DiegoD

I'd love to get Bendtner. He's only 22 with bags of PL and CL experience. More importantly he is an intelligent player, he drops deep and i have no doubt he would work brilliantly with Downing and Milner. He does make some bad misses but with 19starts and 10 sub appearences got 12 goals and 6 assists so he has goals in him.

But AW would want too much for him as he rates him highly as well.

Come on Villa!

happy with the team they put against us. Really plays into our hands that team.

man city normally play 442 dont they (genuine question, not sure myself)

if they do, us going 442 wont be the end of the world, as normally we get dominated in the middle when other teams play 451, not 442

can see a draw at best tho, altho considered alone that would be a good result

Ive Mainly see them play a 4-3-3 with 3 defensive midfielders and 3 high up the pitch attacking players (they have played some horrible football with this formation when they are affraid to lose). But they also play a 4-4-2 so not sure what formation we'll see this weekend.

I am looking forward to this expecting the usual 4-4-2 and expect it to get the job done. I also cant wait for Johnson to fail so people stop talking about how City got a great deal for him.

Not a good performance but great result and that is all that matters. The penalty was an interesting one at first i thought we were lucky, then my friends watching the game with me (all of whom wanting villa to lose) convinced me it was a penalty. Friedel was outstanding.

Dunne is overdue a rest especially with the niggle hes had. Carew has gone back to useless since he reinjured himself dont want him starting. Think this is a good opportunity to give Delfounso and/or Albrington a start. I'd go

Friedel

LYoung - Collins - Cuellar - Warnock

Albrington - Petrov - Milner - Downing

Gabby - Delfounso

With Young and Carew to come on if we are struggling to break them down.

I dont know what i'm smoking, but i am seeing a dominant Villa performance where everything goes so right that even Heskey scores... 3 - 0 Villa!

Watching the replay just makes it more infuriating that he wasn't sent off. O well hes a dirty person and player and when he finally gets his i'll be one of the many laughing at him.

i am going with a 1-1 scoreline at the end of 90 minutes. If drogba is fit enough to play 120 minutes he'll get the winner in extra time if not we win in penalties!

Pretty much agree with your scores there, although, I think you're being slightly harsh on Gabby, I think he had a very good game, apart from that one on one, he's been badly missed. Can't work out how you rated Carew's performance as better than Gabby's.

I pretty much took away a point for the miss (which i know is harsh) because strikers are about the goals. Know most people wouldn't agree with it but thats how i rate them.

My Ratings would be:

Friedel- 7.5 Some good saves and confident punches

Cuellar- 6.5 Defensively fine but crosses are poor, some nice passes though.

Dunne- 7 Classic Dunne

Collins- 6.5 Solid job but one big mistake where Friedel bailed him out with a great save.

Warnock- 7 Added a lot of width on the left and was defensively solid

Downing- 5.5 average with a couple of good dead ball deliveries

Delph- 7 Excellent first half, played very well with Petrov looked comfortable on the ball and looked to drive through the midfield. Went invisible second half most likely struggling after being injured the last couple of weeks

Petrov- 8 Benefited from playing next to a midfielder that didn't keep drifting wide and the extra attacking freedom. Think we'll see the best of him in a 3 man midfield on him delph and milner.

Young- 8 MOTM Very good goal. Was always looking a threat with the ball trying to beat defenders. Needs to work on his dead ball delivery as hes being wasteful at the moment.

Carew- 6 Didn't look fully fit but was a handful for the defenders

Agbonglahor- 5.5 marked down for missing a great chance to seal the game up early. Otherwise a strong performance brought other players into the game

Subs: Sidwell 5 nothing of note.

Heskey 6.5 Was good when he came on. Held up well and almost scored. Prefer seeing him come on the bench than starting, dont want him on when we are chasing a goal though.

Posted this few days ago but changed my mind

Friedel

Cuellar Davies Clark Young

Young Sidwell Petrov Downing Albrighton

Agbonlahor

We really need to rest some players, that's why I have rested Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Milner, Heskey. Don't know who else we can play in CM so have to keep Petrov in. Wish NRC or Delph were fit

Carew apparantly out for rest of season but I hear Bouma is near

Clark looked good on his debut and got man of the match too.

Still believe we can get a result with that team.

Surely playing Beye at Rb and moving Cuellar into Cb instead of Clark/Davies(dont know how fit he is) would be a better option given the players you want to rest.

Hopefully its a 4-3-3 with ashley on the left gabby on the right and carew in the middle up front. Feeling good about this. Sidders and Carew to score 2-1 win again

also a big YAY at L.Young at right back

'll just get my gamely ask of Luke Young at right back please?

Prepare to dissapointed! ... it would be funny if it didn't hurt our team so much

Cup please. If we finish fourth does that go on the roll of honour... does it ****. The money hasn't seduced all of us, some of us remember what the game is truly about. Winning CUPS.

Maybe some of us think its a bigger achievement to play in the Champions League against the very best of Europe... is that not a big part of football as well.

i apologise well done sidwell

GET THE **** IN!

the top four would never lose a game like this.....we are toothless up front, has anyone mentioned we need a striker!

Have a decent one on the bench

omg not sidwell

The fonz warming up

predicting another 4-2 win!

Well i am still backing us to win even from here but MON needs to have some serious words... just because these guys aren't a top team doesn't mean we can defend like that. Expecting Milner to lift and Downing to do something other than miss great chances from point blank range.

James Milner is awesome. He was the difference today, controlled the game for us.

On a less positive note Downing has been a bit of a nothing player of late hope he picks it up soon.

Got a very bad feeling about this one. see us losing 1-0... hope i'm wrong.

I would play:

-------------------Friedel

---L.Young--Cuellar--Dunne--Warnock

--Albrighton--Milner--Petrov--A.Young

------------Carew-----Gabby