Sureshot

Got up at 5AM this morning to watch the Villa game, then drove down an empty 405 to the gym blasting this out. Pretty good start to the day (despite the result).

Defence was solid, was particularly impressed with Beye as I think he only put a foot wrong once. Not bad for someone who's been almost completely written off.

Not really enough quality in centre-mid; Petrov in particular was decidedly average for me today.

Fair enough result, shame Ireland and NRC couldn't finish.

Couple of great goals but we were well outplayed by Wolves for most of that. Giving Cuéllar MOTM I think as he seemed to be there for everything, although I thought Ash and Albrighton had decent games too.

Mais oui, bien sur.

Welcome Gerard!

The mind absolutely boggles how we can go from one of the best performances I've seen us put in in recent times to perhaps one of the worst and most embarrassing of all time. Utter disgrace.

Ok, this is probably the most embarrassing Villa performance I've ever seen.

Complete and utter embarrassment. Gonna take some to get over this one.

Got up at 5:30 to only to witness this scoreline and have to endure David **** Pleat. PICK IT UP VILLA!

Probably discussed somewhere but can't find it - anyone know the actual reason we have to wait until a full month after the season's started before we can buy even one of our kits?

General Krulak here:

1. jackbauer: My point was simply that you were mixing two different issues...Kappa vs. Nike. I am sure that if we were still with Hummel they could have produced a kit in rapid fire fashion...but do we want a Hummel kit? Nike is producing sporting equipment world wide and cannot spin around on a dime. We were late in providing them the sponsor's name...simple as that and we went back a bit in the queue. We are not happy about it...and the fans are not happy about it

I'm not sure if that's the last time he talked about the new kit, but I think that's the reason.

I'll have a look for more info on it.

Thanks. Hopefully we don't have a repeat next season, then.

Incredible performance, absolutely delighted with both Albrighton and Clark in particular - both put in sterling performances and gave us an invigorated hope for the future.

The only downside was Carew's lack of shooting boots but he worked so hard otherwise so I can let it slide. Well, and that it looks like goodbye from Jimmy. Pleased that our support made him give a second thought today at least - nice one guys.

Martin O'Who?

What a run by Albrighton. Cheers Jimmy.

Great half.

Now we just need to learn how to kill games off, something O'Neill struggled to do.

At least we don't have to endure the random subs/tactical decisions MON would've made any more.

Absolutely dominated that half, shame we didn't get one or two more but cracking stuff so far.

Albrighton has looked fantastic.

Probably discussed somewhere but can't find it - anyone know the actual reason we have to wait until a full month after the season's started before we can buy even one of our kits?

Would love Klinsmann or Jol. What about Diego?

Home kit - Alright. Not my favourite kit ever, but alright.

Away kit - Black's fine but, but black with claret and blue and a red sponsor? It just doesn't work. Stick with one or two primary colours, ffs!

Goalie kit - I like it because it's as mad as a box of frogs, but I'd never wear it.

Kjaer and Cavani look like they're on the way to Spuds:

Palermo have accepted Tottenham's £28million double bid for Simon Kjaer and Edinson Cavani.

A host of clubs have been linked with the highly-rated pair with Palermo resigned to losing the star duo this summer.

The likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Inter Milan have been credited with an interest in Danish international Kjaer, while City and Wolfsburg are thought to be keen on Cavani.

However, Tottenham are hoping to steal a march on their rivals by making a double bid for both players.

Zamparini claims Spurs have tabled a bid of €35million (£28million) for Kjaer and Cavani and that the offer was too good to turn down.

"Tottenham have bid €35million, an offer we cannot refuse, seeing as the two players have both said they want to leave," Zamparini told Sky Italia television.

"We will reinvest the money for these players," said Zamparini. "The midfield is my biggest concern, whereas in defence and attack we are fairly covered."

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is keen to bolster his squad as he prepares for the Champions League next season and landing Kjaer and Cavani would be a major coup for the White Hart Lane outfit.

Click

30m is definitely a ridiculous amount of dosh. I know Citeh are changing the face of the transfer market in today's game but just think about it - who could have ever even imagined we would be talking these kinds of sums for James Milner? When Robinho and Berbatov moved for around the same amount of cash it was mind-boggling.

Jimmy's top class but we do have to be realistic about these things. For 30m we'd be crazy not to accept.

Yeah, I told my housemate (granted, he doesn't really follow sports) that we tied and ended up having to repeat myself 3 times after he couldn't understand the concept of drawing.

England for me, obviously. Picked up my shirt today and will be wearing it down the pub on Saturday.

At the end of the first period of Game 5 between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night, defenseman Sami Salo(notes) was hit by a Duncan Keith(notes) slapshot and hit the ice in agony before leaving for the locker room in pain. He was later loaded into ambulance on a stretcher and brought to a local hospital in Chicago.

The announcers initially thought the puck hit his midsection. TSN (and later Team 1040 in Vancouver and the NHL Network) reported that the point of impact was uncomfortably lower: That Salo ruptured a testicle on this play.

Yahoo

Ouch...

Sony? Apple? These type of companies don't do shirt sponsorship.

Look at AIG, Standard Cartered, Ethiad and Mansion. Companies that want to get their brand out to the public, not companies with a world famous established name.

Not like Samsung - the world's largest electronics manufacturer - or Toyota - the world's largest car maker by sales - then. Sony have definitely used Playstation on a few kits as well.

Here are some stats from a guy on HFBoards to put how much of an upset it was into some perspective:

33 points difference between both teams, 101 more goals scored by the Caps although they allowed 10 more and their best player won the Hart for the past 2 seasons along with another 100 pts forward and a 40 goal scorer( Most on the Habs was 28 ) while coming back down from 3-1. It's pretty huge if you ask me, and I think the only one who tops this one is Isles '93.

Amazing result, that. I'd expect it of the Sharks, but not the Caps. The NHL will be crying into their Cheerios tomorrow morning due to no Pens vs Caps series.