Beren

Krul 7 - Not much to do. Didn't command his box especially well and continue to pull his kicks Simpson 6.5 - Poor on the goal, generally solid though Colo 7.5 - Solid as, largely kept them to shooting from range. Distributed the ball well. Taylor 7 - Good, good Roberto Carlos 7 - Great going forward, but doubled the work of an already under-performing Jonas. Marveaux 7 - Thought he was really good until he got injured. Don't think we tactically used him as well as we could have. Like to see him on the left. Guthrie 7 - Worked really hard, with some good touches. Cabaye 8 - Excellent until his injury kicked in. We were looking really slick first 20 minutes - largely thanks to Mr Yohan. Get well soon! Jonas 6 - Improved second half but not his day. Still one of our two top performers this season by quite some way. Rest up Spidey Best 8 - I was really impressed with him today. Didn't get his goal, but help up the ball, showed really good predatory instincts and battled well. Worked for the team. Ba 6 - Thought he was poor today if I'm honest. Perhaps understandably selfish, he was slow to release the ball and lost possession a lot when there were options on. Sammy 7.5 - Everton couldn't be arsed with him. Perfect sub. Sloppy in possession once or twice though. Concentrate Sammy! Gosling 6.5 - Grafted, but didn't show much quality on the ball. Ben Arfa 7.5 - Very, very encouraging. Blending his undoubted skill with some discipline and intelligence. Can't be far away from the first-team on this form. As a general thing, I think the after-effects of the Stoke game were really evident today. We look knackered, lost our rhythm and were really slow in releasing our final ball. Great first 11 games.

And if we'd had four first-team midfielders we would have won by a great deal more

Really promising display.

Incredible display/effort under the circumstances.

So that's now four first-team midfielders injured.

FWIW I think Best has been fantastic leading the line so far.

I might be his biggest fan on here, but think Jonas was poor first half. Very difficult second forty-five coming up. A few tired looking legs out there. Will take a lot of graft to see this out, and the international break is (for once) welcomed!

I'd go with that. Three of our four first-team midfielders out for the second half against a decent Everton side. A test of our top two credentials.

Fucking Roberto Carlos on the left there

RAYLOR!!

Distin on the bench is a big plus. He's a tidy player.

Wonder when HBA's time will come...

I'm going for Best. Also going to put a fiver on him to score. [suck it, Neil].

I want to see Jonas Tiote dressed as Santa. Possibly bouncing Christmas Tree on his knee.

In approximately an hour and a half.

Yeah, that's why it's on my side bet

Agree. Was tempted to put too much on too many events. (Which is a recipe for disaster for me, personally).

Main: Arsenal Citeh Side: Newcastle -1 Arsenal -1 Blackburn-Chelsea draw Liverpool Man Utd

To captain RVP or Best, that is the question!

Besty hat trick tomorrow for Neil.

Mancini and RVP get the manager and player of the month awards. Pardew and Ba avoid the curses they bring

Quite an enjoyable read on overseas Newcastle fans. http://blogs.soccernet.com/newcastleunited/archives/2011/11/more_and_more_we_are_1.php This bit in the comments section tickled me too.

Offensive odds, man. So bad they induce people into making overly-ambitious bets full of double handicaps etc

Interestingly, the latest excuse (read: rationalisation) that I've heard for why we're so high up the table is because we're a one-man team (Demba Ba). From a Chelsea fan.