Cronky

It felt a bit like the season before last. Under the cosh, but with the help of a great keeper and some good individual moments, we get through. Gouffy was great again, and Mapou is starting to show his worth. That clearance when the shot rebounded from Krul was brilliant. None or our other CBs would have had the speed or the agility to get anywhere near it.

Ben Arfa has been dropped because he has provided nothing at all in his last few matches and probably been one of the worst players. If he was tearing teams apart, like we know he is capable of doing, he would start even if he sat down and started tying his boots every time the other team had the ball. Even when Ben Arfa "tracks back" (runs around aimlessly in our end, completely lacking the mentality or skill to actually defend) he isn't that helpful as a defender. Marginally? Zaha is fit and has played in only one competitive match for Manchester. It is a very strange transfer. How can you sign someone (a 20 year old England international at that!) for 15 million and then not even give them a chance to play? I agree about Ben Arfa. With Zaha, he was Fergie's buy and when a new manager comes in, he may not rate him the same way. Having said that, even if Fergie was still in charge, I don't think he'd be picking him. However well he's done in the Championship, his current limitations have been exposed at his new level.

Given that there's not a lot to choose between all four CBs, we may as well stick with a pair who seem to be building a reasonable partnership. We can debate the finer points, but you can't say that there's a particularly strong case for re-instating Colo or Taylor.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-chase-wilfried-zaha-transfer-2711400#ixzz2k67S2fNk Zaha linked again. I don't know what to make of this player, because for some reason he seems to have gone backwards over the last season and a half. He actually looks less skilful than he did before, somehow. I don't particularly trust Pardew's judgement of a player and I'd rather steer clear.

I'll repeat a point I've made before. Despite his power and athleticism, Taylor does not seem to impose himself enough on the game. He tends to back off, staying goalside to avoid getting beaten, relying on blocking rather than intercepting or tackling. In terms of general ability, Williamson probably doesn't have anything over Taylor. (His distribution may be a bit better, but both are poor so I won't labour that point) In fact Taylor is stronger and quicker. But in terms of his style of defending, Williamson is much more pro-active. Crucially, he gets closer to his opponent. He's less worried about making mistakes and takes more initiative.

I do fear the worst for his future here. There's no questioning his talent, but his contribution to the team still isn't quite good enough overall. I get the feeling that, no matter where he is on the pitch, his first instinct tends to be to try and beat the man in front of him rather than lay the ball off. Even when he doesn't actually lose the ball, it can slow things up. And as people say, his defensive work is very poor. Is he worth his place just on the occasional golden moments, which compensate for the other problems? At the moment, with regrets, I'd have to say no. He needs to improve. And I don't think it's fair to blame Pardew here. He's given him every chance, in all sorts of positions in the side.

Trouble is, they're in the awkward position of not really wanting the team to do well. Needs to get sorted by both sides. Fast.

Well that's what's happening, sadly. As soon as the lad looks like he's finally cracked it, he's off beam again. He could do with some sort of counselling. Seriously. He craves success, but can't handle it.

Harsh, Parky, harsh. Pardew wouldn't be the first to fail with HBA.

We're improving, as some of our newer players find their feet in the Premiership. More improvement still to come if our younger players - thinking of Dummett and Sammy particularly - can step up. Ought to establish ourselves in the top half, with hopefully a good Cup run. Still light in the striker department, where we're hoping to avoid long-term injuries.

I think the side is improving as some of the newer players like Anita, Mapou, Debuchy etc find their feet. But we don't look great technically and we struggle when we try to work the ball in confined spaces. However, we do have some decent athletes like Remy and Sissoko, and when space opens up a bit, we can be a threat.

Watching the actual interview, it's clear that he meant it sincerely. Whether you agree with him or not, at least he had the guts to nail his colours to the mast. Watching the Sunday Supplement, I'd agree with the journo who said that the right response would have been for the club to get the local editors round the table and find a way forward. The local media are now in the unfortunate position where it would suit their stance if the team were doing badly. The club are in the unfortunate position of having a hostile local press. No-one's going to win.

I'd like to see him get a run at CF, but I've got to say that he does this extremely well. He holds that position on the wing so well. If he's been dragged away from LW when we attack, he's back in front of Santon within seconds if we lose the ball. He was fucking excellent yesterday. Yeah, and when he gets back he's not just there as a token presence to slow an attack down. He actually can defend a bit.

My MOM yesterday. There's no one part of the game that's outstanding, but he's able to make a decent fist out of any situation that he finds himself in. Most strikingly, he's able to get back and protect his full back as well as get on the end of chances at the other end of the pitch. He's really established himself in the team now.

He looks like he's enjoying his football again.

Does he really make more mistakes than the other three? I don't think so. He's the only real defensive organiser that we have, and has proved his worth to the side for that reason. I'd keep the Willo-Mapou combination going and see how it develops. In theory, their different strengths should dovetail.

Some of our more recent buys are starting to find their feet. Debuchy, Mapou and Gouffy all did well, especially Gouffy. And Pards got his tactics bang on.

He got the ball in 10 yards of space about 5 times, and managed to mess it up every time.

Pardew's plan is clearly to keep it tight and go for it in the last 15 minutes, when we're hopefully still at 0-0. The team is picked with that in mind. Chelsea do have better players so I don't really blame him. Tiote looks back to his best, which is a big bonus.

A teensy bit self-pitying, I thought. Sorry.

It's the political side of the job that he's always struggled with. When these kinds of disputes arise, whoever's in the right, it needs to be handled in a certain way. You can't run a football club in the same way as you're running a business. It's obviously something he finds very frustrating, but like Alan Sugar before him, he really needs to consider whether the shoe fits.

It's not made explicit, but it sounds like the reason for the NUST ban was that they published feedback from the meeting before the club's own minutes, presumably against an agreement. If so, I think a warning is far more appropriate here.

Haidara has looked very promising in the glimpses we've seen of him. IMO both he and Dummett will overtake Santon, if they've not already done so. Santon doesn't look nimble enough to be a good full back. He only has to be slightly out of position to be completely beaten whereas good full backs have the speed and agility off the mark to recover. He's okay going forward, but I still think he would be better on the right.

A joke, surely? These nouveau riche nobodies? Yeah, okay. Skill. The telling thing was the way they could interpass their way through the centre of our defence. We don't have that in our weaponry.

Man City that extra bit of class that told in the end. There's no way we could have scored their second goal.