PL: Sunderland a Ratings & Reactions

[Stockport_Villain]

Superb. Midfield and forwards super, but the defence was awesomw. Sunderland didn't get a whiff second half. I'm calling Cueller by a hare's whisker from Milner.

Happy Days. Now to put Stoke to the sword on Saturday to make them pay for last years audacity.

[JulieB]

Awful stream in 1st half but excellent for the whole of the 2nd..

We look like a team bang in form at the moment who fear no one....... Long may it continue!

[darrenm]

Forget the names, Warnock is the best LB in the Premiership at the moment.

Come on Blackburn.

[Hanky]

What another great result. Really coming together hopefully we can make it 12 out of 12 on Saturday.

[Sureshot]

Excellent performance tonight. Milner gets my MOTM for setting up the first and that piledriver of a goal for the second.

Also really pleased at how we took the sting out of the game after that one, Sunderland didn't look like they were even close to getting back into it.

Have to give a special mention our defence again tonight - absolutely rock solid and just a couple of small mistakes. Loved the statistic one of the commentators mentioned in that we haven't let in a headed goal so far this season. That's pretty incredible.

[Ryan.]

Does it get any better?

[NabilH]

Milner MOTM, Commanded midfield, 1 assist, 1 Cracker of a goal. Definite MOTM For me, absolutely sublime, followed by Dunne.

Friedal - 7 - Commanded the area well and did brill when called upon

L.Young - 7 Unsung hero, didnt let any1 get past him, needs to work on distribution but played well.

Cueller - 8 - Won everything in the air, was brilliant, him and Dunne are perfect together.

Dunne - 9 - Best defender of the night, won everything, perfect tackles, great influence on the team, absolutely brilliant

S.Warnock - 7 Brilliant when called upon, much like l.young was perfect tonight.

Ashley Young - 7 was very quite for my liking, didnt whip in many dangerous crosses, lost posession alot of the time and was quite wasteful.

EDIT: Moment of brilliance when he hit the post, bumped to a 7

Stylian Petrov - 7 - Well played petrov, perfect passes, wasnt tired throughout the 90 mins, worked hard and complimented milner well

J.Milner - 10 MOTM - Perfect midfield display, comfortable on the ball, A CRACKING GOAL, lovely assist, split the defense in two, has filled the missing void

Downing - 7 Much like A.Young was quite but was comfortable with the ball at his feet, linked up well with others and whipped in some decent crosses, still lacking match sharpness, which will come. looks a class act.

Agbonlahor - 7 i think he created space tonight, wasn't as lous as man utd but was good on the ball when he had it.

Heskey - 8 - Brilliant display, lovely finish, should i say more???/

MON - 8 - perfect tactics, clearly influences the team, only complain was why didnt he bring delph on at 85 mins, ah well, 3 points, AWESOME.

Overall: brilliant performance, 3 points at the stadium of light, this is awesome. a 6 pointer won, we are now 3rd, 5 points above tottenham, 8 points ahead of liverplop.

[rjshare]

great win, very hard fought and totally deserved.

i thought at times we gave the ball away a bit cheaply but at other times we were the odd good touch or lucky bounce away from playing really top class football. the fact that it doesnt always come off is not important, what is important is the INTENT to play good, exciting, passing football - and obviously enough off it DID work for us to be the better team on the pitch.

we have changed massively since downing has come in and milner has gone through the middle. wins like the last two are going to give the players so much confidence.

great stuff...

[benireduk]

Cracking win. 2 away wins in 4 days can't be bad. Third in the leage for now and a carling cup semi a few weeks away....Long may this continue!!!

[Trajan]

Milner. World class performance.

And a World Class goal

Fantastic goal. Thanks for the link.

[Davies4England]

Friedel 8- A brilliant save at a crucial time in the game.

Young 7- Solid

Warnock 7- Solid

Dunne 9- Blocked everything.

Cuellar 8- Also a rock

Milner 9- Never stopped running, creative and scored a sensational goal.

Young 6- Put some nice crosses in, but seemed to rush things alot.

Petrov 8- Everywhere, slowed tempo down nicely at times too.

Downing 7- Involved but not as effective as Milner/Petrov.

Gabby 7- Chased everything and held ball up well.

Heskey 7- Good goal but little apart from that.

[billy_loes]

Forget the names, Warnock is the best LB in the Premiership at the moment.

I've got to go with this.

[GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS]

OOF what a goal that was!!!

[YLN]

Some lovely passages of play from us. Great movement. Two good finishes.

So 17 games in and we're in 3rd spot. I like how we kind of sneaked in there and are getting better with every game. With Liverpool imploding, there's a spot open and we've taken the initiative. Downing has made such a big difference. It's like as if the team finally believe and aren't shocked that we steal wins, as it seemed last season.

We're going to win the league

[HJ]

Fantastic result to pick up 3 points from Sunderland, only Chelsea have managed to so far and we are the only team to have kept a clean sheet there.

Good performance too, both sides had chances but we edged it and got a couple of class finishes. The defenders all were very good individually but Dunne rose above the rest, that's a MotM performance for him if Milner hadn't done what he did.

Milner basically has the same role that Sidwell did, harass their players, support full backs/wingers if needed, get forward. He just does the get forward bit so much better, he's very handy when attacking from wide positions too. Sidwell couldn't ever have put in that same performance, but nevermind neither could Barry.

[mikeyp102]

Anyone got a link for Heskeys's goal I only managed to get a stream for the second half..which is why I cant do a full player rating..Milner superb..always thought he would be good in the middle, but thought that would be in a 451 not as a 442..he is absolutely awesome..

[maqroll]

Jimmy Milner.......Incredible....the shape of the team is starting to really come together now with Milner in the middle and Downing on the wing. All we need now is a good striker in January to round out the attack.

We can beat ANYBODY

UTV!

[The_Dogz_Danglies]

Thouroughly proffesional performance. We got the lead relatively early in the game, never sat back and didn't over exert ourselves when we were comfortabley 2 - 0 up. Lets just hope we can bring the form back home on Saturday, with Man City facing Tottenham another three points could really see us opening up a little bit of breathing space up there.

MOTM, got to be Milner.

[ayshanne]

Milner. World class performance.

And a World Class goal

:notworthy: Thank you for the link. Awesome goal.

[__pedro__]

Brilliant result

Friedel - 8 - Only one real save to make which was a class save, commanded area brilliantly.

Young - 7 - Defended well, didn't get forward much. Exposed once for Reid's chance but solid.

Cuellar - 7 - Defending great, distribution bad.

Dunne - 9.5 MOTM - A McGrath like performance, tackling, heading, blocking, he was unstoppable tonight. And always finds a villa shirt with a pass.

Warnock - 8 - Defended brilliantly and got forward, quickly becoming the best fullback we've had for a long time.

Young - 6.5 - Quiet but flashes of class.

Petrov - 8 - His usual disappearing act for the last few minutes but until then I thought he ran the show.

Milner - 9 - Together with Stan nullified their midfield, got up and back as we've come to expect. Good pass for Heskey and what a goal, would be MOTM on any other night.

Downing - 6 - See Young.

Heskey - 7 - Great finish but still doesn't look like he's on the same wavelength as the rest of our attackers, he just doesn't seem to see the right pass sometimes. That being said he worked hard and contributed a lot.

Gabby - 7 - Worked like a dog but didn't get many breaks tonight.