Segun Oluwaniyi

All of you need to be smacked in the head. This team just lost 4-0 to West Brom away, now they have to battle in the Colosseum brimming with 52,000 bloodthirsty adversaries. WBA's African star striker ripped them to shreds. Our two will do similar. Get the hell out of here with this pessimism rubbish.

Pass the spliff.

You honestly think Ryan Taylor is a better option to start? That's not what I said, really. HBA is one of my favourite players. I loved him at OM and based on talent and what I know of the two players, I would pick Ben Arfa to start 10 times out of 9. But if this performance is an indication of what Pardew sees everyday, I cannot blame him for the decision. At least Taylor will maintain possession, occasionally out a cross in and graft. I have not seen any of this from Ben Arfa in his cameo.

Rubbish after the goal. Disappeared.

Why was he so slow today? He's ran and accelerated at a decent pace in most of our other matches. Couldn't get away from anyone at all in that match. If that is what he's doing in training, then it makes perfect sense for him to be our last option off the bench.

At some point you cannot blame the father for the foolish actions of the son. They were 2-0 up against a vastly superior team and collapsed. That is an indictment on the players, imo.

Absolutely terrible today. Weak, wasteful, and lazy. It is a testament to his skill and talent that he created our two best chances to win, but that was extremely poor from him. Don't expect him to start the next match because he hasn't earned it.

Williamson plays the rest of the season too. Not buying Mariappa could cost us Europe.

Ben Arfa happened to start away to Manchester United, Manchester City, and home against Chelsea (before they collapsed). He also played in the Fulham match where out defence evaporated.

Beyond all the Ben Arfa nonsense. Why the hell are we playing at rightback at winger against the worst form team in the league...at home. What are we scared of?

The guy played in France, ffs. It is not as if he has chicken bones while everyone else has those of an elephant. He can handle physicality. One bad injury will not change this.

They had a similar ruling in the NFL, and honestly it has been a success in that league where the problem was even more glaring (given that Blacks made up the majority of the workforce). They've gone from having almost none to a fair amount. It is hard to say how prevalent racism is at board level, but the fact remains that there are not enough Blacks being represented at managerial level given their presence on the pitch and in other aspects. I don't which side is at fault, or how to address it really, but it is something you notice. Also, I think there is some bias about the "image" of a manager. Pardew looks like a manager. Maybe John Barnes and Paul Ince do not.

What about Bolton makes you think they'll run away from the rest? I want QPR and Blackburn to stay up, anyway.

What a waste of a player currently in his peak. Could easily be playing for a top 4 team in the Prem. If the move goes through, Samba will probably lose a bit of respect from quite a lot of people (myself included). Samba will consider this as he sits naked in his pool full of rubles, straps on his platinum jewelry, decides which supercar to purchase, and remembers when he couldn't afford shoes.

VVV Venlo have just signed Mustapha Babadidi, who is the top scorer in the Nigerian Premier League. They seem to be building quite a pipeline of young, Nigerian talent at that club. This follows them bringing Ahmed Musa and Michael Uchebo to Europe. The strategy worked with Musa and it is a fairly good one in theory, buy young Africans for nothing and promptly sell them for large fees, they got 10 million euros from it last month with rumours that the Nigerian clubs received nothing in return. Still, I prefer young players going to a team like this and actually playing rather than wasting away in the reserves of some bigger team. /Martin Jol /I know you don't care.

Renovations for the Euros. Why?

He plays at Sochuax, who have managed to be bottom of the table despite talents such as Martin, Maiga, and Boudebouz I don't understand why he cannot tell us. He doesn't work for either club and is a reporter. Actually, I think he works for Ligue1.com. I suppose the official site wouldn't want such speculation.

There is no cycle and nothing changed. Over the course of one year, many separate events have been favourable to the Italian teams. Show a pattern over several seasons and maybe them make a point. If Valbuena doesn't score a wonder goal in the dying embers of the match at Westfalenstadion, maybe we are talking about the dominance of German sides. Maybe if Milan (who had a very simple group) switch places with Munich in the draw they don't qualify and people deride Serie A once more. A team full of stars has defeated an Arsenal side battling an injury crisis combined with the loss of several influential players. A bright, young squad took the game to a team in crisis. This is all I can conclude. These results bring me no information about the relative status of the leagues when taken alone.

Taylor/Nolan, then.

He's looked good IMO Minutes after I tune in, he is replaced by Sekou Oliseh, nephew of Sunday. Surprised tbh, CSKA don't look too creative or incisive, and they definitely need a goal here.

Goodness. Ahmed Musa starting a Champions League knockout match against the best team in the world 15 months or so after leaving the Nigerian Premier League. Very happy for him. Will watch this now, didn't realise he would play.

Nothing makes the players but their own talent, desire, and will. The clubs do pay their wages, but they do not actually own them as physical property. If Cisse is invited to play for his country, he should and will. If you want to question FIFA arranging an international fixture date immediately after a serious international tournment, this is a different thing altogether.

I wouldn't say they did - Schweinsteiger's much more than that. But i do agree with the overall point - Xavi and Busquets for Barca, or Vieira and Gilberto for the Arsenal invincables. two solid midfielders who give a basis for the rest to work magic. Couple of decent brazilian sides have gone with two out right defensive midfielders in there, mind. Nothing's inherently wrong with playing two defensive midfielders, but Baba, I don't think you can argue that a formation has nothing to do with the entertainment and quality of the football. It's a combination of the formation and the quality of the players. The quality of the players in the two sides johnnypd named are among the best in the history of football! It is not the formation, but the team philosophy. What is the difference between a compact, combative 4-5-1 and a free-flowing, attacking 4-3-3 other than how the formation is utilised? Many teams use 4-4-2 to have two banks of players in defence and two strikers they can play long ball with. More adventurous sides will allow both central midfielders forward and play open, attacking football.

What is wrong with playing two holding midfielders? Everyone was raving about Germany at the World Cup and they featured two in every match. The entertainment and quality of the football has nothing to do with the formations used.

When was the last time we were 6th? Or is the best league position in nearly 10 years not progress in your books? We are sixth despite Ashley not because of him!! If he had shown a modicum of ambition last summer we would be at the top IMO. Some of the Ashley fanboys in this thread are beyond the pale. The graffiti is a marvelous response to his attitude. Long may it continue. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lltobexLN41qcjzcm.gif We adequately replaced the big players that we've lost and improved the squad in other areas. Ambition is not equivalent to throwing massive amounts of money around to buy household Premiership names. If he has sanctioned Carr and Pardew's to implement their transfer policy, he's done extremely well.