Nachrichten

Are Aston Villa flattering to deceive? Have they made progress since last season?

The form book looks good, even if Villa haven't been completely convincing so far this season. In the latest episode of the Claret and Blue podcast, Dan Rolinson and John Townley take a look at the form book and what Villa need to do in the coming weeks.

DAN: Villa's two-points-per-game record keeps ticking along with 14 points from the opening 7, if that trend carries on throughout the season we’ll finish on 76 points, I know it doesn't work like that, but that will still be a brilliant season.

If you take that Bayern Munich match as its own kind of world, it is a different competition, if you remove that from last week, drawing to Ipswich and Man United - two bottom-half sides - isn't good, that's not what you would expect from Villa. I would want six points from those two really so to get two feels poor.

READ MORE: Villa receive new Ezri Konsa injury update after Man United scare

READ MORE: Villa watch as Man City win legal battle with Premier League after rules deemed unlawful

But because you’ve had Bayern Munich in the week that gives the context of: Well we gave a lot there and it was a brilliant night in itself, what amazing memories. Winning that game has made the week feel better, but also probably hindered both the Ipswich game and the Man United one, to be honest. It felt like we took our foot off the gas against Ipswich to prepare for Bayern, and Man United felt like we never got going because of Bayern.

JOHN: Yeah I think that's bang on. Emery said before the game that we're still building the mentality, essentially. That's something I totally agree with because we are getting used to playing Champions League football. I think that bigger games against Bayern and maybe even Juventus, they will feel like they are huge games and will have an impact essentially after or even before, like the Ipswich match. Last season against Legia Warsaw and against AZ Alkmaar, I think that was easier to get over.

I think this is something we have to deal with. All the top clubs in world football can manage this and that's something that we have to do ourselves and it is a mentality issue, I think. It's not something that I'm going to use to criticise the players for because it is so early in the season. It is a process. If we were to have beaten Ipswich, Bayern and United and not shown any signs of fatigue, I’d be putting us to finish fourth this season hundred per cent.

But right now I'm kind of in the zone of as long as Villa are in the top seven after every week, then that's fine. If we get Champions League again, fantastic. But if we finish sixth or fifth and we’re in Europa League also great because Unai Emery's likely to win that competition or go very far in it.

I want us to be going far in European competition and winning something eventually. We’re fifth, we’re joint fourth, we're in a good zone. The only thing I would say is the fixtures have been kind to us. Especially if you compare it to last season, I think we had harder games.

We'd obviously played Newcastle away, Liverpool away, Chelsea away. We had one more point at this stage last season as well and we have obviously played Wolves at home, Everton at home, Leicester and Ipswich are two newly promoted sides. Every game is difficult in the Premier League granted. it's been a good start but also the one I expected. I didn't think we'd be any worse points wise than where we are now.

JOHN : I'll be honest, I'm a little bit worried that we haven't played particularly well, Arsenal we played well in but we lost the match, you know. So I'm a little bit concerned that firstly, injuries have piled up at the start of the season. Secondly, we haven't quite hit off yet and we have played teams I'd expect us to beat but it feels like we've kind of got over the line in those matches. Wolves: We left it very late to win the game. Everton: Essentially relied on a wondergoal from Jhon Duran. West Ham was a great result, in fact any away game if you win, I don't care how we play, three points is the key thing.

I kind of need to see us, for example, go to Tottenham and put in a really good performance and get a result like we did last season. We obviously play Chelsea as well relatively soon, Liverpool as well, that's going to be a real barometer of where we are. If we get outplayed, which I don’t think we will, but if we lose those games do we have to temper our expectations a little bit?

I came into this season thinking as long as we get European football and have a good stab at the Champions League, I'm happy and I stand by that. But at the start of the season, you want to be as close to that top four as possible. Based on where we are now, I’m not seeing as much as I did at the start of last season to suggest that we're going to be fourth again. I don't want that to sound negative because that isn't my goal, we just need to see a bit more from the team to suggest we are going to be the fourth-best side again.

What do you think about Villa's form so far this season? Tell us HERE