R.I.C.O.

When your entire team earns less than Yaya Toure does in a week, you know the game is broken.

So inevitable

Fat Frank Lumplard on....bound to score to add to the f***tonne he's scored against us over the years.

Just want to get this one over with really. I hope we manage to keep the score respectable.

Luc Nilis, at the beginning of the season I first went to uni. Barnstorming performance. What a player he could have been for us - it was such a pity he had to retire from an injury just a couple of games later. Typical Villa luck.

He'll be a solid, unspectacular signing, a little bit of an improvement on El Ahmadi but not much. For £8m its a total ripoff.

It'll all be "Bent has to play!!!!1" again after Sunday. Sooner or later, even the most vocal critics of Lambert will have to accept Bent is a spent force and that he did the right thing shipping him out last summer. Bringing him back into the 1st team isn't the answer to anything the sooner his contract is up and he gets out of our club the better. He's been a spent force since autumn 2011. I seem to recall he got quite a bad injury and was out for a few months, and has not been the same player since. He's lost at least a yard in pace and his mobility seems more limited these days. As a striker, once they are gone you've had it basically.

I wish it was only that, its more. I read somewhere that it could be as much as £80k a week and includes a couple of grand in appearance fees each match he plays. However on google it states his contract was £3.36m a year in 2012 which works out about £64k a week. Dunno if that's before tax or after. Either way, it's an insult.

You should hope so. Without Benteke or to a lesser extent Kozak we look totally harmless. Gabby, Weimann and Bent won't get more than 10 goals between them this season.

65 grand a week he gets paid. Obscene.

That's how I see it really, but it shouldn't be the case, he should have gone a long time ago. But he's in a pretty unique position really - his chairman has lost interest and is trying to sell the club, and the new CEO is finding his feet and probably doesn't have any power in that department, and with a remit to probably just keep the club ticking over til we are sold one way or another. Basically "we go again" until the end of the season (hope they are happy with 25k attendances though). I have a funny feeling Roy Keane will replace him though when the pressure gets too intense, which will probably happen around October time given the run of fixtures we have coming up.

He won't get a new contract. This is his last season IMO. I'd take Roy Keane right now because at least he has a bit of fight about him but I reckon that is on the cards anyway, Lambert will be given the chop following the 6+ game losing streak coming up after the Hull game.

I'm not sure why people are angry, I'm just numb to this kind of stuff now. 2 years of Lambert has done this! The league cup would have been a distraction this year, if truth be told we are going to be right in the relegation mix and we have 36 points to get to scrape over the line. Only 17k there as well tonight. Because of Lerner, apathy rules supreme and most of the fans who came back (including me) feel that if he can't be bothered, why should we? Orient came and defended well by the looks of things, they tactically outplayed our crap manager and got the victory they deserved. Is this the earliest we have ever been knocked out of a domestic cup competition? I can't remember if we have ever been knocked out of the 2nd round of the League Cup before.

Is this our earliest exit ever by the way?

Not sure why people are surprised. The league cup is just a distraction for yet another relegation battle this season.

Some chap called "Romain Vincelot" has come on. With a name like that you know he's going to score the winner!

More pressure on Redknobb, I reckon he'll be the next manager to get the boot.

I don't think those Yanited fans should be too upset.....it shouldn't be a long ride home!

Wouldn't be too disappointed if we got rid of him, he's been the weak link in the midfield for 2 years. He's just too lightweight and limited to play regularly in that position. I hope Lambert has another bruiser up his sleeve as a replacement, and not some powderpuff like Jay Spearing.

I remember after the Arsenal game last season when we played magnificently, that we had Newcastle at home next (I think) and we played absolute sh*t. We have just gone to Stoke, played magnificently, and now we have Newcastle at home. They didn't look too shabby against Man City, who are going to thrash a lot of teams this season. I'd take a point; three would be nice due to our run of games coming up, but I'm kind of bracing myself for a loss. We rarely play two good games in a row under Lambert.

I hope this destabilises Palace as much as possible (and I think it will as they are struggling to attract a manager), as we could do with a few clubs imploding to keep us out of trouble. Its such a pain in the ar*e to get to their ground from Brum too; I certainly won't be shedding a tear when they are relegated.

Great win at a place we don't usually do well at. It's nice to hold on to a lead and the defense looks pretty solid all of a sudden!

weeman! did he cup his ears again?

What's his best position? He was a left-wing back for some of his time at Sunderland and the whole time he was at Fulham. I really hope Lambert doesnt use his retarded wing-back system. We don't need to play 3 central defenders for christs sake. 4-3-3 is far more effective and with Sanchez being more of a presence than the weedy El Ahmadi that should allow Delph and Westwood to play box-to-box. Allow Weimann and Zog to drift out wide and set up chances for Bent to be the poacher until Benteke is back. Otherwise if we feels he HAS to stick Richardson in, put him in instead of Weimann who really should be fightinh for his place. We really don't want to be playing 3-5-2 or 5-3-2!

GK: Guzan RD: Hutton LD: Cissokho CD: Vlaar CD: Okore DM: Sanchez CM: Westwood CM: Delph FW: N'Zogbia FW: Weimann ST: Benteke Subs: Given, Richardson, Senderos, El Ahmadi, Cole, Gabby, Bent