tmonkey

Just needs to be reminded to lump the uncontrolled ball away as soon as there's someone within 5 metres of him. He was doing just that at the beginning of this season, continuing his form from the Championship, but the past month or so he did seem to get more cocky, taking more unecessary risks than usual (probably overconfident due to top form).

I have that as the 4th game in a row where he's done next to nothing. Arsenal, Blackburn, Fulham, Bolton. Could it be that he's a marked man now since the hat-trick?

"This will be an interesting battle between Jose Enrique, the South American left back, and Theo Walcott."

Thought Simpson was fantastic defensively today.

What a ball by Tiote. Beckham eat your heart out.

Jonas has been garbage but his effort and skill won us the opportunity from which we scored. Just shows that some players like him can be worth the frustration for what they contribute in stats. This. Take him off and we don't have anyone in the team who would have dribbled forward like that and won the free kick. Routledge at a stretch, but he's more the type who'll run into brick walls all day long instead of realising that he has nowhere to go and therefore needs to win a cheap free kick.

Also lets not forget the well floated free kick from Barton.

FUCKING OWNED.

Jonas has been dogshit.

Probably Nolan's idea... he earned his treat the day before tbh So he had a McFlurry too on top of his usual three sausage 'n' egg mcmuffins? Lucky chap.

Probably Nolan's idea...

Will have to agree to disagree, as imo N'Zogbia added alot more to the team and did create chances/goalscoring opportunities unlike Duff. The main thing for me was that he posed an infinitely bigger threat due to his pace, dribbling, and willingness to take players on and whip the ball in at pace/smash the ball towards goal. At the time, he was our only source of effective pace/ability in the final third. He had his off days, but only then was he as useless as Duff was imo. Particularly remember that spell of a few games in November iirc, when Zog down the left and Jonas down the right looked like a pretty good wing combination. Different types of pace and dribbling on both wings, Jonas being more effective in the middle third and Zog being more dangerous in the final third - it looked promising. But for some reason, Duff walked back into the lineup and stayed there, twaddling up and down the flanks, refusing to take anyone on, unable to cross to save his life, looking to not shoot at every opportunity, etc etc. Disgraceful, and no wonder we were relegated come the end of that season.

What was the actual reason? Because Kinnear didn't know his name anymore? Because he mispronounced his name. That was the icing on the cake, the last straw. Not the actual reason for him wanting to leave. Naturally spending the best part of 3 years constantly being dropped for an utterly s*** waste of space like Duff and watching him hide for 90 minutes week in week out would have had any young, dynamic, pacey, explosive winger packing their bags eventually.

Barton Tiote Nolan Jonas Ben Arfa Carroll Could've been

Comfortable Arsenal victory. Don't think we'll be able to compete with their passing/movement/technique.

First good quality cross Simpson has produced since being in a B&W shirt? Carroll really should have buried that, absolute peach of a delivery.

3 goals from a few yards out. Some didn't do their homework. I know there's going to be a massive wankathon over him now given that he's scored a hat-trick against the Mackems, and credit where it's due - he was brilliant at scoring - but lets not lose sight of the fact that the current team/setup is absolutely perfect for him, and it's only now that we're starting to reap the rewards of having him in the team without suffering some of the consequences (unlike e.g. our relegation season). Barton coming infield at times and taking on the responsibility of spreading the play, Tiote providing defensive cover and athleticism, Jonas providing dribbling, Carroll holding the ball up and winning headers in the penalty box at will at times. Nolan can be as invisible as he wants in general play, he has free reign to position himself wherever he sees fit, and to his great credit he seems to have this sixth-sense ability commonly attributed to Michael Owen of freqeuntly being in the right place at the right time. The great thing about him is that no doubt teams are going to be keeping a closer eye on him now, especially inside the box. But even if they do, it's not going to be easy picking up someone who seems to move randomly into a position (off the ball) where the ball just happens to come at him, especially with Carroll being a beast in the air and winning headers/drawing defenders in and knocking it down into the 6-yard box. He could easily end up on 15-20 goals if he keeps playing the way he has in the current system.

Leave the rest for Nolan. Though I think he wants chicken for dinner tonight given his celebrations.

Nolan > Lampard.

6-0. Carroll 4 goals.

5 out of 10 is an average mark. Unsurprisingly given after an average performance..... Since most of us are used to FM/CM type ratings (or whatever system those ratings originated from), a 5 out of 10 is given for a poor/sub-par performance, with 6 or 7 being the average. I'd say Tiote aside, Jonas looked our best player. Was single handedly carrying our attack for much of the game, dribbling past numerous players whilst under pressure/marked. It's a shame he can't cross well and lacks consistency, but that doesn't mean we should ignore just how good he can be at pushing the team forward from nothing positions/situations, and that's exactly what he did against West Ham. Hence why the 5 seems harsh when he was pretty much the one player responsible for our dominance/possession going forward.

Tiote looks pretty similar imo to Lassana Diarra, who Madrid paid £20m for when he was at Portsmouth.

Thought he was poor yesterday, minus the goal. But then we know he's not really suited to central midfield duties anymore. With Ben Arfa out of the picture, Routledge looking Championship standard so far, Lovenkrands being mediocre and Guthrie possibly being too average at this level, there's no real reason to drop him. Better to have someone getting a few goals here and there than to have a replacement in the side doing nothing at all for the team.

Starting to think he's a bit of a freak of nature. Doesn't look that physically big or imposing compared to others on the same pitch, but when you see him move, it's like he's the offspring of a Terminator and a kangaroo or something - the strength and relentless stamina of a machine combined with the springy movement of a big, fast land mammal.

Didn't see Ameobi hold the ball up for Barton to cross for the winner then? Shola had a good game IMO. Shola's only positive contribution that game was a half-decent late run which was ended in a blocked shot (iirc), and running down the line onto Barton's very good pass to then pass it back to him (something very basic that he was forced into doing due to his reluctance to cross into the box). The rest of the time he: - was very slow at reacting to passes and Carroll's knockdowns. - was very casual in running onto balls over the top. - lost the ball cheaply a number of times. - was barely in the game in an attacking sense. The last part imo was down to the lack of effort he was making to get into the box - I counted 3 times where the ball was out on the wings and Ameobi was walking around 20 yards off the pace. One of those times was when Carroll was out on the wing supporting Jonas and we had noone forward at all, so with Ameobi walking around near the centre circle Joey Barton decided to venture a bit forward. Maybe I'm being harsh/wrong, but a few neutral friends thought he was gash too. Came away thinking we had effectively won the game playing with ten men almost.