Gallowgate Toon

I noticed that Krul was spraying the ball out wide more on the weekend, rather than booting it up the middle. That was nice to see.

We'll be fine and contest Everton for 7th if we keep key players fit for long periods. We've left ourselves in a risky position we didn't need to be in though, literally 2 forward players of generally decent quality would have had us set up really well.

he can't pass very well at all, but makes up for this in many other facets. It can be hit and miss at times, he did play a couple of great balls on Saturday though.

He's mint. Not sure who it was that said he didn't have technical ability but they've been proven wrong over the last couple of weeks. He displayed some lovely bits of skill and control on Saturday.

We played 4-2-3-1 on Saturday, Bimpy. We've really never played 4-3-3 with Pardew in charge, there's always been someone at the tip of a midfield triangle. 2 years ago it was Cabaye, last year Sissoko, Cabaye again on the weekend. Whoscored have the players' positional maps.

He clearly wasn't quite there in terms of fitness, his passing was off but you could see the ideas he had (with Cisse in particular).

I could see why the ref made the decision, but it was still a poor one. Koscielny stops when he hears the whistle though, if Atkinson hadn't blown, I think he'd have got there in time anyway.

Interesting fixture, this. We really struggle against organised, defensive sides when we play at home but from the little I've seen of them, they don't strike me as that type of team. They like to get on the ball and look OK knocking it around but lack better players in the final third to make it count. The same team will start and I think we'll win 2-0. Personally, I'd start Marveaux ahead of Cabaye in the AM role for a game like this but that'll never happen.

Tiote was fit yesterday.

He's probably just lacking that bit of match fitness.

I'm pretty sure Remy has played 30+ games every season for the last 5 years.

He certainly will be, his class on the ball is evident. You could see he's missing that bit of explosiveness from his game (the incident when Okore had to be subbed) but that will come with this fitness. He was apparently done in after 10 minutes two weeks ago, heck of a turnaround.

We could have a really decent season if we keep people fit but our lack of depth will hurt us, especially if we don't recruit further in January.

It's one game in a season, that's what it is. In other words, very little to judge how a season will go from. Actually, you can take a hell of a lot from today's game. He's a safety first manager, no doubt, but he's shown that he's comfortable going for it when he trusts his team. I'm not saying he's an all-out attacking manager but we saw his mentality today, he's fine to go for it when he feels confident. This was an awkward fixture to predict as they've played better than their results suggest (due to opposition), he deserves credit for being ballsy enough to go there and look to beat them at their own game.

He played an attacking line up today when it could have been very easy to go with something more defensive. If that's not a statement of his intentions, then I don't know what is.

Imagine if he was our manager one day

MOTD is unbelievably shit, as we've all known for ages. Criminal that they get away with such a shocking production.

Love this dude. Lovely player, so glad he's playing well.

Torn on him, I do think he'd benefit from a bit of time in a team playing relatively well but Gouffran's really making a great case to be starting.

Yeah, I was surprised. Good that he's having lessons despite being able to speak reasonably well.

Deserves a start now.

Anita and Shola out, Cabaye and Remy in, in my opinion.

George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 6h If I can't get home in time for Steve Harper's match tonight, I'm going to do a poo on the KLM service desk. This is not an idle threat. Expand Royal Dutch Airlines ‏@KLM 5h @CaulkinTheTimes Hello George, we've taken notice of your tweet. Is there anything we can do for you? George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 5h @KLM hello! Flight to N'cle cancelled,now flying later via C'hagen. Means I miss appointment tonight but told this connection 1st available. George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 5h Something quite embarrassing is when an airline sends you a tweet offering to help when you've just said you'll poo on their service desk. Expand :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

You'd think if we can keep Sissoko, Ben Arfa and Remy fit for the majority of the season, our away form will drastically improve. All are excellent options on the counter, great combination of speed and dribbling ability.

2-2 draw. Remy and Cisse to score. Think we'll get them on the break with our pace.