Cronky

It's Williamson's standard way of defending at set pieces, and the ref may have been watching for it. Normally Willo gets very close to his opponent so it's not so obvious who's doing what, but on this occasion he didn't. The other thing that needs some clarity is goalkeepers jumping off the line before a penalty is kicked. Even though it's not allowed, they all manage to get away with it. I'm not saying that Mignolet's save was any more blatant than others that you see, but it's actually not that difficult a law to enforce, and I don't understand why the convention is that refs turn a blind eye.

Good call.

The usual faults. The strikers look isolated. Until the last 10 minutes, the midfield weren't finding one another. Still, there are some signs of improvement. I'm not sure that 4-4-2 is ultimately the way for us to go. Ba doesn't have the mobility for that secondary striker role. Neither Cabaye nor Tiote get forward enough - we've basically got an anchor man and a playmaker together and that's not ideal.

Rationally speaking, it's two very evenly matched teams, with similar formations and therefore hard to call. It'll be a bit of a ruck. I've never rated Bendtner much, and I'm a bit surprised and relieved he's included. He's the sort of player that I'd back our defence to handle.

I'm not sure why some are objecting to the thread. It's quite an interesting snapshot of opinion - in particular, the fact that views of Ashley are now fairly evenly spread right across the board, from Get rid to Happy. On the stadium re-naming, I'd rather it hadn't happened, but I can't say that I blame the bloke. He sees other clubs gain an advantage through outside oil subsidies, he's ended up using a lot of his own money to keep us going, and I can understand him wanting to try to maximise the club's income through whatever means possible. The view goes round that it's just a cynical ploy to benefit Sports Direct, and time may make that more apparent or not. The difficulty is that the hostility to the name change really is likely to put potential sponsors off, and so for that reason we may end up with all the SD signs for some time to come. That's the reality. Ashley is likely to benefit either way. I can understand local fans feeling aggrieved. What I dislike is the bandwagon jumpers. Over several years, the local council has done very little to help the club, and in some cases has actually been obstructive. Clambering on to their high horse over a name change doesn't sit well with me.

Pardew has only been here just over a year, so needs more time. He seems fairly cautious and pragmatic as a manager, so I'm unsure at this point whether he can take us to the next level. I'm hopeful though. Ashley is running the club the right way as far as I'm concerned. There's a long-term strategy in place for once. He's got the mistakes out of his system and personally I'm not bothered about the change in the official name of the stadium.

In the short-term, I could see Redknapp taking over the squad at the end of the season, setting a good atmosphere within the camp, building team spirit and doing well in the Euros. In the longer term, I think he'd find the criticism that goes with the job, and the lack of a day-to-day involvement with players quite hard to take. What we might end up with is Pearce doing the short-term job, although he might be the better long-term candidate, and Redknapp doing the longer-term job though he'd probably be better in the more clubby atmosphere of a tournament.

Parker puts such a lot of energy into his play, that when he eventually has to take a breather, I don't think it's always at the right time. It's like it's forced on him. For the second goal, he was a bit static and I did wonder whether it was one of those times.

Well yeah, if there weren't previous concerns about him, he'd be a regular in the French national team and be playing for a club in the Champions League. I think the biggest question mark about him is his reliability, both in terms of his use of the ball and his defensive work. We've seen that he's actually quite strong and does on occasion help the defence out well. It's hard to put your finger on it, but he doesn't seem committed to fitting into any kind of role within the team. Sometimes he does what he's supposed to do, and sometimes he doesn't.

Arsenals profits are amazing, those trying to argue Wenger had no money are touched, deeply deeply touched Is this a whoosh? The profits were generated by the sales of Fabregas and Nasri for north of £40m in total. Wenger's problem is identifying players that are better than the ones he's left with, who won't break their wage structure, and who aren't snapped up by wealthier clubs. He decided to keep the bulk of the money in reserve and recruit stop gaps to fill out the squad.

It's not hard to justify a 5 year contract for Coloccini, his game doesn't revolve around pace, he's not going to forget how to read the game and that's by far his biggest asset. but if he gets slower ? not saying he will but it's a possibility, no amount of reading the game can make up for that. 3 yrs definitly, 4 yrs possibly, 5 and a pay rise seems pushing it. Yeah, I'd have said a 3 year deal was about the norm for a player that age. It's true that he relies on reading the game rather than pace, but at the top level, there really is such a thing as too slow. One injury - not necessarily a bad one - may be all it takes to expose him that bit too much.

We do seem to be very generous with some of our contracts. If you remember, we gave Williamson and Ranger five year deals. It's hard to justify a 5 year contract for Colo. He can't afford to lose any more pace, and that's always liable to happen once a defender passes 30. He wouldn't get that long a deal anywhere else. And lastly, as the advert said, he's good but not that good.

Is that right? He's 30 and he's looking for a 5 year contract? I know the standard line is that the player is a mixture of Beckenbauer and Baresi and the owner is an evil miser, but if that article is true, it's no wonder it's taking a while to sort out.

It still feels like a situation vacant, because Colo doesn't come across as a natural leader, even though he's still probably the best option that we have.

Won't finish in the top 4. I'd say they had a decent chance myself. Today's performance showed what that side can do with a bit of determination and belief. Wenger's strategy demands a high level of confidence from his players. They've struggled to find it recently, but today it was there. And for me, there's no finer sight in English football than Arsenal in full flow.

A complete loss of nerve at half-time, leading to bungled substitutions. England managers should be made of sterner stuff.

Answer - no.

From what I understand, Ticketus loaned Whyte the money, rather than the club. Whyte then used that cash to pay off the 18m overdraft, which he called a loan and named himself as preferred creditor on that basis. Slippery as fuck if true! BTW if that IS true, how dumb are Ticketus? Maybe I'll hit them up for a loan too if they're throwing money around on wishes and dreams... And if so, Rangers really are in trouble. Presumably Whyte will have to repay his loan from Ticketus, so he will have to get that money back from the club. So the administrators will have to find a buyer who will be prepared to pay £18m for a club that's heavily in debt, which will be extremely difficult unless the other creditors are prepared to accept a very small proportion of the money owed. If the club is formally liquidated, what happens to the assets eg the ground, players etc. Are they sold off and the proceeds given to the creditors?

Hmmm... So according to that article, he bought the club using money borrowed against future ticket sales. What I don't get is how he can be a 'preferred creditor', when it doesn't sound like he's put any of his own money into the club. Surely Ticketus would be the 'preferred creditor' if anyone. Can someone more savvy with big-time finance shed any light on this?

Barry's reputation took a nosedive at the last World Cup when he wasn't fully fit and was rushed back into the side because we didn't have a replacement. I think he's a good all round player who's still our best choice for the anchor role in midfield.

I'm hoping for a repeat of Denmark 92. A team with low expectations and little pressure coming good as the tournament progresses. Happy Harry keeping everyone in a relaxed frame of mind. It can't be worse than the usual lead-up to these tournaments.

A manager once said that you can't achieve anything without a happy dressing room, and AVB's dressing room ain't happy. It's a difficult job for anyone, because with the rise of Man City and FFP they can't just spend their way out of the situation, and at the same time they've not been geared to bringing younger players through. What needs to happen is the same process as Fergie performed when he first took over at Man U - taking a step back in order to eventually move forward. AVB's difficulty is that when he takes that step back, the players and the supporters will point to his age and inexperience and pin the blame on those factors. It's better done by someone with a more secure record, and even then it's difficult. Abramovich should stick with him, but I think if they don't qualify for the CL this season, then he won't.

There is something indescribably wrong about AVB's raincoat.

I'd certainly credit him with the best individual performance I've ever seen from a Newcastle player. Old Trafford 1972, Man U 0, Newcastle 2. He dominated the opposition from first whistle to last. He had this change of pace and direction that would take him through gaps before opponents could react. On form, it was difficult for them to get near him, let alone put in a tackle.

No question that's a much better side, and illustrates the point I've been trying to make. Four of those players went to Man City, and in the new financial climate, they're difficult for Arsenal to replace. On a side point, I've often felt that Arsenal's style demands a really top striker to make it work. They need someone comfortable on the ball who can participate in their passing style, but who is also strong enough to get on the end of chances in the penalty area. RVP is the only striker they have who looks the part, and even then not always.