LoveItIfWeBeatU

He is rusty. He tried to beat too many players and didn't release the ball when he needed to. Having said that, most of our players stood around watching him. They obviously assumed Hatem would beat the 3 players he was taking on. He looked better against Benifca than he did today but I'm putting that down to most of our players being poor today.

This sort of disorder seems to get a more lenient punishment, seemingly because it is supposedly 'football' related. What would happen if they threw a glass bottle at the police when there was no match on? I hope the police catch all the scum from both Sunderland and Newcastle who've been up to no good and prosecute them all to the full extent of the law.

Reading and QPR look doomed. There is a big fight over the last relegation spot. I wouldn't be surprised if it took more than 40 points to stay up this season. We'll have to start picking up points away from home now. This awful defeat to Sunderland needs to be used as a catalyst. We seem to lose to teams below us. Luckily we've only got QPR left to play who are below us.

Personally I think Ben Arfa has put in his best performances for us on the wing. I agree with you about Marveaux though. If we stay up we need to buy some out and out wingers.

I can't even get that annoyed as we were barely in the game after the first 15 minutes. It's not like we ever really looked like winning after they scored. Once again we picked up our usual serious injury per game and we've lost Krul for the run in. Hopefully this disgraceful performance is the kick up the arse the team and management need to pull their fingers out and make sure they secure our Premiership future. We can start by not losing every away game! There's no more European football so tiredness and no time to prepare can't be used as excuses any more.

Pardew's pre-match comments about not wanting Sunderland to be relegated are coming back to haunt him. He should have saved comments like that until after we'd beaten them. Pardew also said pre-game about how he respects Di Canio. Meanwhile Di Canio's pre-match talk was of how good it would be to beat NUFC in their own stadium and how it would be better to win in front of 50,000 enemies than to win at home in front of your own fans. Not one word about respecting NUFC came out of his mouth.

Apparently Lukaku wants to (or Chelsea want Lukaku to) play in a European competition which is why Swansea are being mentioned as an option (they have qualified for the Europa League via their Cup win) and that's why he won't be at West Brom on loan next season.

We seem to get at least one player injured every single game we play. We can't afford to pick injuries up in training too! Get well now Colo!

NUFC moved the deal for Gouffran (and Sissoko) forward to January. Both deals had already been arranged for Summer 2013. That certainly implies that NUFC's original plan was to get Gouffran in the Summer regardless of signing Rémy in January. Were they agreed? I thought we'd just planned to move for them in the summer. Else, why would Toulouse and Bordeaux be happy to let us take them 6 months "early"? I think we'd agreed deals with both players. The clubs took a few quid instead of getting nothing. Correct. Derek Llambias confirmed they were done deals for Summer in that big interview he did a month or two ago.

NUFC moved the deal for Gouffran (and Sissoko) forward to January. Both deals had already been arranged for Summer 2013. That certainly implies that NUFC's original plan was to get Gouffran in the Summer regardless of signing Rémy in January.

Did the Ref not see the handball or did he see it and decided, as it would have been in NUFC's favour, not to give it? Call me paranoid but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the later. I've heard of 'homer' refs but this season we seem to have 'awayer' refs. They all seem to hate us. I think the Refs and their assistants bet their pension pot on NUFC getting relegated and are doing their best to make it happen.

Assuming we're safe and QPR are relegated by the time we play QPR, NUFC could rip 'that' mind control DVD the club uses to persuade potential transfer targets on to an iPad and show it to Rémy.

Thanks. It's a bit stupid of the stadium announcer to say during our game that tickets are still on sale but it looks like it will sell out when it has already sold out.

I got my ticket a couple of weeks ago but my brother has asked me to get him and his son tickets. I can't seem to select any tickets to buy on: - http://tickets.nufc.co.uk/checkmatchticket.aspx Has it sold out? They were advertising tickets today at the match.

Who are we going to play at right back? Simpson and Perch limped off against Benfica. Debuchy and Haidara are still injured so Santon can't switch to right back as he will be needed for left back. Simpson said he thinks he'll be OK to play. I'd be tempted to play Anita at right back. I don't rate Anita in the midfield yet. I can't think of a good, commanding performance from him there. His best performances have come at right back. He is too short to play defensive midfielder but he was quite attacking at right back earlier in the season. I'd play Sissoko and Cabaye in the middle with Marveaux behind Cissé. Gouffran on the left and probably Gutierrez (who played well against Benfica) on the right.

It will really test me, I was telling all and sundry I'd had it with football when we sold Carroll. (I'm aware of how ridiculous this makes me look) but GOD if we do that. Imagine Ben Arfa in a liverpool shirt Ben Arfa in a liverpool shirt? His injuries mean we're having to imagine Ben Arfa in a Newcastle shirt. I'd be surprised in Liverpool wanted Ben Arfa mainly because he has only played about 38 games in 3 seasons (admittedly one of those seasons was down to his broken leg). Carroll isn't exactly known for steering clear on injuries either.

Stoke and Norwich aren't exactly on a good run. One win would put us above them. A win for us against Fulham could be huge.

Those extra officials behind the goal have never made a decision in any of the previous games they've been used have they? Typical that in the history of those extra official behind the goal, their first recorded action is to award a penalty against Newcastle.

No excuses, we absolutely have to win. Often the crowd are quiet when we play a team we 'expect' to beat. With our current league position the crowd should be up for this game. Duff will no doubt play like he is Messi and Ronaldo rolled into one.

"Mackem at work" today came out with how Pardew will be scared of going near Di Canio on the touch line at the derby (I read the same comment on RTG the other day but I don't think he reads RTG). Obviously the Mackems were "rattled" at last seasons derby when Pardew went at O'Neill. They said it proved how classy they were compared to NUFC and yet now they say there new manager will chin anyone who goes near him. You just know someone on RTG will be wanting to form one of their special club 'friendships' with Lazio now. I'm sure some of their least intelligent support will probably end up doing the "Roman salute" to Di Canio at some point.

That was definitely a penalty. PSG scored an offside goal so justice is done anyway.

As Ben Arfa always goes off to Clairefontaine for treatment when injured, any failures regarding his recovery should be directed to them.

A draw would be good or a QPR win if we think they won't catch us.

My only fear regarding this appointment is that in the short term he may give Sunderland the new manager 'bounce'. That might be all they need to save them this season. For us, we need Di Canio to be crazy from the word go. He'll struggle to do a worse job than O'Neill was doing.

Has anyone on http://www.readytogo.net/smb/ produced a Kent Brockman "I, for one, welcome our new fascist Overlord" meme yet?