Beren

Barca/Roma/PSV treble.

Glad Wolves are beating WBA. Sacking Di Matteo when they were doing fine was asinine - especially the timing.

It's the small things, isn't it?

lying to try and win an argument is never good. It's all he knows, give him a break. You'll hurt my feelings if you carry on like this.

Yet he is much better on the ball than Williamson who often panics under pressure and hoofs it out gifting possesion back to the opposition. Williamson has put it out in the last few games - quite rightly too IMO. Brum and Blackburn are the kind of opposition that feed off bullying defenders into mistakes. If you put it out, get your team in shape and them the ball - they haven't the foggiest of how to break you down. Hence two clean sheets. He and Colo generally have much better footballing philosophies in terms of passing and possession though. Taylor is far more brainless as a defender IMO.

Taylor treats the ball like a hotcake. Doesn't want it anywhere near him, which can be good for a centre back in certain situations but for a top table side that looks to keep possession and build from the back, it's far too primitive.

What wages is Enrique reported to be on?

It's closer to how he'd say it in English at the very least.

To reiterate with what others have said, I'm not sure if those quotes have been fabricated, been translated unfavourably, taken out of context or represent the truth of what Enrique meant... ...but if they do mean he wants out in the near future, in an optimistic world where I was chairman, my plan of action would be to make him play out the remaining 18 months of his contract, even if that does mean he leaves on a free. In that world, we would get a full season out of him, we would invest heavily in the summer (35m + a bit extra), and the return of Ben Arfa would signal a strong push for European football (added to the impressing side we've already got). We'd also get a decent back-up left back. In those 18 months, we should still treat him well and try to encourage him to stay/commit contractually. If he became overly-mardy.. or disinterested in the game (angling for a move, basically)... make him play week-in, week-out for the reserves until his attitude improved. It's true we'd lose out on a transfer fee, but player power has to be addressed and confronted at some point IMO.

Kingdawson?

Delighted for Arsenal (can afford to be since we took 4 pts off them). Fantastic game. Sensational prediction by me. Great goals. Sublime football. All round good times

Looking at the team sheets, I'm becoming quite confident about Arsenal's chances. [/ready for this to come back to bite him on the butt, but doesn't care]

£5 Nott F + Barca -1 £5 Nott F + Handicap draw (Arse-Barca)

1. Arsenal 2. Blackpool 3. Man Utd 4. Tottenham 5. Newcastle 6. Sunderland 7. Bolton (for early season form) 8. Chelsea (very effective earlier in the season without ever being pleasing on the eye, personally) 9. West Brom 10. Man City (as low as this for Milner, Barry... as high as this for Tevez, Silva) 11. Aston Villa 12. Everton (should perhaps be higher with Coleman and Baines, but it's difficult to fully appreciate their football with so little end product) 13. Wolves (as high as this for the way they've played against the big sides, otherwise much lower) 14. Fulham 15. West Ham 16. Wigan 17. Liverpool 18. Birmingham 19. Blackburn 20. Stoke

Good on you for having a go Lots I agree with in there. Gonna have a crack at a full one myself now.

Got to say, can't wait for Arsenal v Barcelona tonight. Think Arsenal will surprise a lot of people.

As someone who has always placed a lot of emphasis on performance and style rather than merely just results, I was very pleased with not just our victory yesterday but our whole season. I'm a very happy fan when I see us knocking the ball about as we did after the first goal and looking like a side worthy to be competing for a European spot - and a team which other fans (perhaps somewhat begrudgingly) acknowledge to be worthy of representing some of the best footballing play in the league. In parts of the season we've relied on a lot of diagonal balls to Carroll for goals, but even then we've still played some nice triangles and been able to advance up the pitch in that way - with Barton, Nolan, Enrique and Tiote being particularly influential in some of that link-up play. We can definitely implement a healthy mix of short and long balls, basically. When Hughton left, I was worried Pardew would dismantle the style of play we had and place a greater stress on results - but to his credit we still pass the ball around quite nicely at times. It's difficult to be impartial, but where would you place us in the league for footballing style? I've been mightily unimpressed by a lot of the sides I've watched this season, but here is my prototype table for most attractive footballing sides this season ( - judging each side in their pomp, I suppose, but can't be one game like!). 1. Arsenal 2. Blackpool ... 17. Liverpool (duller than ditchwater IMO - actually one of the most boring teams to watch, I don't know what it is about them, but for me personally... ) 18. Birmingham 19. Blackburn 20. Stoke

Still find him very frustrating to watch personally. Couldn't be happier with his goalscoring form and he shows some real glimpses of quality every now and then, but very often has very little positional awareness or intelligence off the ball. Hope he can work on this in the near future. Definitely glad to have him on our books and looking a really shrewd purchase in today's market - especially considering his age.

Props to the main man at the back tonight

Enrique dropped two bollocks in the first half. He got caught dwelling on the ball. It could have cost us dearly. Why don't people praise the likes of Williamson, Simpson and the strikers? Williamson was fantastic. Just the kind of no-nonsense defending we needed tonight on a dire pitch.

What a fucking tool of a team Birmingham are - couldn't be happier to take three points off them. Not our greatest performance, but good. Well played.