Well, he is crucial to Croatia's finishing department. Don't know why but the NT Petric never plays/scores like the club (HSV/BVB) Petric. It's something like the spell Boksic had.

Boksic, I remember him.. why did he play for Middlesbrough!? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Cause his friends from Juve/Lazio times Ravanelli and Gazza called him?

Don't know, but it was a totall miss. Most of croatian players who come to EPL make similar misses. Just think of the tragic Balaban-Villa deal. But Boksic deserved better...

Ah, that makes sense.

B*laban was so bad, I've never seen a player who lacked such confidence..

^^

Sheva at Chelsea?

Not even close.

Sheva did actually score 14 goals for Chelsea in his 1st season so he wasn't all that bad. B*laban barely even played 14 games and scored 0 goals. He went through 1-on-1 a few times and just hit them straight at the keeper, he made you want to cry!

I'll try!


Trouble is with the new rule changes, finishing 4th means nothing. If one of the big 4 finishes 4th, they're more than capable of winning the qualifying round, but if we end up having to play a team like Fiorentina or Atletico I'm not really sure we'd go through.

I wouldn't say fluke. Many people have said we're lucky that we score alot of late goals, but nobody has scored more goals in the last 15 minutes of games than Liverpool ad no team has scored more injury time goals than Arsenal, so teams around us are pretty lucky too! We've also had a tonne of injuries, we played Everton last weekend with only 4 of the 11 we would have played if everyone is fit.

We deserve to be where we are, but a tough run of fixtures coming up could put us as low as 6th. Everton are 11 points behind, but we have to go to Anfield, ld Trafford, City of Manchester Stadium, while hosting Chelsea, Everton and Spurs, not easy!

If we finish top 4 it will be fantastic. Beating Chelsea on Saturday would probably give our players the confidence that they can do it. A defeat and the pressure may start to get to us. Very big game!

Oh, and a mention for Krasic of CSKA. Best opposition performance I've seen at Villa Park this season by a mile, che was brilliant.

This post has been edited by kurtsimonw: Feb 19 2009, 05:25 PM

Villa-Chelsea tomorrow. Not confident at all. Hiddinks first game in charge, we've come off the back of being eliminated from the FA Cup and a home draw in the UEFA Cup, I can't see anything but a Chelsea win. Wurprisingly, Chelsea haven't won at Villa Park since 1999 and it remains the only Premier League ground tat Abramovich has never seen his side win it. Would like to see it continue, but doubtful. 3-1 Chelsea.

The Emirates. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocentsmily.gif)

Not stadium, ground, as in your territory. His side have won away at Arsenal, is what I'm getting at.

Anyways, Abramovich finally saw his side win at Villa Park. Moment of brilliance from Lampard to set up Anelka mid-way through the first half. They outclassed in in the first 45, we were better in the 2nd half and more than merrited the draw. I predicted defeat, and pretty much conceeded defeat when I saw Mark Halsey was refereeing the game. From the taunting of the Villa fans before games against West Ham and Stoke to the dubious penalties he gave against us throughout last season and again against Stoke this season, I'd wish the Premier League would stop appointing him to our games. No big decision to make for him, thankfully, as he got every other decision wrong, not just against Villa but for both sides. Ruined when started out to be a good open game of football.

Everton and Arsenal win this weekend, and we can start looking back at finishing 6th again.

Barry should have done better with the two chances he had. And Agbonlahor too... dreadful effort on that one-on-one... you never go for the near corner there, not with a technical shot at least.

Villa didn't deserve to lose at all. they dominated the game in the 2nd half!

I thought the one sattempt Barry had to Cechs left was a very good effort, don't remember the 2nd one. Agreed on the Agbonlahor attempt though, nothing wrong with going to the near post from that angle, as going for the far post is near impossible, but he could have got much closer t Cech. Gabby may be the fastest footballer around, but his footballing brain is still quite poor.

Anyways, Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland, so it's good news for us that they only gained a point this weekend! United 1-1 Blackburn at half-time. First goal United have let in for ages.

well yeah I completely disagree but anyway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Barry's other chance was his weak shot from outside the area. Not a great chance but it can go in if you place it right, he shot dead center.

This post has been edited by dst: Feb 21 2009, 07:47 PM

It seems like we're doing everything we can to hand Villa the 4th CL spot.