Beren

Sickener for Fulham. Were creating some good pressure there.

Way!

Arsenal are chilling out a bit too much all over the park. Not really committing to tackling etc.

Hughes back in the Fulham backline? Eep. Had a few shockers last season before being dropped. Lot of graft in the Fulham midfield, if they get in Arsenal faces could be an interesting one.

The Bale situation is a bit funny. I don't think Spurs can afford to let him play, even if he was fit: can you imagine if he had an absolute shitter for Spurs? Would annihilate Spurs' bargaining position with Real Madrid. Would be like when Mr Burns revises his offer to Homer for running over Bart.

Vuvuzelas and conservative group fixtures with an emphasis on avoiding defeat in 2010.

Didn't Pardew play him last season to defend set pieces? Maybe switching to 4-4-2 tomorrow,with Gouff and HBA on the wings and Sissoko and Anita in the middle?

Nauseating bit by Fat Sam in the Evening Standard on Newcastle.

Santons the best defender of the 3 of them and he's had several brain dead moments which have cost us. Haidara's a kid and still learning and Debuchy the seasoned pro the french international rb has demonstrated no knowledge of defending at all. Not even a hint of it. In fact has demonstrated more of an ability to gift the opposition chances or penalties. He should not need a manager to hold his hand and tell him not to lunge or take risky chances near our box. Tiote shouldn't need a manager to tell him not to recklessly tackle the opposition, Cisse shouldn't need someone to teach him the basics of the offside rule. They should know this stuff already, many of them are internationals they're all highly paid professionals they should have the basic desire to learn to cut out these school boy errors without someone needing to hold their hand and tell them exactly what to do. Again, I would say this is removing the context and isolating them from one another unrealistically. All those players are being stretched into doing unnatural things, venturing into areas they don't really belong, trying to do too much, or taking on rules unsuited to their skillsets... and it impacts on their ability to do the basics in their 'orthodox' roles. Santon is the best example I can see of this from last season, but I think it's true of most of the team to varying extents. Santon was palpably frustrated by the static/easily-telegraphed "attacking strategy" ahead of him, so he went forward enthusiastically, but recklessly - leaving us exposed. We went chasing games and it just got worse and worse, and he got more and more despondent (or at least so it seemed). I think it's one of those things where I don't think we'll ever really gauge how good the squad is/isn't.

The underlined bit is a fair point. I don't think Santon and Debuchy in particular are as good as they are made out to be though. Santon still has a lot to learn, mainly about the defensive side of the game, and Debuchy is having huge trouble adapting to a new league. I would say the two of them are distinctly midtable at best for now. Perhaps. I would say that I think Newcastle fans will understandably have a tendency to see them as they are not as they could be, or what they were, for that matter. My mate, a big Inter Milan fan, doesn't even recognise the Santon he sees in a Newcastle shirt these days. Says his main strength/attribute used to be his defensive qualities! The lack of organisation/cohesiveness in the long-term will make every individual look that much poorer. IMO.

I don't think our full backs can't defend - Pardew just hasn't been able to construct a new competent defensive unit now that the decent one he inherited is no longer there, despite having more gifted personnel. Think similar things are true of a lot of the above comments IMO.

Fucking excellent. I want to know all the characters! It's almost worth rigging the predictions to find out who they are...

I thought the above was a parody quote until I went into the main AP thread. I was critiquing it in my head for an being over-egged attempt.

Not sure, but thinking about getting Abonglahor as my 'cheap option' striker. If he can stay fit, a decent option IMO.

Odemwingie and Anelka. Not having the best of luck with strikers, are they.

QPR didn't he? And scored funnily enough, we did go 4-4-2. Played off Cisse. Ah yes, the Jose Boswinga game.

Has Gouff had a chance to play centrally as the main man? Would be interested to see it at some point.

Melvut Erdinc shortlisted as a provisional candidate to enter our possible transfer target list

Pochettino and Adkins absorb the blame according to the unimpeachable 'google their name with blame' method.

That's what she said. Laughed too hard at this.

TKO.

Who is everyone captaining this week? I'm going for Bobby Soldado.

So, Tiote and Cabaye are possibly out this Saturday?

Anita expected to fill Jonas' place in the side given the reoccurence of his arse injury?