sled

I see The Bear has voted then.

Exactly.

He's a Mod!

But not on VT.

I can imagine the original law being "Thou shalt not derive joy from animals"

And when a senator doesn't know what husbandry is, shouldn't she be sent away on a sabbatical to, I dunno, school?

I haven't so I voted for the 4th option. But i do think it a shame there wasn't more feedback on this one.

Even a couple of quid would be nice.

This is about as pointless as the Barry or Fabregas thread.

I might as well make a poll asking if you want to live or not.

Those who try and turn this into a personal argument with me are idiots in advance. Thank you.

Of course he cares.

FFS do you think players purposely go out to fail?

Harry will be happy to have silenced his tormentors yet again and you have to say he proves everywhere that he goes that he can improve things at football clubs

oh stop it patrick.

Things indeed look awful. The only thing is, we haven't played yet this weekend! We win and 3 points!

I've voted 5th. Because it's very possible that that's where we'll finish. And because at this moment the momentum seems to have gone. I'll feel differently if we beat Tottenham tomorrow though.

Furthermore I'm a bit superstitious about predicting great things for us. If anyone wants to call me a doom and gloom merchant (and there are those who seem to seek out every possible opportunity to take the piss out of every post they conceive as not being sufficiently posssssssitive for their liking) well I can't help them can I?

However...

I watch most of Arsenal's games on the web (I won't bore you with why) and don't be too fooled by the way they've been scratching results recently. It can't go on for ever. They have serious problems at present. Problems which I can't see the imminent return of Cesc Fàbregas solving.

Problems in the centre of the defence with Touré and Gallas only communicating by the bare minimum.

Problems with their way of wanting to walk the ball into the net. Some will say "Oh what fortitude, how patient they are, they never panic!" It doesn't always help though. They only managed 1 goal in 3 and a half hours against a very poor Roma.

I've never felt Adebayor was a donkey. I've always thought Bendtner's approach work was good (if nothing else). I've always thought that once-promising full back Eboue had something to offer.

But Adebayor has offered little in the last few weeks (when he's been fit), Bendtner's sheer hopelessness in front of goal is clearly getting him down, and Eboue is now a bag of nerves - he still does some very good things but he's also responsible for the breakdown of many of their moves.

Eduardo da Silva plays a game and then picks up an injury. He's not really ready yet. Vela can look great against inferior opposition but against a decent team he goes missing. Van Persie can win matches, but not often.

It isn't just their lack of willingness to shoot - the final ball is often bad too. Opposition defences just mass up against them, I guess.

Depressing! I try to put myself in the position of an Arsenal fan and I find myself hoping Villa's bad run will continue, because that's the only way Arsenal will get 4th place.

There are things wrong with us too, of course there are, but we are much more direct and teams can't relax against us, especially the way we play on the break away from VP.

I think Chelsea have recovered so perhaps 3rd place is now beyond us. But at the moment we have our destiny in our own hands. 4th place is perfectly feasible. We are above Arsenal (and Everton) for good reasons.

Musta I say old bean, I think we've seen this somewhere before! or else everyone's already seen it a hundred times. Anyway, Darth Vader in the canteen.

Great report OBE

On another positive note, Shorey looked comfortable and solid. I think he may be another ‘Confidence Jockey’ like Petrov, needing to be confident and feel he is being perceived positively before he can deliver his best. I hope that he is able to be given the chance to prove his worth without people getting on his back.

Ah Tennants. With girls on the can - many years ago. And a nice lager, how I miss it.

some fizzy spanish lager

Music for Strings - Elizabeth Maconchy

lol

...and can confirm they are still married...

"Alf, are your parents still alive?"

"Indeed. Most certainly."

"Where do they live?"

"In Dagenham, I believe."

rofl

Gareth Barry – 8 – MOTM

John, a good report, but Petrov was the outstanding Villa player last night IMHO.

I would agree about Petrov or Barry if it were a question of who was the most influential. But central midfielders are supposed to be influential aren't they. Full backs are rarely influential but I really thought that Luke Young and Nicky Shorey put up a tremendous show against same dangerous Russian wing play. Shorey's support of Barry and Ashley Young going forwards was I thought excellent. Whereas Petrov got a silly and unnecessary booking and Barry was, in the first half, passing to the opposition rather often for him.

I feel everyone in the team upped their performance so much in the second half that I would make MON my Man of the Match on this occasion because the improvement when they attacked the Holte End was no accident. I wonder what he said.

Oh well. Let's hope we get a result against Chelsea now.

EDIT: Not exactly worth the trouble.

Yes, I know.

So, given that you understand the question and the reasons for it, why pretend you didnt and ask whether there were any 'other' competitions people would 'like' us to stop competing in?

Yes, I know.

While we're still on this tail-chasing subject, are there any other competitions people would like us to stop competing in?