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Threat of villa

twoblue said:
It will be a more difficult season for villa. Conference league run prepared them for extra games, but Chelsea, spurs and Man Utd never turned last season as far as challenging for top four goes, and Newcastles injury season was off the scale.
Decent side but coasted to top four last season.
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You can say that (coasting in) but we finished something like only 3 points off what Newcastle reached the season before and there's no thought that they coasted in. How we finished (out on our legs) also kind of leads people to forget how good we were until our injuries caught up with us; Absolutely dominated Man City to beat them at Villa, double over Arsenal, (with notable defeats too), but we got 4th on merit. not because everyone else had poor seasons, because we were just better than them.
 
As for the injuries, yes Newcastle's really did hamper them. However, the media never made anything of our injuries that we carried through the season. In the end we were so ravaged by injuries that we were relying on a full back to play in midfield, Callum Chambers started to get games (no slight on him just how far we'd dug into what was left), and Lenglet - 4th choice centre half, was playing more and more games. Not many teams would be able to maintain 4th with long term injuries to players such as Mings, Buendia, Moreno, Zaniolo, Digne, Ramsey, Kamara, Carlos, Duran, Torres, Cash and so on.

As I said, everyone gets injuries but the narrative around us is that we were somehow lucky because of what other teams didn't do, rather than what we did and despite the pressures on our squad (injuries, European football etc) we still managed to finish 4th.
 
peterw said:
As for the injuries, yes Newcastle's really did hamper them. However, the media never made anything of our injuries that we carried through the season. In the end we were so ravaged by injuries that we were relying on a full back to play in midfield, Callum Chambers started to get games (no slight on him just how far we'd dug into what was left), and Lenglet - 4th choice centre half, was playing more and more games. Not many teams would be able to maintain 4th with long term injuries to players such as Mings, Buendia, Moreno, Zaniolo, Digne, Ramsey, Kamara, Carlos, Duran, Torres, Cash and so on.

As I said, everyone gets injuries but the narrative around us is that we were somehow lucky because of what other teams didn't do, rather than what we did and despite the pressures on our squad (injuries, European football etc) we still managed to finish 4th.
Click to expand...
No one’s been more positive of what villa have done over the last 5 years than me.
I even started this thread.
Credit where credits due, you are a decent side well run, good manager had a good season… deserved to finish fourth this season. But like you mentioned you would had finished behind Newcastle last season, and out side the top for in the majority of the premier league season.

you are harping on like you are the second resurrection of prime Barcelona… Well done but you are getting carried away.
 
Not sure how I'm getting carried away? You won't find any Villa fans who think we've suddenly jumped into the elite, or that one 4th place means domination - or even flat lining is to follow. However, what needs to be counteracted is this trope that we were lucky to get 4th, that everyone else only failed because of their injuries, that we were somehow lucky over a 38 game season. We finished where we did on merit, and deservedly so. We played more European games and a thinner squad last-season so no reason to think that just because Newcastle had injuries that hampered their 6 European games, that we will follow.
 



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