Manchester City v Aston Villa Match Thread

[ozzjim]

No chance Carew will play again - or at least I highly doubt it!

Like the team put out, and like that GH rotates for certain games. When he gets it right with the personel he wants we will be a good side.

[berneboy]

City line-up: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, De Jong, Viera, Johnson, Toure, Silva, Balotelli. Subs: Given, Boateng, Brdige, Barry, Milner, Tevez, Silva

[Irish villain]

wonder If we will ever see Carew in a villa shirt again...  doubt it now 

The end of an era.... I loved Carew but it looks like he's reached the end of the villa road.

I'm happy with that team selection. We look more solid lined up like that.

[Marlon's Hairy Wood]

I like that centre midfield trio

bit of everything in there

[Irreverent ad]

So as everyone is liking the line up, I take it the post match thread will not be full of 'Houllier out' if we lose.

[phantom limb]

Ever the optimist, while I like the look of our team I still can't shake the feeling that we're going to get an absolute whupping.

[TheSandman]

City line-up: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, De Jong, Viera, Johnson, Toure, Silva, Balotelli. Subs: Given, Boateng, Brdige, Barry, Milner, Tevez, Silva

Hmmm... We'll need to be careful with Silva and Johnson but from our perspective that team is not bad, not bad at all. How long before Balotelli gets booked? Five minutes? Hopefully he'll get sent off before he can score.

[darren woolley]

Come on Villa let's beat these lot today please, we due a good win let's hope it's today i also like the look of the team.

[berneboy]

Osbourne replaces Hogg on the bench

Dan AVFC: Apologies for the confusion over Villa's subs by the way. We were led to believe Hogg was on the bench, Man City's official team sheet says Osbourne but it is Hogg who is warming up on the pitch! We're waiting on absolute confirmation!

[Marlon's Hairy Wood]

Osbourne replaces Hogg on the bench

like a new signing!

[Monty]

The team I wanted, thought we might need Bannan because, if we are going to play a counter-attacking 4-2-3-1, Bannan is very good at the release ball to Gabby. Our tactics today look to be a bit like Germany's in the World Cup. NRC or Petrov also really needs to watch the inside-right channel, because I've had nightmares about Johnson ripping Warnock to shreds. Also, does anyone in the squad speak Italian? If so, we should be sledging Balotelli as much as possible ("do you miss Mamma" etc).

[Toronto Villa]

glad to see NRC is fit and starting. There was a lot of questions this week as to why Delph played ahead of NRC vs Spurs. GH had said during his pre-game interview that NRC was close, so maybe Delph was that little bit ahead by Sunday. Right now we need the combined experience of NRC and Stan with Bannan being the creator in the absence of Ash. What we really need to see is a re-energized Gabby getting on the end of crosses from our wingers. We can do this but we have to start to believe.

[JUAN PABLO]

Thats the best team we could play really...    midfield looks better , would have liked clark instead of collins ...    I want to see a better performance from Downing today ..    COME ON VILLA...   

[kielon]

Watch for free  http://sportstream24.com/england_football/watch_online_1

[usav]

I like that line up.   Come on Villa, make us proud.