oldtype

This. Unspectacular but not the worst RB in the world. Especially given that we've been forced to work with much, much worse very recently.

I'm pretty confident Carroll would do well if he comes back here, and the board wouldn't be trying to buy him unless they were as well.

Unsure if this was deliberate or not

Seems like an excessive amount of certainty to be attaching to a statement that's surely 100% conjecture.

European nights are back at SJP! I'll be a gazillion miles away and I'm still excited

Thank you Mike for single handedly sending the forum into "kill all the foreigners" mode again

started laughing like a madman in the middle of the office

Thank you, man. I know I'm not saying anything wrong here. I've learned that the first rule of this club is that you do not talk about the club. It's a don't ask don't tell kind of thing.

I for one would happily welcome Mike to the "a player from my country plays for Sunderland" club

Now we can have a wonderful discussion about whether ALL the goals we scored in the 433 last season were "system based" or not

Meh, he may or may not have said that and even if it did it could very easily just be more Pardy mind games

Ah fuck, come on.

Perch already class

Well, at least we're going for it

Jonas: pass it to me! Barfa: nah Jonas:

Hatem should probably have just dived there

Should just take all our corners short

Pretty entertaining second half. Wish we played like this in the first.

Colo makes a "Steven Taylor Geordie Hero run" up to the opponent's box

I'm not even excited when Jonas shoots anymore

Fuck, was sure Barfa was going to score there

Yep, but they can afford to do whatever they like. Chelsea showing how nice it is to have infinite money, basically.

Should also be noted that the way we played in the first half isn't even all that different from 4-3-3 in the first place. Ben Arfa was practically living in the middle of the pitch.

Against a weakened chelsea side thinking about two massive cup finals. The point is we've proven that we can play well with a 4-4-2. Before Cisse, Ben Arfa etc etc came a massive part of the side..... not one thing about it works. Cisse scored 2 in the corresponding fixture when we were playing 4-4-2 last season... Yes i know but both goals had nothing to do with system..... 1 was Santon running down the wing and passing to Cisse and he scores an outstanding goal the other was that ridiculous goal from a throw in. 4-4-2 limits Cabaye and Ben Arfa's influence, makes us more vulnerable defensively etc etc and that's without mentioning the fact that Ba and Cisse as a 2 clearly don't work. I have no idea why people keep defending 4-4-2 it's clearly inferior in every way and everytime we use we are crap by comparison. Everytime Pardew changes to 4-3-3 from 4-4-2 during a match and how much we improve should be enough to confirm this. So when we play well in a 4-4-2 it is despite the system and when we play well in 4-3-3 it is because of the system? Hard to argue against that.

At the end of the day there's just no shame in being comprehensively outplayed and defeated away to a team who will probably be challenging for the title.