Match Reaction v Villa (away).

[IBK]

Deliberately left it until today for my tuppence worth.

Felt deflated in Saturday, as I was expecting a win at Villa, given how we have been playing recently. What depressed me was not so much the mistake that led to their goal (these things happen - albeit seemingly too much with our players), but how straightforward Villa's game plan was. Dean Smith did not have any magic strategy. He just made sure that his players were absolutely on it from the get go, then really disciplined in defence once they had scored. Not rocket science. And despite us being almost at full strength attacking wise, we had no way through. We seemed always to go for the pass, and allow them to get back into shape when going forwards, and this lack of speed - in thought as well as execution - made us look quite blunt.

2 days later I'm a little more phlegmatic. We are (and always were) a work in progress, and I think that expectiations were raised a bit too high by our little unbeaten run. We are still IMO a long way away from the shambles before Xmas. We have a better shape and more options generally going forwards. I have a bit more faith in Arteta and Edu after our January business - Odegard and Matt Smith look like sensible acqisitions, and while Cedric is not good enough as a back up to Tierney - I am not going to kill them for not finding a better replacement. Aubameyang worries me - and in hindsight his contract renewal looks a bad deal but none of us really thought this at the time. The big black mark is Willian - both the deal and the manager's bewildering continued faith in him - but not much more to say about that.

I still expect us to finish top 10, and as long as we continue to show that there is a game plan on the pitch and can build on this then I will take that this season. However I need the manager and team to show that we really have moved on from the first half of the season - and the more games that go past without 3 points the more shaky our 'renaissance' seems.

[Chippy]

Deliberately left it until today for my tuppence worth.

Felt deflated in Saturday, as I was expecting a win at Villa, given how we have been playing recently. What depressed me was not so much the mistake that led to their goal (these things happen - albeit seemingly too much with our players), but how straightforward Villa's game plan was. Dean Smith did not have any magic strategy. He just made sure that his players were absolutely on it from the get go, then really disciplined in defence once they had scored. Not rocket science. And despite us being almost at full strength attacking wise, we had no way through. We seemed always to go for the pass, and allow them to get back into shape when going forwards, and this lack of speed - in thought as well as execution - made us look quite blunt.

2 days later I'm a little more phlegmatic. We are (and always were) a work in progress, and I think that expectiations were raised a bit too high by our little unbeaten run. We are still IMO a long way away from the shambles before Xmas. We have a better shape and more options generally going forwards. I have a bit more faith in Arteta and Edu after our January business - Odegard and Matt Smith look like sensible acqisitions, and while Cedric is not good enough as a back up to Tierney - I am not going to kill them for not finding a better replacement. Aubameyang worries me - and in hindsight his contract renewal looks a bad deal but none of us really thought this at the time. The big black mark is Willian - both the deal and the manager's bewildering continued faith in him - but not much more to say about that.

I still expect us to finish top 10, and as long as we continue to show that there is a game plan on the pitch and can build on this then I will take that this season. However I need the manager and team to show that we really have moved on from the first half of the season - and the more games that go past without 3 points the more shaky our 'renaissance' seems.

The depressing thing for me on Saturday was that we went 1-0 down after just 2 minutes, I just knew we wouldn't get anything out of the game.

We have some good young players and we should get better. However, is Arteta the man to get the best out of them and turn our fortunes around? Personally, I just don't think so

* Why does Arteta continue with Luiz, Bellerin, Lacazette, and Willian?
* Why is Saliba still out on loan when he once again got MOTM for Nice at the weekend? (3-0 win).
* Guendouzi is also catching the eye of the Berlin and European press with his performances for Hertha.

Arteta has his obvious favorites, this is why I say "rookie out"!

[Mac76]

The depressing thing for me on Saturday was that we went 1-0 down after just 2 minutes, I just knew we wouldn't get anything out of the game.

We have some good young players and we should get better. However, is Arteta the man to get the best out of them and turn our fortunes around? Personally, I just don't think so

* Why does Arteta continue with Luiz, Bellerin, Lacazette, and Willian?
* Why is Saliba still out on loan when he once again got MOTM for Nice at the weekend? (3-0 win).
* Guendouzi is also catching the eye of the Berlin and European press with his performances for Hertha.

Arteta has his obvious favorites, this is why I say "rookie out"!

* Why does Arteta continue with Luiz, Bellerin, Lacazette, and Willian?

well Laca has been our most prolific scorer i think and generally played quite well - and i speak as one of his big critics last season - so no mystery there but i agree on the others

The Saliba thing is a huge messup and clearly plays to Arteta being stubborn to a fault, a la his insistence on playing Willian, also his shutting out of Guendouzi who actually won us the game the last time we did win at home against Villa

Martinelli's the only person on the bench who could've changed that result but he got no minutes.

very stubborn

[IBK]

The depressing thing for me on Saturday was that we went 1-0 down after just 2 minutes, I just knew we wouldn't get anything out of the game.

We have some good young players and we should get better. However, is Arteta the man to get the best out of them and turn our fortunes around? Personally, I just don't think so

* Why does Arteta continue with Luiz, Bellerin, Lacazette, and Willian?
* Why is Saliba still out on loan when he once again got MOTM for Nice at the weekend? (3-0 win).
* Guendouzi is also catching the eye of the Berlin and European press with his performances for Hertha.

Arteta has his obvious favorites, this is why I say "rookie out"!

I was actually quite confident that we would get something out of the game - which was the stark difference from these games before Xmas. The difference was that our forward players were not quite on it as they had been. In fact, I felt that the whole team lacked some snap. Was this complacency; lack of confidence or something else? The subs were poor. Nothing Arteta could do about Partey I suppose, but Ceballos should have replaced him. Saka worked well for Cedric, but IMO Martinelli would have provided the zip we needed to cause problems.

I'm not going to hammer Arteta again just yet though. A point against Manure was fine, and Wolves wasn't his fault. In hindsight Saliba looks like a glaring mistake in any number of ways, but Guendouzi??

The one that I cannot understand is Willian. We don't even need him as a body on the pitch any more FFS. How many shit performances does the manager need to watch?

[Gooner23]

I was actually quite confident that we would get something out of the game - which was the stark difference from these games before Xmas. The difference was that our forward players were not quite on it as they had been. In fact, I felt that the whole team lacked some snap. Was this complacency; lack of confidence or something else? The subs were poor. Nothing Arteta could do about Partey I suppose, but Ceballos should have replaced him. Saka worked well for Cedric, but IMO Martinelli would have provided the zip we needed to cause problems.

I'm not going to hammer Arteta again just yet though. A point against Manure was fine, and Wolves wasn't his fault. In hindsight Saliba looks like a glaring mistake in any number of ways, but Guendouzi??

The one that I cannot understand is Willian. We don't even need him as a body on the pitch any more FFS. How many shit performances does the manager need to watch?

It is worrying that Arteta seems to still default to 'experience', with Willian and Luiz getting more minutes than deserved. I thought he had learnt his lesson on this but it seems it was more a case of availability forcing his hand before Xmas, and Saka & Smith Rowe now being too good to drop.

The challenge this summer will be another tight budget (European football now very unlikely) and still a number of positions that need filling / upgrading on.

In my view we still need;
- Back up keeper (maybe that will be Ryan)
- Back up left back
- Starting right back
- Starting striker
- Starting centre mid
- Back up / starting attacking mid

Even if you flog one or two like Bellerin and Lacazatte that's still a huge amount of work to be done.

[Bumble]

Referees should all be killed.

Mike Dean is stepping down at the weekend due to death threats received after sendings off.

although your comment is tongue in cheek... there are some real loons out there who do believe that.

[Mac76]

Mike Dean is stepping down at the weekend due to death threats received after sendings off.

although your comment is tongue in cheek... there are some real loons out there who do believe that.

they're a nice set of fans at West Ham, aren't they

[Chippy]

they're a nice set of fans at West Ham, aren't they

Absolute Scumbags

I was at the game in the 80's when some idiot let off a smoke bomb in the North Bank and later that afternoon killed one of our fans by stabbing him. (I am sure that was the same day, cant be 100% sure).

Poor boy

[dazthegooner]

A couple of years back I was in a Weatherspoons Surrey Docks a W Ham fan/prick came in wanting to fight all the Millwall fans, this being around 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday when they were away from home.

[selassie]

Deliberately left it until today for my tuppence worth.

Felt deflated in Saturday, as I was expecting a win at Villa, given how we have been playing recently. What depressed me was not so much the mistake that led to their goal (these things happen - albeit seemingly too much with our players), but how straightforward Villa's game plan was. Dean Smith did not have any magic strategy. He just made sure that his players were absolutely on it from the get go, then really disciplined in defence once they had scored. Not rocket science. And despite us being almost at full strength attacking wise, we had no way through. We seemed always to go for the pass, and allow them to get back into shape when going forwards, and this lack of speed - in thought as well as execution - made us look quite blunt.

2 days later I'm a little more phlegmatic. We are (and always were) a work in progress, and I think that expectiations were raised a bit too high by our little unbeaten run. We are still IMO a long way away from the shambles before Xmas. We have a better shape and more options generally going forwards. I have a bit more faith in Arteta and Edu after our January business - Odegard and Matt Smith look like sensible acqisitions, and while Cedric is not good enough as a back up to Tierney - I am not going to kill them for not finding a better replacement. Aubameyang worries me - and in hindsight his contract renewal looks a bad deal but none of us really thought this at the time. The big black mark is Willian - both the deal and the manager's bewildering continued faith in him - but not much more to say about that.

I still expect us to finish top 10, and as long as we continue to show that there is a game plan on the pitch and can build on this then I will take that this season. However I need the manager and team to show that we really have moved on from the first half of the season - and the more games that go past without 3 points the more shaky our 'renaissance' seems.

IBK, pretty much my thoughts too. We are still very much a work in progress. The reality of the situation is that we are very much a Top 10 side, but at the moment, no longer a Top 6 side.

Despite losing back to back games, some of the play has been very encouraging in both the Wolves and Villa games. We are looking more like a "team" now and seem to be slowly developing a style of play. Despite this, we do still lack quality pretty much all over the pitch and I think it's going to take a few more windows to address that. You could also argue that a more experienced high quality manager could address several of the shortcomings in this team, take for example Chelsea hiring Tuchel and him ironing out the weaknesses in Chelsea's team due to Lampard's lack of experience.

Our current league position is pretty much reflective of the level of this team, I do personally think we have drifted quality wise away from the traditional top 6 even though I feel we are good enough to give all of them a very competitive game with the exception of City.

Regarding the Europa league and a possible route into CL, honestly I don't think we are at the level to progress from a CL group assuming we make our way into it via winning the Europa League, to be honest I don't think we are good enough to win the Europa League given the teams left in it.

I wouldn't fancy us to beat any of these sides over 2 legs or a one-off in the Europa League, AC Milan, Spuds, Leicester, Ajax & Man United.

Europa League Ties:

ROUND OF 32

• Red Star Belgrade
  17:55
  AC Milan
• Dynamo Kyiv
  17:55
  Club Bruges
• FK Krasnodar
  17:55
  Dinamo Zagreb
• Olympiakos
  17:55
  PSV Eindhoven
• Real Sociedad
  17:55
  Manchester United
• RZ Pellets WAC
  17:55
  Tottenham Hotspur
• Slavia Prague
  17:55
  Leicester City
• Sporting Braga
  17:55
  Roma
• Young Boys
  17:55
  Bayer 04 Leverkusen
• Benfica
  20:00
  Arsenal
• FC Red Bull Salzburg
  20:00
  Villarreal
• Granada
  20:00
  Napoli
• Lille
  20:00
  Ajax
• Maccabi Tel-Aviv
  20:00
  Shakhtar Donetsk
• Molde
  20:00
  1899 Hoffenheim
• Royal Antwerp
  20:00
  Rangers