Memphis

We play so slowly now under Pardew. Teams that press us high - which Di Canio did against Chelsea so it wasn't as if we couldn't have seen it coming - dominate us. We have so little invention and movement off the ball, it's atrocious. I'm worried.

Yep, frightened my 18 month old. Sorry pal. And as some already mentioned, that flick by Cisse was intentional. Watch the replays. That was an extraordinary piece of skill considering the time and situation, he is class, no matter how unlucky/wasteful/whatever he can be at times...

Feeling slightly comforted by the fact there are so many teams in the mix. But make no mistake, the home fixtures - the derby in particular - are critical. Pardew's cautious tactics can't work when we're missing 3 of our 4 first-choice defenders. Wish there was a Plan B but Pards seems to be fresh out of that.

Pardew may well thank Mark Halsey to a degree because his extraordinary display of incompetence and bumbling will distract from an atrocious performance, physically and tactically, yet again at Wigan.

Massive Figueroa handball. Never mentioned by the commentators. This match is a joke.

Add that to Halsey's tally of fuck ups.

I can't remember ever having more confidence in Steven Taylor than I do now. Just seems to have gone up a level in composure and decision-making.

Pleat: "It could be argued that Cabaye and Ben Arfa - their most creative players - are important absentees." It certainly could, David. Brilliant insight.

Di Santo looks like the victim of a prank. Surely he didn't intentionally do that to his hair?

David Pleat cannot tell one black player from another. Cisse = Ameobi; Yanga-Mbiwa = Tiote. Pitiful.

What the fuck are "Uncle Joe's Mint Balls"? That's a League One sponsor if ever I've seen one.

FUCKING GET AFTER HIM CARVER YOU BEAUTY

I'm sure Martinez will say "oh, he's not that kind of player". FUCK OFF. If officials don't do more to stop these challenges, more players are going to seriously injured every season. Why would players pull out of those challenges when they aren't punished? Fucking joke.

Fucking fuming.

http://www.bsports.com/statsinsights/bsports-european-player-ratings-march-8-11 5th best defensive midfielder in Europe this weekend, per Bloomberg Stats Insights.

A little 4-6-0? Very intriguing...

Perspective is important here. We've played much worse than that and won. West Brom (h). Remember how dire we were against a similar Southampton side at St. Mary's? Our midfield was very comfortable for the majority of the match against a slick side that's made many teams look very poor. We were at least as comfortable on the ball, if not more so, than Swansea, who everyone likes to portray as the absolute pinnacle of smart possession-based football. We improved in the second half - highly unusual this season. We were undone by mistakes and poor play across the back but that will improve. Judging by today, we have come a long way since December. Oh, and HBA's coming back...

Didn't think he offered anything at all, was sluggish and stifled our attack without providing as much in the way of slowing the opposition. Perhaps 4 is harsh but it bothered me today. Poor at the back, totally skinned by Routledge for the goal. For sure good going forward, as was Santon, but I'm trying to take the totality of the performance into account.

Irritating result that. Can take a great deal of heart in the second half performance - in the final 2/3 of the pitch anyway. I do think the lack of Colo and Krul made communication a serious issue in the back, many short backpasses, many strange decisions. Unfortunately both our fullbacks struggled to defend and while i thought Yanga-Mbiwa showed some class moments on the ball, he - like Colo when he first arrived - had moments of bother and diminished concentration. He will learn. Elliot 6 Debuchy 5 Taylor 7 MYM 5 Santon 5 Cabaye 6 Tiote 6.5 Jonas 4 Sissoko 8.5 - MOTM, thought he showed some enormously skillful touches, passes, and moves - he is already our most influential player by a distance Cisse 6 Gouffran 6 Nowt wrong with the tactics, unusually for us we got better in the second half.

HBA's fallen out with virtually every other manager he's worked under, both at club level and national level. No one has treated HBA the way Pardew has. And HBA has credited Pardew with bringing out the best in him. It is not a great leap of logic to credit Pardew with his man-management in this case. Doing so wouldn't negate other anti-Pardew arguments either.

First one was incredibly obvious, or should have been to any competent top-level linesman. Second one was much more questionable, and in fact, I think he was slightly off myself. Very very close but here: http://s12.postimage.org/oelzr71ul/cisse2ndsmall.jpg If you judge by the darker grass line, his knee and leg look to be barely off. Couldn't argue it either way, really.

This is truly a perfect distillation of Obertan as a footballer. 45 exact minutes that sum him up brilliantly. Fast as fuck, occasionally tricky, zero end product, ultimately a waste.

Not been Santon's finest half hour...

Cisse... Great first-time ball by Cabaye, though, that's promising.

Not thrilled with the team instructions so far. Starting from far too deep, far too static, very little in the way of movement.