AlanSkÃrare

What a mess Chelsea are. The lack of heart and stability in that team, can't understand how they pulled themselves together to win the Champions League. Really happy for Lampard and Drogba, two big characters and players. They will always be ambitious but Abramovich seems to have lost all sense. Their fans are not doing them any favours. Their hatred of Benitez was ludicrous from the start, it's now turned in to a incoherent farce. Liverpool affiliation or bad football, they made their mind up from the off. Not that Benitez is the best manager nor the most likeable character, but it's just tragic how things have unfolded. They should be glad they are where they are being a club with such limited history and tradition, they just come of spoiled now.

Why is he a cunt?

Still don't understand what Zlatan's done to deserve that reputation. Apart from scoring four against England.

Now you done it, he's blatantly going to go on a run of scoring now. To be honest I think he'll probably prosper once they get a manager who has them playing better and picks him over Torres consistently.

YT, Hatem Ben Arfa Skills 2013. Tears of joy knowing we'll probably see him on Saturday again.

3 goals in 11. Chelsea in crisis on so many levels. Who wins again?

Any time someone puts the individual over the needs of an entire team its horrible management. Aye and I think many of us are in agreement that fitting Ba centrally made the team suffer even though he himself performed fantastically. The problem wasn't really Ba but rather Pardew's reluctance to choose between him and Cissé, resulting in the horrible 4-4-2 with long-balls being our only way forward, or Cissé on the wing where he's horribly rubbish. So either way you look at it, Pardew really didn't get it right and should be blamed for the situation in my opinion. Had Pardew managed to structure his team in a way that allowed us to play football properly, we might have seen a side playing well with Ba in it.

With the help of these signings, he looks as if he's about to turn what looked a doomed situation around. Coupled with the changes he's made to our formation and the decreasing amount of long-balls, I think he's now deserved the chance to prove himself again. We saw last season that his approach can get us results. The reason we won so many games by the odd goal etc. was partly because of his negative/defensive/backs-to-the-wall set up. It may not be pretty, we may not ever like it and I for one do not think it's a good way to approach the game. But if it can get us results again, with a bit more quality in the team, I'm willing to see him have a crack next season. Another period like the one we experienced between November and the Reading game and that's it. Especially with the backing he's got now.

Aye but defenders apart from Woodgate were distinctly average. Hughes then on par with Taylor now, the rest are better. Krul maybe slightly worse than Given at that point. Depth now is better I'd argue.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2284712/Keep-Bale-Blighty-Sportsmail-launches-campaign-Spurs-star-Premier-League-Real-Barca-Bayern-close-in.html

If Cissé starts scoring the easy ones without being offside, we have every right to push for 4th next season. With Europe not being an issue and these players staying, it's the least we should expect. Best squad we've had for 10 years. Quality wise it's better than Bobby's. The way he had his players performing means I still rate it better than the current one.

I think QPR, Reading and Villa/Wigan will go down. Will be interesting to see how Villa get on in their next few games. Wigan usually find their feet sometime soon.

Bale has a big advantage over Hatem in the fact that he's much more of a goalscorer and matchwinner (not just now, he has been for the past two seasons). He's more restricted by certain surroundings and types of games, whereas Hatem could unlock any defence in the world. Still Bale has put his talent to use quite a bit more than Hatem. For now.

Pardew, just after he arrived here, said (and this is 100% genuine) that we, the fans, would have to get used to the team protecting a lead, rather than trying to go on for more goals. This, as a philosophy, goes right against the grain for most NUFC fans I would have thought - it does for me. I have not wanted him from day one. I have never felt any different. However, I hope he goes on to win cup after cup etc in his time here and ram my negative feelings down my throat. There is a massive difference between protecting a lead and doing what Pardew does most of the time. Most teams who take the lead protect it with an intention of picking the other team off and get more goals. We don't ever seem to have the slightest intention of doing that. Towards the end of games, Metalist being the latest example, Pardew rather puts out a third defensive block up front, often consisting of Shola. The idea is to win the battles around the box and hoof it up to him at the first attempt, rather than play it out to someone who can actually hurt the oncoming team. In my opinion that's not protecting a lead, but rather inviting an equaliser. If you constantly give the ball back to them it's asking them to have another go, rather than kill the game.

U21s losing 2-1 at HT at Palace. Campbell has scored for us.

Ba's movement is superb, for a #9. Gouffran is a second striker/inside forward so it suits our team much better. He, Cisse and Siss start from different areas and naturally make different runs. I hope Cisse can regularly find the back of the net. That's what I meant.

Aye. But his corrected that mistake and switched it, which I think is a sign of him learning from mistakes and taking on board another approach than the one he preferred. For that, I don't see why he shouldn't be given credit.

The one thing I want to give him credit for is - even if it took too long - moving away from the long ball and 4-4-2. It looks as if we're set to continue with three midfielders and Cissé in the number 9 role. It appears as if Ba was part of that problem, but he now has to get the dynamics and functions of this formation. In his mind, there's still something telling him that he can put strikers on the wing. But part of the lesson is learnt here. I also believe the hoofing has ceased because Williamson and Simpson are more or less out of the team. The new players are trusted to play it short, goalkeeper aside whom we still see hoof it more than often. Just look at the way Southampton played it out yesterday, with their full-backs dropping deep and picking it up. Set plays however are unbelievably s***. From distribution to movement. We never, ever look like scoring.

His and Moussa's movement has really transformed our attacking play. I still think there is too much space between our lines at times, but the counter-attack we scored or first from yesterday would never, ever have happend without those two in the side. Gouffran on the shoulder of his defender, Moussa bursting forward in a second wave. It's a new dimension. With Cissé, Ba Ben Arfa we could look similar at times towards the end of last season, but Demba's movement wasn't anywhere near as good as Gouffran's is. Add to that the fact that Sissoko does the job of a second striker and a third midfielder - a modern outlook. Now all we need is Anita to link defence to midfield instead of Cabaye.

Paying to read an article? Not going to subscribe to an English newspaper. On the other hand I might actually do that if this continues to be a problem. Now you've got me thinking.

Interview with him in the Times today. Would love to read if anyone has it.

Carlos Alberto, integral part of José Mourinho's Champions League winning Porto. http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~lpreis/_40201475_alberto_getty300.jpg

They are disgusting comments which didn't need saying, the blokes a prick. Williamson isn't the best player, none of us need reminding of that, I'm sure Williamson doesn't need reminding either. Having said that, he's played loads of games for us when we needed him and Pardew shouldn't be saying things like that to the press. Agree. No matter how s*** a player is, the manager has to put belief in his players. He's had similar digs at Simpson and they've both served him well, especially last season. Poor from Pardew.

Taylor has been in good enough form, he should play.