midds

I think that publically criticising a ref sometimes backfires. The next few refs we get will not want to be seen to have been swayed by a public slagging. They sometimes overcompenste and it works against you. I can see the reasoning behind it though.

The problem with playing Ameobi up top by himself is that when he (frequently) forgets how to play football, every time you play the ball up to him he can't keep hold of it and it comes back at you constantly. IIRC, Carroll was coming on for Ameobi (like for like) until Johnson scored and he changed it and dragged Nolan off so we had 2 up top to go for the equaliser.

City, for all the money they've thrown at the team over the last couple of years, still look horribly average. It's no consolation because they've turned us over today but they look miles away from winning the League.

Should have shown him down the line. He was always going to cut inside and get a shot away. Should have been dealt with tbh.

Did ok today. Certainly better than most of the times I've seen him this season. Nothing to get carried away with though.

Was he injured or just dragged off?

I agree that it should be looked at because of the tackle and not the injury. Aye, that's what I meant. The punishment shouldn't be proportional to the damage it does.

The tackle should be looked at again and something done about it. The referee awarded a penalty against us for a less dangerous tackle so he couldn't have seen this one properly or he couldn't have just ignored it. The referee got it badly wrong on both occasions imo. The De Jong one was a red and it definitely wasn't a pen. I was talking more about De Jong getting the book thrown after the game purely because of the extent of Ben Arfa's injury.

I agree that he shouldn't be punished in retrospect. The tackle was a bad one and should have been dealt with at the time but it wasn't. The tackle was the tackle, it was a bad one the damage it did shouldn't be converted into a 10 match ban or something stupid like that after the event.

It looked a nasty tackle at the time an I thought it was ott. He went in two footed and smashed into Ben Arfa's leg so hard it fucking snapped. Don't think he meant to break it but I thought it was a red card. These things happen though unfortunately and as bitter pill as it is to swallow we've just got to move on and get on with it. He's out and someone has to come in and fill his boots.

Drops Carroll because of his underpar performance but Nolan starts......hmmmmmm.

I thought they'd be in the play-offs at the very least. I thought Boyd would fill his boots in that league too. These still might happen obviously but playing in front of 13 or 14,000 every week is going to get Gibson worried. Bigger clubs than them have fallen through the leagues and at the moment that's got to be a possibility unless their form picks up a bit.

Couldn't agree more.

Got to admit, I'm massively worried by his refusal to deal with the Nolan situation. That's the nettle that needs to be grasped but he simply won't.

Do the kids still have mass battles on the school field? Every single day. Football's got nothing to do with it but they seem to like to fight each other.

If he's so blinkered that he refuses to acknowledge the problem, let alone deal with it, then we're going to drop points and fall down the league as a result. I don't think Ashley is the most patient bloke in the world and if we're in the shit in February then I'm expecting him to pull the trigger. It may be a bit premature to talk of his loyalty to Nolan costing Hughton his job but he's got more chance of being sacked if he continues to pick him as opposed to dropping him.

The game I worry most about losing. Probably not the biggest/most important but it's the one I'd least like to lose thank you very much. Losing a derby is the single, most gut-wrenching point of the season... especially when you live and work with the cunts who've just turned you over. It's awful and stays with you for months. :-[

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/8420810.Hughton_says_he_will_stick_with__key__man_Nolan/ If that's honestly what he thinks and he truly believes that Nolan is a key player for us he'll have deserved the P45 which will inevitably come when Ashley starts getting twitchy. I can forgive him for picking him if he's the best option but there is no reason to play him when he contributes little to nothing over the 90 minutes on a regular basis. His goals covered up for his poor play last year but there's no absolutely reason to make him the fulcrum of our team now. He shouldn't be anywhere near the first XI.

Striker first. No good having a good defence if we can't find the back of the net. He's our poorest player and the one being targetted every game by the opposition. He's costing us goals, games and points. Striker is number 2, granted.

First position that needs strengthening in January is this finding someone to replace this muppet. Simpson is wank but less shit than this fucker. Complete liability.

Stoke are effective but very limited. It's not a surprise when they pump it forward and sling it in the box as early as they can, you either deal with it or you don't. Today when they turned the screw a bit we buckled and couldn't deal with it. It's not pretty but they're the ones going back with 3 points in their back pockets. We never created enough to win the game and they did, fair play to them. Don't like it but they did a number on us.

On a knife-edge atm. Stay up by 2 points or go down by 2. Days like today where we throw points away because of poor decisions being made by the management are frighteningly similar to 08/09.

Pulis, to his credit, got his subs absolutely spot on. He changed the game in his teams favour with a full 40 mins left on the clock. Hughton brought ben arfa and tiote off and changed things unnecessarily trying to be fucking clever.

Cost us the game today without a shadow of a doubt. Taking off your best players when they're playing well is mental. He's undoing all of his good work because he hasn't got the bollocks to bring off nolan. Spineless.

I refuse to believe that a decent keeper hasn't become available for a modest amount of money who wouldn't be streets ahead of Almunia in the last few years. Wenger simply hasn't addressed the most obvious weakness in his squad.