Premier League 23rd-25th February Discussion Thread

1. The benefit of the MOTD replay was that Clichy got the ball - he was caught napping a bit but the ref was wrong.

2. The players were totally shaken by what they saw of Eduardo's leg - it was a most unusual and revolting incident. For that reason, the fact that the players picked themselves up as much as they did was good. The emotional state they were left in means that you can't draw any conclusion from today's match as far as their attitude for the rest of the season is concerned. In fact, if the ref had not made two gross errors, we would be celebrating a win.

I was happy that the team made a positive effort in the second half and we were unlucky not to win by 2 or 3 goals. The team cannot be blamed for not trying. Given the circumstances, I think the players can be forgiven for showing their humanity. Sometimes, the players deserve to be criticized. Today isn't one of those days.

Villa: Carson; Gardner, Bouma, Davies, Laursen; Barry, Reo-Coker, Maloney, Young; Agbonlahor, Carew
Subs: Taylor, Knight, Osbourne, Salifou, Harewood

mellberg injured apparently. petrov doesn't even make the bench..

good looking team in my opinion. it'll interesting to see if salifou comes on. harewood perhaps a little unlucky to be on the bench, but he and carew are a bit too similar to start together - and you can't leave out carew.

Subs: Federici, Bikey, Kebe, Long, Ingimarsson

Hopefully Aston Villa win today. I want to see them in Europe next season.

They won't get much next week.

Cesc wrote:

Reading XI vs. Aston Villa

Hahnemann

Murty . . Sonko . . Cisse . . Shorey

Oster . . Harper . . Matejovsky . . Hunt

Doyle . . Kitson

Subs: Federici, Bikey, Kebe, Long, Ingimarsson

Hopefully Aston Villa win today. I want to see them in Europe next season.

Cesc wrote:They won't get much next week.

Gotta go for Reading here, need to keep making ground on the teams above us.

i do quite like reading, and i don't want them to go down. but they can start their recovery from next week.

Barry misses a penalty for Villa! Smashes it well off target! Given for handball.

fuckity

debaser wrote:i do quite like reading, and i don't want them to go down. but they can start their recovery from next week.

same here.

it's encouraging to see a club their size and stature play the sort of football they do.

Didn't think it was a penalty anyway...terrible strike, the ball went away from the goal as soon as he struck it!

Young scores. Reading are useless at the back. So many individual errors.

Agbonla-young!

Harewood makes it Reading 0-2 Villa

Bit harsh on Reading, they've been better in the second half. Fine finish from Harewood.

HARE!

awesome

Can't even score against a side who hasn't kept a clean sheet in nearly 3 months, Reading really are in trouble.

Nothing goes Reading's way. They've had a few efforts scrambled off the line now.
______

And they finally get a consolation goal! Good freekick, but Carson should have saved it.

bollocksy

Fair play to Villa, they're keeping in this race for 4th, I still think the merseyside derby next month will decide it

full time, villa win 2-1

great result - it was a must win game and these were the types of games we usually draw (or lose, as at fulham). away form this season has been really good and this result means there's less pressure on next week's game at arsenal.

il piccolo Coccodrillo wrote:1. The benefit of the MOTD replay was that Clichy got the ball - he was caught napping a bit but the ref was wrong.

Getting the ball doesn't make it a fair tackle. But I didn't think it was a penalty.

2. The players were totally shaken by what they saw of Eduardo's leg - it was a most unusual and revolting incident. For that reason, the fact that the players picked themselves up as much as they did was good. The emotional state they were left in means that you can't draw any conclusion from today's match as far as their attitude for the rest of the season is concerned. In fact, if the ref had not made two gross errors, we would be celebrating a win.

Two? If you're referring to the free kick or the Arsenal penalty appeal then both were the right decision. Having a player injured doesn't mean you should get all the decisions your way...

I was happy that the team made a positive effort in the second half and we were unlucky not to win by 2 or 3 goals. The team cannot be blamed for not trying. Given the circumstances, I think the players can be forgiven for showing their humanity. Sometimes, the players deserve to be criticized. Today isn't one of those days.

Who's criticising them?

Dwarf wrote:Can't even score against a side who hasn't kept a clean sheet in nearly 3 months, Reading really are in trouble.

That worked wonderfully.

Dwarf wrote:

Dwarf wrote:Can't even score against a side who hasn't kept a clean sheet in nearly 3 months, Reading really are in trouble.

That worked wonderfully.

if by wonderfully you mean cuntishly, i agree wholeheartedly. cost me 2 clean sheet bonuses, that did

Can't we make a separate thread, perhaps a sticky, where saints and his opponents/Arsenal fans can argue all they want? It's unbelievably frustrating to have matchday or other football-related threads ruined by their bickering.

kas wrote:Can't we make a separate thread, perhaps a sticky, where saints and his opponents/Arsenal fans can argue all they want? It's unbelievably frustrating to have matchday or other football-related threads ruined by their bickering.

And tedious.

Shame about Reading losing again. They did well last season and started this with some good performances. You can't afford to be sloppy at the back in this league. Missed the Man U game but sounded like an ominous performance for us and Arsenal although I've felt since early in the season that we'd not catch the leaders. Tough on Eduardo, clumsy tackle and a horrible injury. Hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

Blackburn 3-1 Bolton

2 penalties for Blackburn after fouls on David Dunn scored by McCarthy, the third goal also came from a David Dunn assist but this time for Bentley. Kevin Davies got the unassisted Bolton goal.

Blackburn 4-1 Bolton FT

Pedersen scored his first EPL goal of the season right at the death.

Sgoater1 wrote:Blackburn 4-1 Bolton FT

Pedersen scored his first EPL goal of the season right at the death.

Blackburn for 4th

kas wrote:Can't we make a separate thread, perhaps a sticky, where saints and his opponents/Arsenal fans can argue all they want? It's unbelievably frustrating to have matchday or other football-related threads ruined by their bickering.

Tell that to my detractors. Most of them seem to think they've doing the board a service by endlessly repeating 'you just want attention' and 'you are just saying that because -insert bullshit pop psychology-' and so on. If it weren't for Arsenal fans having such very thin skin when it comes to their club, 90% of what I write would pass here without 20 page controversy.


@Kimbo - you're a fine one to talk about tediousness. Everyone got bored of your grumpy northerner persona about a year back yet you insist on hanging around, despite announcing your departure. You really think that was a fascinating episode for all and sundry?

St. Eduardo wrote:
@Kimbo - you're a fine one to talk about tediousness. Everyone got bored of your grumpy northerner persona about a year back yet you insist on hanging around, despite announcing your departure. You really think that was a fascinating episode for all and sundry?

I'm wondering how many more angles you can try and insult me with, you've attacked my manhood - didn't work, my favourite sport - didn't work, and now my popularity(on a forum ffs, who cares) - which doesn't work, and is a bit rich coming from who i would guess is one of the least popular posters on the board and yet somehow knows what "everyone" is thinking. It's pathetic and, as i've said, tedious, move on to someone else saints, i'm not the type to be hurt by comments from a faceless nobody on a football forum.

Btw, me leaving is irrelevant, it was a dispute that is now over and is ancient history. I thought i handled it well and made my point without filling the board with racism or porn.