John

He is too old for our buy young sell at a profit policy. He would want more than we are prepared to pay. The only way this could happen is if it was done on a loan basis with them picking up a fair proportion of his wages. But we had the opportunity to do this with Barry and did not so I think this will have the same end result.

Agree 99.9% villa-revolution. But, I think there was no way back from 1 down and we might yet draw them in the FA Cup as we so often do...

Source: Player Match Ratings: An unpalatable Christmas stuffing!

This was allegedly a great time for us to face Manchester United at Villa Park. But it has actually now been 18 years since it last proved to be a good time for us to face them at home in the league. I am sure Manchester United would have considered Villa Park the perfect place to come following what has been a poor run of results for them. What better ground to roll up at than one which has become a happy hunting ground for them and at which they have not tasted league defeat for almost two decades? What better team to face than a team that has now lost five of eight home league games this season? Unsurprisingly win they did and they left Villa Park with the seasonal gift of three points we had been keeping wrapped with a claret & blue ribbon under the Christmas tree for them. We must now ensure that this second successive tame defeat does not lead to more as proved the case last season. We will face four winnable games during the coming festive period. Six to eight points would not seem an unreasonable expectation from these games and would leave us 4 or 5 wins from safety for another season. But can we rely on getting those points away from Villa Park, if our dismal home record continues? It is bad enough to lose at home to Manchester United although it is a feeling we have grown accustomed to it is one that we have had more than enough of. Usually we give a decent account of ourselves before defeat and now and again we claim a hard earned point. But this time we showed next to nothing and never looked like getting anything from the game after going behind on 15 minutes making a recently ineffective Manchester United team that had been on the crest of a slump up until today look like world beaters in the process. Without Vlaar at the back our central defence looks shaky. Without Delph in the middle our midfield lacks a biting edge. Without the Benteke of last season our forward line is firing blanks with what limited ammunition they are provided with. We chose to leave Weimann and Bacunna on the bench today. These two might have given Benteke some support and our midfield a little of the forward movement that it lacked respectively. But we chose not to go at them as the home side might normally be expected to and I have to question was the worse that could have happened had we done so any worse than what did actually happen today? My player ratings from a game that was far from being a Christmas cracker for us are: Brad Guzan – 5 – Had surprisingly little to do on a day he was beaten on three occasions the last of which having left a gap at his near post that the ball went into the net through. Matt Lowton – 5 – Needs games to try to get back to somewhere approaching where he was last season. Ciaran Clark – 5 – Still seems lacking in confidence for me as he has been for around a year now after being given the captaincy too early. He missed our present captain’s calming influence today. Nathan Baker – 4 – Another who showed he missed the presence of Concrete Ron alongside him and it was his poorly placed pass that led to their second. This is becoming a too regular fault for him when playing the ball out from inside his own half. Antonio Lunar - 4 – Found it difficult at the back and failed to get forward as he can do so well. Karim El Ahmadi – 4 – Had a difficult afternoon and failed to make much of an impression on the match. Hit a free kick on 76 minutes from the edge of the box which was on target but easily gathered by the keeper. Ashley Westwood - 5 – The best of our midfield but was still some way off the least effective of those that faced us today. Yacouba Sylla – 4 – Did not look like the player today he appeared to have it in him to become when making his first team appearances last season. Headed an Albrighton cross tamely wide at the far post on 47 minutes and then hit a shot well wide 10 minutes later having been found on the edge of the box by Benteke. Needs to step up another gear and to get more playing time which given the paucity of our present midfield options may not prove impossible. Gabriel Agbonlahor – 6 – Some strong running. Showed his commitment when chasing down a seemingly lost cause and claiming a corner following a strong challenge on their keeper on 50 minutes. Marc Albrighton – 7 – MOTM - Marc was the one Villa player to come out of this game with some credit. Found on the edge of the box by Benteke on 4 minutes and turned well before hitting a shot that de Gea gathered as he did another shot from him on the turn from him 6 minutes later. Turned inside the box on 58 minutes and his shot took a touch off Evra before being kept out at the near post by de Gea. Christian Benteke – 4 – He was Isolated and lacked service once again today but he might have bustled and looked a touch more livelily than he did for me. Found on the edge of the box by El Ahmadi on 12 minutes but he took a heavy touch on it which allowed Rafael to clear the danger. Substitutes: Andreas Weimann – 5 - Replaced Sylla on 62 minutes but failed to make any lasting impression on the game. Libor Kozak – Replaced Benteke on 79 minutes. Not on long enough to merit a rating. Leandro Bacuna– Replaced El Ahmadi on 86 minutes and was another who was not on long enough to earn a rating. Up the Villa and a Happy Christmas to all readers! John Lewis

"Also I think I saw recently Barca were considering building a new stadium which would also be their third." If so, could we have their present one NIVillan? It would make a nice ground for the odd friendly and for our reserves! "That sounds about right. We never **** win there, either". We used to albeit up until the end of the last century Davkaus (which is not as long ago as it sounds). Wembley was loss free for us from our Spurs defeat in 1971 until that 2000 FA Cup Final (although it would have been nice to have played there more than 5 times during that period). "Well now you mention it I wouldn't mind ground sharing at all it doesn't make a difference!!" - Agreed happy to share with local teams like South Africa and Australia in the RWC Sutton Paul... We are not Manchester City or West Ham who have a new stadium built for them and take it over for peanuts. New stadiums cost a lot of money and that is something that is in short supply at our football club. We would make next to nothing for the land in Aston if we did want to move and given how Birmingham City Council have made such hard work planning wise of anything we have looked to do in B6 in the past I very much doubt they would make the way clear for us to move so near to the city centre, a now student area and to the club that they have seemed to favour over recent years. We are Villa we know where we are and where we belong!

I am not sure the size of the pitch was any different in 80/81 than it is now although the surface is far better than it was back then. Could it be that good players can perform on any surface and on any size pitch and we need to sign a couple more of them to win more games at Villa Park? Over to you Randy...

I really do not think we can afford to risk selling a proven scorer like Benteke in the next window. We need the goals he will bring during the rest of the season to be sure we do not end up needing points towards the end of this season to be sure of staying up. I would also like to think that he would want to stay with us having just signed a new contract and with a World Cup to look forward to. But I would guess he might want to go sooner rather than later and we would sell at £25m upwards to whatever club makes an offer that suits both him and us. The question would then be how much of any fee would be made available for players and how much would be used to repay the owner's investment. I would guess at around 25% on new signings so I see nothing to be gained by selling him and after all we are not a selling club or are we?

My worst 3 years on the bounce were 67/68, 68/9 & 69/70 and my best 80/81, 81/82 & 82/83. There is no doubt for me that Randy has done more for us than HDE ever did but it is sad that the bright future he once promised has now it seems faded into the distance and it is worth noting that a future King has seen more games at Villa Park than our owner has this season. Fred Rinder gets my vote as our best chairman by the way.

Source: Player Match Ratings: A display unfit to be put before our Prince!

Sunderland came for their second away point of the season, achieved that objective with something to spare and could so easily have left Villa Park with their first away win of the season following a dire home performance. This really was a game we needed to win. Three points against visitors who arrived at Villa Park sitting at the bottom of the league table was not an unrealistic expectation but it was given our home form this season something that was not guaranteed. The two points we dropped could have seen us go three points clear of the bottom half of the table which would have left us looking comfortable in mid table and with 18 points from 13 games. What was unacceptable about this game was that we never got out of the starting blocks. After a dismal first half we had grounds to hope that we could go again in the second half as we had done at WBA last Monday. But the second half proved a sad repeat of our bleak first half performance and we allowed Sunderland to boss much of the game which is something they would have been as surprised about as we were. There was very little to choose between the two sides on yesterday’s showing and that in itself is alarming. Villa achieved something that had seemed beyond them yesterday by making Sunderland look a good side. We again demonstrated how hard we find it to break down a team who put men behind the ball and who we start as favourites to beat. This was a repeat of the Cardiff game without the gloss that the late goals gave that game. On a positive note we did manage another clean sheet and climbed above The Baggies but that for me is outweighed by the negatives and our goals at Villa Park have dried up to the extent that we have yet to score a first half goal in a home league game this season. We started reasonably well but that was short lived and although the suspicion remained that one goal could lead to more for us given the away team’s brittle confidence that goal never really looked like coming. It was Sunderland that were the stronger team on the day and that made the better chances. This represents 2 points dropped on the corresponding fixture last season and it left royalty and fans alike leaving Villa Park very disappointed. My player ratings from a game that was far from being a Royal Command Performance are: Brad Guzan – 6 – Had very little to do yesterday but had an awful miss and the crossbar to thank for his clean sheet. Leandro Bacuna – 5 – Leo was not able to get forward as often as we needed him to be able to do against an outfit who invited us to break them down and against whom he might have made a big difference had he been given the freedom to get forward regularly. He is far more effective further up the field than at the back and his defensive abilities were brought into question on more than one occasion yesterday. Ron Vlaar – 7 – A solid captain’s performance in the heart of our defence. Had his head in his hands when he allowed a ball to run through to Gardner but he was clearly offside when the ball was hit towards him. Ciaran Clark – 6 – Made a couple of decent headed clearances yesterday. Rightly escaped first half penalty appeals for a hand ball but failed to get a strong enough challenge in on Borini when his header hit the bar on 66 minutes. It was a tad surprising that he was given the nod ahead of Baker yesterday. Antonio Lunar - 6 – Offered us something we have lacked in his absence when moving forward and his return to first team duty was one of the few positives to take from this game. Karim El Ahmadi – 4 – Started well enough but his contribution to the game diminished at a noticeable rate until he was substituted on 71 minutes. Ashley Westwood - 5 – Several of his passes unusually went astray yesterday although he was not the only culprit in this. His level of performance did improve somewhat as the game wore on but he can be more assertive than this. Had a 53rd minute shot easily gathered by Mannone following a good forward run by Gabby. Fabian Delph – 5 – Another to suffer from some pass inaccuracy but he is bound to be a touch ring rusty following a long period out of the starting line up and he did win his fair share of the balls he lost. Has been much missed from our midfield and will soon get back up to speed. Hit a shot on 36 minutes that drifted wide of the post. Gabriel Agbonlahor – 7 – MOTM – Noticeably tried to make something happen and his pace was the main threat to a solid defence. Headed a Delph cross wide of the post on 3 minutes when under pressure from Bardsley and had an effort gathered by Mannone following good work by Weimann 2 minutes later. Had a near post shot saved by the keeper on 49 minutes after Benteke had found him with a sweet pass. Andreas Weimann – 5 – Looking short of confidence and some way off the player he was for us last season as is his strike partner. Andi does however work hard during our games and did so yesterday. Almost got on the end of a Bacuna cross at the near post just prior to his substitution. Christian Benteke – 4 – Christian may be short of confidence, fitness and service but he looked frustrated at best yesterday and a shadow of his former self. He harassed this Sunderland team last season scoring 3 of our 6 goals and bullying defenders at will. This time he was far too easily managed by O’Shea although he was aided and abetted in this by a referee who offered him no protection and who seemed not to see or want to see the illegal means that were often used to subdue him. He won little to nothing in the air, badly needs a goal and would not have allowed himself to have been so dominated last year. He curled a shot wide of the post on 29 minutes after Westwood had set up the chance inside the box and that was possibly our best goal opportunity. Substitutes: Aleksandar Tonev – 5 - Replaced El Ahmadi on 71 minutes and made no striking impression on a game we continued to labour in until full time. Did hit a shot on target on 83 minutes which were few and far between yesterday but it was easily saved by the keeper. Marc Albrighton – 5 – Replaced Weimann on 71 minutes following his return from a loan period. Looked lively on his introduction but he was also unable to make any telling difference on this game. Libor Kozak – Replaced Benteke on 86 minutes and was not on long enough to earn a rating. Up the Villa! John Lewis

My suggestions: For Best: Andy Gray, Allan Evans & David Platt. For Worst: Nigel Calaghan, Sasa Curcic & Bosko Balaban.

Didn't some of those guys win a League Cup for us? They sure did Con.

I think Lambo should be backed with at least £10m + wages and asked to try to sign us 1 or 2 players who might make the impact that Benteke & Bacuna have. I would hope one might be a creative central midfield player but I doubt any cash made available will be near £10m and that we will do any loan deal unless that is all the money available will allow us to do.

Thanks for adding those stats BOF which show a solid improvement on our points haul from last season, I am sure the "ref watch" will show we have a couple of bad luck charms and I am glad you liked the O'Demwingie reference I understand he is parked on MON's drive waiting for that call up. Let us hope Lowton and Bacuna might line up at the Albion in those positions after this one villa-revolution although Lambo can take the credit for making this change which paid off so well (as we hoped it might). Thanks for those well made points and this one in particular "& failed to bounce of each other apart from the moment just before half time when they literally did just that" - It almost seems funny now after the win...

Mike Gatting & Jet Black when all 3 of us were much younger...

Source: Player Match Ratings: What a difference a free kick can make!

This game had goalless draw written all over it until Leo Bacuna hit a sweet free kick into the back of the net in the 76th minute. That goal was our first in 7 hours and this along with a second just 9 minutes later secured our second home win of the season and only our eighth from our last 38 at Villa Park. This was a “must win” game. Games such as these at Villa Park really have to be won and win it we did. Cardiff who started the game ahead of us in the table came seeking a point that they almost got. We had the best of what was some way from being an enthralling game. Cardiff did not create much if anything to worry our defence which registered another clean sheet but we spent a lot of the game finding it difficult to find our own men and to create any clear openings. That all changed late in the game at a time our crowd were becoming increasingly restless as the prospect of further points being dropped at home seemed inevitable. It was then that Bacuna stepped up to take a free kick and found the back of the net with more than a touch of aplomb as he had done in the only other league game we had won at Villa Park prior to this one. A wave of relief spread around Villa Park as we celebrated Leo’s well executed free kick. The Bluebirds had nothing to offer following that and we went on to stretch our lead and ended a vital game we had struggled to make our own comfortable winners. We can take some confidence from this win and players that were missing yesterday will have an opportunity to recover before we meet WBA in two weeks time following the international break. Talking of that break it was interesting to see new Ireland assistant manager Roy Keene in attendance and no doubt running the rule over Peter O’Demwingie and our very own Ciaran Clark! My player ratings from a game that left us back in the top half of the table are: Brad Guzan – 6 – A very quiet game for Brad. Leandro Bacuna – 8 – MOTM – Leo was solid at the back and made things happen when moving forward. He was cynically pulled back by Medel when running strongly towards goal and the Cardiff man fully deserved his booking and the consequences that ensued. Leo converted the resultant free kick for our crucial opening goal with a Beckham like strike from around 25 yards on 76 minutes leaving Marshall who had gambled on him going for the other post flat footed. Ron Vlaar – 7 – A good convincing performance at the heart of our defence. Nathan Baker – 6 – Almost presented an opportunity to Cardiff on 12 minutes when he left a ball to Guzan rather than make sure it was put to safety himself with a Cardiff forward in close attendance. Other than that a pretty assured display when tested. Ciaran Clark - 7 – A much improved performance. Showed more confidence as one of three at the back and a fair bit of ability when getting forward. Aleksandar Tonev – 7 – Gave us pace down the flank and hit crosses in that became increasingly worrisome for the Cardiff defence in the second half. Karim El Ahmadi – 5 – Works hard enough but he was unconvincing overall yesterday and his place has to be under threat when Delph returns. Ashley Westwood - 6 –Showed signs of the player he was so often last season and he needs to build and push on from this during the rest of the season. Hit a ball that fell to him outside of the on 63 minutes wide of the post. Yacouba Sylla – 5 – Won the ball on the edge of the box following a nice back heel from Benteke on 8 minutes making space for a shot that was easily held by Marshall. Not yet at his best of last season and a run of games may well help. Libor Kozak – 7 – His most impressive performance to date in our shirt and worked well up front. Caught offside in the first minute when he got a good header on target from a nice Clark cross and got a fine downward header on an excellent cross from Bacuna on 50 minutes which forced a save from Marshall. Settled matters on 85 minutes after Clark found Tonev whose cross came off a defender and Lowton did so very well to head it back into the danger area where he headed in nicely into the corner of the net with the keeper well beaten. Christian Benteke – 6 – Played a ball to El Ahmadi whose shot from the edge of the box was not held by Marshall but Caulker did well to beat him to the loose ball in the 5th minute. Had an on target shot touched past the post by Marshall on 11 minutes after he had cut inside the area and should really have done better on 67 minutes when he headed an El Ahmadi cross wide. Substitutes: Matt Lowton – 6 - Replaced El Ahmadi on 74 minutes and made a big difference allowing Bacuna to get forward more often as we chased a win and played his own significant part in our second goal. Jordan Bowery – Replaced Kozak on 88 minutes. Hit the side netting in the first minute of stoppage time having been found inside the box by Benteke but not on long enough to gain a rating. Up the Villa! John Lewis

"I don't know what price they would command though - and another thing - why haven't anyone else taken him in yet? His reputation is pretty high, much because of who his father is, but I just think it's strange that no other club has forked out the cash to buy him yet. Is there something I'm not seeing?" They wanted £8m for him in the last window and I understand Liverpool do have a sell on clause Papillon. I guess his father has suggested he stays with him until the right bid comes in from the right club at the right salary. I doubt we would pay £8m and the wages he would want and if we did that Paul Ince would suggest we are the club for him given he had so little good to say about us when he was a player. He is along with Hughes at Derby the sort of player we would once have gone for but I think those days are now behind us.

We really need a win from this one. We are below them now but Cardiff are a team that everyone in this league will still look for 3 points from this season at home and if we fail to do this the alarm bells will start to ring out loud. We just need to back ourselves to score more goals than they do. They will sit back and try to hit us on the break we need to do "a Sunderland" on them this weekend at VP.

"Lee Clark 2/1 fav to be next championship manager gone" - I doubt they could afford to pay him off and appoint a replacement. Tom Ross might take the job on if Terry McD would want a pay rise to take over but I say leave Clark where he is he is my manager of the month!

"Charlton only used to bring 500 to VP when they were in the prem". But those 500 expected nothing but defeat at Villa Park VillaChris. The extra 500 that turned up at Small Heath this weekend did so expecting a win and knowing it was a relegation 6-pointer.

You really cannot do much with £10m dodgyknees and as things stand the money spent on Luna, Bacuna & Okore seems money well spent to me. The other signings may given time prove to be the same but I would have liked to see us find the money for the wages we would have needed to bring in Barry on loan as a minimum and possibly even enough for Lukaku as well.

We played for the point and got it but this was a game we should have gone for a win from. A point and another clean sheet are the positives. But we cannot hold onto the ball and the goals have dried up. Benteke should have been on target with that header that hit the bar and we missed Delph badly. We need a home win against Cardiff to keep clear of trouble.

How could a disallowed goal by another team be your most "important ever"? - Because he is a Nose, they do not score many goals let alone "important" ones and it was in a game against us rjw63. I think it may have been the first game of season 58/9 and had that goal stood we would have stayed up so he may have been looking at it with hindsight...sorry what was I thinking? A Nose who hits a "mate" is unlikely to have the ability to think in the first place!

I think he will get 25 Farlz.