Doug

Unbelievable

Please dont let Wolves score, let us relax up to the whistle just for once.

Its either the Yorkshire Ripper or his sidekick Wearside Jack next to Barnetts right shoulder.

As it is all he is good for, I wonder who Mcarthy will unleash his attack dog Henry on now that Barton has gone?

I suppose it will eventually end up replacing Northern Rock on the shirts.

Philipe Albert-esque

Ben Arfa will score or set one up

Ben Arfa please.

Dead right.

He should be in the team, who else have we got with that exceptional quality he showed at Forest. If he tires you can then take him off. It seems like common sense to do that.

Could easily find places for Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Ferguson and Sammy against Blackburn after their performances against Forest.

Looked great on the ball last night, oozed flair and confidence. He put a hard tackle in at one stage and came out with the ball to show he is not fazed by the physical side. I particularly noticed how he was pointing and directing the game even when not in posession which shows his total absorbtion and commitment to the play. He needs to start on Saturday, Pardew has a nice problem on his hands now picking his best 11.

Has he been burgled yet?

I loved the way he brought the ball out of defence 2nd half v Villa on a break, played it out to Obertan and when Obertan looked up to play someone in on the edge of Villas box It was Colo there first before any forwards, He had carried on running up the park screaming and waving for the pass. he did the same first half overlapping Jonas on the left wing to put a cross over. What a fantastic player, how can the clowns in charge of Argentina not even have him on the bench for their national team. All I can say is they must be red hot favourites to win the next world cup if they don't need this guy.

So wrong about the possession retention do you exist in some sort of parallell universe where he doesn't constantly fall over his own feet and run the ball out of play? i've seen him keep possession before, i've seen him turn a man before, but it's the exception to the rule. i didnt even see this game btw so i'm not basing it on one performance, it'd be pretty short sighted to judge a player on one game. how much do you know about that? Shola fell over with his first taste of the action against Villa right in front of the away support. After that he did ok really, winning some clever free kicks by his controlled positioning when the lumbering Dunne and Collins took it in turns to come through him with each high ball played up to him. It can't be easy playing target man against the likes of them, and winning free kicks can be a skill in itself. It can look dull and boring sometimes not taking risks with possesion in 50/50 challenges but is effective in killing the play to our advantage. Shola did this well on Saturday and the critisism can be too easily dealt out sometimes.

He had a surprisingly easy afternoon today, kept finding space wide going forward and held the line under Colos direction without screwing up.

Ran the midfield today

We were good in possesion today but my god Villa were abysmal. They looked like a pub team apart from a short spell early in the game when they took the lead. After that we passed the ball around like it was a training session for the rest of the game playing keep ball for long periods and we really should have turned our superiority into goals. Given was outstanding for them, he even almost blocked Bests point blank equaliser. He was cheered by our lot at the start of the second half and responded with a beaming smile, waves and thumbs up after averting his gaze at first in case he got abused. I cant believe Ryan Taylor was given such an easy time on our left. He spent most of the afternoon strolling forward to take up wide positions to receive the ball with no-one near him. A dead easy point won but should really have been 3.

We rode our luck at QPR, and I cant see us getting away with it a second time. We know Zog, Agbonlahor or Albrighton could go past R.Taylor at will while our possesion will yield zero creativity on the left. For me it simply has to be Ferguson if fit to give our excellent but hard pressed central defence an outlet when moving out with the ball. He could link well with Jonas to get behind Villa on the left To give us the same threat on the right, Obertan needs to take his inhibitors off and start running past opponents which he obviously is capable of but inexplicably seems reluctant to do so. Finally I think Best deserves to lead the line as he does appear up for it and seems to have developed a genuine goal threat now if he can just get some regular service.

Bet you said that before the Arsenal and Sunderland games too. I knew we could get a result against Sunderland because they're s****. The QPR game was some of the most abject, miserably f***ing s**** football I've ever seen us play - polished over by the miraculous result and the knowledge that Pardew would surely make the required changes at the weekend. With the same line-up against Villa it will be the same outcome, only this time they've got attackers who can put the ball in the back of the net. We're destined to be stuck with fullbacks who the goalkeeper, centre backs and central midfielders are terrified to pass to - and rightly so. Left backs don't usually win or lose games directly, but having somebody like Ryan Taylor there has a knock on effect on the rest of the team's balance and ability to play good football. Which was clear as day against QPR. It's easy making har har sarcastic comments but I can't see how anybody who watched the QPR game could disagree with that statement. It's as if people have just blanked it from their memory already. I'm not usually one to be overly negative but I'm going to be declarative here and say that if Pardew plays the same line-up, we'll get beaten comfortably. Every word is 100% true. We should play young Ferguson if he is fit. He has skill and confidence galore from what I have seen of him and certainly can be passed to with confidence that he will be creative in possesion. He should be in the team regardless of Santons fitness.

Villa selling off their tickets for this game at 2 for 40 quid. Nice to know they are ripping us off by charging us over twice as much for our tickets again(like they did last year). We must be crazy to pay it.

I hope there is a typical Barton/Warnock composure meltdown causing QPR to implode early in the game. This will allow our lads to pick them off with a boring but controlled, disciplined performance which to be fair we have had so far in each of the games.

Good he won't rip through someone on the edge of the box then.

It would'nt be Newcastle if we didnt have to bite our nails to the end of the game

Are we surprised?