Yeah, my main worry for Gerrard is his form leading up to the World Cup.

Great results for United yesterday but we have a major defensive problems at the moment and chances are Carrick is going to have to fill in at centre-back again in the CL this coming week. Not good. :(

Good to see Chelsea's frailties being exposed though. Two losses in the space of a week - let's hope they suffer a minor crisis in confidence over the Christmas period! :D

Yeah, Gerrard just doesn't look himself. Usually, he's the one saving us.

Great game yesterday, though with City v Chelsea.

Stevie can't bail us out every time, I'm also not convinced he's 100% fit.

Rafa needs to pick a settled back five, which doesn't include Insua, for a few games consecutively.

He also needs to bite the bullet and drop Lucas so Aquilani can finally feature and hopefully fill the void left by Xabi's exit.

Oh, and in January we must bring in some kind of striker. We're being linked with that ex-Manc van Nistelrooy. Though I had initial reservations the fact is he's a goal getter and we are seriously lacking up top when El Nino is out (which he invariably is). Hopefully the sales of Babel and Voronin will generate a bit of cash ...

Exactly. That's the thing. Gerrard is usually the one to get us out of these hard times, but with the injuries and poor form, there's no chance he can do it.

Insua is decent, he's just lacking confidence. The only way he will get that is if he carries on featuring.

Yeah, Babel & Voronin will give us a couple million to get a fairly decent striker, hopefully.

Lucas has played well this season, but I really want to see Aquilani and with Rafa saying he will get his full debut on Wednesday, I'm looking forward to seeing him in action.

I think Liverpool are gonna continue to struggle. I'm not sure how far Torres is away from full fitness but it's a big loss for Liverpool. Gerard doesn't look fit to be honest and what the deal with Aquilani is I have no idea. You spend £25m on a world class midfielder and don't even play him. If he's not fit he shouldn't be on the bench, if he is fit then he should be playing. Liverpool lack speed and skill going forward. However the big issue with Liverpool is those american owners. I'm sure that everyone around Liverpool now knows that they will not have any money for transfers providing those two Yank clowns are in charge. They can barely afford to pay in the interest on their loans never mind pay them off. That will have a negative effect on the team and is probably a contributing factor for the recent run of bad form. Looks like Parry and Moores have sold the club down the river. It's a shame really because Liverpool is a great club and of all the big four teams I'd rather see them win the league.

As a Blackburn fan I'm also kinda disappointed we didn't win the match. McCarthy, Kalinic and Di Santo all missed good chances. Although I would probably settle for a point against Liverpool before kick off as they usually beat us. A point puts us ahead of Burnley at least so that's more bragging rights to us! ;)

As for The Carling cup then I think Villa is perhaps the best draw we could have got. Obviously they'll be favourates especially with having the second leg at Villa Park. I think it's important we can win the first leg and not concede, which will be difficult as they're good going forward.

Great World Cup draw for all European teams, except perhaps Portugal, but then I don't care about them anyway cuz they've got a side full of tossers. I think England should comfortably win their group. Can they win the World Cup? Well I'd say yes, but we're not favourates. I think it's perhaps our best chance for years because the majority of our team is still in it's prime while also having a lot of experience. My only fear is that in four years time Gerard, Lampard, Terry, Rio, A Cole, J Cole etc will all be like 33/34 and I think we'll struggle to replace them.

What's your prediction for Man Utd v Villa at the weekend???

I reckon if we are EVER going to beat Man Utd then it might be now, especially considering you are lacking experience at the back at the moment.
Also, in the two games since Downing has come into the team we have moved Milner into centre midfield to accomodate him (with Downing and Young constantly swapping wings) and have scored 7 goals. We look better than ever going forward now we can play Young, Milner, Downing, Carew, AND Agbonlahor together.
I'm hopefull, but we have not been good on the road so far this season and i think if Rooney has a good game and if Berbatov pulls his weight then we will get punished.
I'm expecting a few goals. I'd like us to win, but realistically im predicting 3-2 to Man Utd.

It's a tough one to call. Vidic may be back by then which would at least be something. He seems to play really well when Rio's not in the side, almost as if he puts in extra effort because of his absence.

If we get a few of our injured players back in time, I think we'll nick it 2-1. United just seem to have a habit of winning in the face of adversity (which is a nice habit to have) so I think they'll pull a home win out of the bag at the weekend. I do think that Villa will open the scoring though - we always seem to play better after going behind.

However, Villa are looking a much stronger outfit so an upset isn't inconceivable.

Lots of celebrating going on in Birmingham tonight :)

First time we've beat them this decade, and the first time at Old Trafford in 26 years. And Spurs and Man City slipped up again today too. Well happy!! :p

(means jack-shit though if we don't get a result in our games against Sunderland and Stoke this week!)

Absolute joke. Barring the Fletcher cock-up that should have seen Heskey score but for Kusczak's intervention and Dunne's well met header from a corner, Villa didn't have one other decent chance during the game apart from the goal. Kinda feels like we were mugged but that's football I s'pose.

The only saving grace is that Chelsea, Tottenham and City all dropped points too so it's just narrowed the gap between the top teams rather than seen anyone pulling ahead of the pack. It'll be an exciting second half to the season if it stays as close as this at any rate! :)

I love it when Fergie's face goes purple :)