Lotus

Actually agree with this. Not really sure where people get this notion of us 'building' on these type of performances though. 7 points of Pool, Chelsea and Spurs is fantastic and Pardew will see noe reason to stylistically change our approach on the back of that. We will struggle against sides who play it tight but that's what you get with Pardew. If things are going well, we'll out battle the better sides and hopefully get a goal and a result as space opens up as they try to play around us but we won't be the type of team who can break down teams with clever movement and passing.

True, unlikely to be away at Spurs though. They were always going to step it up. We did step back from them though, we were really hungry to close them down 1st half, gave them too much space 2nd half but that was also down to their good playt. I meant just in general though. It's like the spirit of Gilliepie has permeated the whole squad

He's not half the defender Enrique was. Probs better on the ball though.

It would be nice if just once we could put in a consistent performance over 2 halfs. Whenever we play well, we only manage it for 45 minutes.

We were at them in the 1st half and arguably the better side. 2nd half they really came at us but didn't really give Soldado much service. We've got plenty of glaring weaknesses but tbf, they've spent £100m and so have they. Credit to the players, Pardew and of course, Mike Ashley Thoroughly happy with the 3 points.

You'd think we'd need better than a striker who just manages an average of 1 every 3 games in the French league...

The club is a long, long way from realising it's financial potential, clearly. Now, there either there isn't the ambition to do that or there isn't ability (lack of expertise of people is key positions).

Good quote from Ricky... A creature spawned from the mouldy neither regions of a mag wife, herself a willing submissive to the crusty loins of magdor. This creature, uncouth of appearance and corpulent of belly, exists in a world of eternal hatred. He defines himself in opposition to the ideological crusade of mackemdom; an enlightened force through this nations history.

I know i will be accused of bias but i thought Cattermole's tackle desrved a red and the Hull players probably didn't. Surely it won't be that big a loss to the mackems, can't Gardner slot into his place?

I'm not crying because we are winning. Start losing and i'll be crying for him back in the side. I still want him in the side regardless and miss watching him but win matches and there won't be tears from me. Others differ, even if we win will say we would have won by more had HBA played and that's Pardew's fault, just opinions. Yeah! This hot winning streak of.....er.....1 that we're on. Smoking !!!

He's certainly not awful and i'm a long way from one of his biggest fans (as my posts in this thread wll prove), but to say he's awful is either eschewed by bias or ignorance.

Thought for the 1st 20-25 mins we were quite lucky tbh. Then we got to grips with it better, actually offering something going forward. 2nd half we certainly weren't lucky, we were better than them. Simples!

If HBA used the ball as well as Marveaux does and if Marveaux went looking for the ball as much as HBA does they would be a pair of blinding players.

More than the work he has to figure out how to be more effective at attacking. When to pass and when to run. He doesn't think 'how can i get the team attackking here' he thinks 'what can i do on my own' far too much of the time. Actually negates his impact.

Thought we were very sloppy and far too easy to play against for the first 20 mins or so. Chelsea didn't capitalise. As the 1st half wore on i thought we looked better. In the 2nd half i thought we looked the hungrier team. Quick to close them down, looking for ways to attack. Was very good to see. Thought Tiote was very good but then again, so was Anita. MYM i thought was really on it, very good game from him. Debuchey was good again (odd lapse but he was playing against a top team). Very enjoyable 2nd half. Well done to all of them. Especially Mike Ashly

:lol: EdnaSwap tbh...

Was at Toulouse with Sissoko.

He surprised me a little last night. Thought he anticipated well. For their 1st goal, Williamson was absolutely nowhere and i think when the front post is as wide open as that, a good forward is probably going to get a shot on target, which he did.

Play him on the right or don't play him.

A CB!!!!!!!!

But you said that this team is going places? We are, no disaster playing well against teams like City/Chelsea but not getting the correct result, you don't play them every week. Big worry against Sunderland was didn't create anything, last night we created far more, if you keep creating, the goals will start to come. What place is that? Bumbi Bears Land? We're taking 1-2 steps forward before we take a Bumbi jump backwards again FFS! It's been a repeat of that for god knows how long. We're not going places under Pardew, and we never will, how hard is it to understand? He's a clueless s*** talking clown. Simply not good enough for this level. And he'd never be at this club now if we didn't have an arsehole owning this club. Wont even go on about Kinnear.. And some stupid people still showing him support. Our football as a whole has been far better this season that last, we actually trying to play football. We had a mixture of direct football and possession football last night and made a strong looking City side look remotely average. If you can't see our improvements i think it's you that needs to take a step back from all this and just come back when you aren't blinded just because Pardew is in charge. Everyone keeps doubting the team but they come back fighting every time. The forum being quiet speaks volumes of how we performed last night because nobody really wants to give any credit to our players as a collection. They just pick their individual player threads to give them little bits of praise instead. If we had of got battered last night this place would be going mental. You're quite biased imo. I said that the players put some nice moves together (which they did) from defence and midfield. We didn't really click in the final 3rd but then we don't have the quality players to do that. We looked worse when HBA came, this is true. It's also true that Man City stood off us a little in a way that Chelsea definitely won't. Was a shame we didn't win but i was at least pleased to see us close them down and actually have a go when we had the ball.

Thought we looked better before he came on tbh. He offers nothing in the middle except more indecision.

I think the players will be feeling a bit sorry for themselves. I don't think anyone in the camp will be expecting much from the game and that will compound the tiredness to make a leggy performance. Chelsea will be professional, crisp, efficient and comfortable winners. I do think we'll be better against Norwich though in a few weeks.

Thought at times we played well at of the back and through the middle. We had no cutting edge up front though and we always looked a little rushed when we got near their box.

Chances of that happening = 0