Delphouneso

you only have to watch the match to realise a chalkboard argument isn't entirely valid. some of NRC's passes were wayward at best and nowhere near their intended target, they just happened not to be intercepted (and they were mostly simple passes too). not that i'm saying he was crap, far from it, thought he put in a great performance last night and his passing has definitely improved. on Makoun: didn't look quite up to the pace, but we shouldn't be expecting miracles from him after training with the team what, twice? as well as not speaking the language. he showed flashes of what he's capable of & let's hope he can build on that (for what it's worth i'm confident he will).

ffs.

i'd bring Albrighton on for Downing now, his passing looks off tonight.

GET THE **** IN!!!

Bent not taking it?

penalty!

Petrov for Makoun. sensible change, the game is picking up pace now.

Carlos really is a class act.

GABBBBBBYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

cracking challenge Carlos.

What did he say? can't remember exactly but something along the lines of '**** the club and **** it's fans'.

4-4-2 would make more sense with NRC dropping deep allowing Makoun to get forward, though i suspect it'll be 4-5-1 with Gabby on the wing again.

difficult choice for MOTM, all of the back four were immense today, Bent got the winner, but i reckon Petrov edges it for me, he had a massive job to do today in that midfield and didn't he do it well.

far from an easy match to watch, but three points, brilliant. love you Darren.

YOU ABSOLUTE **** BEAUTY!!!!!!!

3-5-2? after all City aren't playing with wingers.

Le Prince Miiaou - Nécessité Microscopique. more people need to hear this record.

Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York

having a Dylan sesh, currently on Highway 61 Revisited. i love this man.

what can we expect?

probably wouldn't start Makoun even if he does get cleared in time, as far as i'm aware he's still training with Lyon so starting him against City would really be dropping him in at the deep end. i'd love to see that front four. if only we could get Ireland playing how we all know he can that would be lethal.

he's wearing Richard Dunne's shirt? (no. 5)

Bent, Spahic, and Adam this week? leaving us the last week to find a LB?

hope we don't sell downing although I can see ALbrighton and Bannan ready for next season. Perhaps he can go in the summer. We do need a LB and possibly a CB. But I think CB can wait until the summer. offload Dunne Davies Warnock Petrov L Young (even though I really like him when he plays for us) bring in 2 CB and 1 midfielder and another Side back (hopefully Walker) I echo this, A lot of talk of who we are going to sell now... I think we have a fairly set list of players that we can sell and should sell and I'd be dissapointed if we sold anyone from outside that. Davies, Warnock, Beye, Reo Coker, Luke Young, Carew. I would keep the rest, including Stephen Ireland, Petrov, Dunne and whoever else we might be disappointed with now. With the addition of some quality players such as Makoun and Bent we might just start to see a different side to these players agree with that, except for NRC. don't mind him leaving, but i'd rather see Petrov go first, Makoun isn't an out-and-out DM and because of that i think NRC could still be useful to have around, more so than Petrov anyway. i'd get rid of big Emile aswell, if we're going to be playing 4-5-1 (which i suspect we will be) i don't see any need for having Bent, Gabby, and Heskey - he'd just be getting in the way of Fonz and Weimann in my opinion.

as excited as i am by this i'm also a little concerned as to where it leaves us in other areas: will Downing have to leave to balance the books? hope not. do we still have money to strengthen other important areas such as LB & CB? hope so. and where does this leave Gabby? on the wing? hope not. aside from those points it'd be great if this goes through, i'd love to see Bent in a Villa shirt. not sure about having 'Bent' on the back of my Villa shirt mind.