Taylor Swift

This is close to how I feel. I don't love him as his performances haven't been that good (counting a lot of the last season and his suspension), but he has played well recently and I like the fact that everyone else, apart from we, hate him. We need cunts in the team. He gives us some spine, some fight and he's got quality on the ball as well.

Harsh on shola. I think shola is better for martins game than owen. I agree too, he needs a big man up there to take the flack. He shone last season when Viduka was playing right up there (and Owen was playing but in a different role). I respectfully disagree. He didn't get to any (or many) of the flick-ons that Ameobi got his head onto today and hasn't in the past few games. Oba needs space to play and he needs the ball in to his feet, both of which happened today. I agree with johnny, Jonas is a key to the team because he opens things up, even if it's just with an intelligent run here and there. Martins thrives off of that and today, it showed.

Agree there. Had a great game tonight, needs to replicate that regularly now. I thought you'd be in here breaking up the party

The first half was good for us. I thought we defended it really well and generally controlled the game. We had more possession than them, played the ball in their half of the pitch and was found wanting only in the final third, which is fine because Villa are a decent team. The second half was even better. Our midfield did us proud today. Jonas, Duff and Barton were excellent. All of them tried to make forward, inventive passes but rarely gave the ball away needlessly, which has been a weak point of ours this season. Enrique deserves a special mention in this area as well as not only did he hold Milner and Young in check (when either of them were on their right), but he tried to make incisive passes to Martins/Shola and a lot of it came off. Colo was cool as ever and apart from really early on, Carew was in his and Taylor's pocket the whole game. Same applies to Agbonlahor. Both players are faster than Colo but he's always willing to lose a throw-in or a corner rather than rush in for a tackle. It's safe defending and he's a master at that. Jonas I actually thought he was a bit sloppy in the first half and passed it back way too often, but in the second half, he was a different player. He made intelligent runs, linked up well with Duff and Martins, rarely lost the ball and was always looking to attack Villa. Things just happen when he starts running with the ball. I also like the way we overload the left wing with Duff, Jonas and Enrique. It's alway 3 v 2 in those situations and the left hand side was our outlet today. Martins what can you say? The driving force, obviously. When he's on, we're on. The little run he made to get free for the second goal was very instinctive and intelligent, and that's something he needs to do more often. On the other hand, I thought Ameobi's movement was fucking awful tonight. He had a decent game with regards to troubling their centerbacks but his movement off-the-ball leaves a lot to be desired. There was one attack where he had just given the ball off to Martins, who was now dribbling on our left hand side; instead of trying to get free from his defender and/or making a run towards the near post where he could possibly get to a cross from Martins, he slowly jogs and drifts further and further away from the ball and goal. There was no intent from him at all - it was like he was going through the motions. Anyway, apart from that little gripe (which instantly reminded me that Owen was on the bench), he had a decent game and all the lads should be proud.

Had one good cross, which Agbonlahor should have finished, but Villa, as a team, just didn't show up tonight. Maybe we were good and contained their midfield well, or it was just a really poor game from them; Milner's performance was just representative of their team as a whole.

We're 1 point from the top 10. There's no way we're fucking settling. I knew we were going to win

4 for the season, yeah? He will only get better with games and hopefully with a partner who can play football (Owen).

Jesus, dude, use some punctuation.

Yeah, Parky's in with the optimists. We're fucking doing this.

What? So much negativity! We will win. Mark my words.

No. Come on, man, we're 5 points away from the top 10 with 28 games to go and people are settling already? What happened to some good old belief in the team and the fact that anything can happen in football? God damn, we're fucking doing this; Villa better be fucking ready for us.

Chill. Everton were having a 'bad' season yet a couple of wins in a row has seen them rocket up to a European place. A win tomorrow would be nice, but I'm confident that we'll gradually recover soon enough. The faster we do it though, the more chance we can challenge for Europe.

Fucking hell The team's doing ok but this moron better not be in charge come the 1st of January. Championship players?! What. The. Fuck.

Stoke are a horrible football team. I hope they go down.

5 in 3. And 6 in total in the Premier League this season. It's just not fair. The dude missed nearly the first month and is now only 3 behind the leading scorer.

At least Wise is doing his job...?

But will have a tiny squad with inadequate overall quality and no decent strikers. In the past 7-8 years, when have we ever had a beefed up first team squad with adequate overall quality? We did well because we had players who can change games and they stayed fit for the majority of the time. We qualified for the CL with a defence of Hughes, Dabizas, O'Brien and Bernard. Not exactly stellar, is it? Butt was here during SBR's time and he was that bad that we had to loan him out to a club which eventually got relegated. We had no decent back-up for Robert and whenever Bellamy got injured, we lost steam (could have won a title if Bellamy had stayed fit..). Lua-Lua wasn't an adequate replacement for Bellamy and neither was Ameobi an adequate replacement for Shearer.

GKs RBs LBs CBs RM LM CM STs Given Beye Enrique Coloccini Geremi Gutierrez Barton Martins Harper Taylor Bassong Taylor Duff (christ, this looks bad) Zoggy Guthrie Xisco youngster Bassong new dude new dude new dude new dude new dude Assuming all the 7 first-teamers leave with the exception of Harper, that's how our squad looks, to me. I think we need 6 new players, and not all of them have to be top class (the 4th striker and 4th CM, for example).

The only one worth keeping out of that lot is clearly Owen. Ameobi... yeah, let's not talk about him. Viduka's perpetually injured and costing us a fuckload in wages, Cacapa's average and old, Butt is shit etc. We'll only miss Owen.

Then we get a chance to do this things his way without interference from the angry mob who can't see past Keegan. Without wishing to take this down the 'it's Keegan's fault/it's not Keegan's fault' path yet again, who do you see as a good manager that will be willing to come in and work under Dennis Wise? Considering what's happened here since Keegan walked, and also at other English clubs where the system is/has been in place. I'm not convinced anyone worth their salt would now touch the job. I think there'd be a load of interesting foreigners clamouring for the job. This club is still a big club, the foreigners will be used to working under a DoF (if the system is kept in place, and that's a big if, I admit), and our finances are improving so there'd be money to spend. Look at Unai Emery at Valencia. This is a bit hasty but this is his 'first' big job and the team's excelling, playing good football and the fans like him. They're top of La Liga, have the best defense and almost the best attack. The key was that Valencia still had good players and I believe we have the quality in the squad as well. We don't need an English manager for this club to be successful. That criteria inexplicably rules out a load of good candidates. A good manager isn't necessarily an experienced manager.

Then we get a chance to do this things his way without interference from the angry mob who can't see past Keegan. Not at all. The angry mob who have seen what a mess has been made of the club by the current owner. The club's a mess, true, but there are many at fault for that. There are still so many unanswered questions about why KK resigned on the day he did and what went on behind the scenes. I'm still undecided on whose fault it all was, but what matters is that Ashley's here (and he owns the club), and KK's not. I still like and admire Ashley's original plan (£20m/year +/- whatever money the club makes/loses), and if he were to stay, I would back him to appoint the right man. He failed his first time out with Keegan because he just didn't understand why that was pretty likely to end in failure, but he had the right idea - appointing someone who likes to play good football.

Then we get a chance to do this things his way without interference from the angry mob who can't see past Keegan.

What a fucking match. Well done, Spurs. After Jenas scored the 3rd, I felt they deserved to get something out. I'm happy for them (for this one time only..). Great entertainment and spectacular goals. My my that Bentley one will be long talked about. Arsenal, oh man, just fucking keep the ball! They needed a calm head in there to dribble/pass the game out. Christ, I'm still excited!

Everyone I know thinks he's a right cunt and he probably really is, but he's ours and when he's wearing the stripes, I'll be backing him full tilt. Good game from him and maybe, just maybe, he can fulfill the promise he showed in last year's preseason games.