Beren

Supplemented some existing bets with correct scores on the spurs match of: 7-0 7-1 6-0 8-0 4-0 7-2 Just for funs.

WOW. LOOOVE IT. That felt as good as a Newcastle win, I'm ashamed to say.

Shame Milito isn't playing, would've ripped Spurs a new one.

Good points made, good post O-Nut. Think we play much better against better opposition.

Really don't like DJ Campbell.

Tevez does, don't think Kolo is even on the bench.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2926/alexra.jpg Jesus from the Christ Nail episode of Curb http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4758/vlcsnap2010101715h52m21.png Chelsea's Alex

Wish I'd put a bit more on Everton @ 6/4. Ah well, win's a win.

Cheeky £1m bid for Torres anyone?

Beckford is making a fool of himself.

We can but hope. Liverpool's squad is surprisingly shocking. They could be in trouble by the time the January window opens - it's a longshot, I know, but fingers-crossed and all that.

Looking forward to the Merseyside derby. I really wanted Everton to win yesterday, but after our failure to take 3 points yesterday, a draw wouldn't be a bad result, as it means neither would go above us.

Checked, he didn't jump. Just slowly back-pedalled and ball-watched before backing into Perch.

Don't think Williamson knew he was there from the looks of it. Need to have another look at it, but don't even think Williamson jumped.

I remember there were a few games that season where Shola and Femi genuinely looked like being a decent partnership. Like everything else though, it quickly fell apart under the weight of abject failure. Carroll is still the best striker at the club by some distance, imo. He's the only consistently threatening player we have up there. As I've said from the beginning though, he's too inexperienced/not good enough to be leading the line by himself for us in the Premiership. Agree, with the bit in bold the most important.

Love Stoke lost from a throw-in

Pretty good stat, that.

I've said Perch was poor, I've said Guthrie was poor in a position which he should never play in. Lovenkrands was poor, Williamson was iffy and Krulls kicking was terrible, nobody was more responsible for a Wigan goal than Barton. If you have a look you'll see that I haven't really lambasted him, I've just said what I saw today and pointed out that he deserves stick for what he did. Okay, I don't think we're contradicting one another any more (if we ever were). His blame for the goal is self-evident, my initial post from which this discourse has stemmed was a broader defence of the criticism he has received over 8 games. Anyway, glad that's sorted. Neesy, I rate Nicky Butt's passing over your comprehension skills like. I'd hope my little clue about that being a rhetorical question would give you a small hint... alas, I can now tell you unequivocally that I don't rate Joey Barton to the point that I think he's infallible for individual mistakes. I trust that is clear enough to bring our brief dialogue to a close on the issue.

Mick: Well, for that particular mistake, sure lambast him but even today there are other players far more deserving of your scorn. Neesy: How good do I believe he is? (That's rhetorical btw).

Is it just me or did Shearer have an especially satisfied smile when Linekar mentioned Man Utd have been playing poorly recently?

I Can Capitalise Letters To Lend A False Sense Of Gravitas To My Posts

You didn't say that you were talking about the first eight games and it was in a match thread. The reference about Nicky Butt was justified, if it's good enoough for him to get stick for an assist to the opposition then it's good enough for Barton to get the same. Well, I quite clearly did, but not too bothered about pettifogging - crossed wires are crossed wires. As for the Butt comment, comparing the two is plainly absurd Mick. I think you know too much about football to compare the two so I don't understand why it was even worth mentioning. It's pretty clear that giving the ball away that leads to a goal is an action which deserves flack, but Barton is hardly a Ramage/Perch/Butt-esque serial offender, is he? Most of the time he gives the ball away it's with a forward pass, which - while undesirable - is hardly the same as Butt having his shitty sideways passes intercepted and the opposition scoring. Another blindingly clearly difference is that Barton actually has the capability of picking out a decent forward ball when there's movement ahead of him, while Butt had some vastly misguided notion he could spray 40-50 yard balls over the top like he was Rivaldo for the first seven eighths of his career before Newcastle. Sounds like you just wanted to shoehorn Nicky Butt into the same breath as Barton tbh.

Any player who gives the ball to the opposition that leads to a goal deserves stick, Nicky Butt did the same thing and was slaughtered for it. I'm talking about over the course of the first eight games. An almost completely unnecessary reference to Nicky Butt too btw.

They aren't representative of the forum/fanbase by any means, but: Yep. Only thing I think Hughton got wrong today. Not a big thing, though. The players were a bigger disappointment than the selection IMO. Perch > Raylor was a massive selection mistake though.

The stick Barton is being given strikes me as a bit unwarranted. Don't think he's been half as bad as is being made out. Routledge/Nolan have been more disappointing over the course of the season so far - in fact the times where they act as passengers in the team have probably prompted Barton to be overly-ambitious. Having two strikers up front would help his play much more IMO.