Rich

I love you in Match Threads, you're great!

We're gonna win man, don't give up yet! This half-time team talk/triple substitution (Barton on for Rozehnal/Lua Lua on for Milner/Ameobi on for Smith) will blow your socks off! Ah there's always hope i suppose. But Arsenal have just been brilliant tonight and one or two of our regular performers are not on their game. They are a class apart like, but we were close to getting into HT scoreless again until an individual error or two or three left us in big, big trouble. We do look like doing something at times, Milner was clean in just before the break as well. We have players on the bench who could potentially make a difference, we might get lucky. If we lose, it's no great loss as everyone expected it anyway, but here's hoping we at least worry them a bit in this next 45.

We're gonna win man, don't give up yet! This half-time team talk/triple substitution (Barton on for Rozehnal/Lua Lua on for Milner/Ameobi on for Smith) will blow your socks off!

He gave the ball away 3 times in successive posessions, which piled pressure on us, but apart from that he's been okay. Still infuriating though, along with Nicky Butt, because lads on their wages should be able to pass a ball 10-yards every time, unless under severe pressure (which they rarely are.)

Taylor's been rubbish so far like. What the fuck was he playing at when he gave it back to Given? Left foot, row Z, regroup. We never learn. I left out Rozehnal's pathetic attempt at winning the ball, which isn't the first time we've seen that this season in the build-up to an opposition goal. He has to be going in with more conviction than he did, even when he's stretching.

Their goal was toss like, Nicky Butt should never have lost posession in the midfield and Alan Smith's attempt at holding the ball up was pathetic, not that he should have ever been getting the ball with 2 men on him like. Really disappointing after it looked like we'd hold out until half time again. Great cross and the header was quality, though, but surely one of the centre-halves has to be dealing with Adebayor there, not Carr? If you stop Adebayor, you stop Arsenal, especially at the moment. He shouldn't be allowed a one-on-one with the right-back, because there's only one winner there.

He went off injured on Saturday.

Enrique went off injured on Saturday.

That's the in-game thread, this is the pre-match thread.

He went off injured on Saturday.

Boo, get em out! Couldn't agree more Boss.

THERE'S A FUCKING SOUTHERNER COMMENTATING IN HIS PLACE! ARGH!

Went off injured on Saturday.

Rozehnal or Carr at LB, I wonder.

For those with Newcastle World/Radio Newcastle, their coverage starts at 7pm if you want to have a listen.

BBC Sport: Newcastle striker Mark Viduka returns after a calf problem and midfielder Emre is back from suspension.

Interesting quotes on the BBC, he suggests that we've made a good offer but they're holding out for a bit more. I wouldn't call £2 million a reasonable offer so that figure sounds bollocks. Aye, it would seem so.

Not as yet, but I think it'd be a fair assumption to say that West Ham and maybe even our good friends from Spurs might return for him if we get to the stage where an offer is accepted. I wouldn't fancy our chances if that turned out to be so. I think Derby would hope for that too, hence why they made our offer public knowledge.

I'm taking the old "expect a spanking" approach in the hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised! Think I'd only be disappointed otherwise. Some more good football and a goal or two would probably do me.

Suppose we could hope he'd do a Jenas here in his early days. I think he could have a part to play this season.

I said that after the last game, I'd never heard of him but Lokomotiv Moscow paid 17 million euros for him according to wiki. 7.

Martins has been dropped to the bench for this game, meaning it's even less interesting than it would have been.

Anyway, Giles Barnes... apologies folks.

Wasn't referring to you in the last bit, but I'll explain about why it does nark me. Because some people are stupid and say stupid things, on a regular basis, and it gets tiresome (not you). I sometimes come on here to have proper football debates with people who know a bit about our club and about the game and who can construct solid arguments and give as good as they get, other times I'm on here to moderate things first and foremost and other times I'm on here to chill out and waste some of my spare time. As far as the first instance goes, it makes it hard to have a debate with people who's argument is solely something like your quote: "if we play Martins alongside Viduka, he'll get a bundle of goals" because then all I can say to that is: I suppose we'll wait and see. Or I could numb my mind and point out obvious things like service, injuries, the fact that the partnership might not necessarily work, etc. and the comeback will be "it will man, trust me" or something equally worthless. In the second instance it also causes problems, because people saying stuff that objectively (not necessarily just the Martins thing, often stuff a LOT more unrealistic) causes them to get pwned by one of the others, which leads to bother. Aye like you say it's an opinion and some people can't help being daft sometimes, but it's more of a statement than anything else, and usually one that can't be backed up. It's like something you'd hear somebody say in knee-jerk after a game, which is fair enough, but some people have their "opinions" and live and die by them, which is wrong. Nobody is right all of the time, not even Baggio, but he's still right a fair bit. I hope a few people can relate to this, anyway, and that it's not just me. But I do sometimes feel the need to point out to people when they're being crackerjacks, as people have done to me in the past, because otherwise they'll never know, and they'll just be stuck on the "ignore" list (of sorts). You have to at least try and make people see another viewpoint/way of thinking, otherwise we'd just have a forum of people making statements like "if we play Martins alongside Viduka, he'll get a bundle of goals" and this place would be very, very boring indeed. It works both ways, because we all know what people say about opinions.

As a serious answer, I actually hope the latter would be correct after how things have turned out!