binnsy

the only two i can think that we have scored were Ba's against Wolves and Shola's at Stamford Bridge in the carling cup, both last season and both taken by Jonas, get him back on them!

ITV 4 now, highlights are, game just finished, interviews when adverts finish

For all the stick he gets, you can see why Pardew and the other players like him so much as his work rate and team play, mostly unseen is inavaluable. Against Southampton Debuchy got all the plaudits and was bombing forward at will and every time he did he had Jonas dropping back to cover in behind him.

don't think so, may not be totally full strength but when i watched the europa league highlights programme on itv4 on the friday nights after the two games the likes of Cavani were playing in both games.

does the barca game kick off at 8pm

viktoria plzen could be the dark horses, if they repeat the form from the last round when they went away to napoli and won 3-0 and then followed up with a 2-0 home win, also top of the czech league. After winning 5-0 on agg against one of the strongest sides i doubt they will be fearing Fenerbache.

I fancy us to beat Swansea and catch both Swansea and Stoke in the next couple of weeks, aided by beating them both, then its a case of can we chase down Liverpool and West Brom, could be a tall order but if we get on a roll and beat them then you never know. Corresponding games last season saw us take 12 points, can we do it again?

Hopefully they will have a few days on the drink celebrating the cup win and we take advantage.

He was back to his best today, tremendous performance, i am still amazed people want him out the team in expense of Anita or Perch, who while are decent steady players are nowhere near as good as Cheik.

Tiote, Jonas, Santon, Debuchy, Saylor, Goufran will all come back in and even if the likes of Marv, Anita, MYM, Haidara and Simpson played well in Kharkiv they will be the ones rotated back out for the players who didn't play. I just find it strange that people on here who have complained about lack of options and small squad are now picking teams and playing players who played last night in place of fresher, rested ones.

Yes but how strong was there team though? they could have had half there reserves out as well.

He was really good tonight, wonder if he keeps his place for Sunday??? :-)

I had some concerns and worries about chucking him in but thought he done very well and thought he looked a very promising player.

Don't think i want to throw Haidara into this game, for all he might be a natural left back i am not sure he is ready for such a big pressure game for a debut, as daft as it sounds i would play Perch or Anita at fullback.

We should hopefully have HBA, Gouffran and debuchy to come straight into the Southampton game, i would rest Saylor, the way Metalist play i would play Colo as he seems better equipped to defend against there attackers who are tricky technical players and would play Simpson RB and put MYM alongside Colo and i would rest Santon, in fact he looks shattered so think i would even leave him out completely and save him the travelling. either play Haidara or perch at left back. Midfield i would bring in Anita for cabaye, Sissoko looks fit and strong enough to play against Kharkiv and play against Southampton and the only other decision is SHola or cisse up front. i would go for KRUL SIMPSON MYM COLO HAIDARA SISSOKO TIOTE ANITA OBERTAN MARV CISSE set the team up with two banks of four and solid and look to hit them on the break with the pace of Sissoko, Obertan and Marv to hopefully get the important away goal which sees us through then come sunday play, inuries permitting play the following side against Southampton KRUL DEBUCHY TAYLOR COLO SANTON TIOTE CABAYE HBA SISSOKO GOUFFRAN CISSE

Should be able to compete for the Champions league spots, return to last seasons defensive solidity and keep everyone fit without the distraction of europe and as daft as it sounds we could even push for the title! obviously the chances of our starting 11 staying injury free are slim so i would settle for top 4! lol

Anyone going to watch Metalist play Whitley Bay on sunday?

With Cabaye coming back from his injury and playing the full game for France last week i think he will be rested, he looked wrecked in the latter stages of the game today and same with Santon, maybe a chance to see what Haidara is like and rest Santon. Apart from those two though i'd expect as strong a team as possible.

Exactly, while he might be slightly short of confidence you only have to look at his career, scored goals galore for years and have no doubt he will be banging them in regular for us, he only had 1 chance today but he worked his socks off for 90 mins. He's the least of our worries imo

Need to be a strong side, need a lead to take over there for the 2nd leg and a clean sheet would be beneficial. KRUL SIMPSON MYM COLO SANTON TIOTE ANITA OBERTA SISSOKO MARV SHOLA or CISSE is whay i think we will go with. I would go with Cisse and think Shola will play 2nd leg and Papiss will be saved for Southampton.

that defeat leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth with the softness of the the 2 goals we conceded, still have no idea why Perch didn't jump in the wall for the first goal, such a simple goal to avoid and the 2nd was just a catalogue of errors starting with a limping Perch being caught out and not able to react to the ball over his head, Taylor then missing the challenge on Adebayor and then Colo caught on his heels, hesistating and once Bale had nipped in the outcome was inevitable. Plenty of positives though, hopefully Gouffran isn't seriously hurt, hopefully isn't just badly bruised and no break. The big picture though is following a run of villa away chelsea home and spurs away we would have been delighted with 6 points from that little run however that still piles the pressure on the southampton game due to the fixtures this weekend we could be dragged back into the mix again.

Chelsea will get 3 points! :-)

Damn.. think he is only doubtful for the 2 Europa games as the first one will come too quick and they would have kept him here anyway to be fresh for the Southampton game.

with no game the following weekend i would expect full strength, i'd even play hatem.

No chance, Bale spent yesterday drifting to the right a lot so would be a waste adapting the back four to play him. We just need to make sure he gets cut off early. We'd be better off assigning a midfielder to man-mark him tbh. i could see the merit of man marking a player like Mata who given space and time could play a ball straight through you but man marking Bale is a bit different, we have no one who could really keep up with him on a one on one.