Cronky

Arshavin's their only hope.

Prove it. Look on his face. Knowing you're offside and knowing you've been given offside are two different things. You play to the whistle.

Not the most intelligent piece of refereeing. You have to give the player the benefit of the doubt there.

I don't get how Barca are so good at breaking the offside trap. The timing of the run and the delivery of the pass are nearly always spot on.

A bad mistake by Fabregas. If you're not physically fit, it's difficult to be mentally fit, and he's struggling to get involved.

Incredibly difficult for Arsenal to get at the Barca back four. In fact, they're struggling to get the ball out of their half.

I don't know why people are getting hung up about percentages in this case. Obviously 80% effort can't be clearly defined. The point is about a player not giving their all but still expecting to be picked because they don't think they need to give their all to get a place.

What an absolute load of crud. You've missed the point, which was that if any player is only giving 80%, he shouldn't expect to be included just because his 80% is better than a rival's 100%. The fact that he's only giving 80% creates other issues for the team. The comparison between Ranger, Best and Lovenkrands was just a hypothetical. Hence the word 'might'.

He is, apparently. He's just not turning up before he's been told to. I laugh, to be fair I think I understand Pardew's underlying point which is that he's not investing as much effort in improving himself as he perhaps should, but the way he put it sounds... funny. Yeah, Pardew was making an unusual sort of point about the impact of Ranger's behaviour on his team-mates. I think the problem with Ranger is that he thinks that he's good enough for the first team, even when he only puts in 80% effort. Now that might actually be true - 80% of Ranger might well be better than Lovenkrands or Best, strictly on an individual way of thinking. But it's a team game, and everyone has to put in 100%, regardless of their ability. If a star player isn't giving their all, that has a depressing effect on the rest. It's just as important for the weaker players to overcome their inhibitions and give 100%, and they're more inclined to do that if they see the better players also trying their best. I don't know if I've put that particularly well. But I think what Pardew is getting at is everybody, of whatever talent, has to buy into a collective ethic of effort and self-improvement. If you don't, then you're acting as a distraction.

It's an aspect of his game that can improve, but his physique is working against him here. He's not going to be a particularly nimble, mobile striker that's going to be great at dropping deep and linking up with intricate passing movements or moving out wide. He can hold the ball up, but that's not quite the same thing. He's very good at what he does well, but he's not that versatile. It's interesting that the current top four didn't seem to come in for him.

What an absolute load of s****. Pipe down, man. You didn't spot his ability in the early days, and it looks like you're not spotting his limitations now.

If that's true, then he's out of the club. Fingers crossed it's not.

Good though he is, I'd still see Carroll as a raw talent who needs more experience to refine his decision-making. The question is - are Liverpool going to give him that experience? They're impatient to get back into the top four, and in Kuyt and Suarez they have players who can already do a job for them. Carroll may end up warming the bench more often than he'd like.

I don't think he was tested out defensively but going forward he looked very good.

If a player wants to go or isn't sure about staying then that's often enough to take the edge of his game. Enrique hasn't been playing badly, but he hasn't looked quite the same player for the last couple of months. That's all. We've got a wage policy and it looks like Enrique has been offered more by Liverpool. There's no point in having a policy if you're going to break it whenever a player tries to test it out.

Liverpool look much quicker going forward and are able to get at Man U's back four much more easily. Scholes and Giggs still look good on the ball but can they close the opposition down?

Everton looked the more skilful side. We missed that bit of invention that Barton gives us, although we battled hard. The positive thing to take forward was that Ferguson looks ready for the first team. He got involved right away and looked confident.

We need to keep our cool. We're going to end up with 10 men at this rate.

Looks like there'll be more goals. They're finding lots of space on the break. We're forcing quite a few chances as well. Simpson looked completely lost in that more advanced position.

Does it not make KK look a complete arsehole? The old addage any publicity is good publicty appears to be the reason he makes comments about the regime. It really does have fuck all to do with him and it really does insult the intelligence of the rank and file because I think the majority already have their suspicions about the regime. KK is history but sadly folk still choose to hang onto every word he says for some strange reason. He just go back to his soccer circus and disappear. Well I agree about Keegan, but I'm a bit frustrated at Llambias's response. It's the difference between standing your ground, and hitting back. All he needed to do was point out that Ashley had already ploughed a lot of his own money into the club and he'd already said that the £35m would be re-invested on to the playing side. I can understand his annoyance at Keegan, but he has to keep that buttoned up. We already know about the £25m and all that does is deflect attention from the main point that he should be trying to make. Besides, Bob Moncur has already made the point very effectively.

They are two valid points - Keegan did try to sue the club for £25m, and it was only by last-day brinkmanship that the club drove Carroll's price up to £35m. However, there's no point in Llambias trying to hit back, and he should have learned that by now. He is not going to win a PR battle with Kevin Keegan.

The statement that I noted from Pardew was about how complicated transfers are. In the days, pre-Bosman, pre-agents, pre-Sky, pre-Champs League, pre-Premiership, managers could be given a transfer budget to divvy up how they felt. That was because salaries did not form such a huge proportion of the club's turnover, and did not vary so much between members of the squad. Budgeting is now much more complicated.

Yes, that would have been the most likely result if our promotion had failed. And you're spot on regarding Smith and Nolan. Although Smith's quality on the pitch has not been the best this year, his role both on and off the pitch during our Championship season should never be forgotten. Chris' role would have been so much harder without Smith and Nolan. Crucially, that message they gave that the players who didn't want to stay could fuck off was the right one at the right time. It not only established some unity, it meant that the other players were giving themselves the positive message that they were good enough to do it themselves. It's worth bearing that in mind when it comes to players like Barton or Enrique who may or may not stay. If they want to stay, then great, but fretting and bending over backwards to please them gives everyone the wrong message. All those efforts to try and persuade Owen to sign a new contract when he was clearly uncommitted were a bad mistake.

f***ing hell, he's completely off his mind Gosh, Stevie. Be nice to people on your way up, because you'll meet them on your way down. Alienating the entire Irish nation isn't a great idea.

He's hardly likely to have made them up. More likely some journo has asked him about the rumours and he wants to nail them early.