Billy Warthog

Bloody ruthless by Arsenal. That GD could make a lot of difference at the end of the season.

So we’re through by the thinnest of margins. Will probably get Man City or Liverpool away next to administer the coup de grace. Yes, I can be a cynical old get. I’m clinging on to the hope that this is our ‘difficult’ season post takeover, as other presently successful clubs have experienced before. There may well be some big changes coming our way in the summer too. I can’t honestly say who or what right now. See how we get on in the FA Cup, it may yet make all the difference. It would really sadden me to see Howe become the scapegoat. Whatever happens, I still believe in the club’s overall direction. Managers need time, and that’s been proven time and time again. In our case, it may take another two or three years - who knows? I would like to experience some actual success before I croak though!

Holy shit, I need a defibrillator.

I really don't like Danny Murphy.

I feel ill.

Got a good feeling about this today, I know they're on fairly good run but I think we've got quite a lot of our own confidence (and a few players) back. I'm going for 2-0 to us.

What a fucking great result this is! Put us through the mill a bit in the 2nd half, but we've done more than enough to get 3 points here. And a huge 3 points it is... first home defeat for them in almost a year. Stops the rot for us. Up to 7th for now. Well done the lads... onwards!!

That looked sore.

Plenty of elbow room in the Villa end right now.

Why was that a fucking yellow?

How the fuck did we not put this to bed!!!

Dirty bastards. Surely not even we can fuck this up now, right?

Seeing games out is not really our thing.

Now they start singing... silence until this point. But yes, we always seem to let the opposition back in at some point. 15 mins + enough time for them to get another to go.

Some sloppiness creeping in to our play here, always seems to happen at some point! Come on, keep the clean sheet lads...

Our defence has been rather bloody good tonight.

Always the potential for a fuck up with us lot, but hey - this is refreshing after so many times being behind this season. If we prevail, it'll be well deserved.

Sorry to see Isak hobble off again, but aside from that I'm delighted with this half. Made Villa look pretty ordinary. Just got to keep our heads 2nd half and we can come away with three unexpected points and a real shot in the arm for upcoming games. HWTFL!

I don't see anything else other than a loss here, and I'd probably say that even if we were on a fairly decent run of form. They're unbeaten in 12, picked up 14 points out of the last 18, one of three teams undefeated at home all season. And they're twats. As for us... let's just hope it's not a thrashing. Will gladly eat every single one of these words if we do something remarkable though!

We'd be fucking crazy to part company with Howe in this season. I refuse to tolerate even considering it. I want him here long term; building the side and infrastructure we all want is always going to take time. We're in a trough, but there'll be more peaks. We sure as hell need our players back, and I hope they're at least reviewing their training methods with all these injuries. But let's not hit the red button just yet. Please. This shit takes time, and in the meantime, there'll be some shit. Christ, dare I even say this on here, but at the rate we're currently going we may even lose to the mackems. If we do, it still won't be the end of my world. It'll infuriate and disappoint of course, but we have now something we didn't have before - the prospect of a real future. The CL adventure probably skewed all our expectations a bit. It's natural to get carried away, but we might now have to accept a slightly bitter reality that it may get a bit worse before it gets better. We will come again, and when we do it'll seem all the sweeter. In the meantime, keep supporting the lads. It's all we as fans can do.

Trippier has personified the ethos of this team for so long but he may well be in serious need of a rest now. In truth, with the lack of possession we had, we could well have lost it way before penalties had we been playing a side better than Chelsea (and there's a lot of them out there). It's gutting, this was perhaps our best chance of success this season. if we can get some players back in time for the mackems, we might still be able to forget about tonight. But for now, it's a bastard. In the meantime, 3 PL games over Xmas including away games at Luton and Liverpool and home to Forest. Can we get at least 6 points from those? I dunno...!

Bollocks. Fucking total, hairy bollocks on toast. FA Cup then? Who are we playing again?

I absolutely hate penalty shoot-outs involving us. Hated the one v Palace last time too.

Such nice fans, Chelsea.

Why the fuck did he take that touch man! Bastard penalties... Christ, this fucking season.