West Brom down as well, which means we could get... actually, they haven't got anyone worth a Yorkie Bar and bottle of Tango. I'd take pennant in a minute though.
yeah~~~win again~ why benitez dun use cisse for 90 minute~ and i think he should tell more about the tactic he need to cisse~ let him know more about it~ milan baros really bad~so i didnt feel pity of selling him~
Well, ultimately it was a fairly comfortable victory after a dodgy start to the 2nd half.
The positives: a very nice take from Nando for the first, after another sublime pass from Xabi. I think Rafa started him to give him a chance to make his case for the FA Cup Final and he had a good game. Carra didn't put a foot wrong all game and marshalled the back nicely. Cisse's pace once again caused some problems down the right and Crouch should have done better with his cut-back in front of the Kop (coming after an excellent run to knick the ball off Melberg). And then, of course, there's Stevie! What a brace he scored today and at what a vital time...within minutes of coughing up the lead. Those goals were special and show just why he's the PFA Player of the Year!
The negatives: we seemed to drop a gear after scoring the early opener and let Villa grow into the game as the 1st half went on. Then, we were very careless at the start of the second half... giving up a goal and almost compounded that by conceding a quick second. Sami, especially, started the 2nd half poorly after having a solid 1st half. It seemed like he started the 2nd on the left side of centre next to Traore after playing most of the 1st next to Kromkamp on the right of centre. This maybe unsettled him and he had a couple of daft touches to let Villa in. Pepe, as well, had a few rush of blood moments but quickly recovered. And then, of course, there's Traore who didn't have a terrible game by his standards but still looked very much the weak link out there. I don't think that it was any coincidence that all the danger came from Villa's right in the second half.
So, we failed to equal the club cleansheet record (a shame) but, on the upside, we managed a 10th successive win, are now level on points with the Mancs and have gained 5 on them (+2 to us, -3 to them) in the goal differential column today!