Con

Aston Villa stats. Shows how many chances Bannan has created. http://www.squawka.c...ton-villa/stats These statistics are neutral... not compiled by a Villa fan. Bannan has created massively more chances than any other Aston Villa midfielder. 28 chances created in 1339 minutes of football. That works out as 1 chance created every 48 minutes. How does Bannan compare to other midfielders around the league? Gerrard 58 chances created in 2080 minutes. 1 chance created every 36 minutes. Cleverley 11 chances created in 1186 minutes. 1 chance created every 108 minutes. On chances created Bannan is closer to Gerrard than Cleverley. Here's the Villa table -

He's not played regularly.. All the minutes he's played this season totals 1339. We've played 22 Premier League matches. If you look through the archive you'll find each match is 94/95/96 minutes, not 90 minutes. 95 minutes * 22 = 2090 minutes. Bannan has played 1339 of those 2090 minutes available for him to play. Our best midfielder is only being played 64% of the time. (When I said 54% earlier I was either incorrect or the stats have since changed because I've just recalculated the figure). For the victories, Bannan was on the pitch for the important time in the match that got the goals. Not just "featured" when it was a draw, got subbed, then we won the game without him, not making an appearance as sub when the game was already won.

Aston Villa have not won a Premier League match without Barry Bannan since 21st January, 2012. We beat Wolves 2-3. Gary Gardner played that game. Gary Gardner also played in the previous win, helping us beat Chelsea 1-3 (Bannan was on as sub for the third goal but this result doesn't count to his win total). That's nearly a whole year without a win without Bannan, and more than a year without a win without Bannan or Gardner in the team (Bolton, December 2011).

Between now and Saturday evening the temperature is not going to get above freezing. They'll be lying snow on the roads, and it'll be icy. Very strong case for postponed match. Bradford game may have to be rescheduled too as the temperature won't get back above freezing again before Wednesday. Question is whether we can make the most of what is probably going to be a nation-wide break from football.

Birmingham should have over a foot of snow by Saturday morning. How efficient is the West Brom groundskeeping? A postponed match and an enforced mid-season break would suit us. Won't help us on the transfer front though if Lerner has his finger on the Eject Manager button, just waiting for one more bad result to press it.

Bannan did provide opportunities to score. The striker could have scored them.

We'll be lucky to get a draw from Harry's QPR. New signings, away from home they are dangerous - just beat Chelsea. QPR will stay up. Here are the results I'd target from each game. West Brom v Aston Villa W Aston Villa v Newcastle W Everton v Aston Villa D Aston Villa v West Ham W Arsenal v Aston Villa D Aston Villa v Man City D Reading v Aston Villa W Aston Villa v QPR D Aston Villa v Liverpool D

Leighton Baines has Felliani. Doesn't improve the stats of our other players, only Bannan. Someone has to find Benteke, means not over or under hitting the pass.

You can blame Lerner and Faulkner for McLeish but you definitely can't blame Lerner and Faulkner for Lambert - although they are ultimately responsible for the choice. If they had decided the manager on a poll of Villa season ticket holders who would have been chosen manager? Lambert or Solskjaer. The latter didn't want it so Lambert would have been the fans #1 choice. Nobody could have predicted Lambert's stubborn, bizarre team selections. Not picking the players who win the matches (Lichaj, Bannan) and repeatedly picking Bennett at left back leaving a defensive weakness that can be exploited by any team in all four divisions of professional football. Maybe he'll get lucky against West Brom and it'll all turn out alright.

Forget Michael Johnson. Think women's football league. Nobody's tapped it yet. Villa can be first. First to hire a female player. Add it to our list of achievements as a club - best academy, best ground, best community programme, best for women players. Start with something a bit more passionate and nastier that we got... this girl is superb.

His crossing is better than Leighton Baines. This is fact. Still lol?

Dereck Boateng looks a good professional. Plus his current club has "petrov" in its name, which has to be a good sign

To be fair, I think he does. He's played only 50% minutes available for him to play since the start of the season. He's got 103 crosses from CM. Lowton, an attacking wing back, has played almost every game, has 48 crosses. Only 8 accurate. We need our best crosser 1. Playing every game - as many minutes as possible in every game 2. To get the ball as often as possible: CM. On one of the wings he would get fewer touches a game, be less influential, probably get fewer crosses. Crossing accuracy is one stat that I've not tracked yet. It happens to be Bannan's best. Nobody gets close to him in the squad. Albrighton 10 in 44. N'Zog 5 in 28. Holman 8/33. Bannan's crossing is Beckham-esque. Since he is best in the PL by a mile, that is no wild comparison. It's a scandal Lambert has so under-used him. Really, speechless.

Great find. Not written by me though. Bannan's critics =

Martin Laursen?

Bennett picked at left back for the rest of the season VS new manager I'd like to give managers a chance but when they're stubborn, refuse to believe they can misspend even £2.5m, they're taking the piss and you've got to say enough is enough. That said, he might not start Bennett against Lukaku this weekend.

Good point. Except. Why not spend the extra million now? Or how about we auction off 1000 shares in Benteke. Get at least £10k for each, that would raise £10,000,000. Hey, now that's a pretty sweet idea. Don't think we should do the same for all players otherwise we'll end up owing people money.

If I was Randy Lerner I'd fire Lambert if we don't get a result against West Brom. 4 wins so far this season. Each time Lichaj and Bannan in the team. Lichaj hardly plays. Bannan is not first choice against Southampton - a team we needed to create chances against. Enough of his bizarre selections, like Joe Bennett, who can't defend. Lichaj has known limitations but we won 4 games with him in the side. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF LAMBERT??? 16 games to go. 4 more wins won't be enough to stay up. We won't have a chance of getting 1 win if you pick Joe Bennett. We should not have lost the six-pointers to Wigan and Southampton. West Brom game is IT. The big one for me.

So he has to get the 'okay' from his mum and sister before he can spend anything on us?

Do we still have the receipt? Someone please tell me we have the receipt.

Chester is proven in the Championship. Would make sense to buy him as we look like we'll be playing there next season. Southampton and QPR are too good to go down. Reading, Villa and one other.

I read this too. Thanks for updating us. Doesn't make sense to me, unless Lambert is getting fired (if he doesn't get Villa to the Carling Cup final, and maybe before then if he loses to West Brom). In that case, a new manager would use the money to bring in his own players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmkor9WF0U