John

"what you should be asking is how many clubs have bought better than us". I agree that we have bought very well but just think what a difference backing Lambo with the money for another one or even 2 signings might have on where we end up at the end of this season villa4europe. I do not think another £4m - £8m would be unreasonable for Lambo to expect to get if he has identified players given his track record in the market. I hope jacketspuds is right and the backing will be there and lead to a signing.

"Which clubs have spent less than us this pre-season?". I think the question may be how many of the clubs AndyM3000 has listed will have spent less net than us at the end of the window Pilchard. It is likely to be something below 9 if we make no more signings or any signing we might make is say £4m or below. They say no news is good news but so late into the window I think it may not be.

I would really like to see another one or two come in during this window and I would trust Lambo to make the best possible use of any money that is made available to him as he has done to date. Without a further signing we will progress from where we were last season but with a touch more support we might do even better. Now is the time to take full advantage of still having Benteke with us. A solid season spent in the top half and possibly a cup win might yet prove enough for Benteke to want to still be a part of this football club next season which would be seen as a club that is moving upwards at a decent pace.

"By the way, Villa ground down the Miller's what?" I see your point darrenm... Turning to the ratings I do agree with BOF that the opposition does need to be considered although that in itself would not necessarily lead me to lower player ratings as a whole. I would add that I do not use the Championship Manager marking system having started doing these player match ratings before that game was introduced Kingfisher. I use 1 (appalling), 2 (dismal), 3 (very poor), 4 (poor), 5 (below average), 6 (average), 7 (good), 8 (very good), 9 (excellent)& 10 (awesome) which may clarify why my player ratings are a little lower than your own.

Thanks all. Westwood was very close to MOTM for me as well and I thought about the odd 8 rating but my harsh side won the day!

I sadly cannot see Milner coming back here again unless on loan with Citeh paying a fair proportion of his wages. Fischer or Kiyotake or Ince seem a little more likely to me but they would be very big signings for the club at this time and I think we may be looking at someone who has yet to hit the back pages and who would fit into our current buying policy a little more easily than these sort of players might. Breaking news on SKY on the last day at the last hour of this window anyone?

Source: Player Match Ratings: Villa grind down The Miller’s!

A welcome clean sheet which broke a run of 28 league and cup games for us without one along with three very well taken goals left us victorious in last night’s game between the first League Cup Finalists in this 150th anniversary year of the Football Association. So there was to be no happy ending for The Miller’s last night and no sting in the tale of last night for us. Although they gave a good account of themselves and battled well throughout they were unable through toil alone to get the better of us and it is Aston Villa who will go through to the next round to face another team we have previously met in a League Cup Final. Is there a trend developing in these draws and should we defeat Spurs could it be Leeds, Manchester United, Norwich, Everton or even Small Heath we could be matched up against in Round 4? Rotherham supporters arrived at Villa Park in numbers last night and their team did everything they were able to send them home to South Yorkshire happy. But unlike Bradford last season this trip to Villa Park was to prove their cup final as a confident and in form Villa team swept them aside as we had hoped would have happened in that two legged semi-final last January. But we are made of sterner stuff this season and our football at times last night was very pleasing to the eye and played at a level that our visitors were unable to match. Having accomplished our mission in the first hour the substitutions we then made insured that Delph did not pick up another booking and gave other players a first team run out but they also disrupted the flow of our game for a time which in turn saved Rotherham from what may have been a wider margin of defeat. This is clearly a cup competition that Lambo has shown by his team selection last night that he has his sights on and one that could add some silverware to our trophy cabinet after too long a gap without the club doing so. Beating whatever team Spurs choose to put out with goals from one of their summer targets that they chose not to pay the money for would be very, very sweet. My player ratings from a game that has left us 4 cup ties from a Wembley appearance and that produced a 3 – 0 home win as was also the case back in 1961 are: Jed Steer – 6 – A clean sheet and an untroubled quiet debut. Leandro Bacuna – 6 – Looked much more comfortable in the full back spot than he did in our midfield where he had started on Saturday evening. A much improved performance. Ron Vlaar – 6 – Solid enough on those infrequent occasions that he was tested. Jores Okore – 7 – Looking better with each game he plays and Jores was so steady at the back last night. Joe Bennett - 6 – A decent performance on his return to first team action. Karim El Ahmadi – 6 – Our midfield currently looks more effective with him in it than when he is out of it. Fabian Delph – 7 – Finished off a splendidly worked move to give us a three goal cushion on 53 minutes. The ball was pinged from one Villa player to another in the midfield until Delph played a one-two with Benteke whose nicely chipped ball found Fabian running between two defenders into the centre of the area, he then took a touch to his right and drilled his shot past the keeper. We look forward to more goals from him but to less yellow cards such as the new one for his collection that he picked up for a rash and unnecessary challenge near the half way line on 34 minutes that may well have contributed towards his substitution on the hour. These regular cards if not addressed will see him sitting out chunks of this season in the stands under suspension which given his present importance to the team we can ill afford. Ashley Westwood – 7 – Sprayed the ball around very nicely last night. Gabriel Agbonlahor- 6 – Hit a perfectly weighted cross for Benteke which presented him with our second goal last night. Flashed a shot wide of the post from around 30 yards 4 minutes later and made a good run from inside his own half a couple of minutes after that finding Westwood inside the box who tried to place a shot which was blocked by a defender. Andreas Weimann – 7 – Worked tirelessly last night and hit our crucial opener on 19 minutes. Having picked up a misplaced Arnason pass just inside his own half he then had a ball he was looking to play into the box blocked by the same defender but he then made no mistake when the ball fell back into his path and he hit a super shot over Shearer and into the corner of the net. Andi just failed to bring the ball under control on 88 minutes which would have left him with just the keeper to beat. Christian Benteke – 7 – MOTM - It seemed almost unfair on the Rotherham defence to play him last night as he was always going to be more than a handful for defenders who ply their trade in League One. He met Gabby’s fine cross on 40 minutes to give us our second rising to power his header into the net and past Shearer in much the same way as Andy Lochhead so regularly did at the same ground. Scored one and made one job done in the 67 minutes he played! Substitutes: Yacouba Sylla – 6 - Replaced Delph on 60 minutes and looked comfortable enough in his role. Nicklas Helenius– 6 - Replaced Benteke on 67 minutes and hit a shot wide on 89 minutes from what had looked like an offside position. A goal would do a lot for him. Aleksandar Tonev - 6 - Replaced Gabby on 67 minutes. Looked bright and a player that would benefit from a couple of starts. Up for the cup Villa! John Lewis

Ince is more than decent and can make a similar mark in the game as his father did. The age is right for us and he has the games behind him that would help him to hit the ground running following a move but I doubt we would pay £8m. If Bannan & Delfouneso were added to say a £6m + players package that might bring a transfer nearer but I think Liverpool get some money back on any fee so that might get in the way of things. I trust he himself might see a move to us as better than he had a move to Cardiff but given his father will have a word in his ear and he never had much good to say about us I would guess he would be bound somewhere else. If we agree a price and make him an offer he would be well advised to take it but I wonder if he might be a bit Billy Big Time?

"dont we still owe the lerner family quite alot?" - I think Randy was the one that owed his family or should I say his ex-wife a lot AndyBM and that happened in the period between his taking the club over and the purse strings being tightened as did his sale of the Browns and the funds he got in from that which I would have thought cushioned the money he paid to his ex. Randy bought the club and invested money into it with a view to getting a return on his investments and these were his decisions. No doubt the accounts will show the club has a paper debt to him as will Manchester United accounts in the same way. What has happened seems to be a change in transfer policy and we now have a manager who is willing to work within that policy and has shown signs that he can move us forward as a club within it. I would like to think we could add 1 or 2 more in before the window closes whether or not we find a home for one or more of the bomb squad for a total spend of say £10m but that depends on how rigid the club's transfer policy is going to prove.

"I dont see any relevance in how many games we dont keep clean sheets for - we are clearly improving all over the pitch including defensively"... "Like much sequential statistics it looks important but isn't really. Now that is NOT the same as saying clean sheets dont matter at all - just that 'how many in a row' is not relevant, in my view". I see your point and agree that we do look to be showing improvement and that this does include in our defence terrytini. Had we kept a clean sheet in one or two of those last 25 league games it would have been 24 or 23 out of 25 league games without a clean sheet but the figures do show there is a trend of being unable to go a game without the opposition scoring as we also demonstrated twice against Bradford and once at Milwall in the cups during the period. We now have additions at the back who may well given time address this issue and it was not unexpected that we might go a goal down in the first 3 games we had this season giving who we were playing. But this has become a trend and we now need to show it is behind us by keeping clean sheets in a couple of our coming games such against the likes of Rotherham, Newcastle, Norwich and Hull. I agree that as villa-revolution says above "The first goal nearly always proves significant in the Premier League & we need to develop a habit of doing this. On a more positive note at least we have proven that we can now recover from these set backs as we did at Arsenal & to an extent at Chelsea.." & as AshVillian adds "If I compare how we played against the same teams last year we are obviously a much better team by a long way". Thanks to all for the comments and points made concerning my ratings and observations.

Source: Player Match Ratings: Just the 3 points from 3 games then!

The third of our tough opening fixtures brought Liverpool a tenth victory at Villa Park from their last 16 Premier League visits which is a habit we need to break. Most of us would have taken 3 points from these 3 games before the season began but having won the first losing the next two and particularly this one is a tad deflating. We allowed Liverpool to dominate the first half in what seemed too much like a re-run of last season’s defeat. We stood off and failed to pressure them, showing them far too much respect. The second half and the last couple of minutes of the first was much different and we were as unfortunate to come away with nothing to show for our efforts as we had been at Chelsea. They created very little but for their well taken winner and for a third time this season we found ourselves needing to come back from a goal down, sadly this time we did not trouble the scorers and demonstrated that without additional creativity in the middle we may find it easier to score goals away than at home. The negative side of 3 points from 3 games is that a point a game gives us just 38 points at the end of a season that would represent another long relegation battle. We have also now gone 25 games without keeping a clean sheet. But the positive side which is how I view our start is that we have three more points than we got last season from these three fixtures and a much improved goal difference. Having got these three games out of the way we now face two winnable games and need to take a minimum of 4 points from these to keep us at the right end of the admittedly early season table when we entertain Manchester City in a month. My player ratings from a game that we were unable to add a second home win in 16 league games against yesterday’s opponents and that suggested that referees stick together following any criticism of each other are: Brad Guzan – 6 – A relatively quiet game for Brad. Beaten on 21 minutes after a ball from Enrique was allowed to run through to Sturridge by Coutinho and the forward took the ball past Luna and then his despairing dive before hitting a shot into the roof of the net and over the two defenders who were guarding the goal line. Matt Lowton – 6 – Steady enough for the 65 minutes he was on but has had much more effective games for us. Ron Vlaar – 6 – Generally solid enough alongside the assured Okore. Jores Okore – 7 – Very solid other than for a weak back header on 90 minutes which was meant for Guzan but which Sturridge was able to reach first before going down in a heap on the edge of the box when Guzan dived at his feet. Reads the game well but does currently seem a little short of pace at times but I anticipate this will come with further games and training sessions. Antonio Luna - 8 – MOTM – Tony Moon was solid at the back and looked very, very good when moving forward showing the sort of skills, flair and jinking runs that can worry defences throughout this season. Leandro Bacuna – 5 – Some distance off being man of the match for me. These are early days though and this was a difficult game for a debut but I back this young player to show us more as the season progresses as he did yesterday in the second half when playing in a different role. Fabian Delph – 7 – Not quite so marvellously effective as he has been in the past 2 games but still the best of our midfield by some distance. Ashley Westwood – 6 – Improved as the game wore on but he was still some way off his very best. Gabriel Agbonlahor- 6 – Applied a disappointing finish on 75 minutes when he badly miscued his shot after Toure’s weak headed clearance under pressure from Benteke fell to him just inside of the box. Did not sustain the level of performance he had showed in our first two outings. Andreas Weimann – 6 – Found by Lowton on the edge of the box and was unlucky to see his shot sail just over the bar having taken a deflection off Agger. Glanced a header from a Bacuna cross on 72 minutes and was substituted a minute later. Not his best performance and could not manage to make much of an impression from the wide position he filled yesterday. Christian Benteke – 7 – Faced a tough battle with Toure yesterday who he was unable to dominate in quite the way he does so many defenders but he was still the player who was most likely to pop up with our equalizer. Hit a measured shot on 41 minutes that Mignolet pushed out for a corner after he had made space to get a shot in having picked up a Westwood corner. Headed a Westwood corner wide on 70 minutes and then looked odds on to hit an equalizer when found in space on the edge of the box on 86 minutes only to be denied by a very good save from his international team mate. Substitutes: Karim El Ahmadi – 6 - Replaced Lowton on 65 minutes and gave us something we had been missing in the middle up until then making a positive contribution and having a shot blocked by Gerrard on the edge of the box on 66 minutes. Aleksandar Tonev – 6 - Replaced Weimann on 73 minutes. Had a speculative shot from outside of the box gathered by the keeper on 79 minutes and 10 minutes later hit a firm shot from distance having taken no run up that flashed wide and past a surprised Mignolet. Nicklas Helenius - Replaced Westwood on 83 minutes. Not on long enough to earn a rating but did well to head on an El Ahmadi header finding Benteke in space on 86 minutes. Up the Villa! John Lewis

To which Andy Grey responded, "What a pity." - I guess Andy Gray might have been reacting to Keys having a sly dig at him as a former Villa player Danwichmann because I really cannot see that Andy would have wanted to see Villa lose like that again.

Proud of the lads tonight. Friend had a shocker and not for the first time. 3 points from these 2 games is a great start. Chelsea were given a very tough game and were so lucky to come away with the points. Bring on Liverpool!

Hughes to Liverpool for £6m mjmooney? Just the sort of potential bid they might leak to the papers to try to get the player looking to move on to them but that would be a poor move for the player (like it was for Downing) and for his current club (who would expect to get nearer £10m). Liverpool need to accept that this is not the 1970s and they are just not the side that everyone wants to play for any longer. Time for us to step in with £8m & add ons and rescue Will it might even be worth having him stay at Derby for a few months to make our bid more attractive to his club and help his development?

Super start. Top of the league (I could look at that table for hours) and just 37 more wins and the title is ours!

I am another from FTT who along with Peter moved on to better things here all those years ago!

"I have a strange feeling we're gonna drop wiemann to the bench for the start of this one" - I hope not P3te Benteke & Weimann need to start they have a great understanding and might well worry the Arsenal defence.

Win the FA Cup and qualify for the Champions League (by winning the title) would be very nice as would Benteke saying when linked with Spurs next close season "Why would I consider leaving Villa when I can win so much here?" More seriously these days 40 points is the first target and it would be nice to get that with some games to spare for once. More signs of ongoing progress and a solid mid-table season would be OK with me.

Back to Bent. I would have thought someone would have signed him on a permanent deal but I guess that may have been one that might not have gone through until the end of the window when clubs panic about bringing players in and by then we might have been just as concerned about having him left on our books. Could it be as I would like to think we wanted something done now so we could bring someone in now rather than risk not having time to do it on the last day? In any case Bent like Benteke after him played a big part in keeping us in the top flight and as yet he has not been negative about the club so I wish him well at Craven Cottage.

Surely someone (say from Scotland) will see him as an option after tonight if only on a loan basis with us paying some of his wages as we did last season?

Barry on loan would have been worth a look but I guess Lambo has made his decision to go with what we have or with them and someone we might still be looking to add. I wonder if Manchester City would have done the decent thing (given the Ireland/Milner deal) and paid the balance between what we might be prepared to pay and what he now gets to have made the loan happen?

I should point out that it is, in fact, "atomic strike" and NOT "nuclear strike". - Quite right Crackpot Foreigner I think I must have been looking to upscale his goal threat.

Following on from my comments regarding Pawlowski I see he is with them on a season loan deal with a view to buy so this may be one we would have to put on the back burner for at least a year. Pity...