Mark Albrighton

Hang about....weren’t you practically organising the victory tour bus for Norwich way back in December? I’ve asked the question there, but I already know the answer. Yes, you were. Your praise of Norwich has been one of the most notable constants from your posts throughout this season, and it’s something that actually has borne out to be accurate. You practically wanted to declare them champions in December and now they are. I thought they might slip up, or have a rough patch. They didn’t really, I was wrong. You were proven correct. But NOW you’re using this same Norwich side as a shitty stick to put us down with. You’ve somehow managed to be inconsistent with the one constant you were correct with.

You do realise it’s just a statistic, right? Like the ten wins in a row is just a statistic and so is Tammy teaching 25 league goals. Are they important as winning promotion, of course not. But they’re fairly noteworthy. Hell, loads of people were talking about the ten wins thing, but I didn’t hear “oh but it’s not in the top division...doesn’t count.” I’m pretty sure @OutByEaster? isn’t saying that this therefore makes this villa team the best for nearly half a century. If he was saying that, that would be incorrect, but he’s not. It’s a statistic, not an opinion. But all these statistical achievements are nice little indicators that things are going rather well for us on the pitch.

First two series, fine. Enjoyable, fun, just the right amount of self referential humour. And some actual decent detective work. A very good updated reworking of the text material. I remember reading an interview with one of the writers for the second series where they basically said “to hell with the deferred pleasure, we want to do the most well known stories now”. I remember thinking at the time that was a bold, potentially dangerous move. Especially doing the Sherlock-Moriaty confrontation so early doesn’t really leave you anywhere to go. And as such the episodes since have massively suffered. Aimless. Series 3 was too self knowing, too full of itself. Series 4 was just terrible, frankly. Nonsensical. I don’t watch it religiously but Elementary is, for the most part, an enjoyable “whodunnit”, with a nice take on the Holmes-Watson dynamic progressing throughout, both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are really good and you can tell they’re enjoying themselves. I think it’s ambitions as a show are not quite as high, but it’s the better for that.

I watched the first and last episodes (kinda by chance more than anything). Yep as a snarky e4 sitcom goes, it’s good. A bit inbetweeners-esque in places. Alexa Davies has been good in pretty much everything I’ve seen her in, much like Charlotte Ritchie, while underused in the episodes I’ve seen, is always a very likeable presence. I reckon bigger things for both of them in years to come.

I thought I’d seen it elsewhere on here to be honest!

I think a contender for the most embarrassing would be “One ticket for ‘You don’t mess with the Zohan’ please.” Or the title of pretty much any Adam Sandler movie would do the trick. On the subject of terrible film titles, if you’re ever playing charades I can highly recommend “The Hudsucker Proxy” as a film to give a rival to act out it’s name. It works especially well if the person who has to perform it has never heard of the film.

I kinda feel like I take up a defensive view of Thor, not quite sure why as I don’t massively rate him but I don’t dislike him as much as others appear to. Maybe it’s just to play devil’s advocate in discussion. Didn’t watch today but if his effort is being questioned then that’s a bit notable, that was the one aspect of his game it could argued wasn’t an issue. I always felt he had a solid attitude. He’s scored a few notable goals for us (one or two rather good ones I recall). Had a few decent to good performances when played in that holding role. But yeah, it’s not really worked out for him here has it? Not all his fault, the fact it took practically a year to work out where his best position was slightly embarrassing (at least it seemed like that long). Throw in an injury or two and the Whelanaissance and he’s become more or less a complete bystander. If it’s probably his last game for us, his time here won’t be burnt into my memory, but I wish him the best.

If I was a neutral I’d put us as favourites with a bit of daylight between the two sides. As I’m not, I think we have the better team and are in the better form, but I still feel apprehensive about it. I think if we win the home game, we’ll go through. Going back to the neutral point of view, my brother who doesn’t support any of the teams in contention is convinced the eventual play off winners will come from this tie.

I don’t care if Villa are mentioned or not. But it’s incessant with Liverpool, more so than any other club I think. On this front, I really don’t have an issue with any other club, but with Liverpool it’s been there for as long as I can remember. Impartiality goes out the window for some reason when it comes to them. Jose acts like a word removed, he’s more or less labelled a word removed. Klopp acts like a word removed, he’s a “character”. That type of thing. The amount they’re discussed is slightly irritating, but it’s the positive bias towards them that grates more. As for your earlier point about knowing Liverpool supporters, I don’t know many Liverpool supporters. Those I have met have generally been sound, happy to talk to them about football. It’s the sheer numbers that apparently live near me who all flood in when they’re playing in the latter stages of Europe or are playing Man City or something. It’s a petty complaint, but it’s irritating. Maybe you’re just in a fairly Liverpool free catchment area. As a non scientific example, when the local pub by me puts the football on, really only three teams are likely to fill it - Liverpool, Man Utd and since they’ve found a bit of success, Wolves.

I’d quite happily take the next 29 years of suffering for Aston Villa if it also included 1 Champions League title, 1 UEFA cup (or equivalent), 3 FA cups, 4 league cups and generally having the media back you at every available opportunity.

A solid away point today, can’t have too many complaints.

Another round of matches where I’m forced to root for Manchester City

All things considered it won’t go down as a classic relegation battle. No last minute twists and turns. Maybe if Cardiff had the decisions go for them in that Chelsea game... Arguable who’s had the most miserable season, Huddersfield for the very low points tally; Fulham for splashing the cash the way they have and still falling considerably short, or Cardiff ultimately missing out on survival at the end but with the additional sadness hanging over them with the Salah tragedy and the subsequent unseemly fall out of all that. Edit - obviously two men losing their lives is a sadder situation than Huddersfield not reaching 15 points or whatever - just in case I wasn’t clear!

I don’t watch it - I don’t mind seeing if the villa team has won. That’s more or less it. I have no idea what viewing figures or attendance figures are like. However, considering the history of the women’s game and the authorities doing what they could to prevent it from developing, I don’t mind them promoting it more than perhaps the current interest in it merits. Basically I feel like the women’s game is owed a favour or two (to put it mildly) so I don’t begrudge them receiving a bit of extra media coverage.

I think it was a grave mistake.

I suppose in fairness an incorrectly spelt grave stone is something the owners don’t have to live with.

Also, unless they spelt temporary differently back then...

The “e” being above “hom”? I bet they looked at the rather large amount of space the “W” and “M” take up on that line and rued their planning.

Hmmmmmm, I wonder if they ran the wording of this past Pontus.

Derby 1 - 4 Leeds Leeds 2 - 0 Derby Leeds 0 - 0 Boro Boro 1 - 1 Leeds Leeds 2 - 0 Bristol City Bristol City 0 - 1 Leeds I would expect Derby to give a slightly better account of themselves this time - whether that would be enough to win is another matter...

So biased at times, well most of the time really. Lots of “the respect Barca are showing to Liverpool here....” type comments. Nauseating. Pretty sure I heard him complain about how good the free kick was

Of course our form puts us in a slightly different view, but I reckon there will be some saying similar about us and Baggies.