Memphis

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.

Truly the worst bit of line work ever. Off the charts incompetent.

Never the same after Gouffran left. Decent enough, terrible mistake by Taylor (Colo slow too) but overall could have been worse.

Early 2000's is when I remember him - scored scores of goals for Sporting, moved to Bolton after a ton of hype in 2003 or something, and was wank.

Mario Jardel http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04/28/article-1017157-006FB70E00000258-617_233x565.jpg

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Sissoko-jamais-imagine-ca/347901 Seems to insinuate (if not outright even say) that Pardew saw the Number 10 role in him that Deschamps couldn't, or wouldn't.

Colo's early experience has shown clearly how difficult is can be for even the classiest CB to fit in immediately, particularly when they're not familiar with the language and culture. With Saylor acquitting himself well, no reason to force Yanga-Mbiwa in so quickly.

For the sake of the board, I suspect such information is best whispered about rather than shouted.

Some kind soul on a football videos site I frequent has uploaded the entire match in glorious HD without any commentary, just the crowd noise. Took the feed from Canal+ but somehow eliminated the commentary and kept everything else pristine. What a brilliant video.