VILLAMARV

true that, bennett didnt play at liverpool though still he's got to win a game sometime just on the law of averages todays Subs: Marshall, El Ahmadi, Holman, Sylla, Bowery, Dawkins, Lichaj.

Bent not on the bench

Oh dear, no Vlaar is gutting, bennett??? not looking forward to this I gotta say.

If you have a player with his ability and technique (of which I'm personally jealous) who has underperformed as often and regularly as he has and does under various managers at different clubs, would suggest its not a new phenomenon of Lambert's making. His breach of discipline while on loan at Newcastle and Houlier saying he needed to "work harder on his game" are examples of his questionable application and professionalism. He manages to almost single-handedly beat Chelsea in the game after the twitter pics get posted and the media go crazy suggesting he can step it up when he has a point to prove to the world. I also think the fact that his best seasons for Man City came after the Eire/Grandmother/Girlfriend incident where the press went after him while he was dealing with serious personal issues on the home front would back this up. Stephen Ireland's problem is Stephen Ireland. All I was really adding was I cant see Lambert doing this solely in order to force him out. It's pretty obvious he's available but who seriously wants him? I've said before somewhere it would make more sense to play Bent/Ireland if they are to be sold but if their hearts and minds aren't in it their ability is irrelevant. I might not agree with his tactics or be inspired by whatever his half time teamtalks seem to do to the team, but I have enough faith in him being the person who works with these players day in day out to presume something has happened and Lambert has acted on it. Fair point you dont like dropping him to the reserves, it airs our dirty linen in public, and like I said some people didn't agree with Warnock and Hutton being treated the same way. anyone out on Thursday see him out drinking anywhere? maybe its a breach of discipline and its a temporary punishment? maybe Lambert wants to get the media focussed on him as he realises it's the only way to motivate the guy? Maybe he told him 3-5-2 was shit? Who knows? not me that's for sure! But I do think its entirely fair to say it's hardly going to be surprising if we find out Ireland's been a naughty boy.

Maybe we should all have a bit of faith in the manager, even if we don't all rate him. I've already had my rant on Ireland the player and his missed opportunity of a career in this thread. OK some people didn't like Hutton/Warnock getting the same treatment - but I wonder how many people were happy with the situation until we shipped 8 goals against Chelsea? I'm happy to watch this from the sidelines and assume Lambert has his reasons. If there is a reason and we're not being told why maybe it would affect the ability of the club to sell him on so maybe it's better we just keep our mouths shut. good example to the youth players too in as much as they can see how good a footballer you can be but still not cut it. No one can seriously argue the guy doesn't have problems with his attitude and/or application though can they? I mean seriously?

just had a mate down for the weekend who'd not seen or heard of them. He went home a fan. 3rd one IS very good. bit darker than the first couple I thought. Nice to have some British drama to actually be proud of. Utopia has been pretty feckin awesome so far too imo. well done Channel 4.

Black Mirror is back tonight

WEST HAM: Jaaskelainen, Pogatetez, Reid, Tomkins, O'Brien, Diame, Noble, Nolan, J Cole, M Taylor, Carroll. Subs: Jarvis, C Cole, Vaz Te, Demel, Chamakh, Spiegel.

Cheers for that, I reckon I need a drink I'm thinking Guzan Lowton vlaar clarke baker Westwood delph Nzog Weimann Benteke Bowery

Cant really see what formation that looks like to me. I have a horrible feeling we might be seeing Delph at left wing back

VILLA: Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Clark, Baker, Westwood, Delph, N'Zogbia, Bowery, Weimann, Benteke. Subs: Given, Sylla, Bent, Bannan, Holman, Dawkins Bennett. so Baker at LB?

Reading have done ok lately, their recent good form has been down to some amazing late comebacks. they try and play solid and hit on the break at pace with kebe mainly. we managed a clean sheet against them this year. I think they will find late goals a bit harder to come by and I can see them dropping back more than wigan. We dont need to bribe them either way

wait for it......

I think in the current climate this course of action would be a bad move

i went to sleep wondering how I could sum up what he's trying to do. Now Ive woke up and had a coffee I realise that if Barry had meant to score it would have gone well wide

0-0 half time in Stoke. Reading real quiet. Think someone should remind pulis they need to be 4-0 up with 10 mins to go against reading

1-0 Arsenal - Cazorla

stoke are racking the corners up against Reading. Footie not great as you'd expect. Stoke dominating posession but creating little.

lets hope hulk hogan is right then 40-1 chelsea home win

Dublin reckons Maloney playing really well for wigan on FS

2-0 Swansea - Rangel

seeing as we're not involved today I'm suddenly developing a never before felt soft spot for Swansea, Stoke, Man City, Chelsea even Arsenal. I expect it will last until about 20 past 7. get in Michu!!!

GK Thomas Sorensen 43 RB Aaron Hughes 41 CB Olof Mellberg 33 CB Liam Ridgewell 34 LB Wilfred Bouma 21 RM James Milner 33 CM Gavin McCann 38 CM Steven Davis 41 LM Gareth Barry 42 CF Milan Baros 29 CF Kevin Phillips 22 our "1st" 11 from 2005-06 the numbers after the name is matches started. So obviously not our first choice in terms of squad on paper but these are the players that we played most that season in relative positions and this was the first team squad No. Position Player 1 GK Thomas Sorensen 2 DF Mark Delaney 3 DF Jlloyd Samuel 4 DF Olof Mellberg 5 DF Martin Laursen 6 MF Gareth Barry 7 MF Lee Hendrie 8 MF Gavin McCann 9 FW Juan Pablo Angel 10 FW Milan Baroš 11 MF James Milner (on loan from Newcastle United) 12 MF Steven Davis 13 GK Stuart Taylor 14 MF Eric Djemba-Djemba 15 DF Ulises De la Cruz 16 DF Wilfred Bouma 17 MF Peter Whittingham 18 DF Aaron Hughes 19 DF Liam Ridgewell 20 FW Kevin Phillips 21 DF Gary Cahill 22 FW Luke Moore 23 MF Patrik Berger 26 MF Craig Gardner 30 FW Gabriel Agbonlahor and we finished 16th on 42 points

Cant do it. cant just get 1 album!!!! can do 1 list though Stone Roses - Stone Roses Pearl Jam - Ten Black Crowes - Amorica Floyd - WYWH and Meddle Alice in Chains - Unplugged Portishead - Dummy Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather Metallica - Master of Puppets Easy Star all Stars - Dub Side of the Moon so many more great albums to list but I wouldn't wanna live without any of them really.

Probably my favourite band from the UK at the moment is Lazy Habits