Ponky

really? Does that mean we pick up his wages when he is not playing?

Wow aren't the Newcastle players showing themselves in a pathetic light? And what a bunch of sore-loser pricks! The thing I can't figure out is the way they are so open in villifying Ashley Young - surely if nothing else you never know what's going to come around in football and imagine finding yourself at a new club alongside Ashley after you have character assassinated him in public? And as for Pardew I guess he never expects to be in a position to try and sign Ashley for whatever shitty little club he works for...

I thought the decision to use Pires made some sense. We needed cool heads and players who could hold the ball. Albrighton or Delph can be loose cannons at times. You only have to look at that crazy tackle from Cuellar to see how dicey the situation was. The only other sensible option to Pires would have been Heskey, in my view.

This game sucked up roughly 2 years of my life (and a large proportion of my postgraduate scholarship!):

WTF is Pardew on about? Barton on Young was probably the most clear foul of the match! (apart from Petrov's rugby-tackle on Barton) Young knocks the ball on, goes past Barton, Barton sticks his leg out, nowhere near the ball, and trips him up - did I miss something? One thing I would say is that Barton's histrionics may have had an effect on the umpire because it was after Atwell pulled Barton aside for a chat that Atwell started treating us with absolute contempt.

Poor again for me, should be Petrov and NRC against West Ham. Thought he was quite bright apart from a few sloppy passes early and set up our second goal (yes I know) with a beautifully weighted through ball. My main frustration with him today is that he had a clear shot at goal from just outside the box on at least two occasions and elected to pass instead. We need our midfielders to be having a pop from outside to stretch the defence a bit but he seems reluctant.

No, not a brilliant performance but quite similar to Chelsea's win over Wigan yesterday. I gave Collins MOTM, for his goal and for being a brikwall for 90 minutes - only really troubles when Kuki came on and covered Walker's arse all day. Almost gave it to Petrov or Dunne, largely because they bashed the shit out of the most detestable man on the planet. Walker's confidence is shot IMO - time to give him a rest and let Carlos play a few at RB. In the end we could have made it 3 or 4-0 but shit reffing and too many over-hit crosses screwed us over. Not quite the revenge over Newcastle we all wanted but enough to be able to say that 6-0 defeat was atoned for. Special mention to Luke Young - thought he was very good both going forward and in defence.

That second goal would have been a real settler but you know it would be a Villa match this season if we were feeling comfortable. For what it's worth we look the better side and they seem to lack the quality up front to hurt us as long as we keep our heads. Barton is a word removed, but I guess that's no newsflash. Walker has been pretty poor again today, hope he can settle but Gutierrez is troubling him. Come on boys - we can do this! Shove it up em!

It's a very bizarre show IMO. It has a pretty good premise but not one that drags you back to it it time and again. The sort of show I'd happily watch if I was, dunno, bored to death?

I don't think Ash would have done the same. Young goes over easily when he thinks he has been fouled but this was something else again, whereby Jagielka clearly extended his leg a little to ensure that he caught Makoun's, and then dived to the ground after the slightest of contact. Big difference. But we won't see too much in the media about it, because English players don't dive remember. The other thing that shitted me was the speed with which the peno was given - a crucial match-changing decision and he had it awarded before Jagielka even hit the ground. How about take a second or two to process the scene first?

I think the way we played yesterday changed his role a bit. In previous matches with Ashley behind Bent we played through the middle quite a bit more but with Ash out wide we played wider and Makoun really didn't come into it the way he has previously. That said I thought he was lucky not to receive a straight red yesterday and while the penalty was a blatant dive he really was a bit naiive. Should have been substituted for Petrov when we hit the lead. He is a very good player and as others have said, he needs time to adjust to the nuances of the PL. Give him time.

We didn't deserve to win because we weren't the better team but we did deserve to win for the fact that we have lost plenty when we were the better team. Seems there is no justice for the Villa this season. Replays showed that Luke Young was playing Beckford onside but it was inconclusive as to whether the ball crossed the line. From what I saw it landed directly on it. In the end the boys showed some heart and spirit and for once looked like they cared about what was happening out there. At this stage winning at home and drawing away has to be our aim, so a 1 pointer at Everton is an ok result, regardless of other results. And one more thing - it's pretty hard to respect the ref when he performs like that. Clearly no penalty and it seemed to me he had the finger pointed at the spot before Jagielka even hit the ground.

I hate to say this but we need Heskey on. We are getting killed in the air and, like it or not, earlier in the season he was the one setting up or scoring goals to get us out of the shit.

My boy saw me pulling a large shrub out of the garden a few years ago when he was only 4 or 5. This has him convinced that I am the strongest man in the world because I can pull out trees with my bare hands (fair enough the shrub was bigger than him at the time!). I cheers me up no end whenever he mentions it. Even if it's not true, my kid thinks I'm up there with the incredible hulk.

I officially withdraw my support for M'sieu Houllier and politely ask him to leave.

22 year old reserve keeper for Borussia Dortmund, Mitch Langerak. The heir apparent to Mark Schwarzer as Australian keeper. Made his debut for Dortmund against Bayern a few weeks back and was outstanding.

Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it but that was on the big screen and I hadn't seen any of the films that use a very similar storyline. The 3D added nothing other than dry sore eyes that had to squint on the drive home. I know the film got ripped to shreds by many film-goers (largely down to the plagiarised plotline) but, for me, as a bit of visually stunning escapism I thought it was very enjoyable if formulaic. +1 I watch movies for entertainment and escapism, to be honest, and Avatar delivers both of those. I watched it in 3D at the movies and in HD at home and while some of the WOW factor wasn't there on DVD it was still a pretty good way to kill a few hours.

Delph is still recovering from an injury-stricken 18 months and remember he was a relatively inexperienced youngster in his first season with us when he got injured - so he is effectively still learning at the same time as getting his match confidence back. He needs match time and clearly will be rotated along with the rest of our midfielders. I think Houllier will start NRC and Makoun in the next match.

The match should have been done & dusted before the penalty - Bent WTF? Mrs Redknapp would have had a hat trick today! In the end we did more than enough to win comfortably but failed with our finishes. Yes, poor defending for their goals but three 21 years olds and a RB playing CB as our defence - we were always going to concede a few. Time to take penalties and corners off Ashley.

We are getting bullied in the middle. Delph is getting pushed off the ball and a few of our players are missing their passes. Walker has been fantastic though. Even when Petrove goes past him he catches up to him!

What - Walker Young Clark Baker was our back line last season? :shock:

While Kalinic was always going to score against us what I really likes was that we didn't sit back after scoring the first one, even two. It has been a long time since we have stepped on the opposition's throat like we did yesterday.

The reason he swapped both albrighton and downing onto their "wrong" flanks is that both were being played into dead ends by their full backs and not getting crosses in. While it can be frustrating when it doesn't work, arguably Downing is a greater goal threat cutting in from the right and Albrighton's crossing is far more dangerous coming in from the edge of the square, as two of our goals today demonstrated - so I think Houllier got it right today.

Bent had some dodgy moments in the first half but worked hard in the 2nd. Great performances by Pires (MOTM), Young, Albrighton, Downing and particularly Reo-Coker, who anchored the midfield well and whose passing was excellent for what it was. The Blackburn defence was suicidal at times but it is great all the same to see the goals fly in for a change.

Commentator's have were absolutely shitting on Pires for the first 15 minutes but he has really settled in well. Frustrating viewing. Starting to wish we had Mrs Redknapp up front