HJ

**** hell Cuellar is dodgy today

**** hell Downing

to hell with build up in this weather, just punt it straight to strikers

I think the whole defense was pretty poor today, started with a schoolboy error from Cuellar who put himself on the wrong side of Eduardo for an early chance. Arsenal didn't have any cutting edge though, Eduardo was shit again and Arshavin had one of the days when he's completely useless. Then on came Fabregas and he had the goods, fair play. Off day for defense, expecting them to bounce back though. Not much going forward either, Ash and Gabby tried but wasted the ball, Milner was poor today and Downing didn't do anything. Big strikers won the ball a bit but we didn't get any crosses in so it was difficult for them. We didn't deserve anything today, time to bounce back now.

A lot of City fans don't appreciate Cook either.. Not the least because a few weeks back in an award party speech he welcomed Uwe Rosler into Manchester United hall of fame.

We edged that game but needed a ref decision or it would have been even more difficult.. We did have chances to score quite a bit more but Stoke had their own chances to nick it. It was a battling game though, not one that was very easy on the eyes. Stoke were very tough to play against, they pressed high up the pitch and didn't give even our defenders a moments peace on the ball, Tuncay was good for them creating opportunities. Both Youngs, Milner and Carew did very well for us. Good to see the old Ash-Carew combo for the goal, we need more of that again. Carew came alive during the game and started winning everything again and a lot of his headers went into good positions as well. Milner MoTM for me, got involved all the time, all over the pitch and made some great passes.

Fantastic result to pick up 3 points from Sunderland, only Chelsea have managed to so far and we are the only team to have kept a clean sheet there. Good performance too, both sides had chances but we edged it and got a couple of class finishes. The defenders all were very good individually but Dunne rose above the rest, that's a MotM performance for him if Milner hadn't done what he did. Milner basically has the same role that Sidwell did, harass their players, support full backs/wingers if needed, get forward. He just does the get forward bit so much better, he's very handy when attacking from wide positions too. Sidwell couldn't ever have put in that same performance, but nevermind neither could Barry.

Sidwell on Gabby, seeing off the last minute with a 4-5-1 or something

Sub now please, Heskey or Downing off

Phil Bardsley on? Whats he going to do?

****, could have done Milners ankle there, hope he's ok

Milner picks up a yellow now, late challenge

That was an amazing tackle by Dunne

WHAT THE HELL MILNER

Feck, Ash hits the post, great football though

I think he's having a poor game, second in a row. Good freekick though.

edit, double post

Friedel saves the day, that was a good attack from Sunderland

Great build up by Petrov+Milner there, surprisingly good finish from Heskey as well.

HESKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some good one touch passing now.

Heskey.

The funny thing about that rant is that his whole point is that Wolves was just one game and one result and they had a bad day and it can't be used as a proof of their top 4 chances. Then he goes on and says Villa won't make it in to top 4 because we were outplayed in one game. Logic fail.

Or even, if we have to start 442. and go ahead, and maybe be under pressure we could revert to 451 to see out the game!! Sorry, that would be tactics! lets use Carew as a Defender and Ashley as a rigth back! Wahey! You still don't realize we switched to 4-5-1 to see out the Man Utd game? You know, when NRC came on, and he held five fingers up, and yelled "FIVE!" to everyone, and Gabby ran to the right and stayed there for the rest of the match? Was it really that difficult to spot/understand? I think you missed my point. 4 5 1 to me is well.... 4 defenders... 5 midfielders.... and a forward. :winkold: Well its a bit difficult to get your point if you come up with the satirical rubbish instead of writing your actual point down. I have always found Gabby very solid defensively when on the wing and certainly better than Downing was doing on the night.

What is a loss a sign of then? Because the teams that are aiming for top 4 have only picked up losses there so far (Liverpool, Arsenal)