Andy

He hasn't been sensational but he's shown enough quality (and worked hard enough) recently to earn himself a "free" one, for me anyway. Needs to keep working on removing it from his game completely though.

Bit of a stupid thing to do, last night... Unless he needed some proper time off for Christmas shopping, in which case it was quite wise tbf.

Williamson was more at fault, to be fair. The first ball was a forgivable one to lose out on, the second one was a straight-on challenge. Rare mistake from both of them, sure they'll come through it.

"The injured Shola Ameobi"

I felt that, unlike previous games, Barton struggled in that position against Arsenal. His lack of pace was shown up against athletic opponents. Not that he was our worst player, but he had dominated the opposition in his previous games. There was a rumour that we were after Jonathan Legear, from Anderlecht. From snippets, he looked the right player in the right position. Anyone know much about him? Eh? Barton was one of our best players on Sunday by far and, withTiote, almost completely neutralised Arsenal's Barcelona-esque midfield. I agree with this... Not as effective going forward maybe, but we aren't going to be playing Arsenal at the Emirates every week - he had a different job to do and did it well.

It's not rubbish - I'm just trying to keep my feet on the ground. Just because we've won three on the bounce doesn't mean we're now the best team in the world - the way people on this forum instantly swipe at you the second you dare even think about a bit of criticism would suggest some think we are. Poor players don't become good players in the space of 2 weeks - I can't help but be hesitant. I don't think people disagreeing with your proposed changes means they think we're the best team in the world - that's a pretty big leap, like! Don't know where you got that from. Has it crossed your mind that your assumption about poor players becoming good players might be based on faulty initial assumptions? Even as a possibility, I mean? Personally I've never believed in the concept of over-achieving - you're either able of performing to a certain level, or you're not. These players are clearly capable of playing very well in the system we're employing over a sustained period of time (270 minutes and counting) - there's nothing deceptive or misleading about it. They may mistakes in the future, I'm sure they will in fact, but to then say they were playing above themselves seems irrational IMO. Not really. It happens all the time. Do you think we're better than Arsenal? Because I don't, yet the result shows otherwise - if they weren't playing above themselves then we're a better side than Arsenal. The FA Cup is a perfect example of it. Smaller teams beating bigger teams. They play out of their skin, fight for everything and get the upset. They're not good enough to play in teh higher leagues and if they did, they'd probably get beat every week. But for those games they play above themselves as footballers and get the result. I don't think it's irrational at all. You're missing steps in your logic again - I didn't say that was the best Arsenal could play. Are you tired? Step away from the forum and get a coffee man! I guess we'll find out on Wednesday and Saturday then. See if we get a Sunderland performance, or a Stoke/Wigan one. I'll be delighted if we win, but I'm not hopeful that this team can perform again so soon. You're a right negative fucker these days like. From what I've seen, it's less to do with the players playing above themselves and more to do with the players playing in an improved, considerably more balanced formation, with better organisation and preparation, as well as with more confidence - and, of course, with better footballers around them with the likes of Tiote in the team.

Admire Tevez and Silva for their ability... As a club, I pretty much loathe them due to the arrogance of their fans nowadays - the way a lot of them go on you'd think they'd won everything there is to win over the last few seasons.

what fixtures Well done for the sharp edit.

So much hate! Was always a hard tie this. Shots Rosenborg: 20 Atleticó Madrid: 6 12 to 9 according to Sky Sports

Without wanting to take anything away from Bale's performance, Maicon playing as he has so far this season is not one of the best right backs in the world in any sense other than reputation.

I can remember the thread on here when we went top of this.

This.

Well, thankfully for Andy Carroll, and the rest of us, you have an utterly tremendous record of being wrong.

His work in the build-up to the second goal was superb. Great performance yesterday.

The smiley code. Newcastle online = Most Online Today: 171. Most Online Ever: 734 (September 22, 2010, 09:51:22 PM) SMB = Currently Active Users: 853 (288 members and 565 guests) Most users ever online was 7,041, 31st August 2010 at 06:13 PM. Football365 was responsible for football in paint, not this board. These are the facts, but please feel free to ignore them.. I'm sure you will. Correct, RTG is a far more active forum, for better or for worse... A big part of the reason behind that is that it's the only existing Sunderland forum though, whereas we have a bit of "competition", for lack of a better word.

I can't see him getting much joy up front so it will have to be midfield for me. Then it's just a case of who wins the battle between him and Lee Twattermole. Tiote will win the battle between Nolan and Cattermole.

I heard that and thought he was talking about us too, to be fair. I nearly hoyed my jar at the screen because it couldn't be more wrong He was talking about us. The other commentator was referring to Steve Bruce being at the game to watch Newcastle even though most of the players on the pitch wouldn't be playing on Sunday, and then he chipped in with, "it doesn't matter, they always play the same way".

I normally work six or seven days a week so it's typically hard for me to get to games. Maybe 4 or 5 a season either home or away.

Eh? Quite the opposite, as far as I was concerned. He stayed on his feet when others would have fallen like a dying swan and earned a penalty. He did in that one instance, but he lost his balance quite a few times when he was changing direction.

Ranger was OK... He's a handful if nothing else. I'd like to see him be more direct on the ball though - he has a bit of pace, but a lot of the time he'll run so far with it then he'll either turn around and pass the ball backwards/sideways or he'll trip over himself. Looks short on confidence and a loan move to a lower division would probably do him a lot of good.

Agree with Dave and Tooj. As has been stated already, he's a marginally better right-back than Ryan Taylor, and he also had a half decent game tonight in the middle. Not sure why people are criticising him after it.

Did that actually happen? No. Right. What am I missing here? Well... Nothing. Because it didn't happen.

Did that actually happen? No.

Most of the Arsenal kids are better than our first team. It'd not have ended 0-4 if say, Colo, Enrique, Jonas, Carroll, Tiote and Barton had started. I dare say we'd probably have won it against the players they started with if we'd gone for it. A similar line up beat Chelsea but I bet people would have been saying exactly the same if we lost that one. I don't mind having priorities, it was a risk throwing on Carroll, Barton and Jonas but maybe he cared a little more than he made out. I still would have gone for that line up (or similar), as defeatist as it is to some people the league is priority 1, 2 and 3 for me. The main issue was right back, why play our shittest player up against their best player (in the starting eleven)? If we'd have a player playing there with some sense of tactical nous and timing we could have seen a different match. Granted, hindsights 20/20, but regardless on if I'd agree with most of the players in the starting eleven I was fuming by the sight of Perch's name in it. Fuck Perch. It's the first player who plays for us that I genuinely have started to literally despise. He's just so fucking shit. Er, Perch didn't play at right back. At any point. Left back, obviously. Perch played in the centre. Kadar was left back. Not according to the team sheet they showed on my telly. He was shit regardless. It angers me. Did you even watch it?