JoshVilla

Nothing less than a win will suffice here. Two 4-1 defeats on the bounce has undone the brilliant work we did against Chelsea and knocked the confidence of both the fans and the players. 3 points would put us back on track and set us up nicely for the next few games. I do worry though, as these 2 defeats have most likely made the team nervous, and these nerves could go either way at a home game against another team in the bottom half. If Fulham sit back, then we're gonna have some trouble as we'll struggle to break them down, meaning the crowd will get increasingly frustrated. I don't really know what to predict all, but I guess it all depends whether our defence decides to show up... edit - and our attack as well to be honest..

No words. Yet again we bend over and let United give us a spanking. Villa in 'opposition team/player out of form handed a win' shocker. Two 4-1 defeats in a row? Not good Fulham is a must win now

Rooney guaranteed to get his obligatory goal against us then. Let's hope Albrighton can press in the middle of the pitch. I always see running down the wing and putting crosses into the box as him main asset for us, so maybe Weimann is gonna be in midfield with Albrighton on the wing?

Agreed. I always liked him. He may not be particularly pacey or capable of creating things himself like Benteke, but he knows where the net is, scoring some very important goals. I think that he'll be much more effective if we get the magical creative midfielder that we've been wanting for so long. He cares about playing football and obviously is passionate about the club. Here's hoping he has an injury free season next time round.

They're as slow as anything, and we're one of the more pacey teams in the league, really that should be playing right into our hands and we can get behind them on the counter attack and hurt them. This is a game for Gabby to put a shift in, like at Anfield. However, it doesn't matter what form United are in, we'll bend over backwards to make sure that they win. We played them when they were in terrible form at VP and lost 0-3, and no doubt they'll get their annual double over us again. The thing is, we're owed a performance after the circus that was the Stoke game, and hopefully the players are up for another 'giant-killing' to make up for it. It seems that most teams have been going to OT with less fear and really giving it a good go and not giving United any respect. That's exactly what we need to do. Come out of blocks fast and do them some damage, get the crowd restless and their team nervous. Because of our pace, and given how ManUre have been this season, surely we're more than capable of upsetting them if we put our minds to it.

Oh yeah, I forgot, we're Aston Villa........ Great opportunity to push on wasted AGAIN. 1-4 at home to **** Stoke is absolutely pathetic. Fed up of this now.

Gonna be an interesting one. 2 fantastic home wins in a row already, 3 would spoil us. That'd take us up to 37 points and start to strengthen our spot in 10th, which would be absolutely awesome, but I worry that we'll drop points here purely because it'd put us in such a good position, and we often shoot ourselves in the foot when that's the case. I'd still play Gabby and put Albrighton on later, as Gabby's pace would cause them plenty of problems and his physicality would be useful. Hopefully the atmosphere will be good and a few more tickets will be sold after the last 2 home performances. Maybe a nervy 2-1 win?

Hope he's okay after that disgusting tackle. Thought he was very good today, constantly pressing and pretty tidy in possession. Let's hope he can keep performing like today and how he did against Norwich.

Really, fair play to him today. He made some cracking tackles today and really stepped up. Well done, Joe.

Bloody hell! So proud of the team today. It's a very tough fixture for so many reasons, but to hold on the way that we did was fantastic. I think everybody played well today, and Bennett definitely proved me wrong, fair play to the lad! It's awesome to p*ss Mourinho off in the way that we did, and these 3 points are absolutely huge. Never in a million years did I think that we'd be sitting in 10th after this weekend. Well done lads! UTV!

That left hand side is gonna get battered for 90 minutes. Bennett is a bit of a weird choice imo. I'm all for giving him another chance and everything, but against a side like Chelsea, you'd have thought putting Clark in there as extra solidity would make more sense than putting in Bennett, who's had hardly any game time this season. Chelsea will see the obvious weakness and take full advantage of it. I really hope that Bennett can prove us wrong here....

I'd play Clark at LB for this. It may not be as helpful for getting forward as playing Luna or Bennett would be, but we need solidity. I doubt we'll get anything out of it, but a Man City/Southampton style smash and grab would be cool. Plus, I f**king hate Chelsea, and Mourinho can do one too, so I'd certainly love to wipe the smug grin off of his face.

It's hard to pick a definitive top 3, but after doing a bit of travelling recently, Brussels really deserves a shout out. I hadn't really heard much about the place beforehand, as I didn't know anybody who'd been. It was the first stop on the trip and I just didn't really know what to expect and we arrived late, so it was late evening by the time we went out and explored. Walking into the Grand Place at night time was simply astonishing and completely took me by surprise. Brilliant city.

Berlin is a good shout, fantastic city. Would recommend the Pangea People hostel if you're looking for somewhere cheap and in a good spot. It's right by Alexanderplatz so it's pretty central.

I'd like to have him here, but as long as we signed another AM as well (even though getting 2 would probably be unlikely, depending on whether we're given more money to spend). He'd give us options and a bit of extra cover, which wouldn't go amiss since we're pretty weak in midfield.

Very valuable 3 points. This was a must-win game, and to do so in a decent fashion will do wonders for confidence. I really thought we'd go for more goals, just to rub salt into Norwich's wounds and twist the knife further, but I'm not surprised we took it easy in the second half. Good to see Benteke scoring again, another nice Bacuna goal (seems to be a right steal, 5 goals this season from a midfielder turned RB is pretty awesome, considering what we paid), and to finally get past the 30 point mark is very handy indeed. Let's hope that we can carry this on until the end of the season.

I'm not normally too fond of Strats but that is really smart. What year is it? Also, while on MIJ stuff here's my mid-80s Squier Tele: I'm not sure of the exact year but I know it's 06-08. I should have put CIJ instead of MIJ, as the CIJ ones are newer, oops! That's a very nice tele you have there. Always wanted an old Squier, as they're becoming quite the collectors item now. In reply to what turnbull said, I got back yesterday from a 10 day European busking trip with my uni/band mates. We managed to play our way through Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Paris with guitars and not much else, essentially busking for food and accommodation as part of an experiment. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and I'd definitely recommend for anybody to take their guitar away with them if they're heading abroad (if you trust airlines/travel companies, that is! We used trains so we managed to keep hold of our gear). It seems that people over in mainland Europe really appreciate hearing music, more so than I've found in the U.K. Prague in particular is a great place to play. We had a rather large crowd gather and we were playing your standard pop/rock repertoire with a few originals, and you can make a pretty decent amount of cash.

Bacuna at RB for this one imo. I don't fancy putting Lowton on to face them and I think a back 4 of Bacuna, Vlaar, Clark and Bertrand would be reasonably solid. I'm a tad undecided as to whether I'd prefer to see Albrighton or Weimann start, as Weimann tends to be useful away, but also always tends to look good coming off the bench and Albrighton could be whacking in crosses from the wings. 3 points is definitely doable here if our forwards start putting these chances away. We created more than enough against Cardiff and the second half against Wet Spam, so we can't afford to keep wasting them. If we manage to keep Vlaar fit and our forwards are up for it, them I fancy us to upset Newcastle even more. 1-2, Gabby and Benteke

It's been very up and down so far, with maybe slightly more down than up. I know we're better off than last season points and position wise at this point, but some of the performances have been beyond dreadful, but at the same time, some of them have been fantastic. Our lack of consistency is what really kills us (as well as our home form). If we could always be the team that played at Arsenal on the opening day, Chelsea at SB or Liverpool at Anfield, then we could be in a very strong position in the top half. Instead, we'll have a couple of good performances dotted here and there, some pretty crap ones and some absolutely awful ones, but I guess that's what being mid table is all about. I'd have hoped that we'd have sorted our home form out even just a little bit this season, but that's still embarrassing. We have one of the best grounds in the country, and the fact that we're so rarely treated to the kind of football that should match it is really sad. Home form is so important for so many reasons and I'm very disappointed that we still get taken apart so easily. Transfers have also been pretty disappointing. Bertrand has strengthened the left hand side up a bit, and Holt divides opinions (very dramatically), but we're still so reliant on Vlaar being fit and the attacking midfielder that we so desperately need still hasn't been spotted. I know that Lambert can only work with what he's been given, and if he's not being given enough funding, or if some things just don't come off, then there's not much that he can do, but it's still pretty tough when it's so obvious to see what we need it's still gone unfixed. I guess it will be a matter of waiting to see what happens in the summer. However, those are the negative things. In terms of positives, we've managed some pretty impressive wins. Games against bigger opposition tend to be a lot tighter this season (i.e Chelsea away, Everton at home which was very tight before it became 0-2, Liverpool away and at home). Delph, in general, has looked awesome and a couple of summer signings are looking very useful, such as Okore before his injury and Bacuna. I guess, because of the way we started the season, we all had bigger expectations, which is why a number of results and performances this season have been hard to take, but hopefully, if we hit some decent form like we did this time last season, then surely a half decent finish will be on the cards. UTV

Normally the day after a game I'll have calmed down a bit and put things into perspective etc etc, but after yesterday, I just can't stop thinking about how we've given ourselves a humongous kick in the wedding vegetables. I've lost count of the amount of times this season that we've had chances to get ourselves well out of trouble and put some serious points on the table and then gone and completely ballsed it up. We've dropped points (either by losing or drawing) to the likes of Stoke, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Fulham, Hull, Sunderland and Swansea. If we're looking at finishing in a decent position, we just can't be doing that. Yet again, we find ourselves relying on the teams below us to do worse than us, and now that they've started to pick up points we're getting dragged in. I can't believe just how much we fall apart when we're missing 1 centre half. You'd have thought that we'd still be able to cope without him, assuming that we've learnt things from him, but no, we just completely fall apart and lose our organisation. Putting it simply, if we fail to pick up 3 points on Tuesday, then we are well and truly in the shit (if we aren't already). The league is far too close this year to be dropping points and we need to reach the magical 40 point mark as soon as we can. I hate to be so negative, but if we fail to pick up points against awful, uninspired teams like West Ham, then it's gonna be a horribly nervous end to this season. Starting with Cardiff, no more stupid mistakes that are so easily cut out, no more switching off, no more wasting chances, just 3 points from the games we should get them from.

Absolutely terrible. We're in a relegation scrap now unless we win (not draw, win) on Tuesday and start pulling some bloody results together. Can't see us winning any games until Vlaar is back. This club is being absolutely killed by the lack of financial backing. Sick of it now.

Little scared that this might end up a bit like the CP game. We need to make sure we take our chances. Being 0-0 at half time really paves the way for a bit of a smash and grab on West Ham's part. Come on lads, go at them!!!

Very happy that Wet Spam's appeal has been rejected. It would be a bit unfair on Villa with all the uncertainty as we'd have to completely change our game plan if Carroll had ended up playing last minute. I just hope we set up to go at them and attack and pull off a convincing win. We must build on the West Brom win and start to sort our home form out. Come on lads, please grab the 3 points here!

Posted in another thread that these are the games that we really need to be getting 3 points from. I've forgotten about the Everton game now. Yes, they were injury stricken, but they're still fantastic at home and not many teams will go to Everton expecting a win (of course, it was mainly very annoying that we nearly managed it). If we're looking to get safe a.s.a.p so we can press on and aim for a decent finish, then we need to be beating teams like this and give our home fans something to shout about. I'm a tad worried that we'll start Holt, which would be understandable since we'll be needing to battle the physical side of the game, but I think that if Gabby is back then we need to be attacking them with pace. If we sit back then we'll only invite a late goal against us and make the atmosphere tense. There's not a team in the league that likes being hit with pace so we need to just go at them.

Hopefully we can secure near a points tally in the mid 30s in the next four games. That'd give us a good platform in which to build on and see how far up the table we can finish, rather than looking down all of the time. The loss to Everton was very disappointing, but it's not completely effed everything. Regardless of injuries, they're fantastic at home and are currently 5th, so we shouldn't be too pessimistic yet. It's games like the next 4 that we need to be getting results from, and if we do, then we'll be fine. If we do win those sort of games, then probably 10th/11th (ish) is what we'd be looking at, which I'd be pretty darn happy with as that's obvious progress.