jonno_2004

I went from having a 15 walk across the promenade to a 40 minute journey one-way minimum, mainly due to the district line. Hasn't affected me as much as I thought although it's a relatively short commute for London, some poor sods are on cramped trains for a lot longer. I generally start at 8 and finish by 7-7.30 so miss a lot of the crush too - starts to make sense why most people are grumpy b*stards down here!

Just provided me with one of my favourite video game moments - completely insignificant as far as the story goes anyway, I'd even just lasered the swan to bits. Was approaching Graygarden and suddenly heard a large whoosh overhead and a bang, didn't see anything as it was night but followed smoke in the distance. Won't spoil it for anyone but found my favourite gun from Fallout 3 as a result. The fact it was night and I only had the ambient sounds to go off, plus this being a completely random event sums up the brilliance of Fallout for me. Exceptional.

Yep, Hawksmoor is fantastic. Can't get enough - the Knightsbridge restaurant would be my recommendation as they have the 'Ambassador's Reception' pudding, which is almost as special as the steak. Booked in again for NYE and can't wait.

If he does, I doubt we will be playing them!

It's terribly unfortunate and symptomatic of our luck. Then again, look at Bournemouth with 3 in the first few weeks of a season! Amavi's own luck will play a factor in whether he can come back from it and push on to achieve his potential. The likes of Gary Gardner and also potentially Okore have been dogged by it and don't look like ever fully recovering to what they were proposed to eventually become, whereas someone like the snake came back from two bad ones to become one of our best players and now a regular at international level. I'm praying for the latter in the case of Amavi.

I have no time for big-time Charlie, but any positive I will take.

Probably his best game for us. Didn't try anything too stupid which was key and looks like he's been given a defined role, which is vitally important if he's going to have an impact.

Each game he's started we've played well and I don't think that's a coincidence, besides looking a bit nervous showed some real genuine quality on the ball and looked a lot fitter to boot.

Despite the jabs from Gary Neville and Souness before the game, he set us up like a proper team with a proper shape that stifled City. I imagine Souness expected us to get thumped 6-0 trying to emulate Barcelona; instead we had an organised shape, a tactical display that was clear for all to see. I'm not proclaiming Garde the new messiah but it shows promise after 3 training sessions. First time I've been really disappointed in Neville though, it's as if we should just be happy with a hoof-ball, blood and thunder, kick-em up manager that hopefully gets us out of trouble - if you look at any recent 'great escapes', it's foreign managers who've come in and got their teams organised and playing football.

Played well today, he'll never be the best centre half in the league. Deserves a run ahead of Lescott on that performance. Although ironically I thought Lescott had his best game for us so far against Spuds.

Confidence is key. Hopefully with a few more solid performances he'll start to become more of a threat attacking-wise. He's got it in his locker to do damage in forward positions (see Leicester last season), but looks painfully short of confidence when he has possession in forward positions.

That's more like it. Need to get these players used to each other. The only way to get out of this mess is by getting our best players on the pitch.

Don't understand how you can change teams like that, I know he's young but I was young when I started liking football and although Villa were poor (no change there then!) I couldn't imagine changing to a more successful team, which was Liverpool or Arsenal at the time You support your local team or the team your family support. well his dad is wolves and they moved to coventry when he was a toddler so you can throw coventry city into the equation but that would be a bit harsh. i had no problem with him following spurs as they dont exactly win a lot of silverware but he done it with me when he changed to city. If he's young enough you might still have time to inflict the Villa curse.. One of my earliest memories was coming out into the Holte on my Dad's shoulders, thinking the bright green pitch was the biggest thing I'd ever seen. Can't get that out of your blood once it's in there.. as hard as I've tried..

Would be utterly brilliant.

In two minds as to whether to watch the game today, pretty much came to the conclusion I wasn't going to put myself through the continuous torture until Sherwood was sacked. Although rather childish, the decision as to whether I pop into Covent Garden to watch Spectre will almost purely be based on the teamsheet

Don't understand how you can change teams like that, I know he's young but I was young when I started liking football and although Villa were poor (no change there then!) I couldn't imagine changing to a more successful team, which was Liverpool or Arsenal at the time You support your local team or the team your family support. Although I firmly believe that's how it should be, I don't think that's necessarily true, especially of the Midlands area.

You lucky git. Missed the boat big time with the PipBoy edition. I've cancelled some annual leave tomorrow and rearranged for later on this month to get some solid play time in. Although of course my excuse for rearranging my leave was a hastily constructed lie that didn't include "it's because I want to play Fallout".

nah, seems wrong when my eldest is awake watching tv in the room next door. So you whack one out in the kitchen area? Some twisted logic there!

Hopefully the squad will be receptive as last time he came in half of them went into mutiny, we had a ridiculous number of injuries at the same time (which could happen again if the bodies are weak) which resulted us winning two games over three months and nearly relegating us until we signed Bent. I imagine that was more to do with the fact we had a couple of injury-prone cart-horses at the back like Dunne and Collins and less to do with Duverne. Infact, the amount of injuries we've had over the past couple of seasons doesn't strike too differently to that season in all honesty. I remember Petrov commenting that the level of fitness he got the players up to was exceptional - I'll take any positives at the moment

If there was one thing Nigel Pearson was right about, it was this rocket polisher. The new Mark Halsey for us, always the first ref I hope not to see on the matchday programme if I'm up at VP.

It's something I'm going to accept as I too aim to put on more muscle mass, other than 45 minutes of boxing each week I'm not doing much which would give me definition in the abs region. Once I've reached a size I'm happy with I'll do some form of cut phase with more cardio and a lean diet. Then again, I rarely get my top off for anyone other than the Mrs so I'd much rather have good shape in a t-shirt than ripped abs!

Was impressed with some of his work last night, broke up the play well although he always seems to fall back into the odd calamity mode dwelling on the ball or making a daft leave to another player. I don't think he's been used in the right system consistently since he arrived - which unsurprisingly could also be linked to our tactical naivety. If a manager is going to let him go past the halfway line or play a pass more than 5 yards, as opposed to the first demand being placed on him once he's won the ball is to get it to a player who can move it forward, then he's being misused IMO.

Thing with Gabby for me is that I have always been a bit blinded by the Blues games amongst other goals like Old Trafford, which always lead to the 'second chance', but it's gone along too far now. The odd half-decent performance where you think he might be getting back to the 'old Gabby' (whatever that was, anyway) is completely overshadowed by the consistent half-arsed displays and the odd epic abortion that was last night. As a professional, if you get to the point where Gary Neville's MNF analysis (which let's face it, is up there, if not the best live analysis in the world of football) consists of 'he's had 8 touches in that half, and two were from kick-off' followed by almost uncontrollable laughter from ex-professionals, you need to take a serious look at retirement. To think, he's supposed to be 'one of us' - I imagine some Villa fans with severe, physically-debilitating illnesses would have shown more guts, heart and impact on that pitch last night.

Every time I've watched Veretout I think he's shown some real promise, a genuine footballer. The midfield against Bournemouth looked comfortable and he did well against Man United if not looking a little tired, then didn't play much at all. Thought he also did well against Blues. Good article above, it is however the risk of signing players from foreign leagues and the time they can take to settle before you see a real difference - our awful start has only amplified this.

Then again, maybe just maybe we finally make the right move and see the beginning of things turning around for us. I'll drink that kool aid for now because goddam things are bleak atm. We deserve a bit of luck in that department. Having had more time to consider it I looked at the team he inherited at Lyon in his first season with the likes of Lloris, Gomis, Gourcuff, Kallstrom, Lovren, Pjanic and you'd expect a certain amount of success with those players. It's not exactly Moyes taking Everton to 4th with the likes of Tony Hibbert and Kevin Kilbane. I believe Garde did however achieve relative success as the big names were sold off, so that is where I hold any hope.