AyeDubbleYoo

Nearly shat myself at the end, hate listening on the radio. Great result though, and especially glad to see it was deserved. A bit sorry to see Jonas dropped, but can't complain really, it worked. Really like the league this season, properly competitive.

Nah, we would have gone down, I was terrified. Turns out we got relegated anyway, but that's another story. It was just such hideous anti-football, I honestly wished I wasn't a football fan at all for most of his reign. What came after wasn't much better, but with Sam we wouldn't have gone anyway.

I hate Big Sam with a passion, near Souness levels.

Unrelated but does La Liga have such a fantasy league? There are a few, not as good and usually not free (usually they're a free to register and then they charge you for transfers). The yahoosports one is entirely free, but haven't played it in a few years: http://us.superliga.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football Really haven't found any FF game that beats the official PL one in simplicity and cleanliness. The Daily Telegraph one is pretty good, although not free. I've been trying to get my mates to move to the official PL one for years, but they won't.

We can't go wihout Routledge and Jonas IMO, would make our whole team dangerously pedestrian and limp going forward.

Cacapa :-[

What's the Cesc thing?

Arsenal have already achieved a massive amount by becoming the team they are, in some ways it doesn't matter if they actually win anything. They way they play football is reward enough, just watching them is a treat.

Same here. I can't believe we went down to villa park in '09 with a £100k a week player sitting on the bench, because he wasn't right. Fucking wanker that sums up everything that was wrong with that team. It's not Michael Owen's fault he's always injured... certainly no reason to detest him. Detest the club for making such a bad signing.

Yeah, for me this is the first game where there's been a stack of reasons to leave out Smith/Nolan and play Tiote/Ben Arfa. Although Everton's midfield will be a tough baptism for Tiote. I won't be surprised if it doesn't happen in this game, but the next one I'll be gutted.

Can anyone give some examples of the sorts of decisions a referee would get right if he had played football at a high level?

Agree and I don't think many would argue argainst. Its just the way its articulated in sports other than football is often a lot better. Yeah, I definitely wasn't saying they should be above criticism, but that criticism should be from the appropriate people and based on a realistic level of expectation. Players argue against most decisions that goe against them, it's only sometimes they happen to be right. If you want to compare it to work, it's a bit like someone bollocking their own boss in the middle of a meeting in front of a room of people. Not advisable. In my view the referee is senior to the players, the have to authority to question him during the game.

This is pretty much my view, I think the criticism of Jonas is over the top, especially considering some of the other average players we have. With more movement inside him he would have a lot more options. We know he's not the typical winger and his crossing isn't great, but I think he's good enough to play where he plays for us, and if he hits form he will be much better again.

Well, in my opinion basically. Obviously there's a chance that Tiote and Ben Arfa will turn out to be worse than Smith and Nolan, but I doubt it.

Exactly this, seems inevitable that this will become our best team. With the possible exception of RB!

I would have definitely watched Man Utd if it was on normal telly... not a major loss mind.

No games on terrestrial TV tonight, that's a shame.

I agree with this, it was a very disappointing result but the context this time around is totally different. If you really think back to what it was like in the relegation season, we're miles ahead now.

I think the Blackpool result, and another week of training for the new boys, has given the Hughtster a great chance to make some changes.

I'm not so sure, I think there might be some benefits of the referees being closer in age to the players. Respect-wise, and also for fitness. It will never happen anyway, but I would give it a try.

Are they really that bad though? IMO they do a pretty good job with such a fast moving game. It would be interesting to investigate the number of mistakes that people would find acceptable versus the amount that actually happen. I'm a massive supporter of referees TBH, I don't think it's possible to improve them that much. All I would do is make it a proper career for younger people, so that it's an alternative to playing for people of a similar age. I would like to see the average age of Premiership refs come down to 25-30.

See also 'not really that far off the truth' Yeah I know, I was going to add that I think we'll probably lose. Still doesn't help to be making statements like that though.

I think that's in the dictionary under "famous last words"... also "see 'pride comes before a fall' "

It's a fair point TBH, but I still don't agree with leaving early. Support the lads, and don't ruin it for other fans by climbing over them while the game's still happening.

Harper Percho Willo Collo Enriquo Routledge Tiote Barton Jonas Ben Arfa A-Train Sorted, narrow defeat!