The Intertoto cup that we won in 2001 obviously doesn’t count then, even though it was administered by the same Uefa that administers all the current European competitions. Just like football didn’t exist before the Premier league, nor did any older competitions that aren’t current, obviously. I wonder how the dark side feels now their Fairs cup is being obliterated from history in a similar way? They’re probably not as concerned as they are about their impending final game against Norwich on Saturday. Not that I’m too bothered. I just thought I’d throw it in, in case anyone doesn’t know the p ..read more

Quite simply, we controlled the game for the first half, but for some reason that I really don’t understand, we played a low block through the second until they got the equaliser. And so that approach remained even though Chelsea were overwhelming us and we’re proven to be poor defensively this season anyway. The really annoying part is you could see it wasn’t working for at least half an hour, so why stick with it? The best form of defence was attack, by a mile today, yet Unai decided against. I’d like to know why. Colour me well bloody annoyed and it’s not the first time I’ve thought his tac ..read more

I can’t say I’ve watched Chelsea very many times this season and if I have, it’s mostly through interest in seeing how Chucky has been doing. The fact that he hardly gets a start is satisfying, even though it’s also a bit nasty of me. Hey ho, that’s how footy gets you. I went out of my way to watch them on Monday night, specifically because we face them today and they just confirmed what I’ve thought of them this season. They’re a very up and down side, where you really don’t know what to expect. Suffice to say, Arsenal totally destroyed them. Hence the logic is Arsenal destroy Chelsea, we bea ..read more

I really don’t like Bournemouth. I used too, but they’re such a tricky side to play. They were absolute rubbish early in the season, but they’ve now proven to be a very resiliant, physical side, which is exactly the sort that doesn’t suit us. Quite like Lille, if you like. That said, they’re not quite doing as well as I thought and currently sit in 13th place. Then again, their form over the last six games is excellent. They’ve won 3, drawn two and lost only 1 game. That’s a record that’s only bettered by City and Arsenal. Now add in that we’ve only faced them seven times in the Premier league ..read more

I was contemplating what to say and even if I should say anything at all, because the result today pretty much said it all for me. But then it dawned on me that we were actually very unlucky in that we didn’t win this by four clear goals after Ollie did what he usually does, in missing some and scoring some. Not that we can complain about him. He’s second top scorer to probably the best striker at the best team in the league after all, as much as I’ve seen some Villa fans ripping him to pieces at times. The first half was a bit scary, because Arsenal were very dominant and creating chances, bu ..read more

What’s the saying? Expect the worst and anything else is a bonus. That about sums it up for me, as I can’t muster any confidence whatsoever for this game. I’m very tempted to predict a four or even five goal defeat, but just as I’ve invariably been wrong over the last few months so I think I’d be wrong in expecting that sort of loss. I’m not predicting, but just as Tottenham took a tonking which I don’t think many expected yesterday, so it proves that anything can happen. That said, Arsenal have a tremendous defensive record, so it’s difficult to see how we’re going to put many past them, but ..read more

So we face a Lille side who are actually in a very similar position to us in the French Ligue 1, where they’re challenging for a Champion’s league place, although without wishing to be disrespectful, I’m not convinced that’s the equivalent of how well we’ve done, given the standard of their league. But then, current league position is not that important at this stage, as we all know any team can beat any other in knockout games. Plus, given that they’re unbeaten in all their previous Conference games this season, you could actually say they’ve done better than us. So while I know nothing at al ..read more

Work. The curse of the drinking class. That’s the saying, but it also applies to the footy fan class as well. I didn’t finish work until 3.20, so missed most of the first half. What I did see of it looked pretty good and really it was all quite comfortable, with us doing our usual trick of playing some very slick, first time stuff that’s a joy to watch. The goal came and that was it. Watkins was given it, but Bailey had it covered anyway and it was 1-0. All good at half time. Then came the restart, with Morgan Rogers quickly scoring a really nice goal to make it two and I was thinking it was g ..read more

After what was a torrid fifteen or twenty minutes, where Wolves were sharper and frankly better than us, we managed to fight our way into it and went on to dominate for the rest of the game. We had a bit of a scare and it was all quite strange, as Ait-Nouri found himself in front of goal in acres of space. It was almost like he and everybody else thought he was offside, hence everybody practically stopped, leaving him a free shot. Fortunately Emi was up to the task and managed a good stop. That apart, I don’t really remember Wolves troubling us much and it was all in all a pretty convincing wi ..read more

So the utter waste of time that is the International friendlies is over and we’re back to the proper stuff. My disdain for these friendlies was only increased when I heard that Matty Cash got injured when he was out with Poland and is out for probably a couple of weeks. It’s not as though I rate him particularly highly of late, but his absence at least limits our options and any opposition manager knows pretty much for certain that Konsa is going to play Right back. I didn’t watch much of our games, but what I did see was pretty uninspiring football, which is no surprise because we have an uni ..read more