ElDiablo

My immediate thought was they were an 'easy' target.

Couldn't really blame them either.

Would love to have a wander through some of these Soviet satellite states with a camera. Shame it's so expensive and shit to get to.

Excellent display. His link up is really good, looks the real deal.

Got to take your chances if you want to get anything against the top sides. A Cisse with a few goals puts that away and who knows from then on. Still, a tentative first 25 mins costs us. Cannot keep doing that.

Big cultural connection between Japan and Brazil, Sao Paulo has the highest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan. Lots of Germans in Brazil aswell? Think I read that somewhere. All dem descendents of escaped Nazis after WWII.

I really think tonight's result was much more down to certain players letting the team down than Pardew's tactics. Tiote was absolutely awful, Cisse and Ba looked thick as mince and ball watch when we're in possession. We knocked it about well but were let down partly by poor decision making and partly an absence of luck. Pardew must take blame for 3 shite subs though, timing and personnel was all wrong.

Leaving soon. Feels like ages since my last game. (Chelsea) Going for 2-2, us pegged back twice.

BBC reckon Chelsea have had 68% possession.

Procrastination has got me involved.

I've not seen lot of City apart from MOTD this season, but it's still a bit early to write him off and advocate the signing of a new player in that position, especially when there's no guarantee they will hit the ground running. It'd only be worth it if they got someone like De Rossi in, who would be a success over here imo.

Javi Garcia?

Hope he capitalises on the chance he's been given, he knows it wouldn't have come under usual circumstances so it might give him extra determination to show what he can do. We could do with a striker like him, one to cause bother up front as foil for Ba/Cisse/Shola as none of them are the quick, strong bruiser type that can upset a defence.

11.03? This took far too long.

Might not go down well with the fashionistas, but we really lack steel and someone to pick the team up by the scruff of the neck when the going gets tough. We really miss Nolan for this imo.

Got a few quid on Arsenal QPR Watford Bolton Milwall

Awh, really?

Last season's success has come back to bite us on the arse this summer, Ashley will have assumed we're good enough to be able to repeat the feat again without major investment. But, when you factor in the inevitable loss of luck regarding injuries and Ashley's policy of buying good investments rather than players to fill a squad and ideology, this malaise was always just around the corner. It's also why I have an ounce of sympathy with Pardew and think everyone's jumped on his back too quickly. (Wigan is huge for him) This requirement to do everything on the cheap and Ashley's treatment of players as investments and stock, rather than what they are, footballers who are part of a team that requires a deeper thought and recruitment process, will always be main thing holding us back as long as he's here.

Nobody worth having would come to work under Ashley. The only ones would be lower league managers and there's no way Ashley would go to the trouble to sack Pardew only to replace him with someone unproven.

So glad I'm so busy at the moment so I don't have time to dwell on us doing so badly. Nearly collapsed at work when I checked the score on my phone and it refreshed from 1-0 to 2-1, felt like I'd been gut punched.

Fancy a Harvester.

He's always been good at identifying issues, but not as good at finding ways to resolve them. Nevertheless, "we have looked at all the problems we have had" is slightly encouraging.

Krul Simpson Williamson Taylor Santon Tiote Anita Obertan Jonas Ferguson Ba