At half-time I thought we'd lose 1-4, so abysmal was our defending.
Hats off to whoever delivered the team talk.
Interesting that there were some 'that's what happens when we set up other than defensively' posts when it could be argued that such negativity has itself been to blame for the poor football we've played much of this season. I take the point that if you set up like we did today against the top six we probably get tonked, but it's good to see that a positive approach against the middle ground can work. Why should we not expect to beat Villa at home? Was it the last day last season they stayed up?
Good as a win feels, let's put it in context. The defending is dire and we still get outpassed by almost everybody. It just shows what you can do without Ayew, Milivojevic, van Aanholt. Ward has surely played his last season in the Premiership.
Positives: Eze, Townsend, Benteke. Can we afford a striker who can play better than Benteke did today? Doubt it. Great to see Tomkins back and I thought Butland played well: no cover for either of the goals. Far more presence in the box than Guaita, brilliant reactions though the latter has.

The half time commentators down this end of the world were spot on. When Ward roamed forward Kouyate wasnt close enough to cover and Villa were making alot of ground down their left. This tightened up at half time but really was solved by the Tomkins/Kouyate switch.

For me this really backs those who believe defence is our primary objective in the window now. We need pace and we need succession planning. Ward, Dann, Cahill, Kelly have all been great but the clock is ticking on them all. Sakho and Tomkins have missed alot of football and Ferguson has yet to even play. PVA may fancy a move overseas, Clyne seems to have fallen out of favour almost the moment he was extended.

Elsewhere letting Wickham and Bats go would seem to release enough players for the forwards. McArthur may also fancy a swansong elsewhere so another possibly more forward thinking midfielder would come in handy.A big summer ahead!!

Don’t think it would’ve made much difference. He could’ve easily played instead or McCarthy and we wouldn’t have lost much. I’d still bring him back in. Certainly against the better teams, he’s the best we’ve got at breaking up play, tackling etc.

Really good stuff from the lads today (after the first 20 minutes) looked like they were really enjoying themselves during the second half. Eze, Wilf, Shlupp and Mitchell in particular were very good linking up I thought.
Well done Roy - he got the substitution right today (I was one of those hoping Mateta would come on for Benteke) but I don’t mind being proved wrong when we perform like that!

Also thought Andros put a shift in today and coupled that with some quality going forwards.

At half-time I thought we'd lose 1-4, so abysmal was our defending.
Hats off to whoever delivered the team talk.
Interesting that there were some 'that's what happens when we set up other than defensively' posts when it could be argued that such negativity has itself been to blame for the poor football we've played much of this season. I take the point that if you set up like we did today against the top six we probably get tonked, but it's good to see that a positive approach against the middle ground can work. Why should we not expect to beat Villa at home? Was it the last day last season they stayed up?
Good as a win feels, let's put it in context. The defending is dire and we still get outpassed by almost everybody. It just shows what you can do without Ayew, Milivojevic, van Aanholt. Ward has surely played his last season in the Premiership.
Positives: Eze, Townsend, Benteke. Can we afford a striker who can play better than Benteke did today? Doubt it. Great to see Tomkins back and I thought Butland played well: no cover for either of the goals. Far more presence in the box than Guaita, brilliant reactions though the latter has.