Yesterday and a look ahead to villa

Fantastic win yesterday which all but confirms we are safe and we are above the mackems! We played quite well against the dirty tactics of wolves and deserved the win by the margin we did. We played football and wolves didn't and that is why were not in the relegation zone.

My personal match ratings:
Harps(8) - Some great saves and an experienced head.
Simpson(7) - Good defensively and attacking, wolves goal was his fault though, ran away from the player and let him dribble into the box instead of tackling.
Willo(7) - A rock.
COLO(10, MOTM) - Outstanding once again, what a legend! Solid at the back, shared his experience with young Fergie. Solid at the back. Fantastic skill then run to set up Lovenkrands goal. He has been my player of the season so far just ahead of Tiote. He is pivotal to everything we do.
Fergie(7) - Good first start for us. Played well. I think he is more of a winger or wide midfielder than a full back though. Hope he is alright after coming off with a knock.
Barton(7) - An inspirational figure and a natural leader. Wolves targeted him again early on but the ref was quick to respond. Still looks injured though as he did in the stoke game.
Guthrie(7) - Had a quiet game but when I did notice him he was playing well. Defiantly a CM and not a RM. Much better from him yesterday.
Nolan(8) - Got his goal, battled away in midfield. A fantastic clinical foul to stop wolves scoring, shows that he is one of the most intelligent players around. He lead by example once again.
Guti(8) - he doesn't often score but when he does they are crackers! Wonder goal and I think he waved. He is vital to our team. He helps the defenders, runs at people, puts in crosses, picks out great passes, shoots, scores, dives for free kicks, counters, effective in any position and links up play between defence and attack superbly. A great asset to our team.
Shola(6/7) - Scored, won some headers. Committed to many fouls. In the second half he started to fade out of the game.
Lovenkrands(7/8) - Good game. Scored, caused the defence problems, made great runs but our midfield kept over hitting the pass to him. Probably our best striker at the moment.
Subs:
Perch(6) - I feel sorry for him. He clearly trys hard and wants to do well but he just isn't good enough for this level.
Ranger(6)- alright at first, then he got moved to RM. He showed that he has potential.
Saylor(8) - Won a few headers and set up Guti's goal by bombing up the right wing. Wasn't really on long enough for a rating.
Other:
Pardew(7) - Got rid of that disastrous 5, 3, 2 we played at stoke. Good selection from the players available.
Ref(5) - Started well by booking players for assaulting Barton. Should have had a pen and then the rest of his decisions were a bit off to say the least. How wolves only got 3 yellows I don't know.

Next week we have Villa away. We should have revenge on our mind from the last time we were down there. Tiote, Nolan and Perch are banned but Raylor is back from suspension. Injuries to: Jose, Fergie, Ireland, Gosling, Ben Arfa and Best. There is a chance the first 3 on that list will be back but the others have next to no chance.

 

Good ratings. Agree with most. Villa will beat us.. BIG TIME

 

Yeah I've got a feeling villa will beat us as well. However this season has been really unpredictable and villa haven't been too good so anything could happen. Nothing will surprise me any more.

 

I ****ing hate villa

 

Guti should get an extra point for the wave.

Don't think Villa will beat us big time at all!

 

They will. I'll stand by it, otherwise something bad will happen!

Villa to win 2-0. Young and Bent to shine.

 

Was Guthire even playing? Barton seemed to be playing both positions.

It's between Jonas and Barton for Man of the Match in my opinion. Jonas has improved so much, I swear the only thing he's doing differently though is playing with his head up, it's such a simple game at times.

Barton took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half, ran the show at times as he has so often this season.

 

Guthrie was quiet because he had to do Tiote's defensive work! ^

He did his job in a respectable manner though, not a outstanding/amazing performance but one worth of respect.

 

Nah, i'm sorry but Barton was ****in epic yesterday. You're entitled to your opinion, and i agree Colo was class, but i believe Barton deserves more than a 7.

 

It's between Jonas and Barton for Man of the Match in my opinion. Jonas has improved so much, I swear the only thing he's doing differently though is playing with his head up, it's such a simple game at times. And f****** well waving!

 

LOVENKRANDS OUR BEST STRIKER - he has one good game.

ameobi is our best all round striker
best is our best goalscorer
ranger is our best technical striker

and why did you give taylor a rating of 8 when you said he wasnt on long enough for a rating?

apart from that quite good ratings, i think maybe collo was a 9, not a 10, 10's are reserved for nolan vs sunderland surely

 

Thank god for the Argies! Colo and Guti have been fantastic recently.

 

IMO, none of our strikers are high quality/top-class. Lover and Ameobi are OK though not class, Ranger can potentially become very good but needs a loan spell to boost his confidence and get some goals under his belt, Kuqi is a average CL-standard player and Best still has a lot to improve but I like the looks of him and currently he'll have to say he's our BEST striker(no pun).

 

I just like Lovenkrands better than the rest, none of them are that good and I wasn't including Best because he is injured at the moment. I gave Taylor a rating based on if he kept up that level of performance for a longer time period. Surely Nolan vs Sunderland has to be off the scale!

 

Agree mostly with these ratings. Lover and Shola probably both a 7.5. They both had a pretty decent game.
Bump Saylor down to a 7, played good but not on long enough as you said, Barton up to 8. Colo up to 1,000,000

 

Champions League? If he was an average Champions League striker I'd be more than happy

 

Sorry meant CC-standard.