Widely reported that normal kid was snowed in/couldnt make it due to weather and with the kids dad he was an ldo choice on short notice. Also with his tweets of being back, one last game etc.

£4.98/hr - maybe some unemployed 18 yr old in Swansea would like to do it and would jump at the chance to do it responsibly when his or her team plays the Chelsea. Nah, give it to some privileged kid ****bag for his and his dad's kicks. Well he got his kicks.

LOL

Oh God, didn't realise Villa have been scheduled to play Friday night in the Cup away to Millwall. Could round off a pretty ****ty week!

Yeah, that's pretty brutal. Should have moved them to Sunday.

Why delay the inevitable? Villa could use the extra rest ahead of Tuesday's six-pointer against Newcastle.

marek_heinz, starting to think the odds i gave you are FREE $$

lol villa

Glad I threw £20 on Millwall.

I think its actually beyond the "lol villa" stage, surely?

You have an owner who doesn't want to spend money in case they get relegated and that puts the club in financial trouble. Yes, that was said this week. And this guy is a billionaire...inherited of course, as he's certainly no candidate for Dragons ****ing Den.

Lambert's job is safe even if they get relegated obviously

At 1-0 to Villa Pile on Millwall bet justified.

sack him if they stay up, keep him if they go down. clearly a great manager at championship level but a hack in the prem.

gives him good incentive too

I think he'll keep the job regardless. Villas young team have arsenal like potential he just needs a bit more experience.

He did pretty well in the top flight last season.

Stoke (4-4-2): Sørensen - Shotton, Shawcross, Huth, Wilkinson - Kightly, Whelan, Nzonzi, Etherington - Walters, Jones.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Pantilimon - Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov - Garcia, Barry - Milner, Tevez, Silva - Dzeko

No Mario on the bench?

Aguero is back as well, bit of a bastard seen as Dzeko will be dropped.

Stoke bench: Carlo Nash, Michael Owen, Charlie Adam, Dean Whitehead, Matthew Upson, Peter Crouch, Cameron Jerome

City bench: Joe Hart, Scott Sinclair, Sergio Agüero, Jack Rodwell, Gaël Clichy, Karim Rekik, Marcos Lopes

Crosspost from English thread
-----------------------------

I feel that the QPR - MK Dons game is incorrectly priced.

First off, both teams are on a good run; (QPR: DDWDW, MKD: WDDW), i expect one of the teams to end this run today and i think it will be the Dons.
I assume both teams must look at the midweek fixtures coming up and maybe approach this game with a little more caution. QPR host City, which is a very important game and players will be rested today.
However, Jay Bothroyd who put in a very solid performance and the only goal vs WBA in the last round will be very eager to impress. With QPR still being short on the striker front now that Cisse has left and Zamora is just getting back from an injury, his way into the eleven is not a long journey by any means. If DJ Campbell gets playing time (which seems likely) you can count on him as well to try his best to find the net. Anyway, i think this is a game where the Hoops will have to go for an attacking approach for the first time in long. MK Dons are without midfielders Stephen Gleeson and Luke Chadwick (3 and 5 goals respectively). CFs Bowditch and Powell are doubtful (6 and 4 goals respectively). It seems reasonable that these 2 will be rested for the Tuesday L1 match vs Yeowil.
Kay and MacKenzie look like the likely starting forwards, both are yet to score a goal.

Dons have to make a couple of hours trip to Town in only three days, in a very important fixture for the Dons trying to reaching the playoffs, currently being 3 points off but with 2 games in hand.

League 1 table (matches played, points)
7. MK Dons 26, 43
8. Coventry 29, 42
9. Yeovil 27, 42
10. Walsall 29, 41

It appears as though Yeovil is the biggest competitor for Dons behind them in the table, thus making the Tuesday fixture even more important. They can make the gap behind them significantly bigger and focus on closing in the teams above them, with 3 out of 4 teams having played 2 more games than MK.

QPR like i said are going to rest players with the City home game coming up, but Norwich at home on Saturday will definitely be seen as the must-win game. I expect the lineup vs City to be much like the one vs Tottenham, with Taarabt in the false nine role operating mostly on the counter and Remy up top. Resting Taarabt, Remy, M'Bia will probably be enough for todays game, and Mackie, SWP, Bothroyd seems like enough attacking options.
The back four would be in danger vs almost all sides (likely to be Onouha, Tal Ben Haim, Ferdinand and Traore) but with MK Dons lacking in attack i rely on them getting the job done. Onouha and Tal Ben Haim were very good against WBA and from what i can tell Ferdinand made an exception in not making a fool of himself.

As a bonus, Dons eliminated a higher tier team for the first time in history last round where they beat Sheffield Wed. QPR - MK Dons was the fixture in the third round last year. Where the first game was drawn with goals from Helguson and Bowditch, and Gabbidon scored his only Hoops goal in the return fixture at Loftus Road where QPR won 1-0.
MK Dons basically outplayed QPR in both fixtures, but i attribute this to variance and poor tactics from Neil Warnock.

Dons have scored the least goals out of all teams in the Top 10 in League 1, but have only conceded less than Doncaster and Swindon (2nd and 4th respectively). Missing Powell, Bowditch and Gleeson will force them to rely even more on their defense, and QPR got goals in them in any case they are allowed to press.
Keeping the momentum up is vital for the Rs, a draw or loss is close to unacceptable since it would mean either going out or having to look forward to a replay in Milton Keynes.
In front of the home fans i expect them to get the job done with ease, so at odds against QPR giving up less than a goal here seems too good to pass up on.


QPR -0.75 for me, 2.08 on Pinnacle.

Didnt read it first time out.

FREE MONEY tho

What happened Kompany?

Came back just as he walked off.

he landed awkwardly on his ankle

Stoke are really funny to watch, when they break they kind of just pass anywhere in the hope that it'll find a team mate whose running onto the ball.

Oh dear

Snoozefest!