gazza ladra

It's not like Stoke play through the midfield. Let's see how Guthrie and Cabaye work together. Might be good for us.

Krul. For me the only player that could be a reason onto himself. Not Cabaye, certainly not Ben Arfa. We're better in midfield and that's largely down to Cabaye, but Krul is such an enormous step up from what we had with Harper. I don't think his importance can be overestimated.

Sell Sell Sell

Simpson and Perch were woeful but that isn't surprising. Colo had a massive go at Simpson on more than one occasion, even Perch had a go at him at one point. Think it's been mentioned but there was an attack from Blackburn where they both just backed off and pointed at the man with the ball instead of taking responsibility for marking the man. Perch and Simpson presumably?

Nice. One point off a playoff spot with two games in hand. Birmingham are suddenly (somewhat) likable. Really rooting for Chris.

ha

One more, c'mon

Saw it from my laptop at work.

Wow, really happy with that side.

An early goal and things could get really ugly. Rovers battling us and the crowd (at least those that show). Here's hoping.

Not so sure about that. They'll gather their share of the arrivistes. But Manchester City just aren't as sexy a concept as Chelsea were went they did the same thing a few years back. Speaking from a purely Yank perspective. Maybe its the London bias, but I can't see American glory-hunters going for Man City in the same numbers as they fell for the "big four". (That is, unless, they really go over the top and dominate the Premier League for two or three seasons... ) Nope, two of my friends are now Man City supporters. They previously supported West Ham. People like these guys just piss me off. I don't understand how how easy it is for some people to switch teams. You need to tell your friends just how enjoyable a season in the Championship with Kevin Nolan can be. [insert chicken dance here.]

Just wondering... what price for Tiote would be too good to pass up? £25m was quoted earlier. Could the club reasonably expect to replace him and other quality players for that amount? I wasn't that disappointed when the club sold Carroll because of 1) the ridiculous amount of money Liverpool paid for him 2) the naive belief that club would reinvest that money (the bulk of it) in buying more players.

What? Made me feel old. Is that really ancient history?

I'm not certain that the likability of the players has a lot to do with it. Are Man Utd's players likable? Personally, I think they're a bunch of ****s Certainly, the change we've seen this season with them playing attacking football and scoring loads of goals is going to help.

Not so sure about that. They'll gather their share of the arrivistes. But Manchester City just aren't as sexy a concept as Chelsea were went they did the same thing a few years back. Speaking from a purely Yank perspective. Maybe its the London bias, but I can't see American glory-hunters going for Man City in the same numbers as they fell for the "big four". (That is, unless, they really go over the top and dominate the Premier League for two or three seasons... )

2nd in the league!!!

Not sure that's quite right. Using the same system with the current table tells a slightly different story. Of course, at this point in the season the table is highly volatile. Winning or losing to a club can bump them down or up the table; we've created (to some extent) our "easy" schedule and Sunderland their difficult one. Us: Arsenal 7th Spurs 5th Fulham 17th Villa 11th Sunderland 14th Blackburn 20th Wigan 19th Wolves 17th QPR 10th Total placings 120 W5 D4 L0 Sunderland: Chelsea 3rd Arsenal 7th Liverpool 5th WBA 12th Newcastle 4th Stoke 9th Bolton 18th Norwich 8th Swansea 15th Total placings 81 W2 D3 L4 I don't think that using last season's standings accurately reflect the difficulty of the fixtures. Newly promoted clubs are not the easiest of fixtures. They're notoriously difficult. Using your method a promoted club scores at 21 (at best)-- Norwich, QPR, and Swansea are playing better (right now) than Bolton, Wigan, or Blackburn. To pretend otherwise is ludicrous. Anyway,

You need a humour transplant. you need a reality implant. Jerk store would've smoked that guy.

@ West Brom. Stoke away in the CC before that. Could be a headache of a week for them. Still, I think somebody pulled the trigger too soon on 4-4.

Thought Ben Arfa worked really well with Shola myself.

Apparently, threats are fairly common on wireside.

Played worse and drawn as well (QPR).

As good as he's been this season, I think we'll see better performances once Ben Arfa is introduced into the starting 11. I'm pretty happy with Ryan Taylor staying back and defending. I loved Enrique's overlapping runs, but we're getting more out of Jonas this way.

Can't disagree that Cabaye is so good he's worth 2 players. heh, Tiote.