Need a big performance from this gentleman today. Hopefully we can get him on the ball in useful areas of the pitch too, which is my only real concern about whether he'll perform for us. If he's camped in our half for most of the match you know it's going to be ugly.
GW32
Reading 2-2 Southampton
Norwich 1-1 Swansea
Stoke City 1-1 Aston Villa
West Brom 1-2 Arsenal
Liverpool 6-0 West Ham
Tottenham 2-1 Everton
Chelsea 3-0 Sunderland
Newcastle 2-1 Fulham
QPR 3-3 Wigan
Man Utd 0-2 Man City
Interesting to see how Benfica would do in a better league, having to face decent opposition more regularly with referees that weren't catastrophically shit.
Well, with better opposition more regularly anyway
Can't think of a manager in the league who has got less out of the talents at his disposal than him, in fairness. Haven't watched enough European football in 2013 to comment for the rest of Europe
Because all our excellent crossers of the ball are being wasted?
If we're at all resigned to sticking with Pardew, he (or someone of a similar mould) and Cisse would be a decent option. Not great though.
With Debuchy, Santon, HBA and Gouffran potentially working the flanks I'd love for us to be getting in around defences and cutting back balls for Cisse / onrushing midfielders - moving away from our aerial-based "strategy". Debuchy has been promising in this regard so far.