Memphis

Shearer's embarrassing himself a bit making comments like, "No one really knows a great deal about Ben Arfa..." He's a full French international, Al. Watch a little football from time to time and you learn lots of neat stuff.

It's amazing what it looks like when you have a mobile midfield that can pass a bit and tackle a bit too. We've completely overrun a more than decent Everton central midfield of Arteta, Osman, and Fellaini.

Can't believe how good Ben Arfa's goal was. You can't believe it. Out of nothing. Just biding his time about 25 yards out, eases the ball to his left foot, then BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Into the upper right-hand corner like a laserbeam - Howard had no hope. We haven't seen anything like that in ages. And Tiote is just awesome. Awesome. Totally controlling things in the center.

Why do people expect pragmatism and perspective 5 minutes after a home loss to Blackpool? That's not ever going to happen.

Still like the guy but the response to today's loss will be extremely telling. Will he have the cojones to drop Nolan and Smith? And we can see now for certain that tactical adjustments and substitutions are a problem.

This is what we do. This is who we are. I wish it weren't so, but it is. Beat Villa 6-0, lose to Blackpool 0-2. Sounds about right for our club. Changes all around for next week then. We'll probably win 0-8.

If it was difficult to justify dropping Nolan/Smith based on results so far, and it was prior to this, it isn't now. Maybe that's the only silver lining here.

It really is. Spend weeks trying to negotiate to get a player of his quality in and then not use him in a perfect situation. Perfect.

Hope the availability of what should be legitimate impact subs on the bench makes Hughton a more daring manager.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/103936922.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF87892102A727B1636DE2E6185151CDAD1DA830A26433D7EAC1F81EB4B3985FF563EA26 Lovely work here.

I have to say I'm really pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and effectiveness we've shown in the window. We've got a sensible manager who keeps his business to himself, seems to have unified the squad, and boosted confidence and spirit among the players. We've got a young Geordie forward who looks to be on track for great things if he continues to progress at this rate. We've signed a true wild card, flair player who has international class and skill, is only 23, and will be motivated to succeed here because of the nature of his transfer. In short, I didn't expect that we'd have been nearly this effective, and I think we've got a squad that puts us comfortably in the middle of the Premier League - which would be just fine with me.

Don't know where else to put it, but Ian Holloway's column in the Independent yesterday is well worth a read - I really like the guy and find myself pulling for him. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-holloway-mismatch-of-the-day-but-hansen-needs-to-be-careful-2064872.html The whole thing is worth checking out.

Can't get enough of that video. The presenter's response is cringe-worthy, though - "I didn't mean it like that!!!!"

Luis Fabiano has signed a contract extension with Sevilla. (the Spurs ITKs must have missed that one)

http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/teenwolf560.jpg He's also supposedly quite good at basketball.

Not too pour too much cold water on von Wolfenstein 3D or whatever, but having had a look at the hat trick against Celtic, the first two were penalties. Third was a lovely finish, however. Does look to link up well it would seem. Youtube Wise would easily pay 2 or 3 Nachos for him, but I'm not so sure.

its easy to drop him if you believe you have a better option. what hughtons choice is, is to make a change or two for what should be one of the easier games ? will the changes make a win more or less likely, yes the personnel will be stronger but will they gel straight away ? Sure, Hughton will have to pick the right spot and the right method to integrate HBA into the squad. But I hardly think that he's going to slot him in straight away in place of the team captain and a very vocal leader on and off the pitch, especially after we've made such a decent start to the season. If anything, I can see him dropping Jonas and/or Routledge more so than Nolan. Less of a risk, particularly with Routledge, of damaging morale and balance.

We have to crawl before we walk. Whether you like the guy or not, he's scored goals and been in goalscoring positions. On that form, it's hard to drop him. We can't just sign one highly-touted creative player and go from Smith/Barton/Nolan to Xavi/Iniesta/Messi - there's got to be a middle ground. The style will adapt and Nolan will probably slide out of the starting XI. But he's also key to team unity/spirit, etc. Dropping him is a delicate situation potentially, especially if you're replacing him with a moody Frenchman.

"We are not unaware of this Rip van Winkle." "Speculation that we are unaware of him is quite wide of the mark." "He is the right age, and indeed, the right gender as well."

New facepalm .gif? http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5214/489123190100629991.jpg

For the name alone, we really should be signing van Wolfswinkel. VAN WOLFSWINKEL!!! Has anyone actually, I dunno, see this guy play?

At his last two clubs, he's worn BEN ARFA on the back.

Cannot complain at all about 4 pts in these first three matches, two away from home, two against top 6 clubs last season and one against a physical side that typically causes us problems away. More than acceptable.

I'm pretty sure Karl Henry lunged in with a studs-up tackle on the server to send it down.

Wish we had Tiote today...