West Ham Online

I suspect he will barty as well .

Lopetegui will replicate Emery

Call me a biased cսnt . But I fully expect the players at the club to massively improve once released from the shackles of David Moyes. The way lopetegui sets up will suit Kudus and bowen . Plays a narrow front 3 with the full backs providing the width . As long as he gets the defence sorted out. and I fully suspect he will we are in serious business. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we replicate them next season.

"It's all a bit shit though isn't it - there's always one team that over performs. It was Brighton we envied, Southampton for a number of years. For every club that has a good season there's a dozen or more that don't. Pointing at the exception in any given season doesn't really make the case against Moyes does it. It IS the right time for Moyes to go, but pointing to the side that outperforms each year doesn't really prove anything. Outside of Villa the sides above us are pretty much who you'd have expected them to be at the start of the season."

"9th or 10th is right for us this season because of how shit we've been in the league, but it's disappointing considering it's all from our own doing having been 6th with 5 points clear going into the new year and coming out of the transfer window a weaker and smaller squad and then failing to win all but 4 games in 5 months."

Sydney - You always finish where you deserve over a league campaign.

"Sad thing is that our players are just as good but our consistency has been shit. to quote Blair... Rotation, Rotation, Rotation!"

"Fair play to them, been consistent all season so deserved imo. Sad thing is that our players are just as good but our consistency has been shit."

"I think it's a decent format, especially for the neutral viewer. Each club plays vs 8 different teams (2 each of the 4 levels of seeds), so now you won't actually have to wait for the QF stages to see the top teams play each other, and there should be at least one or two quality ties in every game week. There's also more to play for in every game as all 36 teams form one group, so their league positions will go up and down throughout and the final results will decide seedings in the next round. So, finish 1-8 and you wont meet any other of those teams until the QF. Finish 9-16 and in the play off stage you'll face a team who finished 17-24, so there's a benefit to doing as well as possible in the league stage. That's the plan anyway. No doubt they'll fuck it up somehow or other."

"Nags - All sounds a bit taxing that, give me a shout at the QF stage, assuming there still is one. As for Villa, it's a great example of how a top manager can transform a club and a team, but they still started wobbling a the end, you could say their win at Arsenal is what fucked Arsenal up. Leicester got in the CL and it all went peared, Newcastle struggled this season, so still a lot of work to do for Villa to stay near the top, but they do have some fine players."

"""Villa will be out of the CL by next Christmas"". Possible, but very, very unlikely. The 8 games in the league stage run until January, after which the teams finishing 9th-24th go into a qualifying round in February. Any English teams taking part should reach at least that stage unless they get extremely unlucky in the league games that they draw. It's nothing like the group stage format where the team finishing their domestic league in 4th place can face a group of death (eg Newcastle facing Milan, PSG & Dortmund this season)."

The ghost of Doug going too fuck it up for them. It always does.

"Things change - that's nature of which we're all a part. Change in the dominance of certain teams at the top end of the PL, however, is the one thing the football authorities don't particularly like, and the media absolutely detest. Both don't really give a fuck - despite any rhetoric - about what goes on in the bottom half; no bragging rights there. I actually hope Villa get through the group stages, even if it's by the skin of their teeth, if only to advertise to the rest of the world that the PL consists of more than six teams."

"Good luck to Villa, been very good to watch. Player for player they are no better than us but in terms of the football they play, they may as well be from a different planet."

stewie griffin 12:38 Wed May 15 Re: Aston Villa in the Champions League Hahahahahaha!

"So what comma, at least they will be out knowing they played some proper European clubs with pedigree…..many of us however are willing to try to gazump their achievement by winning a cup in a year we played no mark clubs until the final. Decent players with ambitions to play in top European competitions will pick Villa & Newcastle over us purely for their aim to get into the CL over scraping into the Europa Conference…."

"So what comma, at least they will be out knowing they played some proper European clubs with pedigree…..many of us however are willing to try to gazump their achievement by winning a cup in a year we played no mark clubs until the final. Decent players with ambitions to play in top European competitions will pick Villa & Newcastle over us purely for their aim to get into the CL over scraping into the Europa Conference…."

"If Villa, ""Newcastle, Chelsea, Spurs, ManU and optimistically us"" are the group below the top 4, who are the top 4, especially if liverpool may drop out?"

"Villa will be out of the CL by next Christmas and will be lucky to qualify for the next level down trophy. Villa, like Newcastle tihis season, will struggle to cope with the workload next season and instead of competing for a top four PL place will be in the group below comprising themselves, Newcastle, Chelsea, Spurs, ManU and optimistically us. If there is a top four doubt next season it could be Liverpool that suffers because of the managerial change from Klopp to Slot."

Yep well done Villa. They'll get walloped though.

Remarkable achievement. They have taken advantage of the so called bigger teams being poor this year. Emery is a top manager. There's been a few occasions in the last 10 years I felt we had a chance to break into the top 4 like the last season at Upton Park and the 20/21 season. Only to fall short and be left wondering what if!