There’s no shortage of talking points from this game, so let’s get the bad news out of the way first.  Ashley Young received a straight red card in the 71st minute for what appeared a two footed tackle and may well pick up an automatic 3 match ban.  I say ‘appeared’ as this was the first game in a while that I haven’t been able to watch live on TV, so without my DVR & TV I haven’t been able to replay the incident.  But from what I was able to see it looked like young Ash did get a little over zealous and most refs would have done the same.  Certainly MON didn’t react in the way you would expect him to if it were unjustified.  I will watch it closely later when the game is shown here.

The second slight tarnish on this game is that Sunderland may have had two very good shouts for penalties turned down for handball.  One at either end of the game; Carlos Cuellar in the first 5 minutes and Luke Young just before the 90th minute.  They may also have complaints about Milner’s equaliser, which looks like it was bundled in with his arm and the penalty won by Gabby on the edge of the box.  Was it in or outside the box??  Again, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure whether Milner intended his stooping head attempt or was fouled and I would say the Gabby penalty was inside the box.  Just.

In between these incidents there was a game of football. Villa showed flashes of brilliance, but for large portions looked a little disjointed. Sunderland showed that they can be dangerous here and there, but were contained for the most part. However, Carlos Cuellar did look woefully exposed for the opening goal, getting caught completely flat footed and wrong side of Danny Collins who gratefully nodded in the free kick that Curtis Davies had clumsily given away.

Villa equalised just before the hour mark as MON was preparing to make a change. Ashley Young made a fantastic solo run up the right and followed up with a delightful ball into the middle. James Milner made the run in the middle and either stumbled or was fouled and fell right into the path of the ball. The ricochet may have come off his arm, it may of come off his head, but either way it went in.

With a little over 10 minutes remaining Gabby chased a long ball up the middle and was rewarded with a boot to the face around the edge of the box. If the incident did take place just outside it’s easy to see why it was given at those speeds. Barry made no mistake, thumping the ball into the roof of the net.

I’ll do a full analysis later when I’ve seen the game again on the big screen, but for now my Man of the Match in Claret & Blue was James Milner. He was everywhere today and worked as hard as ever in both attack and defense. He also put in some incisive passes, particularly one early on from the left using the outside of his right boot that Ashley Young was inches away from burying.

For now, our unbeaten run is extended to 10 games and it’s now actually 5 straight away wins!! For a few brief minutes we actually leapfrogged Chelsea into third place, until they added to their late equaliser with an injury time winner. Still, we remain firmly planted in the top 4.

YES WE CAN