Jose parked the bus, who'd have thunk it. Like the look of Chelsea, begging for a striker though, Benteke would be perfect.

Ashley Cole's comedy dive was the undoubted highlight.

What's the verdict on Benteke then? Looks an absolute handful every time I've seen him. Before he came, the word from the Belgians seemed to be he was raw, both technically and mentally, and lacked the necessary attitude to make it in England, but he's been a huge hit since arriving.

Some people think he's ready for a CL side, I've not seen enough of him to say so but the Liverpool fans were more wet by Toure keeping him relatively quiet than they were by Sturridge's goal.

I've liked a lot of what I've seen of Benteke. But he's also been undisciplined, didn't know about the offside law during one of the games, and his scoring record at Villa isn't massively different to Demba Ba's record in England.

I reckon he might work at Arsenal. I don't think either of the Manc clubs would be interested in him, I think he'd struggle like Demba Ba at Chelsea.

Playing for a top 4 side is different to playing for Aston Villa. In theory you're playing with better players so will be given more chances, but in practice most of the time you are playing against the parked bus.

Personally I think he should stay at Villa for a few years and rack up more experience. He's only 22, which is still a kid in terms of centre forwards. He'll get played pretty much every week at Villa which he wouldn't be guaranteed at a CL club.

I think Mourinho could work with him and develop him. But I wouldn't to have him subjected to our fans in a million years.

Atkinson is a t****r. He's quite possibly the worst referee in the PL.

Something we can all agree on I think.

Looked to me like the referee was gesturing towards where Cole's challenge occured, in a sort of 'I let Cole off once, so I'll let you off for one, too'. Had Cole been booked I suspect Valencia would have been.

Cole should definitely have been booked for his dive, though.

Which one are you on about? Because there was definitely a free kick given against Valencia for a challenge on Oscar.

Like I said, my "TV" was on the blink. I heard the comment from the commentators about him possibly being booked and been let off because it was early. As I didn't see the challenge I don't know what he did.

But Valencia's tackle was not in any way or form a tackle where he has the right to be lenient. If Valencia was already on a yellow he should have still booked him for that challenge. If Valencia would have missed a Champions League final because of it, the ref was still wrong to let him off for it. Valencia's challenge did not come under the "I'll let one booking go for each side" amnesty.



Personally I thought it was a spazzy fall because he was losing his balance and he was trying in vain to make some contact with the ball even though he was never going to get to it. I thought he looked like a div doing it, but I'm not sure there was a dive there.

Yeah, I saw on MOTD2 that he'd given a foul.

I've slagged off Rodgers and Moyes for talking cack during the window, but what they've done has been trivial compared to Tottenham allowing Bale to bugger off to Spain when they haven't even done the deal to sell him yet. WTF are they thinking with that?