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Ratings and Reactions: Villa 1-0 Man City


limpid

Who was your man of the match?  

260 members have voted

  1. 1. Who was your man of the match?

    • Friedel
      1
    • Dunne
      22
    • Clark
      5
    • Cuéllar
      27
    • Collins
      102
    • Downing
      5
    • A Young
      18
    • Albrighton
      12
    • Petrov
      39
    • Agbonlahor
      0
    • Bent
      29
    • Reo-Coker (for Petrov 88)
      0


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Massive performance yesterday at a rocking VP.

An outstanding performance by our defence. MotM for me was Collins but you could have picked any of the back four pretty much. My only gripe was with Cuellar, he does drift in when he is playing RB sometimes and leaves the wing exposed but even saying that he was brilliant.

Petrov has his critics but he put a big big shift in shackling Tevez. Nothing fancy just a really solid performance. Dream start for Bent who for me proved why he was worth the money, he puts away those sorts of chances.

Can't be arsed to rate everyone because I think they all were at least a 7. The day was sweetened by SHA being crushed by Man U but I should not gloat too much as we have to play them next week.

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Firstly, the defence was excellent and won us the game. Dunne's reading of the play, Collins' blocking and heading, Cueller's interceptions and passing, they were all superb! Clark not quite as assured but still very good.

DEFENCE: 8/9

GABBY: 5 - wing play isn't really working for him, although he did well to thread Gabby through for the goal.

PETROV: 6 - definitely not the MOTM performace that some people are claiming. Did well on the ball at times but just wasn't mobile enough to cut out their attacks (it was often down to the defence to make last-ditch tackles) and happy to sit 2 yards in front of the defence, meaning he was nowhere to be seen when we ventured forward. I sat and watched him let his man go on several occasions. Good player but just not naturally fit enough now.

DOWNING: 4 - similar to Petrov but rather than not having the legs he simply looked lazy to me. Missed a couple of opportunties to run with the ball and open up space, instead opting for the easy pass which slowed the game down. Rarely looked for a quick give-and-go, always happy to potter around in the same spot once he's moved the ball on. Really annoyed me yesterday.

ALRIGHTON: 7 - good outlet for the team. Always busy and did well considering he often found himself with 2 or 3 (4 at one point) players around him with little support from his central midfield.

ASHLEY: 6.5 - not really involved enough and a little wasteful at times, but some good moments and great play for the goal

BENT: 8 - did the business when needed and looked good on the ball. His control is much better than I expected. Also gets up really well for headers.

Houllier: 6 - set up a fairly attacking team but it didn't really work as well as hoped. If it wasn't for some unbelievably good defending we would have been comfortably beaten. I was shocked he waited until the 88th minute before bringing NRC because we were calling out for someone to close down more in the middle.

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Sorry Spaceman but you simply can't go dishing out 4's & 5's after a result like that.

Disagree Shilzz, I don't see why a good result suddenly means every player had a stormer. The defence won that game for us but the central midfield did very little to help out at either end of the park.

I had a great seat and ended up watching Downing and Petrov closely. I was frustrated by Petrov but completely wound-up by Downing. Maybe he was just unsure of himself in that position, but he was still poor.

I'll concede that maybe Gabby should have been worth a 5.5/6, though.

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Was away in Muenster for the weekend for a mate's birthday, managed to watch the second half. Brilliant stuff.

I'm still absolutely buzzing. Collins (motm for me) and Dunne were back to their very very best, superb. Petrov was great (playing for his place with Makoun to come in?). Albrighton was very lively and gave their LB a hard time. Young was great, always harrying them.

Bent, just what we needed! Some great hold up play at the end too, very calm and assured.

Let's carry this on against Wigan, I've forgotten what back to back wins look like!

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Great defensive performance from the boys out there. Great result. Not pretty, but effective. It was hardly going to be pretty. We need wins atm, not fancy football. And with a clean sheet and Bent scoring in his debut was the perfect result for us. So important.

Collins MOTM for me, with Petrov right behind him. Petrov was almost perfect in that role, and the heart and desire Collins showed, he was back at his best again. The whole team showed heart and desire and that's what gives me the most confidence. So important that they do the same tomorrow. A very important game against Wigan. Must show the same desire and make the same effort.

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PETROV: 6 - definitely not the MOTM performace that some people are claiming. Did well on the ball at times but just wasn't mobile enough to cut out their attacks (it was often down to the defence to make last-ditch tackles) and happy to sit 2 yards in front of the defence, meaning he was nowhere to be seen when we ventured forward. I sat and watched him let his man go on several occasions. Good player but just not naturally fit enough now.

I completely agree with you on this. It amazes me how many people have given Stan MOTM or said he is up there. He was way better than the last two performances - not hard - but still not that good and Makoun should be a shoe in for me.

I was thinking about the game and it was very similar to last year's game at VP where we were marginally the better side in the first half and went in 1-0 up but then they bought on Stephen Ireland and he found acres of space in behind Stan and ran the game ultimately scoring their equaliser. Maybe it was worth taking SI just for these two points??

Mancini obviously hadn't watched that game because, IMO, if they had bought Jimmy on in CM to run at Stan and the back four I think we would have been in real trouble.

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