MessiWillSignForVilla

Would prefer it to the shitty relegation battles which we have to put up with You say that, but it's entirely possible we could finish above them, they're only 3 points ahead of us! If it wasn't for the fact they have WBA in the run in, I'd tip them as dark horses to go down. They could lose the rest of their games and stil stay up. 35 points is enough Exactly the kind of attitude they seem to have, and one that could drag them into the relegation battle. As I said, they have WBA, who I think they'll beat, so I don't think they're going down. But that wasn't my point, you were bemoaning our situation that fans have to put up with as if Newcastle's situation was infinitely better, yet it is not unlikely that we could finish above them. Newcastle seem to have a squad of disinterested players who don't give a shit about the club and dangerously close to another relegation threatened season. Whatever you think of our current squad, even under Lambert, at least they'd get up for a game v Blues, which can't be said of Newcastle's squad, so I'd rather put up with our shitty relegation battles to be honest.

Seriously can't see them picking up any more points this season, they have a brutal run in, and they seem to think they're already safe. I think they need to hope that at least 3 other teams don't get 33 points.

Would prefer it to the shitty relegation battles which we have to put up with You say that, but it's entirely possible we could finish above them, they're only 3 points ahead of us! If it wasn't for the fact they have WBA in the run in, I'd tip them as dark horses to go down.

Too soon perhaps? No, he was dire. A tap in doesn't change the fact that Brentford dominated the entire game, Derby were overrun in every department today. Oh, I'm sure he was shite, I would rather he never wear a Villa shirt again, but it is quite funny that he scored after you made that post

Too soon perhaps?

Grealish playing well, but his set pieces have been shite!

Nothing wrong with what he did. Anything other than the foot, once it's not manufactured, ie kneeling down to knee the ball back for the keeper to pick up Yeah, just looked it up, it specifies that the knee is ok, shame.

So, um, what's the rule on backpasses then?

Best response to a goal I've seen from us in a while! Come on Villa!

Richard would have been a better ref tbfh A toddler would have been better. All the refs have been terrible this season, they should completely replace them, but if this is how bad Premier League refs are, how bad are football league refs?

Did you see why he's complaining about the refs? It's absolutely insane, the ref missed one of the most obvious back passes you'll ever see whilst PSG were at 2-2 in the last 5 minutes and went on to lose 3-2. It was a decision that effectively lost PSG the game or if reffed correctly could have given PSG a great opportunity to score to make it 3-2, instead the ref missed it and Bordeaux went on to win. One instance he's complaining about how the entire Chelsea team crowded the ref to get him sent off for a slightly mistimed tackle, the other instance is complaining that a ref somehow missed this: http://streamable.com/f6yz

Nope, that's on the FA Cup coverage at 23:15. That's right 30 minutes dedicated to QPR v Spurs

Nemanja Matic injured himself whilst pulling a John Terry last weekend

OT, but both, defence is UK and defense is US.

He hasn't tried to build a defence yet though at Everton. He's still using what he inherited and what did quite well last season. I think the only defender he's brought in is Alcaraz isn't it? Exactly, and all but Coleman in that defence is 30+ now, the defence last season was a hangover from Moyes, and now the cobwebs are starting to show but Martinez has done nothing about it. As you say, the only defender he's bought has been Alcaraz, a 32 year old CB that couldn't get in the team Martinez had just relegated, just nowhere near enough to even begin to fix any problems at the back. I suppose Joel Robles too, but he's in the same boat as Alcaraz, only younger. Distin is 37, Howard 35 (and a bit over-hyped), Jagielka 32, and in terms of back ups, Hibbert is 34 and the rest (bar Robles and Alcaraz) are all untried youth players. Martinez needed to begin to replace them last summer, try to preemptively bring in younger players who could deputise for a year or two and could be called on if needed. This season saw Martinez's first attempt to organise Everton's defence, and he's shown how bad he is at it. I said it in the relegation thread, and I'll say it here, given the time, Martinez will relegate Everton eventually.

That's because he's not a very good manager, last season he benefited from inheriting an organised Moyes defence, now all of their starting back 5 bar Coleman are in their 30s and beginning to decline, and Martinez is awful at building defences, which luckily for us is dragging Everton towards the bottom 3, if not this season (doubtful) Martinez will eventually take them down when Jagielka, Distin, Baines and Howard need replacing.

Wether you like to see it or not a hard nasty bastard is what we need in our ranks, yes he left his foot but hey it's a locla derby and we are in the shite. Yes he is a hot head but he gives his all, if everybody in our team had his fight we would probably be pushing top 8, he is class If everyone one in our team did that we'd be struggling to field eleven players. He didn't just leave his foot in he straightened his leg to 'kick' after the challenge. That was thuggish. He is now missing for a cup quarter final and a vital relegation match, yeah well done Hutton. It wasn't as if it was a case of 'taking one for the team' it was a needless moronic kick. If an opposing player had done that to a Villa player I'd have been furious. To not be angry with Hutton for doing it would be hypocritical. I take it next time a player kicks one of ours, and gets away with it, there'll be some on here congratulating him for his 'genius'. After watching it a few times, I'm not too sure that's what he did, looks to me as if he was trying to regain balance and the "kick" was a happy coincidence for Hutton. Seriously, stand up and position yourself like Hutton was, then kick your standing leg forward, you'll look a tit but I can almost guarantee your elevated foot will "kick" forward a bit, now imagine that's happening at the end of a sprint with your foot planted against something you can balance yourself against and not standing still, the momentum alone would add force to the "kick". Maybe Hutton decides to add a little extra force, and to be honest I wouldn't have been surprised to see him sent off and would have rather he went for a safer tackle, but I really think what he did was due to being off balance and not "thuggish" in the slightest.

Weirdly, this is probably happiest I've been at a Villa result since Lerner joined, maybe after the LC semi?

Probably the last time we had a squad anywhere near the standard of Spurs' squad last season. Yeah probably when the midfield consited of Milner,Barry,Petrov,Downing and Young. We never had that midfield all at once did we? Didn't Downing effectively replace Barry?

I think you're missing the point Rev is trying to make. Using drink as an excuse is pathetic....they are adults, responsible for their own actions. So as 'adults' THEY, and THEY alone chose to drink excessively and be racist.....there really is no excuse for racism....if you are so immature that excessive drink makes you racist, then FFS, dont drink as much! But it isn't excusing it, no one has tried to excuse it, the point Rev was trying to make was in response to someone saying "I don't understand how people can do this". It's a horrible thing to do, and the people who did are absolute scumbags, but the fact is that being drunk and in a crowd probably contributed to an attitude of "everyone else is doing it, I won't get caught!" that some of them would've had.

And yet, Pochettino's Tottenham are lower in the league and have less points than this time last season. Sherwood has managed a grand total of 28 games in his career, I don't think that's quite enough for even Tottenham's fans to judge him properly.

Was he? He completely left his man for their goal. He was a million miles away from him. Great tackle and an ok performance but far from outstanding. I'd still like to see an Okore Vlaar partnership blossom To be fair, both him and Vlaar were both in poor positions for their goal as it seemed they were expecting Hutton to get rid of the ball, not pass it to a Leicester player. Yes he makes a mistake, but if Hutton doesn't make his mistake, Clark can't make his, he could of been having a chat with Schwarzer and it wouldn't have mattered if Hutton had done his job properly. I suppose you could argue about expecting the unexpected, but we were already winning 2-0, what more could've been expected

My favourite thing with this is how he gets up and is already shouting at Delph to go forward.. Always liked Clark, and he's finally starting to look like the kid who started with Cuellar against Fulham all them years ago under MON before Dunne and Collins arrived. Also think he's better captain material than Delph too, seems much more commanding and better at barking out orders.

It was a cryptic comment from Richard hinting that their would be a "letter" from Wenger and not Fergie this time etc. Wait, wasn't that just a joke?

Empty seats since we're not playing tomorrow? Exactly, so if you see anyone you know they're a shoe in for the job