It was not the defeat to West Ham that has got Villa blogger Dave Bytheway’s goat over the last few days – it was the sending off of Carlos Cuellar at Everton.

At Goodison Park on Saturday we were matched with a very strong Everton side who have been up there with us over the past few seasons challenging for the European competitions. There were two quality teams, two quality managers and two great sets of fans. There was only one thing missing, and that was a quality referee!

There were two sendings off, maybe the first one was questionable even if Diniyar Bilyaletdinov did seem to go in two footed on Stilyian Petrov, but the dismissal of Carlos Cuellar for a second booking was an absolute disgrace!

His first ‘booking’ was a non entity. He pulled out of the challenge and there was no tackle made. For the second yellow card, he clearly won the ball but bowing to the pressure of the crowd decided to show another card and send Carlos off.

The look on his face summed it up to me, as he laughed all the way down the tunnel. To make matters worse, he decided to book Stephen Warnock for a challenge made by Petrov!

Apart from the refs best attempts to spoil the game, it ended up a fair enough result and it was nice to see big John Carew get on the scoresheet again after being a little off form, which can also be said for Ashley Young who looked the sharpest he has done this season.

Then came West Ham, where we lose to a goal in stoppage time after wasting chances to see the game out. It was the sort of game where we needed things to drop for us and, alas, it was not to be.

So far this season we have been really up and down in form, but – until last night – very rarely lose a game. This is the kind of pattern teams at the top have always had, the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal never really hitting form until after Christmas, but never dropping too many points and always being near the top.

If we can stick like this and get Stewart Downing and Luke Young back into the squad, I feel after the festive season we wil be a stronger squad altogether.

After getting to the quarter finals of the League Cup we were drawn against Portsmouth away, which in my opinion is a pretty decent tie, especially after avoiding the top four teams. Hopefully we can get past them and then have a good crack at the semi finals in a cup that seems to be taken a little more seriously this year.

Bolton come to Villa Park on Saturday complete with a few old faces. I’m sure Villa old boys Gavin McCann, Zat Knight and Gary Cahill will all receive warm receptions, which couldn’t be said of Jlloyd Samuel if he wasn’t suspended.

It will be a tight game again as Bolton seem to play the direct game, which will mean a tough game for James Collins and Richard Dunne against Bolton warhorse Kevin Davies again!

But I think we will prove to strong for the Trotters and come out 3-1 winners.

Have a good weekend.

Up the Villa!