briny_ear

At least leave me my bottle of Christmas sherry! Afiter the Swansea match it's my only comfort...

Betting odds tell you where the punters are putting their money, not anything objective about the quality of our side.

why? every club fans boo players Yes, for lots of different reasons. But booing a player because he left your club for a bigger one just strikes me as small town.

I suspect that, true to your username, you would be alone among Villa fans to show such patience.

Personally, I thought it was a bit small town to boo him.

That's a relief, then. We can look forward to three 6th places in a row and some European games.

Your chart would be better if it just included Premier League games as it is currently not reflective of the real situation. Agree with this. The chart is a joy for a stats nut like me but it could be seen as a bit misleading because it includes cup matches in a "points per game" calculation - which provides the basic comparison between managerial records - but you don't get points for cup matches. Also a manager with an easy cup run or early entry to the Intertoto Cup has their results boosted. It would be interesting to see how the table would look if it just included league matches. PS I'm also not sure how Kevin MacDonald's games in charge feature here.

The first four of those did pretty well against Chelsea.

Can't see why he played today when he was obviously quite badly crocked when he went off against Chelsea.

This is a thought that has been bugging me for some time. In the 2009-10 season when Bent got his 24 league goals, the rest of the side only got another 24 between them and Sunderland finished 13th. It seems to me that Bent is fine when the system is set up to help him score lots of goals but that doesn't necessarily convert into winning football and the rest of the team isn't automatically galvanised into going for goal as well.

Didn't see any of this game but, from what I've heard, it was Warnock's poor pass that led to the first goal. Is that right? If so, I can't see why 20% have nominated him man of the match.

Think it's a case of "Be careful what you wish for".

Well done, MON. He has turned a demoralised and disorganised squad into a proper fighting force in the space of about 3 weeks. Wish he was still our manager.

Don't disagree with your general point but it is exaggeratiing in the opposite direction to say he "rarely" touched the ball. From where I was sitting he did all that was asked of him and looked very composed. Had 2 or 3 passes, a couple of tackles and a shot on goal. Not bad for his first 12 minute appearance, although, as you say, not worthy of some of the hype on here.

One thing I noticed yesterday was the way he was marshalling the troops, calling people for loose defensive work and geeing up the midfield. People often criticise him for not being a strong enough Captain but he certainly seemed to be doing his job yesterday, as well as scoring an excellent goal.

Hear hear. Cuellar in the side regularly now, please, not just as a second string Right back but as a Centre Back partnering Dunne.

Ahem, tipoeing quietly away from the above very very silly exchange, and back to the match... I only get to see matches in London these days and, due to personal disorganisation, this was only my 2nd of the season (the first being QPR). I was sitting in Matthew Harding Lower, which is VERY tribal Chelsea territory, looking across to the Villa contingent on the opposite corner, so I had a slightly uncomfortable time hiding my glee at Villa's excellent performance amidst a load of raucous fans chanting "we are the boys from CFC". But, strangely, the chanting died down and they fell to complaining bitterly about Villas-Boas and some of the players. Sturridge in particular was getting some stick. They were also inconsolable that they were going down to Villa, who they obviously see as Chelsea's whipping boys after the 7-1 a couple of seasons ago and the cup defeat. There were so many excellent performances yesterday it seems wrong to pick out a man of the match but it has to be Ireland, who ran the show in midfield and played with a confidence we just haven't seen ever in his time with us so far. Great effort from N'Zogbia too, although he is still a bit hit and miss in my book, and some towering performances from some older hands like Petrov, Cuellar, Dunne (who nevertheless lost a few points for the penalty) and Guzan. Was good to see GG's debut as well. He looked pretty assured from the word go after he came on. Full marks to McLeish for the tactics and substitutions and much kudos to the Villa fans for their usual fantastic show - loved it when they started the "handball" chant after a rather hopeful call by the Chelsea fans, and I can report that the "shit support My Lord" routine went down very badly in Mattew Harding Lower, much to the pleasure of this Villa fan keeping his head down but enjoying the show immensely in private! Here's hoping this is a corner turned... Happy New Year to all Villa fans everywhere.

Thought he was excellent yesterday. Whatever was in that pipe did the trick!

Yesterday was a massively better performance than we've seen from him so far - quite possibly because he had an excellent Ireland to spark off, not a luxury he's ever had before - but he is still a bit hit and miss. I recall at least one occasion when he tried to shoot when passing to Gabby in front of an open goal would have been the obvious option. Still needs to work a bit better with his colleagues, although his run and pass for the first goal was top quality.

Unbelievable.. i'm actually speechless. Take no notice, he just posts for effect You are incorrect there. I may not agree with all of his opinions but PB most definitely does not PFE. This site is much better for the likes of PB posting on it and if not for him we may not actually have this site in its form today. I think PB is dead right. If a player - however good - doesn't deliver what a manager wants, there's only going to be one outcome. (The player leaves)

The most worrying thing is, what is that long pink thing wrapped in a black and white stripey scarf that appears to be gnawing at his stomach?

Not sure anyone has claimed he is the "Messiah", although outside a religious context, I'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean. Just the best manager we've had for a fair few years who brought a sense of optimism, excitement and achievement that has been woefully lacking in the 2000s/ Those would be the ones MON brought in or developed at Villa who have been sold off, I guess.

^^^Agree very much with the Rev there. This is a wise and generally applicable warning about the danger of overhyping young players too early.

Stoke were gash for almost all of the game and I can only see that as 2 points dropped.

Hey ho, here comes Stoke's late winner...