LondonLax

I think this part is quite revealing...

There is a very interesting article in the Economist this week about how peoples perceptions of the state of society doesn't match up with the actual statistical data. It is a long read but is very interesting. The pretty graphs are on the economist website here

The headline in the Times doesn't actually match the poll question (but suspiciously does match the conservative party message), they never actually asked in the poll if people thought Britain was "broken" and left the positive news from the poll at the bottom of the story. So I was wondering, what do other Villa talkers think about the state of British society?

A dragon god would be way cool!

It makes sense to play long ball if you have crouch and defoe up front. Crouch wins a lot of knockdowns and defoe is very good at getting a shot off from a loose ball in the box.

Spurs fans think a lot of things...

The fact that Australia has massive mineral reserves to export has nothing to do with that... And the UK government had a massive financial market bubble it was skimming off. The difference is, the Australian government was putting away its pennies (cents) for a rainy day whilst the UK government went on the biggest spending spree in UK history with its new found wealth.

I always find bickering between rival fans about whose club is best so so tedious. It's not like the fans have anything to do with the success of the club (not directly anyway), it's usually whether they were lucky enough to support a club that turned out to be well run and have had good management over the years. Also, which club you chose to align yourself with was your choice anyway so there is no real superiority to be had from a Man U fan telling an Accrington Stanley fan their club is so much better (or any other set of comparisons in between!) as if the Accrington fan didn't know the deal when they started supporting the club. It's all just really pointless.

It is a factor, probably not for many Villatalk members but there are enough votes out there for whom it would be important for their PM to be seen to have "strong family values" (what ever that means).

They've tightened up with Mancini in there and have Kompany playing CB who is probably their best CB at the moment. I can't see Lescott getting in the team when he is fit. It was never about the players, it was the fact that Hughes couldn't organise the team defensively at all. I don't really agree, they have had players out and are making do with that young centre back but he looked very shakey against Man U in the semi finals. The only times their defence has been really teasted under Mancini was in the semi finals and against Everton so I think there is room for improvement there. When you supposedly have unlimited money I can't understand why they wouldn't get some better quality options at the back.

Can someone explain to me why they did not strenghten their defence this window? The back four are their big weakness and if money is no object why have they only bought a winger and an over the hill midfielder?

Totally agree. Hmm, although you could just about say that of Richard Dunne as well Couldn't walk into the AC Milan team could he??? Yes, Laursen's style of rushing out of the defencive line and winning headers doesn't go down so well in Italy.

You might as well go have a look see befoer kickoff.

My head says man u win in regulation time but my heart thinks we can take them to penalties if the defence is on top of their game.

I'm going to wait till after they are out of the FA Cup before I am gloating. If they avoid Chelsea they will probably go to the final.

Where do you start with that story??

Got there in the end. Probably could have scored a few more by the sounds of it. Delph sounded great on the feed. I will not be happy if Guzan starts at Wembley.

Unless he went to school in Brighton of course. Then he would have been very popular indeed. Haha! I keep getting visions of the wire every time McNaulty gets the ball.

Get in Delph

Ashley Young from the sounds of it...

Welcome back Davies

It is a pretty good result for us though. We are 2 points off 4th with a game in hand, I'd have taken that at this stage in the season if you had asked me in August. Unfortunately we have a tough period comming up against Arsenal, Fulham away, Spurs Away and Man U. We might have fallen back down by the end of that lot

Yeah right We would have had very different results against Arsenal and Liverpool if it was Gerrard running the midfield in those games instead of Milner. Milner has been great in the middle against weaker teams but has not been able to take control of a game against top opposition yet. Lets hope that develops.

Go down on the saturday and make a weekend of it. Let me know what pub you all get to on the Saturday night and I will come out for a beer with the visiting Brummie hords

Probably just exhausted.