Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Jimbo]

i havent felt this low since i was a young lad and oxford united beat us in the semi-final of the league cup back in the olden days (middle to late 80's?) and crying myself to sleep

even when we got horsed 7-1 at chelsea, we all knew we would be up for our next game and win, which we were and did

I must admit, I don't feel anywhere near as bad these days. Then I felt we were a good team, so I was surprised by the Chelsea thrashing - it dashed my expectations quite severely. Now I expect to lose almost ever match we play, so there are no surprises. We're shit, we know we are, and we have to take action now before we bomb out of this league altogether.

[barrysleftfoot]

  You mean like Spuds, and Citeeeh, and Lplop, our direct rivals.

  We have to decide what direction we are going to take.If we seriously expect to beat teams like Citeeeh, and Spuds, then you are going to need players on your bench of a good quality, and that means high wages.If we can't then fair enough, but lets not get so worked up when we can't compete.

[TheSandman]

About five people have walked up to my desk and seemed about to say something, then saw the look on my face and fucked off again.

I've shut the door tight, drawn the curtains and switched off the phone. I'd go out to the pub to buy a big fuck of bottle of scotch but people would attempt to engage me in conversation so I'm going to stay sober and weep.

 

[JUAN PABLO]

get Ian Hollyway, least he has some bloody passion ;-D

[Irish villain]

Houllier is the managerial appointment from hell. I am gutted for the club. We are in freefall, We will get relegated unless something drastic happens.

Houllier came in and arrogantly wanted to transform our style overnight. The best managers gradually change things. Worse still, when he came in first he brought a history with players such as Carew, Warnock, Friedal.

The only silver lining  can see is Everton are tanking this year so Moyes might become available at some point.

[mrfuse]

I'm going to get pissed.

Already on the way

[kieron]

You mean like Spuds, and Citeeeh, and Lplop, our direct rivals.

You do know it's nearly 2011 don't you? It's not the 2009/10 season anymore.

[mrfuse]

get Ian Hollyway, least he has some bloody passion ;-D

"2nd that always loved him just for his comments but even he could do better than this

[sfx412]

Mon haters how sad some so called fans are.

As to sacking Houllier how will that solve anything, most of the top players don't look like they want to play for anyone not even Mighty Mon. There needs to be a major clear out whether those willing to put in a shift are good enough to keep us up time will tell.

But then as them in the know reckon no money will be spent perhaps we should face up to relegation for the foreseable future.

People also seem to forget City are the in form team and we rarely do well there anyway let alone when we have so many players returning from injury.

[damon loves JT]

About five people have walked up to my desk and seemed about to say something, then saw the look on my face and fucked off again.

I've shut the door tight, drawn the curtains and switched off the phone. I'd go out to the pub to buy a big fuck of bottle of scotch but people would attempt to engage me in conversation so I'm going to stay sober and weep.

 

I have another nice big headache brewing up. What I really need is for the dippy bird who supports Spurs to come over and ask me again why we sacked Martin O'Neill.

[Legion]

About five people have walked up to my desk and seemed about to say something, then saw the look on my face and fucked off again.

I'm currently a conversation-free zone.

[Pat McMahon]

  Bang on Sandman, the MON haters are conspicuous by there absence at the moment.Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, we were successful under MON, and punched above our weight probably, whether we could afford to keep going down his chosen route is another question.

  Under GH, he is trying to utilise what we have, but some of MONs players, have'nt got the ability to play the way GH wants, now we either change manager, and go back to the strengths of some of our players, or we slowly change clientelle.

Absolute Cobblers. MON chose to walk out on us, we weren't calling for his head. Very few wanted him out.

When he left I wasn't particularly bothered as I believed he'd progressed us but taken us as far as he could.

If GH had come in and done well so far, or we'd employed someone else who had, we wouldn't be having this discussion. You're just using the fact we're struggling to have a swipe at those who have slated MON since he left.

Villa1 - MON was a superb manager in terms of organisation and motivation and his teams would die for him (as visible from his first game in charge at the Emirates with DOL's rag tag band). However our football at home became monotonous and this, together with three consecutive 6th place finishes and the ability of Spurs to gatecrash the Champs league, did lead to a fair number of people on here not liking him and saying that he had taken us as far as he could.

[Legion]

Pravda's view

Villa's hopes of finishing 2010 on a high were dented as Manchester City's star-studded side ran riot at Eastlands.

Mario Balotelli scored a hat-trick, which included two penalties, while Joleon Lescott found the net with a header on an afternoon to forget for the boys in claret and blue.

There was little the visitors could do to counter City's superiority in attack as Roberto Mancini's men temporarily leapfrogged close rivals Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

The home side raced in to a two-goal lead within 13 minutes and never looked back from there, as Gerard Houllier's side slipped to their second defeat of the festive period.

Houllier restored club captain Stiliyan Petrov and midfield colleague Nigel Reo-Coker to the central ground in an attempt to bring added steel to the Villa ranks in the wake of the Boxing Day defeat to Tottenham.

It meant Fabian Delph and Jonathan Hogg gave way, while Barry Bannan replaced Emile Heskey who twisted his ankle against Spurs.

But the manager's best laid plans were shattered by an extraordinary burst of three City goals in the opening 26 minutes.

Balotelli got in behind Villa's back four early on only to be flagged offside - though it didn't deter the Italian.

He was given a second through ball to latch on to and this time he was tugged back by Eric Lichaj, leaving referee Michael Oliver with no other option than to point to the spot.

The spot kick was cooly slotted into the bottom corner by Balotelli to give City an eighth minute lead.

Unfortunately, after such a deflating start, things were not about to get any better for the away side.

For evidence of a team down on their luck, see Lescott's strike. The Birmingham-born defender met Adam Johnson's cross at the near post and although Barry Bannan looked to have cleared the header off the line the linesman flagged for a goal.

However, Roberto Mancini's men would not settle for being two-up so quickly and Balotelli swiftly added a third.

A neat exchange between David Silva and Yaya Toure on 26 minutes led to Brad Friedel pushing away the silky Spaniard's curling effort. But Balotelli pounced to tap in his second and the home team's third.

It took until three minutes before the break for Villa to fully recover and register a clear-cut attempt, when Marc Albrighton called Joe Hart into action with a rasping low drive which seemed destined for the bottom corner.

Reo-Coker came charging in for the rebound but Lescott got a crucial foot in to clear the danger.

There was briefly hope of a second-half resurgence from Villa when Petrov battled forward to win a free-kick, which Stewart Downing took and curled just over the bar.

But nine minutes after the restart, Balotelli completed his hat-trick with a second goal from the penalty spot.

This time Johnson made a nuisance of himself on the right and went down to a challenge from Albrighton. Balotelli stepped up again and side-footed past Friedel.

Houllier immediately shuffled his pack by bringing on Delph and Nathan Delfouneso for Bannan and Albrighton - with the latter almost pulling one back for Villa when he headed Downing's right wing cross wide of the target.

Delph also went close with a thumping drive which Hart saved but there was to be no happy ending to 2010 for Villa.

MAN CITY: Hart; Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta; Boateng, Vieira, Toure; Johnson, Balotelli, Silva. Subs: Given, Bridge (for De Jong, 77), Milner (for Silva, 58), Boateng, Barry, Jo (for Toure, 62), Tevez.

VILLA: Friedel; Lichaj, Collins, Cuellar, Warnock; Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Downing; Bannan; Agbonlahor. Subs: Pires (for Reo-Coker, 81), Delfouneso (for Albrighton, 55), Delph (for Bannan, 55), Clark, Guzan, Hogg, Herd.

[DaveD]

About five people have walked up to my desk and seemed about to say something, then saw the look on my face and fucked off again.

I'm currently a conversation-free zone.

Thank God I'm practically the only person in the office tomorrow...

[Mr Diggles]

I was at the game and the only thing to be proud of was the fans. Utterly brilliant-vocal, passionate, committed to the cause, and stayed right to the very end. The team could learn a lot if they looked in that direction.

The same ones booing when Pires came on and telling Houllier to feck off? Yes, very committed to the cause.

The likelihood is that Houllier will not quit and Lerner won't sack him, so we may as well try and get behind the club and its present personnel. Can the players perform better? Yes. Can the manager do more? Yes. Can the fans relax a little bit more and have confidence in the club and the people managing the team? Yes.

Of course we could very well get relegated, but what do some of the comments on this thread really achieve, apart from venting of spleens? Its not good at the moment, I agree, but we need perspective and calm heads, not a trigger-happy chairman in a Newcastle United stylee.