madras

We aren't as good as you think. imo. They arent as bad as theyre results to date either. again imo. In reality I see us as the 8th best side/team in the league and WBA should be aiming for between 9th-12th as a 'par' round for them... hence a draw away is actually quite a decent result..for us at them... except we will lose. again imo. They have won 3 games all season ffs. How can you say they aren't as bad as the result? 3 wins from 19 games! That's BAD. What I meant is they are underperforming. Once they have a new manager I expect them to be much improved. Yes they have hasd a poor season, can't deny it, buit they arent as bad as their results imo. (9th-12th) is where I woudld have had em at the start of the season.... by contrast we have been over performing imo...recently. Though we are on course for our 'par'..IE 8th place. hence a draw would be a good result... but we will lose. imo. going by the premiership axiom that any away points are good points I'd start with one point, hate to say I'm expecting to win but as a gambler thats the way I'd be looking, as a fan, a point at least.

Are you being critical just for the sake of it? We played well today and deserve credit for doing so. We didn't play well at all. A narrow 1-0 defeat to a set-piece goal at home to the team of the season may well read good, but in reality we were poor. We offered little goal threat, played too many long balls and were one paced playing at a low tempo. We contained them well enough but at the expense of getting at them. we did play well, after they blew themselves out we matched them, probably even created the better chances. your bias is getting terrible. I'm voting for you for best non nufc fan in the awards.

in some ways I'd rather we'd got beat easily than come away knowing we should have got something but didn't. arsenal, as usual came blasting from the blocks for the first 15 or so, as the game went on they became more ragged, more displaced passes, more frustration and we looked stronger as it was going on. we should have had a free kick, they get one 10secs later and score, soft one from our point of view. bringing ben arfa on then was right, didn't agree with shola but could undewrstand it, didn't understand bringing on haidara at all. we are a good team, we deserve to be where we are, lets see if we can stay there.

did his spot and execution of the pass to remy for the second sending off get much love on here ?

I reckon Debuchy and Haidara are our most natural, and best defensive options. Santon is canny for when we attack teams though. As you say, competition for place is good, and essentially the RB position could be up for grabs if Haidara gets slotted in at LB for whatever reason. For me, a quality CB would be best to sign in January, along with Remy and a half decent target man. We wont splash that though unless we sell. not sure if haidara is best when we are attacking teams but it seems like the staff have high hopes for him given they way they seem desperate to get him game time without starting games.

the hand ball they have a point with, it was ball to hand I suppose but handballs that blatant are nearly always given. than one would've pissed me off if it were the other way round.

on a side note we were speaking to some stokies in the pub after (they thought both sendings off were harsh......fancy that!) but they were saying that they werent the same without pulis and they admitted he played a horrible brand of football for the neutral but for their team it was exciting as it lead to a lot of stuff happening in and round the box and for a while it got results. without the ball getting to the box so quick the crowd has less excitement and the atmosphere is struggling as a result and they'll probably drift round for 3 or 4 more seasons, a manager or three before being relegated.

i'd be all for it but I'd probably keep my seat. stand for aways.

Another one on Sunday please. Hope we take the match to those f***ing pricks at Arsenal. Sounding out Wenger every year those fools only to be eating their own words every year. FWIW I would like to see them win the league out of the other teams up there, if we're not to win it. One reason for this, is exactly the above - so Wenger can stick two fingers up. are everton classed as 'being up there' ? are we ? Aye, why not? if not us I'd rather everton then. Fair enough. Don't mind Everton like...They're playing some decent stuff this season too. just want someone different to come out of left field and win it the hard way. I'd be happy with anyone aprt from man utd and city, chelsea, arsenal and the mackems, i'd even rather spurs won it than any of those lot

the bridge now has sky in, bodega won't be too bad after KO.

Another one on Sunday please. Hope we take the match to those f***ing pricks at Arsenal. Sounding out Wenger every year those fools only to be eating their own words every year. FWIW I would like to see them win the league out of the other teams up there, if we're not to win it. One reason for this, is exactly the above - so Wenger can stick two fingers up. are everton classed as 'being up there' ? are we ? Aye, why not? if not us I'd rather everton then.

i'd take a point now. the thing that worries me is that we don't get men forward, especially if remy pulls wide no-one even attempts to fill the gap. cabaye gets forward when thre ball is in front of him, sissoko does from wide, as does gouffran but when we have the ball 30 to 35yds out there is rarely more than remy for the ball forward (like from anita's peach of a pass that lead to the pen against stoke). I do think you have to get men in and around the arsenal defence to rattle them, don't think we'll do it enough.

Another one on Sunday please. Hope we take the match to those f***ing pricks at Arsenal. Sounding out Wenger every year those fools only to be eating their own words every year. FWIW I would like to see them win the league out of the other teams up there, if we're not to win it. One reason for this, is exactly the above - so Wenger can stick two fingers up. are everton classed as 'being up there' ? are we ?

the first yellow was right, it wasn't for the foul, kicking the ball away or the aggression with cabaye, it was for doing all three. I agree with others who've said they'd have been seething if one of our players done that, a lot more than being annoyed at the ref.

shame it wasn't against us as 1927 is quite symbolic for us aswell.

I thought that Santon had lost the ball further back into our own half and admitted that I was wrong, I wasn't wrong that we'd come out for the 2nd half and sat back. Its amazing that people choose to ignore or don't have the intelligence to see this. It isn't like it's only happened once or twice or even periodically. Against sides that we are better than with a half time lead, we sit back with a keep what we have ethic. do you think it's always tactical though ? sometimes we have, especially last season. however sometimes this season I think we've been pushed back and caught out for being one paced, in a team tempo sense. it's also why we struggle when going behind, not because we don't want to score, more that we struggle to raise the tempo.

It's beyond a joke that the televised games are the ones given the majority of the of the highlights section. The other week it took over 40 minutes to complete the highlights and analysis of the first match, again it was a match that was on TV earlier in the day and showed 1 of the big 6 clubs. Today (well yesterday now) our match had the highest amount of goals and also the largest winning margin, not only that but it had two player sendings off, another managerial sending off, two penalties, and plenty of more action. Yet we were 4th in the run in, really it should have been first. Surely now each match should have an equal amount of coverage? It seems a bit wrong that fans of other teams don't get to see their team perform when they can't actually attend matches, which in an ever growing 24/7 society is often the case now. 'televised games' ? you mean the games of a certain few clubs (and in the past we were in that few).

Wasn't there first and second phases of offside a few years ago, think that covers what happened there. yeah but I'm talking about the advantage he has. Basically a 1v1 situation turns into a 1v2 situation and the other defenders were never going to catch him after his unfair starting position. I'll try posting a pic to explain my pov I know exactly what you are referring to my understanding of it is, because he wasn't the intended recipient of the original through ball he can't be offside (in the first phase) but yet he is now at an automatic advantage going forward (if he is quick enough) to latch unto the second forward pass because of the advantage played but you can't be offside in the second phase, if you were onside during the first phase, which seems canny unfair. Hope that makes sense which cisse reguarly does and gets slagged off for even when he's in the right (not all the time mind, he often plays the offside rule like an 8yr old girl)

seriously ? not just benny put a ball therefore it's a killer ball. from the first half I remember one great N'zogbis cross by which it was a great cross even though he had time to see thgere was no one there but still done it. bizarrely in the second half they still put two on him but his psychology had changed and he was free in his mind. still wouldn't start him on sunday like.

thats means you agree with me. if you want to modify your post I'll ditch this to avoid embarrassment,

SAME LINE UP AS AT man utd. (caps for emphasis and lack of caps for there current place)

thought he'd be a back up out wide for marveaux.

nope. good in the first 15mins or so, then faded like the rest of the team, again poor off the ball (not his defending but f*** me if he had half debuchys movement!!!!), then like the rest of the team looked good against 9 men. I wouldn't start him against Arsenal. Debuchy's movement ? Come on Madras, it's not exceptional to see a (attacking) full back moving along the line. You're comparing apples with oranges. theres was an occasion in the first half today when debuchy held a line outside their full back, started, ball never came, came back, went again, ball never came, onside all the time holding a perfect position for the ball inside the full back. think back to his movement at old trafford for the pass from remy, but today the pass didn't come. if ben arfa had that vision off the ball he'd be a diffreent sort of messi.

hard to compare as beradsley/gascoigne were much more central, ben arfa, for me can only be a wide man or one of two off a front man (essentially still exploiting the width). techinique he is as good, they were footballers, he's a technician I suppose.

i realise it will only distract from your point but I agree with you.