Cronky

There was a point near the end where he had the ball out on the right. Someone - I think it was Marv - made a run to his right but Cisse played a poor pass and a Spurs player was able to run it out of play. All Cisse had to do was hold up his arm in apology, but instead he just stared, as though it was his team-mate's fault for not being in the right place. That sort of attitude does not win you popularity points in the dressing room. He just doesn't seem part of things any more.

Had our chances and should have scored, but outclassed none the less. Their passing around the midfield was at a level that we're completely incapable of. Cabaye or no Cabaye. Annoying that we've had to face three tough games - the local derby and two CL standard sides - without our main goal threat.

Needs to get a yard closer to his opponent. Concentrates on blocking the shot rather than tackling or intercepting.

His first touch is so poor that he can't be relied on to lay the ball off. We've learned that before. Why we had to watch it all again, I don't know.

They were all in the First Division, the last time we won the title. What do I win?

Yeah. There are situations on the pitch where it's better to buy the free kick rather than keep going. That'll come with experience.

He doesn't gets close enough to his opponent. I don't know where he fits in.

So were we terrible then? They were just slicing through our defence with ease. The back four seemed to get very little protection. But going forward we looked decent at times. We weren't playing hoofball. Fair result. Their players are better than ours.

A few times in a game, he'll open things up with his strength. The downside is that his first touch is reaaaaallllly poor. The second touch is a tackle far too often. But he's one of our players that can make things happen, so I'd stick with him.

We've managed to create a few chances. Trouble is, they're getting so much time and space around our box, every single attack seems to end in a shot. Reasons to be cheerful - De Jong has laid the ball off well. Sammy has been causing them problems. There was a situation about 10 minutes into the game which summed up the problem with Ben Arfa. He did well to carve out some space for himself in their area, and then tried to beat Cech at his near post from a narrow angle instead of squaring the ball. Absolutely not the percentage decision, and he wasted his own good work.

Half-hearted again.

Yeah, I thought Carroll was being a bit cute. There's a lot of this accidentally-on-purpose elbowing going on in the game, and I don't mind seeing refs get a bit stricter.

Well exactly. I can't believe that Kinnear could make a £20m decision without consulting the boss.

seriously? I have my ideas, but they're very similar to the ones that are rejected when Pardew offers them up. So yes, I'm curious what other folk see. It is interesting and i like you to expand on it because you did call him out at the beginning of the season. I know we differ on his and Pardew's merits. I certainly thing Laudrup coaches better football than Pardew and i know we disagree on that. You have however, correctly stated his 'success' as far as it can be called does seem to fall off after a couple of years (same can be said for Pardew, of course). Fwiw, i think he'd do well with our squad and would appreciate the type of players Graham Carr identifies. I think they would be more in tune with each other. I do wonder if his issues at his clubs are down to him agitating for something better or he has just had a remarkable run of bad luck when it comes to chairmen! There's no doubt to me Laudrup coaches a better style of football and I wouldn't want anyone to think otherwise. I also respect that he didn't make any excuses at all, always had a positive outlook and looked to lift his players rather than tell them they are tired even before games. Given the budgets at each club though, and the quality available, I do worry that his methods are too ... idealistic? He absolutely refuses to do what might be effective rather than what he sees as ...pure? Somewhere like Arsenal, if they spend big, someone as wiley as Wenger can sometimes win the league like that. We would have to have someone prepared to do things ugly on occasion though...and that's what Swansea needed too. The only thing I disagreed with at the time was that people were suggesting just about any other manager would be better for Newcastle United. I didn't see the benefit in the upheaval that would be involved if we were to replace someone like Pardew with someone like Laudrup, who hadn't stayed with any job long term and had seen diminishing returns towards the end of his longer spells. Reminiscent of Kevin Keegan at Newcastle in his second spell? My own opinion is that he has good coaching ability, but he probably had his eye on a bigger club and thus wasn't giving Swansea his full attention. That would explain the lack of attention to training and excessive holidays. Would he show a similar attitude at a bigger club? that's the question. Yeah, those were my thoughts too. He did show the ability to get very good football from unexceptional Premiership players eg Wayne Routledge. He does have something about him.

I'm not convinced about the Cabaye rumour. Considering the quality of the player, the fact that he wanted to leave, and the fact that no other club seemed to be willing to pay anything like the amount we got, £20m seems a good price to me. You do wonder how much tension there was around the Pardew-Carr-Kinnear axis, particularly with the start that Joe made, when he was talking about what he was going to do, before any official announcement from the club. If you couple that with what I feel was a lack of clarity about Joe's role and powers, you've got a recipe for disaster. It does look like, at the time of Kinnear's appointment, Ashley may have been hoping that Llambias was going to stay on in some capacity. So Kinnear may have ended up not in the role originally intended, or the whole management / decision-making structure may have been bodged and left unclear.

It was a daft appointment in the first place that was always going to end in tears. I think there are certain parallels with the Keegan appointment. Both are mavericks, and perhaps Ashley, as something of a maverick himself, is attracted to that kind of appointment. At the same time, he tries to avoid the pitfalls by putting structures or other people around them, all according to some scenario in his head where he's going to get the best of both worlds. So he appoints Keegan in conjunction with a DOF who is going to keep the finances under control. He appoints Kinnear but (I assume) has other people around Joe to do a large part of the work, and effectively uses him as a consultant. Trouble is, either the appointee or the people around them get frustrated and fed up with the situation, and it ends either with a sacking or a resignation.

Don't know who Peter Graves is and there will be plenty who think otherwise - but I believe that. But where exactly are these so-called 'suggestions' coming from? Anyone can 'suggest'. You don't have to have inside knowledge for that.

If this is true it's actually more scary than the alternative in a way. Means Ashley actually thought JFK could do a job. I'd agree. And Joe's limitations when it comes to a conventional DOF role would have become apparent very early. At the time he was appointed, despite all he was saying, there was word that Joe was not nearly as powerful as he was making himself out to be. There's always the possibility that this was a genuine resignation. That he got fed up of the restrictions around him, and ended up having a row with the boss.

I don't think he was ever given a real job with real power. He was clearly not suited to the diplomatic niceties of negotiating with other clubs, and it looks to me that Ashley really saw him as his personal consultant.

He's been mugging good teams all his career. He knows what it takes.

A great performance by Hazard. It's a bit of a shame that he wasted a few good opportunities near the end by trying to be too clever. Aguero was a big miss for Man City. He's the one who can get something out of nothing, and they needed the sort of moment that he can provide. If they'd scored, I'm pretty sure they'd have gone on to win.

I think Hazard has been brilliant. He's been making something out of nothing all half. It's the best I've seen him play.

I've checked with Mr Joannou's records, and he did not. (How sad am I?)

Bit of a nearly man in his football career, but he was skilful and could produce some classy moments. Sad as always, to hear of someone dying at that age.

I'm not talking about the way the game went. I'm talking about the attitude of the players going into the game. Sunderland looked up for a contest. We didn't, for whatever reason.