs to mature physically, but has real potential in the mid/long term. Great showing today.

Trippiers finger is fucked

Embarrassing behaviour for a captain

Bodied

“Is gonna run wild on you brother”

The delusion shown by some football fans is genuinely scary

One of the problems is our quick rise over the last 24 months has made it very easy for the journos to target the low hanging fruit as far as our fanbase goes. If we had a gradual build of momentum towards success they would still question Howe for the money spent, but the knives would be harder to sharpen had we not seen almost instantaneous success on the field and then feel it drop away a bit due to the squad being massacred by fitness issues. All I’m saying is, we should all be prepared for the idiots to come out of the woodwork and question management because we are heading into a rough patch with the squad as limited as it is. There were fans questioning Howe after the Liverpool result, let alone a sustained drop off in form. And we don’t even know for sure how much of a drop off it will end up being, if at all. But it is a big test for any manager.

Your success in the 90’s laid the foundations to go on and be able to sign some of the worlds best players, spend ridiculous amounts of money and have an elite infrastructure from top to bottom. It has absolutely everything to do with how you’ve maintained relative success, despite your comedown since Ferguson retired you’ve been able to spend and compete because of the success he and his sides delivered. I won’t argue the injury point, it’s completely correct and fair enough.

The players that are available are so gassed, the whole squad needs the upcoming break. We have looked flat since the first minute.