Intercourse_The_Penguin

Not sure what to expect. He's clearly got great experience in different football climates and has pulled some bold tactical moves in his time. But coming in to the fag end of a Premier League season to fight fires at a struggling club staring at relegation will probably be completely different to the situations he's faced before. I expect the mackems to be better organised but I still can't see where goals are going to come from for them. When we weren't scoring it was something of a puzzle looking at the players available, but with S'land even if Dick gets them playing a better style I don't see goals in their team, especially now they've lost Johnson. They can't rely on Larsson free kicks to win them games until the end of the season.

38k Think there'll be a lot of fans who've been missing the joys of Villa Park when there's a buzz in the air and who'll come back for this one.

I'm calling it thusly: Swansea - D Man U - L Spurs - D Man City - L Everton - D West Ham - W Soton - D QPR - W Burnley - W Unfortunately, whilst this would leave us almost safe come the end of the season, it would be squeaky bum time right up to the final curtain. I'm hoping my first prediction is on the pessimistic side. Getting three points from the Swansea game would be huge.

Sunderland supporters reporting Poyet's gone. Hoping they don't get much of a new manager bounce.

It's always a bit of an unpleasant surprise to discover that another club we've no real nasty history with have so many fans who despise us. But then again, don't most fans just generally dislike other clubs in their division? Apart from Burnley, to whom I am fairly indifferent, my feelings for all other premier league clubs range from a strong dislike to an overpowering, visceral loathing. Anyway, already both eagerly anticipating this and getting intensely nervous when I let my mind dwell on the prospects for the next game. Swansea are a decent side and I have concerns about how our defence will hold up to the kind of movement and attacking interplay they're capable of. Even the mackems carved through us twice in the last 15 minutes or so in a game we completely dominated. On the other hand we look much more potent up front and have goal threats from a number of sources, with options to change things up as well. I fancy us to come out trying to take the game to them with pace and harrying again, but have a nasty feeling we'll go a goal down in the first half as we meet a team better able to cope with this. Really find it hard to pick a result here. I was very bullish about the mackems result (and actually only the post keeping out Fletcher's shot prevented my prediction being spot on ), but I'm a bit more pessimistic here. Fancy us to struggle to come from a goal down quite early on, or to be frustrated by a better organised side than those we've beat under TS so far. A good test this. Bring it!

I'm still nervous, but still have a sneak feeling of a surprisingly emphatic win for us. I think it's because this game reminds me of the trip to Goodison near the start of Gregory's reign. We'd had a good start, but had mostly scraped wins by the odd goal and had some poor results too (didn't we lose at home to Barnsley? Bolton?) and although Everton were struggling Goodison still felt like a tough place to go and I was expecting the new manager bounce to wear off at any moment. Wallop... 4-1 to Villa and it was that moment that I knew something special and bizarre was happening, and I really started to look up the table instead of down for the first time that season. And maybe we'll see Sherwood on a post-match interview in November sarcastically "apologising" for being top of the league (Ok, I'm getting carried away now. I think I need a lie down)

6.3 miles. I grew up 6.1 miles away, but in the opposite direction. I did think I was actually at least a mile or so closer now, so that shows how much I know about local geography...

They have a very loyal fanbase that's surprisingly sizable for the population of the city they come from, but like Newcastle they have completely bought into an overhyped version of their own status as super-passionate supporters set apart from the rest. This gives them an imagined superior vantage point from which they look down on pretty much all other clubs. They're so like their hated rivals in many respects like that. I like Sland as a club and enjoyed watching them in the Peter Reid years (and enjoyed how much they've wound up the barcodes over the years!), but the over-inflated sense of their special status as supporters can get pretty tiresome.

Yeah, I thought the same. Much as I'd love to see them face a points deduction and disappear into oblivion, having receivers in control of the club in these circumstances could make a sale more likely. I hope there are no billionaire spendthrifts with no taste in football sniffing around.

Feel in line with what seems like the majority opinion here. I'm really enjoying the revitalisation I'm seeing from him under Sherwood, but he certainly doesn't seem irreplaceable and I'd not be more than quite mildly irritated if he signed on with Everton in the close season.

As a couple have said, I've had a soft spot for Bilbao since our UEFA Cup tie against them. Still look out to see how they're doing a few times each season. Had a similar soft spot for AEK Athens since the time about about 15, 16 years ago when the mates I traveled to the game with had a Greek AEK fan staying over with them. He was a real character, came to the game with us, we chatted for a good while about Villa, AEK and our respective leagues, rivals, etc. For a similar reason I quite like Schalke 04 too. Spent a week working in London in the mid-90s, and made friends with some Germans working the same event. They convinced me that Schalke were the German equivalent of Villa - proud history, located in industrial heartland, loyal but success-starved support, overshadowed by the soul-less corporate behemoths of the league at the time and feeling like falling further behind. No others I can think of that I care a jot about, though.

Haven't paid much attention to Sland this season, but was reading RTG earlier and notice their fans complaining about Poyet's tendency to sit back and hold a deep line in front of their own box. They're understandably frustrated by this, but it is the sort of approach that has given us problems in breaking teams down in recent seasons. Be interesting to see if this is the case how Sherwood sets the team up and how effective we can now be against this opposition approach. Might not be much space for Gabby behind the defence. I'm not too worried about them hitting us on the counter in terms of pace, but they do have a lot of height in their team so I worry a bit about set pieces since we do seem weak defending these against the aerial threat.

I like most of what I've seen of Sanchez, but what has bothered me about him is not necessarily the amount he gives the ball away, nor the dangerousness of the positions he does it in, but that a significant percentage of his misplaced passes seem to be either needless (in that they are passes into trouble that aren't going to create anything anyway) or apparently straightforward (the types of pass you don't expect a decent midfielder to misplace). I don't know if I can back this up terribly well, but even in his cameo in the cup game, I groaned in disappointment at a couple of his passes that didn't seem to be particularly difficult but which nevertheless went to an opposition player or were easily intercepted. I got the impression he felt rushed on the ball even when he didn't need to. The fact that he has made a number of nice and tidy passes and also shown some ability to play incisive forward passes, I don't see it as an ability issue. I don't know whether it's indecisiveness, feeling under pressure, or lack of familiarity with the pace and shape of the game and his team-mates' movement. Given we had such horrible movement for most of his time here, I'm inclined to hope his errors will decrease as he gets more used to playing in a newly mobile and fluid team.

That's an odd choice for three at the back, but certainly shows attacking intent! (In seriousness, that's the attacking combination I'd like to see as well, probably ahead of Westwood, Delp and Cleverley on current form. Perhaps Zog and Sinclair alternating at the tip of the diamond/playing off Gabby... or something... 4-4-bastard-2... what the hell do I know anyway...)

I've already got butterflies over this game. Can't wait, but also so nervous. Such a change from a few short weeks ago when for the sake of sanity I had to try to make myself forget football existed for most of the week and then just experienced a growing, gnawing sense of dread as matchday approached. Loving this feeling, but I'm seriously going to find it harder to concentrate on work this week. I have a horrible feeling I can't shake that the rub of the green might not go our way and we'll slump to an ill-deserved defeat, but that's just the Brummie fatalist in me. Really, though, we should have the measure of these. The pace and movement we've been showing lately should cause them all sorts. Screw it, we're due to spank someone given how long it's been since we did and how well we're playing at times right now. I'm putting Brummie pessimism aside and predicting another tonking in this fixture. 4-1 to Villa. Bring it on!!

He was pretty decent I thought the times he played as a lone striker in MON's counter-attacking teams, but that was very much playing to his strengths and even then like you say he was never in danger of being a 20-goal a season man. Did well there though, all in all. It seems from what we've seen so far that Sherwood prefers a two-man strike-force, though, and there's definitely a major contribution to be made for an in-form Gabby in that system.

Man City I think? First game of the season one year. We beat them 5-2 I think. Just before they got good I think. might have been the season they signed Robinho Yeah... that was the one! Good memory! It does seem most of Gabby's golden moments come pre-2010, which is a sad reflection on how toothless in general he and we have been for bloody ages now. It's also why performances like Tuesday give me hope. People talk about the Beast getting back to his best and saving us, but if Gabby can awaken from his 5 year slumber and rediscover the form that made him such a handful in the remaining games that could be an equally significant fillip for us, I think.

Some really nicely placed goals with head and both feet there. Whatever we say of Gabby's limitations, not that many players can do that (yeah, okay, he doesn't do it that often either, but still...). I remember he got a perfect hat-trick against someone five or six years ago too, but no memory of who against. With his pace and strength it seems there are a lot of good attributes to our Gabby when he's on form, which I guess just adds to the feeling of frustration we all get with him at times (over the majority of the past few seasons). Here's hoping Sherwood has it in him to bring the best out of Gabby more consistently. I love watching him when he's in one of his imperious moods every bit as much as I'm frustrated with him when he ambles about pointlessly in wider positions.

Well, I'd forgotten what that felt like.

Beyond all hope!

Wait. A corner. We're lethal from these...

Somewhat better play there.

Come on Tim, another of those instrumental half-time team talks needed!

Ah bugger

Was on my way back from a night out with friends at around 2. Needed to get back to mind the kids, but at New Street, seeing the Villa crowd, the thought did cross my mind "would it really be so bad if I nicked off to Villa Park for the afternoon?" I'd have been in a heap of trouble, but it's feeling like it would have been worth it now. This atmosphere. Love Villa Park so much when it's like this.