parisvilla

to be honest i thought the atmosphere was average. pre-match at silverspoons was banging though. as for the game, thought gabby was fantastic, probably one of his best performances for us. he makes vidic look like a fool every time we play them. seen a few folks criticise downing but i thought he was pretty good an the same goes for milner.

felt the defence (bar warnock) all looked nervy throughout which was surprising given how solid they've been week in week out.

all in all, close game with united shading it but its so hard to be gracious in defeat against them when the ref cost us dearly

those wearing villa shirts to the game- are you going with the claret and blue, or the away strip? i normally dont like to wear different colours to what the players on the pitch are in...

Carlos will get ripped apart at right back... He is a great centre-half but L.Young should be the one in the right back slot.

United have no one to rip him apart though, Giggs and Nani are out.

Still leaves Park and Valencia who are more than decent.

Doesn't mean they will rip Carlos apart but its not really accurate to say they have no ability out wide without Giggs and Nani.

valencia can't play on the left so most likely it'll be park vs cuellar and valencia vs warnock (its this matchup im more worried about). he was dangerous against us at OT

Thought that was the best i'd seen of Carew all season. Did more than Heskey ever does.

not sure about that. theres been games this season where heskey has been integral, especially in big games away from home. i thought he was fantastic at Old Trafford for example - his ball retention and lay offs when he drops deep are really important to our counter attacks.

as much as i love carew his work in the build up is shocking. thus i vote emily to start on sunday

why was the only sub made delph off sidwell?! completely non-sensical.

of all the subs he could have made.....

gabby is carrying a knock, and seems to be "doubftul" for every game of late, why the hell isnt he on the bench

here here. not best pleased that ash and milner are starting either. lets hope we get a couple of goals up and can take the key players off

no underground and shite weather

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2695?&search=wembley&itemsPerPage=10&region=world&area=Wembley

disappointed anderson picked up an injury to be honest- he was shocking when we beat them at OT. better news re rio, means one of either j.evans or brown will start which is good. hopefully fergie will start gary neville too: ash vs neville = only one winner

if i said that when i've seen salifou play he looks like a decent player am i going to be laughed out of town? id rather he played than sidders for sure. delph and salifou in the middle would be fine by me but no idea who should play wide - i dont want ash, milner, downing or gabby on the pitch at all on wednesday night

was quite amusing during the 1st half when under no pressure Petrov blasted the ball straight up in the air sideways, but then won it back. thought milner, downing and stan were poor in the first half but my main concern yesterday was the performances of warnock and dunne - they both looked out of sorts. gabby or ash for motm

got my ticket for silverspoons, will be hunting around for tickets on the day.

carew looked pretty dominant in the latter stages, real pity he didn't bang one in to kickstart a good run of goalscoring form. delighted to earn a replay considering our shocking record @ palace over the years.

decent quarter final draw too if we make it through, always good fun to go to the hawthorns

Perhaps Sidwell got votes for breaking Giggs' arm ruling him out of the League Cup Final?? First decent contribution from him for the season!

dont forget his qualities as a ball boy 8)

thinking about it though, without joking these 2 incidents probably are his best contributions to the cause - how depressing

i dont like to be negative most of the time but i was really disappointed with what i saw tonight, heres a few of my thoughts:

1) is Mo'N aware of 'form' - how do downings recent performances warrant a place in the starting lineup??

2) i hope and pray someone takes sidders off our hands in the summer, the guy is absolutely useless

Be interested to see what your preferred lineup would have been then considering our only option to Downing with NRC and Albrighton injured would have been Sidwell in the middle and Milner out wide.

i'd quite happily start delph in the middle with milner out wide in a 4-4-2 with delfouneso up top with gabby. its surely not a coincidence that sticking with the same side (minus a couple of enforced injury changes) has played a large role in us scoring about 3 goals in like the last 7 league games

i dont like to be negative most of the time but i was really disappointed with what i saw tonight, heres a few of my thoughts:

1) is Mo'N aware of 'form' - how do downings recent performances warrant a place in the starting lineup??

2) i hope and pray someone takes sidders off our hands in the summer, the guy is absolutely useless

3) delfouneso is probably a better option than big john right now. when was the last time he played well?

4) iv voted for luke young as my motm. thought he was excellent.