West Ham Utd 2-1 Aston Villa (13/3/22)

[Rays Rock]

One thing that needs to be pondered over today was how bad Villa's players were.

A number of them have been mentioned on a frequent basis as players we should pursue, but I don't think I saw a single decent player out there today, except maybe Murphy and Buendia.

I actually felt they had gone backwards from the team we played maybe 12-18 months ago.

Digne, Watkins, Cash, McGinn.... weren't good, were they?

Apparently a team that was bang in form. I thought they were lacklustre and devoid of ideas. Happy to try and slow the game down by feigning head injury and possibly catch us on the break.

[Paddy O'Hammer]

Leeds, Southampton and Everton all on before us on MOTD....so far. I guess we'll be on sometime around 4am!

[Rays Rock]

Great performance. Benny gets motm, haters will hate but he was best of the three behind Antonio. Had he made the two miss passes that Declan hit he'd have had a mob on here demanding he be dropped for good.

We do love to have someone to slag off.

I don’t think anyone hates him. He’s just frustratingly wasteful. His stats showed 4 shots today, yet I can’t remember any of them. As others have said the 2 assists flatter him today as neither assist required him to do anything other than make the obvious pass required. The overriding elements in our goals today were the raking Dawson pass to Benrhama and the touch and finish by Yarmolenko. The second goal is thanks to Rices turnover and dribble. Fornals wasn’t that fantastic either even though he scored, so goals and assists prove little without analysis.

[prophet:marginal]

Leeds, Southampton and Everton all on before us on MOTD....so far. I guess we'll be on sometime around 4am!

Don't forget The Gunners

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Leeds, Southampton and Everton all on before us on MOTD....so far. I guess we'll be on sometime around 4am!

Leeds, Norwich, Watford and Everton are all in the relegation battle which they were focusing on

[GetUrWangOut]

Really surprised at the negative comments on here. I was at the game and we controlled it very well.

In terms of stand out players I though Rice (as per) and Dawson stood out, as did Yarmolenko when he came on. His goal was an emotional moment that will live long on in the memory.

[sendô]

Leeds, Southampton and Everton all on before us on MOTD....so far. I guess we'll be on sometime around 4am!

Routine home win. Though not sure why the gooners are ahead of us - no wait, there's Ian Wright.

[prophet:marginal]

Few matches from Arsenal's matches over the seasons

[GetUrWangOut]

Just heard the Villa fans both applauded Yarmolenko coming onto the pitch and his goal. Fair play to them, shows class that

[Pob!]

Danny Murphy is a c**t!

[OohAahButler]

Danny Murphy is a c**t!

Yep. Had to slip in a little comment about ‘when Rice plays for a more successful team’

[sendô]

Yeah, Danny Murphy with his "if Rice was in a more successful team" comment like he wasn't only ever a completely bang average midfielder and a miserable, cliched dullard of a pundit.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Just heard the Villa fans both applauded Yarmolenko coming onto the pitch and his goal. Fair play to them, shows class that

I am.not sure they did applaud the goal, certainly not in any great numbers
I remember looking over to see if they were and couldn't see anyone applauding
Admittedly I do sit a fair distance away from the away end

[bonzosbeard]

Just heard the Villa fans both applauded Yarmolenko coming onto the pitch and his goal. Fair play to them, shows class that

I've heard that a few times. It was class. Fair play to them.

[OohAahButler]

I actually felt that Villa’s shithousery played into our hands eventually.

The crowd was quiet and the atmosphere pretty flat until eventually annoyance at it and the ref got people shouting and that seemed to feed through to the team.

[HammerMan2004]

Delighted we won that. Villa were infuriating to watch.

The crowd was absolutely dead for the majority of the game. Very disappointing. We tried to get things going in the BML but people just stand there watching us. I don’t get it.

We were infinitely better after the forced changes. I’ve given Yarmolenko a bucket load of grief but that touch and finish was wonderful. For all his pace and power that moment encapsulated everything Antonio sadly can’t do. We looked a much better team with him off the pitch.

God knows how we’ll line up on Thursday at this point but I cannot ****ing wait.

[MrHammer73]

Yeah, Danny Murphy with his "if Rice was in a more successful team" comment like he wasn't only ever a completely bang average midfielder and a miserable, cliched dullard of a pundit.

That was an annoying comment, he just wants him to sign for Liverpool so he can say 'Decs' and 'Trent' in the same sentence. To**er!

[kitthehammer]

Any news on antonio and cresswell?

[Status Kev]

Absolutely chuffed to see Yarmolenko score today. Very emotional and it was a very neat bit of footwork for the finish. God knows what his mental state must be at the moment though. I can't begin to imagine.
He always comes across as a really nice guy and it's a shame it hasn't really worked out for him here. I do think he's too readily been made a scapegoat by some people though. There's definitely a great talent there. Maybe a run of games would do him good football wise.
A great win against a decent team though with Declan and Zouma again having top games.
The injury list is starting to look worrying though.
It's going to be a big week in our season but we can do it.
COYI.

[funky chicken]

Yesterday’s match especially backed up the point some of our supporters made about us needing more of an element of surprise. As we arguably became a bit predictable with the team we play and the subs we bring on. Yarmolenko offered us something completely different to what Antonio was offering. And that’s no offence to Antonio, as to be fair I didn’t think he was awful. He worked his a*se off when he was on the pitch. To be honest Yarmo’s performance was a surprise to us, let alone the Aston Villa defence, as he doesn’t play that well often!

If anything Yarmo’s performance equally frustrated me a little bit. As if he played that well on a consistent basis we wouldn’t have felt as short in numbers in the attack as we have felt at times this season.