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Other PL Round 25 Fixtures - 25th Feb-1st March, 2023


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all kick-offs 15.00 (GMT) unless stated

Saturday 25th February, 2023
Everton vs Aston Villa

Leeds vs Southampton

Leicester vs Arsenal

West Ham vs Nottm Forest

Wednesday 1st March, 2023
Arsenal vs Everton, 19.45

Liverpool vs Wolves, 20.00

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They'll just have too much for us I'd imagine. Last weekend wasn't all bad and we definitely looked a bit better going forward than we had done but we're still too easy to create against, no clean sheet since before the World Cup, and Arsenal are a clearly very good team.

The test of how much Rodgers respects Arsenal will be how near his set up is to what it was against Man City (5-4-1 - the only side we consistently do this against) or 4-2-3-1 like we did against Spurs / Man Utd.

Arteta's won 3/3 games away here as manager all by two goals. I can see exactly that happening again this weekend, I've put 1-3.

Maddison doubtful apparently. There's a part of me that thinks keep him fresh for Southampton next week. Would be extremely Leicester to play him against Arsenal, goes off in the first half and we lose him for that and Chelsea. Think these lingering injuries are the only reason he's not yet had a bigger move.

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Also gone for a 1-3 loss. 

Probably go ahead early after a fast start. Get sussed out tactically. Have our creative or energetic players taken off. Concede a couple of goals in quick succession. Chase the game, defence exposed even more and then concede a 3rd late on. 

Not a game I'm expecting anything from. 

Whether it's 1 point or 3 if we do get any, I'll be happy. 

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Been saying this is a 'must win' for a few weeks now and as the weeks gone by, the win hasn't come. Absolutely bored of saying it but this really, really is that. We are behind schedule of projected points needed from winnable fixtures and we can't fall even further behind that.

Also, to be perfectly frank, if we don't beat Southampton at home, do we really deserve to stay up? I'd personally say no. 

If we fall behind, I do fear Elland Road will turn nasty. Sadly I think that's where we're at right now, frustration and anger. Elland Road can be really 50/50 sometimes, some players take to it, others can't handle the pressure. We need the crowd fully behind us.

And we massively need some sort of break to go our way in a game because we're absolutely due it, whether it's an OG in our favour, a penalty, VAR decision or even a smash and grab, against the run of play win. Something just to turn the tide a bit and feel like not everything is against you.

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I do still think it's important Villa get their heads back into the idea of needing points. January gave out all kinds of 'take what we have' signs. And 3 straight 2 goal defeats (even if 2 were the top 2) have meant we're just very, very fortunate to still sit 11th & near Chelsea.

Plenty of winnable looking matches ahead, but sooner than later please Villa players.

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Good scrap this. Villa had some good possession early on but we've kept them quiet and got ourselves on top. Too bad we couldn't get ourselves ahead. McNeil and Maupay should have scored between them late in the half but took too many touches and Martinez pulled off an excellent save earlier from an Onana header. Really hope we can nick this with the guarantee that others round the bottom will be dropping points against each other.

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Certainly sounds a 2 sided match going on at Everton. Just in the minutes before the opener, apparently Mings cleared off the line & Pickford had tipped a shot/header onto the post.

New Villa record for Ollie Watkins. Only player to score in 5 consecutive Premier League matches. He really has stepped up very well since Ings left.

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0-2 that was poor from Coady and Tarkowski. Proper smash and grab scoreline from Villa here but it's the fault of our board that they have clinical players and options from the bench while we have to watch Maupay stumble over 4 or 5 half chances without generating a shot on target, Doucoure the closest thing to a second striker in this system and Tom Davies the player we turn to at two nil down.

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Shaded it for 60 minutes, on another day that one Mings clears off the line goes over and we shut down the game for a 1-0. Easier answer is we buy a striker in January who can deputise effectively for Calvert-Lewin in this system. Then concede a penalty through a risky challenge and another goal late on when we over commit. Annoying result as that was a winnable game and we were doing well for much of it. When you can't score goals like us though the first goal is essential.

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One thing I will say though is that Arsenal should be ashamed and embarrassed by what their players have become when it comes to faking injuries, wasting time and just being generally pathetic. Straight out of the Pep playbook via Arteta. Martinelli is one of the biggest culprits. 

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Absolute ugly game from two teams devoid of quality in the final third. It had a bit of a dogfight about it beforehand and in my eyes, both of us could still drop to be fair, it was that bad a game.

The only difference being we showed more intent to win it and got ourselves into promising positions despite being wasteful. Perhaps we were rewarded for being the more positive, allbeit with an extremely scrappy finish.

Saints should have showed more ambition really, we were there for the taking at 0-0 and you sensed the nerves in the ground with 20mins to go.

The result is ultimately all that matters today though, it had to be a win at all costs and it's nice to enjoy your weekend with three points in the bag, completely forgot that feeling. I hope this gives the boys some confidence to kick on.

I can't say hand on heart walking away from that I can too positive about our chances but given Gracia had little time to work with the players, he at least had us looking less frantic, more organised and rather than press high, we sat back and were more patient. We didn't seem to try and 'force' the ball too much either.

Definitely need to play better against tougher opposition though.

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This decision could go either way but what I have a gripe with is how short the time was between the referee blowing for a penalty and it getting taken. It was like they didn't even bother to review the decision. I'm quite happy for VAR to keep their hands off marginal decisions but it does strike me that if this was a Super Sunday game they'd have gone through all of the replays for the benefit of the spectacle and be really anal about it but with these 'last on MOTD' fixtures they actually stick to their high bar for intervention.

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Maybe not the best performance but got the job done. Should've been easier if we got an obvious penalty which the referee and VAR decided to ignore. Great finish from Martinelli for the winner though. Shame about Trossard's goal being ruled out. Was a great hit. Not sure if it was the right decision either. Very soft. 3 points in the bag though.

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