rjenkins

-----------------Friedel-----------------

Cuellar---Collins----Dunne--Warnock

Agbonlahor--NRC---Petrov--Downing

------------------Young-----------------

-----------------Heskey-----------------

Houllier has to take some credit for the point today undoubtedly, but I still think the reason why we have got only one point instead of three today is because he picked a rubbish bench and didn't bring subs on early enough. We're only two points off 18th. Today was better, but we're still in trouble. Let's not get carried away.

Excellent mettle shown by all the lads today, shame we couldn't have won. I think the blame for that lies with Houllier, because we were knackered from the 65th minute onwards and we didn't bring on any fresh legs to counteract Chelsea's subs

All the same though, well done lads

---------------------Friedel--------------------

Lichaj-----Cuellar---------Collins--Warnock

---------------Hogg---------NRC--------------

Albrighton---------Ireland------------Young

---------------------Gabby--------------------

I think this game is set-up for Ireland, despite his troubles. I think that he sees himself as this great player, and here's the perfect shop window so he can get his move. May even be worth picking Dunne as well, given that in the last few years we've scored a lot of goals from set pieces against Chelsea.

Lichaj played very well. Everyone else was poor, quite frankly. Downing and Agbonlahor in particular weren't working hard enough.

Ironically, I think today would have been exactly the type of game for Stephen Ireland. You know, a midfielder with actual technical skills and passing ability.

We'll be in the bottom three by new year.

I think those voices calling for Houllier to go are going to get much louder after today. This is awful, by anyone's standards.

I was so delighted after just getting a win yesterday that had I rated the players straight after the match I would have given everyone a 10. Having given myself some time to calm down though and watch the highlights of the game again to see if I missed anything the first time around this is my reaction:

Friedel - 6

Didn't have an awful lot to do really, but after some of his performances this season I don't feel as confident about him as I used to.

Lichaj - 6

Could ask for more on a first league start to be honest. Thomas did get the better of him occasionally though and I fear a better winger would have made him pay for those mistakes. I wouldn't feel too uncomfortable playing him ahead of Luke Young more often on today's showing.

Cuellar - 7

Straight after the match yesterday I probably thought he had played better than he actually did. Made the odd slip and misjudged the header for the corner they scored from, but I do think he's our best centre-back going on form and I hope he gets a run in the side. He made some important challenges.

Collins - 6

Better than he has been recently, although it was his poor marking that let Scharner in for their goal. For a big lad he isn't that good aerially from set pieces. If he could play like he did against Chelsea more often I'd be a lot happier about starting him.

Warnock - 6

Got well beaten in the first half by Tchoyi, but was reasonably solid as usual in the second half and he did have a tough job on his hands with Fortune wanting to drift out wide too.

Albrighton - 8

Not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, but he was the source for both of our goals and you can't ask for much more than that

Hogg - 7

Probably not quite as good as he was against Birtmingham and Liverpool, but he is impressing me just through his energy and tackling.

Bannan - 6

Not the sort of game where he could really stamp his authority on midfield. Anonymous really, but he didn't do anything really wrong. He was the right player to be taken off for Reo-Coker.

Downing - 8

Much better than in the last few weeks. Composed and dangerous, although I think he needs good players around him for us to get the best out of him. I'm not sure he likes being the main outlet for attacks in the way that Ashley Young does.

Ashley Young - 8

Being captain suits his ego I think, and he played really very well yesterday. Has a good understanding with Heskey

Heskey - 7

Not his best performance by any stretch of the imagination. There were a few wayward headers and dodgy touches, but he certainly put a shift in and scored a goal at the end of the day

Unless Ireland is injured I think he's been really unlucky today. I thought he was starting to look quite good in spells against Liverpool, and Albrighton didn't look right on Monday night. I would have had Marc on the bench, with Young and Downing on the wings and Ireland supporting Heskey.

Oh well though, glad to see Cuellar in the side. UTV!

Rather than staying calm and letting Houllier continue to ruin our club...

The club was here a long time before GH, and will remain so a long time after he has left. If we lose to West Brom AND Wigan, then we can start to ask questions, but can anyone honestly say they thought the side we were forced to put our against Liverpool was anywhere near capable of beating them?

If we sack Houllier now we would have to:

Replace his coaching team and revise his scouting arrangements

Find a new manager

Agree terms with that new manager and his team

The new manager would have to fully assess the squad

Find out what areas need strengthening

Find available players

Scout those players to see if they are suitable for us/are willing to join

There are just over three weeks until the transfer window, it would be madness to replace Houllier now. What we need is stability.

We're not in the relegation zone yet, and there are some very bad teams below us. Let's save the hysterics until there is an actual crisis, and until then we should just get behind the team and hope that Houllier has got some kind of vision for the club.

Tonight was massively frustrating for me, because it was Small Heath, because of the way we played, and because of the manner of the goals we conceded.

Houllier must be gutted. It seems to me that, for the really big occasions, he's got us playing some good football and we seem to come out up for it at the start of a game. Both of the goals they scored tonight were the result of Richard Dunne and James Collins combining horribly against the run of play. This was certainly not the same as the games against Blackburn or Arsenal, where we were just poor full stop.

Dunne has been poor all season, and if Cuellar had not gotten injured, I'd hope Houllier would have enough sense to make sure that by now he'd have been dropped. Collins was poor against Arsenal and poor again tonight, and he seems to have a habit of being easy to lose if you're a striker running into the box. Lastly, Friedel is showing his age. This has to be his last season for us. On the plus side though, I thought Luke Young was better tonight than he has been recently, although he's still performing worse than Warnock in my opinion, (although I've rarely agreed with the criticism of Warnock from a section of Villa fans generally) and Hogg, Bannan and Gabby can all be proud of their performances tonight.

My ratings:

Friedel - 5

L Young - 7

Collins - 5

Dunne - 4

Warnock - 7

Bannan - 7

Hogg - 8

Clark - 6

Downing - 6

A Young - 6

Agbonlahor - 8

Friedel - 6

L. Young - 3

Dunne - 5

Collins - 4

Warnock - 4

Downing - 2

Clark - 5

Bannan - 5

Pires - 4

A. Young - 3

Carew - 2

Subs:

Delfouneso - 7

Ireland - 6

Herd - N/A

For me, we were poor all game. From the first minute we looked lethargic and disjointed. I think this is predominantly down the number of first-team midfielders we are missing but Houllier also got his tactics wrong in the first half. Pires supporting Carew wouldn't have been an inspired move even if Carew could trap or pass a football. We needed a leader today to organise the team and we didn't have one, and I think a few players (Downing in particular) just didn't look bothered today. 4-2 makes the game sound better than it was for us.

Ireland

I have two spare Holte End Upper tickets for the match against Arsenal. I had booked four, as my mates and I are going to see Interpol on the Friday night and I thought it would make a perfect end to the trip to see the mighty Villa against one of the biggest clubs in the country.

What I had forgotten is that the game clashes with the Wales vs. All Blacks rugby game in Cardiff, and so since two of the lads had seats for the eggchasing, I'm left with spares.

The tickets are in a good central position (K3 Row 23) and whilst I paid £38 a ticket for the seats, I'll accept £60 (or nearest offer) from anyone willing to take the pair.

Let me know if you're interested. I'll be at the game so I can arrange to meet you somewhere around the ground before kick off to hand over tickets and payment.

Cheers guys,

Rhys

When he brought Pires on, I thought he should have shifted Young to the wing and played Pires in the hole. Pires doesn't have the legs to play on the wing any more. Don't think he ran once, jogging or walking everywhere. Young looked good on the few occasions he drifted out to the wing as well. Not to mention how good Downing was on the left last week, and fairly inefective this.

And who the hell voted Ireland as MOTM!?

I think a vote for any Villa player after today is redundant tbh.

Friedel - 5

At fault for the first goal and didn't really do a lot else.

Luke Young - 0

Atrocious all game. He kept losing his man in open play, wasn't marking properly at any set pieces and couldn't control the ball or pass well enough to help Downing get forward. I don't think I've ever seen him play worse for Villa

Stephen Warnock - 3

He was actually playing really well for about 40 minutes, and then the silly challenges started again

Richard Dunne - 6

Better than I've seen him play in a while, probably because the rest of the defence was so bad...

Ciaran Clark - 4

He's still learning, but he got taught a lesson by Roberts in the second half.

Stewart Downing - 5

Very average. He hasn't played that poorly for us for a while, and just shouldn't be on the right-wing

Ashley Young - 0

All of a sudden he seems to think that if he doesn't want to play where the manager tells him to he can just ignore instruction. In the end he just got in Agbonlahor's way, making Ireland's life difficult and effectively ruined most of our first half chances in particular by spoiling our shape.

Jonathan Hogg - 6

Can't compete in the air, but made very few mistakes compared to our other midfielders and got stuck in. I think he's underrated by our fans.

Barry Bannan - 5

Started very well, and when the team is going forward he looks dangerous. Inexperience started to creep into his game in the second half however, and he started to make bad decisions

Stephen Ireland - 5

Needs to take more responsibility to win back possession, but he actually looks like he could create good opportunities in front of goal for us. Not helped by Ashley being a prima donna or Gabby's shocking performance

Gabby Agbonlahor - 2

Probably wasn't fit, but really shouldn't have bothered if that was all he had to offer.

Can't believe it

Dunne trying to play his way out of danger ends up hoofing it straight to a Blackpool player - not buying this 'better passer than Cuellar' theory...

I feel really bad for Cuellar at the moment. I think he's our best centre-back overall

Was it harsh on Clark? Anyone know

I think he was already falling, at least according to Jack and Andy on the official site

No idea how tonight is going to go. Blackpool have managed to get some good results this season and Houllier really is restricted as to who he can pick. Starting to get worried now that Carlos is so unfancied by GH.

Ireland off after 60 minutes again tonight... Hope things pick up for him, although I think he could do with a few more full games. I thought he was unlucky to get substituted against Chelsea and he shows glimpses of class. I am not worried yet, Milner and Petrov weren't great when they first came here after all, but I can't say that he's performing as well as I hoped he would.

I think this 'crap atmosphere' claim is really just a matter of where you are in the stadium. Villa Park isn't a great shape for keeping noise within the ground. I had a great time in the upper holte yesterday and couldn't hear the chelsea fans at all the entire game. I think that perhaps the trinity and doug ellis stands may not be starting many chants but I don't recognise the scenario as being as bad as some of you guys make out.

Friedel - 8

Solid throughout, did all that was asked of him

Beye - 6

Whilst he undoubtedly had a harder task than Warnock, he was only ok for me. His positioning sometimes looked a little off to me.

Warnock - 7

Thought he had his best game for a while, he looked determined and strong.

Dunne - N/A

Collins - 8

Excellent performance considering he was up against a top-class forward. Hardly put a foot wrong.

Downing - 9

My MOTM, all season long he's been looking composed on the ball and more dangerous in possession and today he was very good defensively and offensively.

Young - 6

Not one of his better showings, but Ferreira marshalled him well and he still managed to get himself involved in some of our attacks

Petrov - 6

I thought he was Jekyll and Hyde yesterday, sometimes getting stuck in and keeping the midfield shape, passing well, but the ball gets stuck under his feet so often and his lack of pace was exploited by the Chelsea midfield at times.

Reo-Coker - 8

All of a sudden Reo is one of the first names on the team-sheet.

Ireland - 7

I think he's a player who drifts in and out of games, but he's genuinely skillful and creative and, especially in the second half, every pass forward he made could have led to a chance. I think with a run in the side he'll create lots of goals for us, and it's the most impressed with him I've been since we signed him.

Carew - 6

Decent first half, couldn't get into the game again in the second.

SUBS:

Clark - 8

Delfouneso - 5

Sidwell - N/A

A few people mentioned that Warnock had a great match.

Maybe I was watching a different match, but Warnock was exposed and played poorly. It looked like after he picked up a knock, he always does, he couldnt get forward and couldn't defend well.

Oh and he got done on the Bolton goal.

Speaking of the Bolton goal, did anyone else see Downing just moping around? Warnock gets beaten and Downing should be hustling back to cover for him. Nada. Downing defends like he's a striker. Shocking match from him.

Collins was huge and so was Friedel. Why the F was Dunne starting?

Cuellar played well and showed some hustle. He even got forward and put that cross into the box that Gabby so poorly knocked out for a goal kick.

Ashley Young isn't a AMF or second striker. He's a winger......sooo frustrating.

We were lucky to get a point.

I thought Warnock did ok actually. He made a few errors but he put in some good tackles as well and even won his fair share of headers against a very physical side. He got done for the goal yes, but Richard Dunne and Luke Young were all partly at fault also, so it's unfair I think to lay all the blame with Warnock.

All things considered, it could have been a lot worse than Houllier. He's Villa manager now though so gets 110% support from me (Probably about 126% if he gets us Toulalan)

Up the Villa!!