My usual viewing source went down, plain and simple. Which meant my frantically trying to sort it out just meant I missed the whole of the first half. I never got the second either and had to look elsewhere. Fortunately I did get the second 45. Sometimes it just pays to go with Now TV, I suppose. But from what I did see, we looked really good. Brighton, as expected also looked very threatening, but we defended resolutely. I constantly got the feeling that we’d have collapsed lots of times under Gerrard (I still struggle to realise how bad a manager he was for us), yet while my proverbial was t ..read more

Consider this. If we win against Brighton next week, we are guaranteed Europe, whether it’s the Europa or the Conference. Even if we lose, we still stand a chance. How nuts is that? Consider where we were when we sacked the scouser and it’s been an amazing turnaround. But we all know this. So what did I think today? Well, the headline says most of it. Mings was outstanding, let’s get that out of the way. I know I’m quick to slate him, but I also like to think I’m equally as quick to praise him. Out of what seemed like a hundred touches, he got 95 right. That’s impressive. I made a mental note ..read more

I’ve been to this fixture three times over the years and it’s another game I’ve always looked forward to. Liverpool are another team who have been good to watch over the years, the 80’s apart, where they bored me witless with their constant European style passing back to the goalie rubbish (er, that rings a bell actually). Apart from that period they’ve always tried to play a dynamic game and it’s still the same now. If this game was being played a few weeks back, I’d have been a lot more confident, but they’re on a roll now and I think they’ve won their last seven games??? So what do we know ..read more

Well, I thought we totally deserved that. The first half, we looked like a real top, competing for the title side, in the way we controlled the game. We played a very high defensive line that made me a bit nervous, but proved to be totally the correct way to go. Spurs were reduced to trying to get the ball in behind us, which invariably failed, or long shots. Emery got his tactics spot on and once they took Richarlison off, I knew it wasn’t working for them. The referee was a disgrace today and if it wasn’t a libellous statement, I’d suggest he’d been bunged. Hence I can’t suggest that at all ..read more

I don’t think I’m particularly tight, but I don’t like to waste money either. So after leaving my job last week and being in no massive rush to get back to work, I’ve got a good chance to do a major job on my car. The autobox pan and oil change. It’s a £450-500 job if you take it to a garage and a fair bit more if you go to the dealer. And I’m not paying that! So I’ve spent a good few hours researching how to do it correctly and buying the right parts, along with some required tools. I’m about to have a bash at it, now the forecst is dry for the day. The point is, the Villa are extremely impor ..read more

Well, it wasn’t pleasant viewing, but I’m trying to keep my neutral head on and it says they were value for their win. We looked the better team by far, but some shocking defending meant they scored from an admittedly decent corner. And once that happened, they sat back and allowed us to prove that we are clueless when the opposition do that. We had a few chances, with Buendia’s strike sticking in the memory most and Watkins also had chances, but I didn’t really think we looked likely to score. When we do get the ball, we’re still too slow mostly and Traore was most the guilty of this, followe ..read more

Fair enough, I got a bit complacent in hoping for a win in this game, but it’s what you do when you’re on a 10 game streak, isn’t it? I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking that we could beat a not particularly good Man U side. But it wasn’t to be and the truth is that it was another pretty poor performance. Again, it wasn’t a lack of effort, but more down to a lack of reserves from what I saw. The energy levels just don’t seem to be there. It’s no surprise and squad-wise we’re running on fumes. Ash Young was a typical example. I thought he ran his lungs out for us and I really can’t fault him, b ..read more

I don’t know if my thoughts will make sense to anyone else or not, but I’m really full of confidence for this game. I know, it’s away to Man U and we never win there. But I haven’t seen anything about Man U to scare me apart from the rumour that we’re interested in Harry MaGuire. I’m probably setting myself up for a fall, because that’s the Villa way, I suppose. A lot depends more on how we perform, than how Man U do, I reckon, because I don’t think we’ve been at the races and have looked tired in the last two games. I’m not surprised really, as I’ve previously commented that the players have ..read more

I’m working in Sheffield and just didn’t get time to write beforehand, apologies. But I did get to see the game and it was just an odd one, wasn’t it? We looked decent in the first half, while Fulham looked totally impotent. We seemed inventive and threatening, albeit with a lack of pace or edge to our game, whereas Fulham offered next to nothing at all. I can say, for the first time in a good while, that I was absolutely convinced we would win. It seemed to me that Fulham were more interested in trying to stop our game and hit us on the counter, but the reality is that our midfield out-perfor ..read more

I don’t even know if I’ll get to watch this one, as I’m half expecting a text asking me to work tomorrow. At the minute I’m hopeful that I do get to watch it though. So it’s Brentford away, which hasn’t proved a very good hunting ground for us. But it doesn’t worry me. I said recently that there isn’t a single fixture left that worries me. Yes, we are going to lose more games this season; percentages say so, but any team we face now must realise it’s going to be in for a fight. Whereas under Gerrard, we looked clueless and quite frankly uninterested (which is criminal, but fully indicative of ..read more