roonst83

This is my fear.

its not going to be any better next year either I disagree actually. If we manage to stay up I feel we'll address some of our weaknesses and Lambert will have had a full season to evaluate what we've got and what we need. Also with the added TV money and the sale of some of our current players (Dunne, Bent no doubt) I'm confident we'd be backed with a bit of money to strengthen. A potential downside is that they guy who scouted Benteke is no longer with us. Staying up would give our players such a huge lift for next season too. But we need to somehow cross that finish line first

Nah, I think that wound is well healed by now. Although I hope you're right. I just don't think the needle between Martinez and Swansea's fans will be anything like ours. im sure they would still like to get 1 over on him. hopefully in our case Interesting thing about this game is Swansea like to keep the ball, and they can do that well. Wigan also like to keep the ball and knock it around - so it'll be interesting to see who is better at retaining possession. Wigan did very well against Man City but they'll expect to have to go at Swansea more which may make the game pretty open.

Pretty much agree with this set up. Although I wouldnt be too surprised to see Bowery thrown in as he was against Stoke. Ps, anyone know what's happened to Bannan? He's completely disappeared from the squad of late.

*Devils advocate* If Wigan win, it could have the reverse affect though. Especially for the fans who would be nervous as hell if Wigan beat Spurs...plus they will still have their game in hand

Can I assume that Gardner will be back from suspension for this?

If Spurs score early then I would maybe fancy them to go on and win. But Spurs are notoriously unreliable (ask any of their fans) when you need them to get a result. The fact they need the win to push for 3rd/4th will hopefully drive them to victory - but you could counteract that by saying Wigan have a lot to play for too. Strange things happen at this time of the season so i'm far from confident that Spurs will beat them - will just have to wait and see. Ill be watching them with a Spurs mate and have assured him I will be as much of a fan as him on Saturday (bar wearing any colours or singing "oh when the Spurs")

Couldn't agree more - and despite me watching all teams around us like a hawk, its Wigan we need to stay ahead of I feel.

Okay, l'll (reluctantly) start this match thread. Absolutely huge. We need to rise to the occasion and handle the pressure. I'd personally be more confident if this was Saturday at 3pm. (as we wouldn't be last on the weekends fixture card and also the whole world wouldn't be watching) But we absolutely cant afford to lose this - and need to win. I think id go back to having 3 in the middle - perhaps Westwood, Sylla and Delph and bench Zog. Id also consider bringing Clark in for Bennett and switch Baker to LB. Basically i'm bricking it.

I thought that when we played QPR. They'd won a few games and I thought they were going to come to VP and beat us. They lost. Hopefully Sunderland go the same way. I thought of this today aftr seeing all the awful results for us. We need to take the form we showed against Reading, QPR and Stoke for the games against Sunderland, Norwich and Wigan.

Nowich are gonna smash Reading this weekend so that (imo) will be them brought out of it near enough.

Guys I can speak from personal experience with this matter. I, too am in remission from acute leukaemia and like Geoff Thomas I had a stem cell transplant (Geoff is a friend of mine actually). Whilst a stem cell transplant is the best chance of curative treatment for this disease, the word 'cure' is not thrown around too much due to the on-going trials for this disease. So I am in what's known as a "complete remission" and have been since my transplant in July 2007. Geoff too. Whilst by all accounts the likelihood of my leukaemia (and Geoffs) returning is relatively slim, I still have not been told that I've been 'cured'. With Stan his treatment will be through chemotherapy only as he doesnt require a transplant it seems (not everyone does) and chemo throughout this first year have treatment has got him to a remission. The hardest part is keeping a patient in remission. Stan has overcome some huge hurdles so far and hopefully will now stay in a remission from here on in. He will be very closely monitored for the next year. To get where he is now is remarkable and a true testament to his character.

Best chance of the game was for Maloney! Very worried! City are playing awful!

Couldn't agree more

Its imperative we don't lose this. And agree with what someone said earlier about pressing Berbatov and stopping him play (as much as you can) to try and stifle their main creative outlet.

...was actually gutted when I heard that Dowd was the ref. He constantly seeks attention through his ridiculous decisions making

Sunderland have Newcastle away not Arsenal.

They probably can...and will. Wigan have all the luck and with City out of the title race they'll be less up for it. I've just got a bad feeling that Wigan will get something at the COMS

Cannot stand these rocket polishers. Feels just like after the QPR game when Wigan got loads of luck to beat Newcastle and sink us back into the bottom three....need QPR to take something off Wigan.

So I did...then ran back when I got a message saying "screamer" -I was dreading it thinking we'd thrown it away (again)...then went back to check how much injury time was left and saw Tekkers celebrating. Unbelievable.

If Baker does his usual disappearing act through injury in the first half then it could be a very very loooooong afternoon for us.

Any update on his injury ahead of the weekend? Any update on his injury ahead of the weekend?

I remember last season he was Fulham's best player when he came to Villa park. It's a good thing for us that he is out.Sidwell is doing OK with Fulham as a matter of fact. One of a little band of players who were useless with Villa but now doing better with higher placed premier league sides. Another pointless signing, I was there for his debut v odense and he was bloody awful, he never justified a starting place and rarely made an impact from the bench. That penalty he gave away at wolves cost us another 2 points. Other than a goal v everton after 30 seconds, the highlight of his time here was the quick thinking involved in milner scoring v hull. Can't be good when one of your highlights from a career at Villa was a throw-in

Agree with pretty much all of this. We got royally stuck into Stoke when we played them at our place - we were very physical and didn't give them an inch. Unfortunately we couldn't muster up any opportunities either. Do we accept the physicality of this game and bring in Delph to (along with Sylla) try and combat their midfield? Or do we take a more positive approach and play Nzogbia as a creative outlet?

never a red