Sifu

It was mentioned in the Other Games Today thread. Easy to lose track of other news in there tbf.

(That was a quality show btw!).

I liked Stephen Glass. Unspectacular player but looked decent when called upon (from what I remember anyway).

Ah feck sake

Not watching game but I guessing he's been diving all over the place again?

I bet he appreciates that

I see Man U are leading. Meh.

Me too. (for Fantasy Football reasons more than anything )

Would like to see Ben Arfa at the Euros. However, don't think I'll support France though (apologies!) Despite their shitness these past few years (and the number of twats in the team), England are still my preferred team on the international stage.

Best not to think about such a scenario.

The lad's definitely won me over. Just read back some of my comments about him from earlier on in the season - I'm quite embarrassed by them tbh! He's made a massive improvement and he's shown that he is dependable in DM and at full back. I'm still iffy about him playing CB though but as it stands, needs must.

Do fuck off Lawro.

This will do. We should basically tell Tiote and Jonas to pretty much sit back and help Williamson and Perch but support Cabaye when need be/they're able to. Urgh.

That compilation and Ben Arfa's acceleration/skills destroying West Brom's defence, man! Lovely.

The setup here is pretty much perfect for Ba imo. Firstly, we have the French contingent (and his fellow countryman with him); secondly, we have the potential to play some really great football with the players we have and finally the fans love him. It really looks like he loves it here too Get him a new contract ASAP!

Nice, another season of Kenny. So another season of massive underachievement is (hopefully) on the cards.

After seeing the 4-3-3 in practice yesterday, I would very much like to see us use it in the long term. The attacking, the general link up play between the midfield and the forwards and the way we kept the ball............positive and encouraging stuff to see! The potential is certainly there - now we just need the right sort of full backs. If we move Santon to RB and we sign a competent LB, can really see this system becoming really effective and very potent. The future looks bright methinks.

Thought Williamson handled Carroll pretty well (for the most part anyway) when we played Liverpool at Anfield. Hopefully something similar will happen next week.

Really looking forward to this game. Coloccini's absence is a massive blow though so hopefully Tiote will be back next week - Cheik's presence and defensive ability will help us cope.

Yep, I enjoyed this game. Best we've played in ages. Well done to Pardew and the lads

Solid enough performance from him today imo (certainly better than his recent outings). He was somewhat at fault for the goal, aye, but the way I saw it was that Krul should have taken more control of the situation - that is, Tim should have given Williamson a clear shout that the ball was the keeper's. So really, it was a combination of both Willo and Krul imho.

Absolutely top class performance from wor Hatem today. A worthy MOTM. Fantastic. Can't wait to see him against the scousers next week.

He was really impressive today. He did so well in the holding midfield role, was very disciplined.

Losing Coloccini (especially at this point of the season) is a massive, massive blow. Fuck's sake. Fingers crossed that he'll be back sooner than expected. In the meantime, like some people have said, Tiote's presence could help us to cope with Colo's absence. Hopefully Cheik will be back next week.

That's more like it, Alan! Pardew set us up in the right way today. His instructions and his team selection were pretty much bang on. Today was definitely the best we played in a while, we played some wonderful stuff in the first half - everything just clicked. The midfield linked up well with the forwards and vice-versa. Thought we were very disciplined in the second half as well (even though West Brom had a few good chances to get back into the game). All in all, the defending was decent enough and the attacking was absolutely top class. Positive and encouraging stuff. 50 points from 30 games (and level with Chelsea). Well done Pards, more of the same next week please!