Beren

And it didn't come from fucking hoofball, Pardew, you moron.

Fantastic from Best.

This is a dire performance so far.

It was a foul. His foot is broken. No one is disputing that. Just get up and get on with the game. [/Pleat]

So our only creative player is Gutierrez again. Awesome.

Well, who knew playing five defenders would cede momentum to your relegation fodder counterparts at home after beating the champions 3-0.

Might watch a replay of Liverpool v Stoke.

However, it's not as though we've never won or played well without Ben Arfa - I like the player but the constant doom-mongering and hair-pulling out is ridiculous on here. There's plenty of reasons why Ben Arfa should and shouldn't be in the team, ultimately, Pardew is judged on results. Ben Arfa scored a cracking goal last week but by eye-witness accounts, he had a poor first half before waking up on the wing in the second half - maybe the other players don't trust him enough to win the ball back once he's lost it? Either way, in Pardew we trust. I think the exasperation stems from not utilising what we have to best effect. Especially when something special is so eminently reachable - in terms of where the team could be. (ie. it's not a resource issue, or something beyond our means). If you repeat that same mistake (ie. not phasing Ben Arfa into a starting berth) over and over, it begins to look like a familiar story to me. [We did the same with Santon, and it cost us massively during December IMO]. You don't have to wait until something breaks entirely before you make amendments. It's brave management to make changes before you're forced to, but Pardew doesn't seem to have that valour /astuteness in his arsenal. (eg. He waits until Obertan gets injured before he drops him). Bit disappointing, that's all. That's really badly written. I'll edit it later.

Pledges to deliver edge-of-your-seat football. Plays Ryan Taylor ahead of Ben Arfa at home to winless in 457 QPR. [/scumbag Pardew]

What a dick.

Rightly or wrongly, I do think winning the Carling Cup will go a long way to placating media and Kopites alike over Dalglish's underwhelming return on his investments so far. Ending a six year trophy drought, non? Not to be scoffed at.

He's a very, very long way from that. He's King Kenny. A lot of the criticism is placed elsewhere (Comolli and the board cop the stick for the silly prices paid, which is kind of fair, seeing as it likely was their doing), and Kenny only really gets criticised for getting his tactics and selection wrong in individual matches. That said, I get the impression that anyone calling for Kenny to be replaced on RAWK would incur the ban hammer, so it's hard to gauge the actual level of support. Not sure about that, tbh. A manager who pursues young British players from rivals/clubs within the same division (ought to) know he will be racking up a hefty transfer receipt.

Hope the crowd have some patience today if we don't make an early breakthrough. Arsenal and Liverpool only won 1-0 at home to these. Both second half strikes IIRC, too. Man City had a single goal victory anarl. They are a bit depleted at the moment, mind you.

?

Just been looking at my Super 6 entry for this week. I'm awful Villa v Everton 1-1 Blackburn v Fulham 2-1 Chelsea v Sunderland 1-2 Liverpool v Stoke 2-0 Man Utd v Bolton 4-0 Tottenham v Wolves 3-0 1 point out of 6. Just checked my record, I get 1 point out of 6 nearly every week! (I've got 2/3 once or twice). I keep expecting to win though Was going to make a thread on it, but just wondered if any fellow gamblers play/how many you generally get right? Edit: Next round's disappointment: http://i.imgur.com/yD2BU.png

World class.

£12.50 in stake returns £97.50. 25p perms? 10p

http://football365.com/faves/7429564/Are-Everton-Trying-To-Emulate-Mike-Ashley-

£12.50 in stake returns £97.50.

5-1 actually. Hughton

Scholes 1-0.

Rooney getting utterly Tiote'd by Muamba.