Taylor Swift

Need him to sign that new contract asap.

Hopefully it's not a recurring injury.

We played well in the first half. We had a great period of sustained pressure, scored two goals then backed off a bit. The 2-1 score at HT was a fair reflection of the match at that time. Then we came out in the second half and looked quite flat. We had a few good moments but they had a few good moments too. Then when we reached about 60-65 minutes, most of our players just looked shattered. We then started to have a lot of trouble keeping the ball towards the end, which is something that I'm not sure whether to worry about or not. It was the same against Stoke. We defended well, which was why they didn't have a clear cut chance in the last twenty or thirty minutes - again, much like the match against Stoke. It was an ok performance in the end. The plus is our defending, but we need to work on our ball control when we're under pressure and tired because the last thirty minutes weren't pretty to watch. The outstanding performers were Coloccini and Guthrie. I also thought Ba had a good game and held the ball up well. Best was decent in the first half but looked tired in the second. Gosling looked a bit nervous but contributed to the defence. Simpson was all right, as was R Taylor in defending. Sammy was bright, as was Ben Arfa. In the end, three points is what matters most. The international break could not come at a better time.

He did all right but didn't really offer himself when we had the ball, which made it harder for us to keep possession.

Poor today? He went off after 30 something minutes, man.

Yup. MotM. No doubt about it. He passed it well, he worked extremely hard and helped out the defence on many occasions.

He did well. Did what he was sent on to do. He lost the ball maybe only twice too, and both were when he was near their penalty area. He kept it simple, held the ball up well and was pretty much the only guy - apart from S Ameobi - who was willing to keep possession at the end, which was of great benefit.

I would actually prefer Cahill starting because he's useless apart from scoring goals. He's their Nolan. Now they have an actual midfielder playing, which isn't good news.

Too much. Far too much.

It'll be easier than against Wigan to attack because Everton like to attack as well. It'll be harder to defend but I think if we take a lead, we should be able to get a second when they push up. They're not the type to hang back and defend with ten men anyway, especially not when they're playing us or any team that isn't part of the top 6.

What the fuck

We have 22 points after 10 matches, a quite frankly brilliant start. But how does this compare to other good starts in past years and where did those teams end up? 2010 After 10 matches, only one team had more than 20 points (Chelsea), and there wasn't a surprising package. After only 5 (!!!!) matches, the top four that ended the season were already occupying the top four places in the table. 2009 After 13 matches, Villa had 22 points. They ended the season 6th with 64 (!) points. 2008 After 10 matches, Hull and Villa both had 20 points. Hull ended the season 17th with 36 points and Villa ended 6th with 62 points. 2007 After 10 matches, Blackburn had 21 points. They ended the season 7th with 58 points. Man City had 22 points after 11 matches. They ended the season 9th with 55 points. 2006 After 10 matches, Bolton had 20 points, they ended the season 7th with 56 points. After 10 matches, Portsmouth had 19 points. They ended the season 9th with 54 points. 2005 After 10 matches, Wigan had 22 points. They ended the season 10th with 51 points. Spurs started well, having 20 points after 11 matches. They ended the season 5th with 65 points. Bolton also had 20 points after 11 matches. They ended the season 8th with 56 points. 2004 Everton had 22 points after 10 matches. They ended the season 4th with only 61 points. 2003 Birmingham had 19 points after 11 matches. They ended the season 10th with 51 points. 2002 Liverpool actually had 30 (!) points after 12 matches, but they ended the season 5th with 64 points. On the other hand, we had 19 points after 11 matches but ended the season 3rd with 69 points. I can't be arsed to go back further, but there's one more season that I remember which is interesting: 1998 Villa were 1st with 39 points after 19 matches. They were also 1st with 22 points after 10 matches. But they somehow ended the season 6th with only 55 points. Compared to surprise packages in the past, we've done very well, and it augurs well for us that most of these clubs finished right around 6-7th, with a few of them ending a bit lower. But it's important to mention that no team which has had a start as good as ours has ended up below 10th. And even then, Wigan were the team which finished 10th. If you take out Wigan, then the lowest any team which has had a good a start as ours has finished is 6th, which was Villa in 1998. The league's much different now in that the top teams get more points than before and 61 points that Everton got 4th with will not happen again. Maybe our good start has been aided with some easy-ish fixtures, so looking at this after fixture #15 might be more predictive, but it's pretty exciting to see that unless we drop off as much as Hull did, we'll end up comfortably in the top 10, and most probably put up a challenge - at least for some time - for 5th-7th. The gap between the good teams and the bad teams is very big nowadays, which is why 80 something points is rarely enough to win the title. The same goes for finishing 4th. You could do it with a low-mid 60s points total, but now you have to be looking at pretty much 70 points if you want to finish 4th. But at least for 7th, 50-ish points will do, with 58 points pretty much guaranteeing you a place in Europe.

:lol: Where is that gif from?

6-2, Shearer.. err, Ba double.

I really like him. He's got great technique, very quick and is very agile. N'Zogbia seems to have lost the ability to dribble past players and that may be because he's too big/muscular nowadays whereas Hoilett jinks past players for fun.

I love the fact that he doesn't seem like a typical stupid footballer. His grammar is spot on.

The Coloccini one is a copy of the Hargreaves one, surely? A quick google search says the Hargreaves one is actually a copy of a Christian Dailly one that West Ham fans sung. The Marveaux Cabaye will be a truly inspired and original song.

Every time I catch a video of Ben Arfa, I am absolutely amazed at how good he is. I really hope that he can recover his pace/agility because he was an incredible footballer.

Yup.

I'm done with this thread. He'll rip a team to shreds once and these pages will be thankfully forgotten.

He was playing in a completely different position though and you've got far more chance of losing it in the middle than out wide simply because of the number of players around you. Jonas doesn't lose it much out wide but when he does try and drive through the middle he's surrounded, it will be the same for HBA if and when he's played there. Excellent point, if Ben Arfa had stuck to his line while he was playing on the wing. In truth, he pretty much drifted inside the whole time. There are specific comments from different users on this forum, in that Everton match thread, recognising how notable it was that his best work came through the middle. Just look at some of the runs he's done, the 2 most notable, have set up clear as day goal scoring chances for Carroll and Lovenkrands and that's in the tiny space of a couple of games. Imagine what he could do over a season. Perhaps I should have gone into more detail, if you look at Jonas when he cuts in he can get away with it from deep and still have plenty of space, once he cuts in within 30 yards of the goal and gets anywhere near the middle he gets surrounded and quickly. The same goes for Ben Arfa at Everton in that when he was picking the ball up out wide not far from the half way line he had plenty of space to run in to, however once you get anywhere near the area in the middle you're going to get pounced on which has been the case when he's played in there. But he'll drift as a #10, like vDv drifts for Spurs. I don't think he has to always be situated in the central space between the defence and the midfield. He'll be shading to the left at times, to the right at times, helping Jonas out at times, helping Marveaux at times, basically finding space then using his ability to go past one or two defenders and creating an opportunity for us. I think that's the way that he's always played. At Spurs, the fact that they defended with so many men made it harder for him to find lots of space but he still had a couple of moments where he did, turned and looked threatening. Against Wigan again he had the run where he cut in from the left and took a shot - that alone was more impact on the match than Best had in the first half. I think we should be extrapolating what he'll be like from those moments, and not the two idiotic moments where he lost the ball trying to take it past two players right in the center of the pitch, with one of them leading to a clear-cut chance for Defoe.

I agree with your point on VDV, however the thing with him for me he's just so much more naturally suited to the role in that he's not particularly greedy, he knows when to try something flash and when to keep it simple and most importantly he has a great footballing brain in that he's a thinking man's footballer, all of this helps him look so comfortable in the role but not only that it's allowed him to build up a great understanding with his team mates who know if they make the run or find space then he will find them rather than attempting to do it all on his own. While Ben Arfa is far better at gliding past players I don't think he's in the same league for having the attributes to play in that position personally and more of an enigma. No, Ben Arfa isn't in the same league as vDv but he has the skills and potential to be, and he's also the most technically gifted player at the club, much like vDv is at Spurs. So I see Ben Arfa's potential impact as similar to vDv's impact, except they'll do it in different ways. vDv does it with his movement and finishing while Ben Arfa will do it with his dribbling. I think Ben Arfa's an excellent passer as well, equally as good as vDv. But anyway, we're starting the same team until we lose or draw without scoring, and I'm hoping that it doesn't happen anytime soon, so let's hope Best can consistently play as well as he did on Monday.

If Best contributes to two goals a game for most games this season then this thread will die on its own, but he had his best game for us in his last match so it's not fair on either him or Ben Arfa to say that his performance against Stoke is the standard to which Ben Arfa will be judged and it's also not fair to Ben Arfa to use his performance against Spurs in those circumstances as a key in evaluating how he will likely fit into the team and whether we will be better off with him starting or not.

Massive The only doubt I have about Ben Arfa is whether he'll recover his ability. If he does then he's the best player at the club.