tinker

The fans were as great as the ref was poor. He had a shocker and Blackburn took advantage of his weakness and unwillingness to make a brave decision. Countless fouls on A Young, the last one was followed up with him being shoved and pushed around in a sort of bullying type manner, disgraceful. The tackle on Downing from McCarthy was an absolute disgrace and he was lucky not to have a broke his leg. Collins took a forearm smash to his head that IMO was deliberate. The return leg will be tough. Blackburn will be very physical and will either bully us off the park or have a player sent off. I also hope we contest Gabby's yellow card. MOTM would be Milner, but Downing was very close and looks to be growing into a fantastic player for us. A Young..........will the real A Young please stand up? If he was half the player we know he can be, the goal would be flying in. He will find form IMO and the quicker he does then the quicker we wil become a top 4 team. UTV PS The fans were unbelievable, watched it on a Arabic channel and the noise they made was....... :notworthy:

Yes, it's called John Carew and to a slightly lesser extent Ashley Young, two players signed in the same window.......... Ashley Young is a winger, and therefore irrelevant to the discussion at hand, and Carew's official cost was £4.5m as well, the same as Harewood. So, signing players between £4.5m and £30m, surely has to be a possibility. Even for somebody with as poor a record of signing strikers like O'Neill. Randy will fund the fee but not the wages. The wages have to provided by the turnover of Villa and without CL money we cannot afford it, yet. This has always been the way and I feel sure I have read and/or heard statements from the club to support this.

Arshavin is a great player and so is Febregas, even an unfit one. We however have Young, Milner, Downing and Gabby( who tore Gallas apart last year) who can all be classed as great players. Carew has caused havoc in Arsenals defense before, so they should all know the score with him. They are worried and they need to be IMO. Our defense needs no introductions.

Nasri got off with his 'stamp' so he can play, quite how I don't know, the guy acted like a complete idiot and deserved a ban. This Arsenal side really are arrogant, they follow their managers lead and swagger about the pitch with no respect at all. see here How the once proud name of Arsenal has been dragged to these levels is beyond me. The press praise their football ability, but seem to ignore the other side to this team that most fans see. Wengers moaning, their diving and petulance, their lack of English players..... I so hope we do them, its good versus bad IMO. I don't care about L Pool, its Arsenal I want, Father F****n Christmas!

For Arsenal to be challenging for the title they need to win this match and we are a powerful team that they usually struggle with (when they are not firing on all cylinders) I watched them against Hull and they struggled, despite the scoreline. I think we will win this one 3-1, unless they get a major break with a poor decision or two thrown in (highly possible with the way Arsenal cheat) Even if we lose both of these matches its not the end of the world, or our challenge on the top 4. We should all learn the lesson from last season, there will be many turns before the season ends, some good and some bad. UTV

MON will leave for an international job as no other would meet the challenge he has at Villa, we are on the bring of greatness and he, IMO, will stay around to bask in that glory This Utd talk is nonsense, they have no money, they are £790m in debt and its costs £60m + a year to service the debt and thats without paying any of the capital off. They will have to renegotiate the loans and this will be difficult and very expensive interest wise. Their debt is rising despite winning the league, last season the champions league and the league. This is no secret amongst the business side of the game, even the clued up Man U fans know the score. They sold or got rid of arguable their best two players last season, Ronaldo and Tevez, ask why? Is it to build a better team? No, its to service debt. They need a whole new midfield and 2-3 world class defenders, plus 2 world class strikers ,that ain't gonna be cheap, Prob £200m +. . UTV.

MON is to clever to go to Man U, they are a club in decline after years of success. They have money trouble and will not be spending anywhere near enough to be able to rebuild the team to heights they have reached. Its a conclusion drawn from the facts given by Man U's actions and their financial situation, which is very real and daunting TBH. He will leave when he has finished the job he has started, when he does it will not be for a job in club football, it will be to manage an international team. Life has many turns and as Celtic fans will testify, MON holds family values above any job and that includes Villa, so this option always has to be considered. All IMHO.

IMO, In many ways this is one of the toughest games for us. We have the shadow of last years defeat and last gasp equalizer. We also have Stokes physical style, they will get amongst us and make us really work for this. Milner has a fresh test in his adopted midfield role and he will get a very thorough physical test. Can see Stoke attracting quite a few bookings in this one and the chances of injuries are going to high for both teams, fingers crossed its not a major player (please not Milner) 2-2 draw with them scoring first and a sending off as well. Just off out the door to put the lottery on. UTV :winkold:

1994

Man City played 4-3-3! and Lennon played very well against Man Citys left sided players (Barry looked nothing like the player we had) IMO, Crouch missed to many chances, time after time. Dawsons seems to be a changed player from the one I have seen in the past, on this form he should be close to an England call. I thought Man City would do Spurs, but Man City were shit, only player that looked interested was Tevez. Adebyor and that Robino fella just never seemed that bothered, what a waste of money. Hughes will be gone before long ass they are gonna struggle with a team like that.

So thats both Sunderland and Man U who have great teams, just need the right ref to get the result

Letting Milner go the first time around and not signing Milners complete extended family.

Sunderland are a serious threat, we need to be as strong as possible, I for one am glad we have started our strongest team. My 4-0 prediction now seems a bit strange, even to me! Must have been the euphoria from the Manure game.

Bang on the button, lets leave it the Spurs and City fans to worry about top 4 finishes in December, Jan............on May 9th, it will count and not before.

If Downing does not play, will Milner be switched to the wings again? I would not want this, would rather Gabby or one of our squad wingers go out there and keep Milner in the middle, which I think will be the secret of our continued success. MON has a hard call here, I just worry about what he will do. PLEASE KEEP MILNER IN THE MIDDLE!

When we played Spurs our form and style was bad, we ground a few results out, even when off from and IMO thats the stuff of a top 4 team. We have now found a style that suits, Milner in the middle, we are finally starting to play ourselves into some sort of form and a decent style.. Spurs remind me so much of us last season. We were challenging and the wheels dropped off after a half bad result. Even the fans comments are of a similar vain. I think they will lose against City tonight and then the flood gates will open. I just hope that when we hit our blip this season, we can all hold it together better, especially after our experience of last season. Still think it will be a battle for a top 6 finish this year and Spurs will be in it.

I agree, exactly my thoughts ATM (wouldn't say smaller though, just not as ready to challenge). IMO, to get over this we need to go at Sunderland with all guns blazing right from the first second. If we sit back and try and boss the game and sneak a win, we will, IMO, fail. As we did last season in similar games. The Sunderland players and their fans will be dreading our arrival, but if we start slowly and give them a little bit of hope, they will up their game, their fans will get behind them and they will be very hard to beat or even draw with. If we go for them and create chances, they will start to retreat and the old doubts will set in, then the game is ours. Please Villa, go there and go for their throat as quickly as possible. 4-0 to the Villa, with Downing to score. Ps Didn't MON support Sunderland as a child?

The defense has been great, but we have always had a great defense, its the creative midfielder we have always lacked and now we seem to have the answer, Milner, has the lot and more to come, he will become a midfield legend, for Villa and England. I would also like to mention Downing, nowhere near enough games to make any real comment on him, but what I have seen is very encouraging and IMO he may well push Milner for our best player come the end of the season.

IMO Letting Everton back in the game from being 2-0 up has affected Spurs in exactly the same way as it did to us last season when Stoke did it, to us. It will be very interesting to see how quick they recover from it, that will decide their season IMO.

Thats my thoughts exactly and thats what makes the difference with this win, we looked in control at nearly all times and thats was away to one of the strongest teams in the world. Thought the defense played very well, but the combination of Young, Milner, Downing, Petrov, Gabby and Heskey was the difference from games in the past. They played with purpose and never panicked and with a bit more composure they could have scored quite a few more. The ref, while brave with some shouts started to make some terrible decisions as the game wore on. One of the best performances I have seen from the Villa for decades. I have a real feeling Its starting to really happen for us now after so many years of s**t. :notworthy:

They will all be Villa fans tonight.

Man U are gonna get beat so bad, they will sack him at the side of the pitch, or the shock of it may well...... :winkold: F**Kin L, I am excited about this match. (wont be able to post for a month if we get embarrassed though) Of out now, to buy some more shit.

Mr Hudson (made in brum) - Straight no Chaser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtVYtH-s_Zc

Wish Downing was a bit fitter TBH, but best chance we have had in years, but we must remember we are away..... Fergies last game for em, we rip em apart and score 4, Milner hailed as a midfield master, Young finds his best form ever and Gabby rips Vidic an new asshole......Happy Xmas! & UTV

Another midfielder, seems you want quite a few, be interesting to see what happens to Jenas and more interestingly (at least to me) Huddlestone. Who owns this Sandro fella? Rumor is hes part owned by his agent......