Sifu

38 points today with 5 to play. Hoping for a good day tomorrow and Monday.

Wasn't always that way. It used to be a fairly decent round up with a few shitty tabloids chucked in. No I know. It used to be spot on and save you a fair bit of time checking the papers, just stick with Guardian one now. BBC dumbing down FTW as per. Some of the coverage on the BBC football site is shameful IMO. e.g. the complete lack of coverage of the Copa America / the large quantities of s**** blogs. f***ing embarrassing how they started covering s*** nothing websites like that one.

Have made this point in the Pards thread, but who would you have brought him on for at 3-2 down? Pardew has already made the 'Ben Arfa will only play as a number 10' comment - so I think it's very hard to find a place for him on the pitch when we've only got 10 men. If he'd been brought on for Gosling after the 3rd goal, with Cabaye dropping off to anchor the midfield, that would have been a smart move IMO. I would have brought Ben Arfa on for Obertan. I've seen your point in the Pardew thread about a half of football not being enough for Pardew to suddenly change his mind about Ben Arfa and his playability on the wing. A point which I agree with but I just thought that if Ben Arfa had come on for Obertan, he could have played behind the strikers with Cabaye and Jonas covering the defensive positions on the right and left wings respectively when Norwich were attacking.

Nor the summer imo.

Benarfanufc10 brings the "Ben Arfa fanboyness" to the next level tbh.

I thought Shola was better than usual. He seemed to be up for it, arguing with the ref a couple of times, and turned into a bit of a playmaker when we were down to 10. As others have probably said, how come when he got clattered clearing the ball it was yellow for whatsisname but the "experts" agree Gosling's was a straight red? Actually, even the Sky commentator said Gosling's yellow was a cheap one to keep the baying crowd happy, so two wrongs making a big wrong there. I'm always glass-half-full (and if it's not I'll refill it) so I'll posit that we have the makings of a decent team here if we keep them. I can only hope I imagined a long-haired Alan Smith wandering onto the pitch at the death, but if I didn't then at least he managed not to make his usual impression by getting booked or sent off with his first contribution. And while my glass is overflowing, that Cabaye impressed me yet again. He put me in mind of an NFL quarterback in that he can take one glance, see where everyone is, where they're going, and where the ball needs to go. I'd like to keep him but I increasingly feel that we are in constant selling mode. S**t, my glass just fell off the table. S**t. Actually tbf to Shola, that was a great through ball to Ba for our second goal.

Pardew's decisions today were poor really. He should have given Kadar a chance imo, after all he was our only fit CB. Having said that in terms of his starting CBs today, Pardew started with the next best choice in Simpson and Perch. (Should have been Kadar and Perch really). Pardew should have also put on Ben Arfa at some point, certainly when the game was still 3-2. The lad would have been useful when we were chasing the game. Don't think there's a problem between Pardew and Ben Arfa as such, I think Pardew just wanted to change his tactics accordingly to compensate for the lack of natural CBs and starting Shola was one of his options to do this. Hopefully we'll have Coloccini, Williamson and Tiote back next week and that could mean a return to the tactics we played for the 11 games or so. Really hope he now starts Santon at LB too.

Not sure about him yet. He was at fault for that through ball which led to Norwich's goal. Silly tackle for his red card, should have been a yellow at most but he would have ended up being sent off anyway. Won't write him off yet like.

He's shown some glimpses of good football when he has played and I hope after this injury, his injury problems will be behind him. Probably wishful thinking but we'll see.

What a fucking pass that was to Ba

I'm running out of excuses to defend the lad. Like I said last night though, I'll give him at least one season to buck up his ideas. Needs a massive kick up the arse.

Quality finishes today. An absolutely quality signing. Like I've said before, he's pretty much everything you want in a striker.

Still going to give the lad a chance myself. I won't write him off just yet.

Like some people have said, looks like we're looking to offload Kadar. The fact he wasn't even on the bench today and Ferguson, a LB/winger, got the place ahead of him speaks volumes. Absolute shame if we do end up getting rid.

The lad played decent enough for his first PL start imo. Looked composed on the ball when he was bringing the ball out of defence. Some good forward runs too. Simply has to start games from now on, hope his knock isn't too serious. Promising stuff for me.

Should have definitely come on today. Would have given us an extra dimension to our attacking outlet especially when we were chasing the game at 3-2. Hopefully we'll see him next week.....

Like I've said before, the sooner he's back the better. We need an actual CB playing next week against Swansea. So many problems were highlighted today with a lack of a natural CB.

If Tiote doesn't make the Swansea game, then I'd be alright with Abeid starting. Anyone but Smith really!

This is a massive game. A must-win really though I can see Vorm frustrating our strikers

Ha, didn't see that.....

Vorm is some keeper like.

If Tiote is back for Swansea, it will be a welcome return/massive lift of pretty much epic proportions especially with our options at CM decreasing by the game...... Oh and that bit about him being "set to join Chelsea", absolute load of bollocks.

Just got in from town. In short, not a great performance which I guess was expected with our two starting centre backs today. Simply put, Simpson and Perch aren't centre backs, we really missed Coloccini's commanding presence. The defending for Norwich's set pieces was terrible. Free headers all round which led to their goals really. Poor. The only positives come from Santon's performance, did well for his first PL start. He looked composed on the ball and his forward runs were good. Our goals were great too. Cabaye's ball to Ba was quality and great finishes from Ba. Gosling's red card was a yellow card at most (would have got sent off anyway but like JH pointed out, a one game ban is better than a three game ban). Another thing, Ben Arfa should have come on at some point. He would have given us some attacking outlet, Shola was poor.

For me, a captain on a football pitch is one who is able to inspire the other players through his own example. A captain like Coloccini, for example, isn't one who is really vocal on the pitch but is one who leads by example (in Colo's case, it's his calmness on the ball, won't give up etc.). Such a captain should be able to inspire the others. Kevin Nolan was a vocal leader and wasn't afraid to give his view when needed. He was able to keep the players together by his own example, sure he wasn't a proper athlete but he was dedicated to the cause and was a professional. Now let's look at Michael Owen. He was quite frankly the worst possible choice for a captain because his example was not really doing anything on the pitch or even off it. For a player who really wasn't arsed with the cause of helping to keep us up nor was he a model professional is hardly the inspiration his peers needed. Great leadership material eh? I agree, however in the Owen scenario it was clear that team didn't have anyone capable of been a leader. Now that I think about it, yeah we didn't have any leaders as such on the pitch that season.

For me, a captain on a football pitch is one who is able to inspire the other players through his own example. A captain like Coloccini, for example, isn't one who is really vocal on the pitch but is one who leads by example (in Colo's case, it's his calmness on the ball, won't give up etc.). Such a captain should be able to inspire the others. Kevin Nolan was a vocal leader and wasn't afraid to give his view when needed. He was able to keep the players together by his own example, sure he wasn't a proper athlete but he was dedicated to the cause and was a professional. Now let's look at Michael Owen. He was quite frankly the worst possible choice for a captain because his example was not really doing anything on the pitch or even off it. For a player who really wasn't arsed with the cause of helping to keep us up nor was he a model professional is hardly the inspiration his peers needed. Great leadership material eh?