Sunderland 1 - Aston Villa 0

It was the mad selection of Dunne over Clark that cost us. Houllier was well and truly punished by the football gods today. Learn from your mistakes Mr Houllier - and try and do it sooner rather than later please.

66 % 34. Thats wrong by a mile.

It was 51%-49% to us.

I'd love to see what our record is when Beye is playing... Obviously I'm not saying it's down to him but I can't remember us ever winning when he plays!!

I don't think we need to worry about our defense at the moment. I thought Beye had a superb game, he bailed out dunne and collins a number of times and almost every move they had came down the other side of the field. Similar for against Chelsea, Downing and Beye virtually shut down that side of the pitch. He hasn't been that good going forward though but he has been considerably better than Warnock over the last two games (just my opinion :D). I actually disagree compeletely with the issue that our strikeforce is the major problem. Our problem is in our midfield! AVFCinOz made a very good point, when do we ever win the "second ball". Heskey probably won more than 60% of the headers yesterday but the number of times we kept possession I could probably count on one hand. Then consider how poorly our wide players are crossing - there was 4 corners in a row that ash delivered that the keeper caught! Can't count the number of times that he and downing didn't even beat the first defender with a cross. Then even if they do their ONLY target in the box is Heskey. To finally illustrate my point - Marlon Harewood is on 3 goals for the season. Couldn't hit a barn door with us. Yet he has scored more than all of our stikers combined this season. Coincidence?