Lenny

You missed the laughing smiley off the end. My bad, ammended.

If you put the following in, it wouldnt look too bad... Emre, Dyer, Shearer, Owen, Boumsong , Bowyer, Parker, Luque

looking back over old threads i couldn't believe how bad it was, 2-3 decent players is pushing it tbh Given - definite Nobby, N'Zogbia possibly. Thats it...

I dont particularly think we lack depth as a squad overall, I think our problem lies with the quality of certain areas of the first team.

That is a shocking lineup tbf. 2, maybe 3 decent players there. That must have been at the height of an injury crisis though, or a cup game.

Thing about the City goal is that although the finish was pure luck, his control of the ball and body movement was spot on. Really bizarre really As for the other point, I don't think one person on this board said one good thing about Shola during the Keegan era. And why would they? We had Owen, Martins & Viduka firing on all cylinders. I am absolutely perplexed by the resurgance of wor Shola. If Kinnear some manages to get Alan Smith to score a competitive goal here then THAT will be an achievement. I agree that no one really should have said anything good about him, after all, its down to him to earn his reputation, but when you feel like your manager, team mates and fans have zero faith in you, it has to be hard to pull yourself out of it, and fair play to him for doing it recently. I cant recall ever thinking Ameobi looks like he has a decent first touch, and has some sort of intelligence on the ball, but the last few games he has looked fairly consistent in that hes bringing down most balls played to him like a premiership footballer should, and actually doing something on the ball, whether it be playing a pass, or taking on his man.

I wouldnt want him as a first team regular by any stretch but his general link up play has looked better than I can remember recently, since he got his lucky first goal. Keegan maybe a good motivator but I think Ameobi's confidence was at absolute zero under him, whenever he appeared for us he was playing like he thought no one had any faith in him.

These are almost like anti Chuck Norris jokes!

He does actually make me look forward to our games with more enthusiasm. I just feel like we have a chance when he's on the pitch.

Outweighed by the 2 goals of course....

Enrique gave him absolutely nothing today. Completely out muscled him and pretty much walked away with the ball every time.

He worked hard, run a lot, I still think he can do better as his end product wasn't particularly there.

An overall very decent performance from us today. I don't think anyone played badly. The Barton incident(s) is/are getting over exaggerated. Good to see Enrique put in a good shift, cant recall him putting a foot wrong, he has a very good first touch. I thought Jonas looked a bit tired in the first half and was a bit quiet in the second but his run was brilliant and made it look so easy.

I thought he played very well in the first half against West Brom. Stuck some good balls in, ran with the ball and barely ever lost it (if at all). Definitely faded in the second half though, but that could well be down to our shocking tactics for the second half.

I thought Modric's shot that hit the post was technically a better shot. Still a great goal though, my first impression when I saw it was that Almunia should have got it even from his position but when the replay was shown it was to the side of him and I dont think he'd have been able to fist it. Should have been better positioned to start with.

I thought he looked awful until the very end when Arsenal shot themselves in the foot. Was giving the ball away time and time again. He didnt look anything special but he really didnt give the ball away much.

Jenas just accidentally scored!

It was a foul though.

Walcott really has fuck all end product at the moment.

Im not really a massive fan of his but hes not played bad tonight. Impressive goal.

I'd go with: Given Beye Cacapa Coloccini Enrique Jonas Guthrie Barton Duff Martins Ameobi I'd imagine Owen would only be fit enough to make the bench. Enrique could do with a run of games, and Taylor needs to be dropped.

Just out of interest, why would you drop Duff? IMO he was our best player over the full 90 yesterday. Because he's got absolutely no end product. He's looked better recently, a lot quicker and have managed to actually take on his man as well, but he can't deliver a ball. Geremi is his complete opposite, he's slow and can't beat his man, but he can deliver quality balls. Suppose it depends on whether you want flair and pace or someone who can deliver. Wouldn't be massively disappointed to see Duff ahead of Geremi, but I'd prefer Geremi (and possibly Zoggy too, but for different reasons) over Duff. Thats fair enough. I agree that Geremi at present does have better delivery, but personally given that he is finally starting to show some sort of indication as to why we bought him I'd give him an extended run of games, and I think the end product will come. I wouldnt mind seeing Geremi in the middle with Barton if Guthrie keeps having quiet games.

Just out of interest, why would you drop Duff? IMO he was our best player over the full 90 yesterday.

I thought Duff played very well again yesterday.

He really isn't getting the credit he deserves from the last few games. I am not in anyway trying to say he is a brilliant player, but credit where credit is due, he's played well the last few games. If someone plays well in a game, they deserve to keep their place in the next, and he has done.