Taylor Swift

Cabaye's been good today - his first really good game in about two months. He's supported the attack well and been the furthest player forward on two or three occasions and has looked good as a result.

Ben Arfa is fucking magic.

motherfucker

Cabaye has been immense today in support of the attack. That's the second time that he's been leading the break.

It's no surprise that we've probably scored two of not many counter-attacking goals of the season with him on the pitch. How many have we actually scored? 2 today, Obertan against Blackburn, Jonas v Wolves, Ba vs Norwich, Ba v Bolton, Ben Arfa v Arsenal. Only 7 this year by my count and the two today were classic ones, too.

People's expectations are too high if we're going to criticize the spell between our 2nd and 3rd goals. West Brom are a good side, they were always going to have a spell of possession. Every team in the Premiership does. We started on fire, dominated the game and scored two goals, then they naturally came back into the half before we scored a 3rd. I think it's all over now but a 4th would make it safe for real.

Best half of the season?

Ahhh, point scoring already today Ronaldo was so confident in Pardew that he predicted us to win today. Oh wait... Our record in orange strips. My bad.

Ahhh, point scoring already today Ronaldo was so confident in Pardew that he predicted us to win today. Oh wait...

Sexual.

Coloccini's hamstring...

woooooooooooooooooooo

CISSE

Yup. The guy has quality written all over him.

EIEIEIO

wooooooooooo

The pitch there is shite. Arsenal were shit there, too. Honestly, I've seen them 20+ times this season and they play better football than 80% of the league. The only teams who play better football are City, Arsenal, Spurs and Swansea. Man Utd have struggled this year, relatively. Their football hasn't been that good and they can't keep the ball. Liverpool actually can, but they just can't finish.

They miss a lot of easy chances. Suarez's finishing is woeful but he's been through 1v1 a million times this season. If he had scored half as often as RvP does when given a chance, they would be in the top 4 with ease. The football they play is not the problem, it's the chances that they've missed. Their away form hasn't been too good but they've battered almost every team that's gone to Anfield.

Their possession stats are top 3, their shots and chances are top 3, they hit the woodwork more than most teams... what more do you want? They play good football. They dominated against Arsenal, against Man Utd, against us (when we were still doing all right). They don't have that cutting edge up front but they sure as hell create a lot of chances and keep the ball well.

They're very dominant and create loads of chances tbf. Yup. They play very good football. They keep the ball well and create a lot of chances.

Hopefully it goes down to them having to win at San Mames to win the title. That would be fucking epic.

Players are faster, stronger and better now than they ever were. This is a fact. To dominate now, then, is harder than ever before. So what Messi is doing is unparalleled. Pele and Maradona can suck his balls because they can only dream of doing what he's doing now.

He is redefining what 'greatness' is. No great player in the past twenty years has been able to perform at his level consistently. I would argue that no one has ever performed at his level consistently. People might speak about peaks and that'd be a different argument. But for consistently brilliant with an amazing peak combined with the ability to dominate the biggest of matches, Messi is the ultimate player. I know people mention his inability to sparkle with Argentina, which is actually quite overrated given how he plays much deeper for them so he won't show up on the goalscoring sheet as often as he usually does (and which leads the casual fan to thinking that Messi underperformed) for Barca, but that's only a small facet of being 'great'. Felipao talked about maximizing the resources available. Well, that is only one facet available. If someone gives you shit and you somehow make something out of it, then bravo. But if someone gives you gold and you turn that into something even more spectacular then you deserve even more credit. Messi has turned an incredible group of players into an invincible, once-in-three-lifetimes team which has swept aside every single challenger that they've had for nigh on 4 years now. It's the greatest run in modern football.

Yeah, in the same way that players won more Championships than Jordan (Russell, for one), but Jordan redefined the game. I think Messi is currently redefining what we believe is spectacular in football. I don't think anybody has been able to do the things he's doing today every single match. The moments that make you gasp were moments that the greatest of players had but I don't think any of them had those moments so often that you became almost numb and expectant, and that's the realm that Messi is now exclusively in, imo. I watch him and know he's on another plane, and it's so blindingly obvious that it's the case.

It feels like the Cesar goalscoring record thing is a conspiracy for Messi to break it faster. How do you not discover this shit before today? He's your all-time top scorer, ffs!