Gallowgate Toon

Steve 'slow-mo' Harper.

Ozil's looking much sharper. Seems to have some acceleration that was missing over the winter.

Dan Gosling-esque.

Lovely.

And the mini-cycle re-emerges. Still think they'll go down but cracking result for them.

Still really not convinced the mackems will stay up, even if they go on to win here. It's the 'easy' games that they've constantly fluffed.

Typical

Weren't these the quotes from before the Euros?

In what way would it be an easy decision? Ba was perfect for us and the level we were at meant we were perfect for him. The evidence suggests he doesn't have the ability to up his game when he's required to be more than just a goalscorer. It's a pretty damning indictment, in my opinion, that he's massively struggled to get a game under Mourinho when his competition has been pretty poor.

Ba's not as good a footballer as those two. Equal if not better goalscorer though, particularly Giroud.

It's not the most ethical thing that could have been done but who cares? As fans of the club we've been made absolutely powerless over the last few years. If we need to 'play dirty' to get things going then so be it.

That sounds similar to the stories in the press. However, we have so few English pros left of which the only regular first-teamer is Williamson and at least 3 of them will be leaving this Summer anyway. The only reason I posted it now was because of some of the stories that are coming out. I heard it a few weeks ago when I was at the academy and bumped into the lad in question, he likes the sound of his own voice so I just instantly dismissed it as rubbish.

HBA would be immense in their counter-attacking set up. He'd have to work pretty hard on the pressing front but I think he'd be fine with that if it was for a genuinely ambitious team - as he showed for us when we actually tried to do something in 11/12.

I know a lad who works at the academy - bit of a gobshite, admittedly - who's adamant that HBA is now intensely disliked by the English pros and has been since the end of last season where he was criticised for not looking after himself while out injured. It all came to a head for him at Goodison where Pardew and said few players apparently questioned his attitude and application, in the dressing room. As I say, the lad's normally a gobshite but I thought it was an interesting story.

DEMBAAAAA

Aye. Things weren't going his way so he reverted to type.

I don't think top 4 is within this squad's reach, to be honest. I think 6th would be the best we could achieve as we're a little too light in terms of depth and I think our defence aren't really good enough unless they're really well protected by the midfield. Still, we should be playing better football than we are and with much more consistency. I do think we'd always struggle against more defensive opposition due to a lack of creativity but to nowhere near the same level as we've seen under Pardew.

For all they're an incredibly exciting team to watch, I don't think they're the best footballing side in the division, overall. They're absolutely immense on the counter, better than anyone else, but City are pretty excellent at that too and I think are superior at breaking defensive opposition down. I do hope they win the division though.

There were some very decent performances in the first half of the season, there was a point where we looked like we might be going somewhere and a bit of a philosophy was starting to emerge. Then it unravelled and showed it was all built on confidence rather than a consistent plan, it all went to crap, as a result.

Villa away. Chelsea home. West Ham away. Hull away. Man Utd away. Stoke home. Thats what I'd say were our good wins this season. Palace away was very good, IIRC.

I still think Chelsea will win this, can see them rocking up to Anfield and doing them. It's the sort of game that's Mourinho's speciality.

Scary that Aguero's minutes per goal record is even better than Suarez's. Less shots per game too.

MYM was doing well with Williamson before Colo came back, IIRC. Some were certainly disappointed he was immediately dropped when Colo returned from injury.

So much energy up top with Shola.

Don't care. Pardew's going nowhere, the game will be rubbish with little quality on show and it's absolutely pointless in terms of the league (apart from possible mini champions, of course!).