bobzy

We have played Stoke, Newcastle and Hull - two of the games at home. These three teams scored 45, 43 and 38 goals last season. Let's wait until we have played some proper teams over time before we start celebrating our acquisitions? Most people expected Senderos to be garbage and backup at very best and he's been anything but. We may well ships goals against the better teams but that will be because, guess what, they're the better teams. Doing well against similar/poorer level teams are what we should really be improving on and, against teams who we struggled to beat last season, we've looked good. Senderos has been a part of this improvement and I'm surprised at how well he's done/how quickly he's settled in. Haters will always hate, though.

Even with his nerves/lack of settling in time etc, he has the confidence and ability to drive passes forward. He drilled one into Gabby (that was taken very well btw) which was superb. I didn't really expect that sort of thing from him.

Yet in the Grealish thread people are complaining that in almost the exact same position Grealish should have shot rather than passed it to Delph. Harry Hindsight strikes again. Strange, eh? I actually think Grealish did the right thing, as did Delph in that final move (i.e: running beyond to get the ball back again). As I said above, though, the other chance HAD to be passed out wide. He still had a great game though. He made the Hull defenders/midfielders panic into losing possession (including being a key part in Weimann's goal) and showed his ability to drive with the ball is second to none in our side. I love the way he changes feet quickly whilst sprinting; it draws so many fouls.

Probably my favourite of our summer signings now. Got a lot of time for Senderos.

If I was to bet on any of the games, I'd have us down as losing them all. Thankfully (and according to my general betting record), football doesn't work quite like that. I think we'll get either 1 or 3 points, and that will be a draw or win against one of the teams and 4 losses from the others. I think I'd have taken 8 points from our first 8 too.

People who want Lambert to be sacked won't have changed their mind after this one game or even the 3 league games at the start of the season. I don't think there's any chopping and changing going on in opinions, you just hear one side more vocally than the other after victories/defeats. The main thing I liked today was Villa Park belting out "Paul Lambert's claret and blue army!" for a solid few minutes and, irrespective of whether or not it's "him" getting the backing or just the club on the whole, it's the kind of thing that is great for moral. This is why I'm so, SO against people booing at a match. It was great to see our fans giving a top atmosphere despite not reaching anywhere near capacity. Hopefully all an ideal confidence boost before our horror run of games. Either way, the pressure on Aston Villa just got lifted a little.

For about the one billionth time, it's much more important to get our transfer business done before the window closes and THEN worry about contracts that expire in a years' time. There's no difference between Jack (or anyone) signing a contract today or in 2 days time. If it's going to happen, it can happen whenever.

So solid yet again.

Vital that we had at least 4 points from our first 3 - very happy with 7. Got pretty much everything spot on today and the midfield of Westwood/Delph/Richardson worked a treat.

Did brilliantly hassling the Hull players but continues to make the wrong choice going forward. Should've played in Grealish when we were 3-on-2 with 10 mins or so to go; instead hit a very tame effort. For how to do it, see Westwood's pass through to Bent. If he improves this, though, he'll be some player. His energy levels and quick feet are fantastic.

Obviously you hope it's nothing too bad, but could a little niggle be enough to keep potential suitors away? He's got us through the first 3 vital games of the season too... we won't be expecting much from the next 5.

Disagree - especially in this game. Lambert basically played it perfectly, Grealish came on for the last 15 minutes and was the only advanced player to hold onto the ball, draw fouls etc. Good little cameo and vital in making sure we hung on after a freakish Hull goal. He'll get his chance, and appearances like this will help him no end.

Superb closing down this first half, very impressive. Whether or not we'd play this midfield against other teams I don't know, but a trio of Westwood sitting deep, Delph more box-to-box and Richardson making runs behind the Hull defence is working very well. So much more dynamic and fluid than we've been previously.

Very good first half from him to be fair. Good turn and finish for the first goal, has run into the left channel well and, along with Delph and Richardson, has hustled and harried the Hull defence. Much more like it Gabby.

Of course there will be, if he isn't scoring immediately then people will be saying 'Lambert should have sold him' or 'should have signed a striker' or something along those lines. That is football. This all over. There's a huge expectancy on Benteke coming back and scoring goals immediately. Huge.

And his fitness. And basically every element of football apart from being able to pull off some tricks.

There's no positive to take from it but saying we're "going down" because of 1 cup game is, indeed, indicative of an overreaction.

Er, that's definitely just your opinion though. Err, I don't have to finish every single one of my points off with 'in my opinion' for that to be blatantly obvious. "That's 'Westy' definitely on the bench if he signs" "In my opinion, this means 'Westy' will be seen on the bench rather than in the starting eleven" Spot the opinion.

Hold your horses! We've had 53% possession against a league one side at home! #progress #perspective #wegoagain Because possession = attacking! #knowledge #tacticalnous #poorwit

We only had those chances against Leyton orient. We ended last year struggling to create good chances and we've struggled in our two league games this season. Agreed with this; although we created a great chance against Newcastle but Gabby completely muffed his header. I hope the signing of Sanchez sees Delph/Richardson/Westwood/whoever have more freedom to get forwards, though. We'll see how it goes against Hull Tigers FC.

I take it you didn't watch the game?

He's obviously been massively hampered by the relative lack of financial backing (fwiw, I think Lambert is decent in the transfer market). However... Ever heard about man management? Getting the best out of the players? Lambert obviously isn't very good at this. I think this is pretty bang on. Where O'Neill succeeded was motivating a team of not much and getting them to perform above their abilities. Lambert doesn't seem to have this in him to anywhere near the same extent.

Why not play Richardson wide if we have an LM?

I only quoted your reference for the effect; wasn't saying you personally need to get a grip

4 points from 2 games that we gained 0 points from last season. Get a **** grip people.