Gallowgate Toon

I think we can get a draw.

We'll finish above them and that opinion hasn't changed all season, even if we lose our next and they win, I'll still be confident. They have a poor team hindered even further by an out of date manager, we have a good team of actual footballers that have been massively held back by an oaf in charge, as well as some big injuries over winter. However, our boost from new players will carry us through.

After the Villa game, I thought Pardew had Sissoko and Cabaye the wrong way round, but after yesterday, I can see his thinking. Cabaye is obviously a brilliant passer of the ball but he doesn't have the quickest of feet and consequently struggles to beat players, he naturally operates better with a little extra space. Despite Sissoko being massive, he's quite a skillful fellow and can make a yard for himself easily (see 2 great megs yesterday). It will be really interesting to see how he continues in that attacking midfield role, I'm excited.

I like him and thought he played well enough yesterday, but he didn't always do his job properly. Completely lost Lampard for that chance in the first half, and I thought he should have been a lot closer to Mata for the goal too. He's a useful squad player who I'd want to play against Spurs, but when Southampton come to SJP, I'd much rather Anita was there instead.

Great stuff from him yesterday.

He'll be even more effective when he has Hatem playing ahead of him, a player who can beat his man and put in a good delivery with either foot. I thought he defended well yesterday, and was excellent going forward.

His link up play was excellent yesterday, especially in the first half. He looks a completely different player to that of a few weeks ago.

He'll get his share when Hatem comes back. We've got the clever wide forward, now we need our creative one to come in. I think HBA, Cisse and Gouffran will have a very good balance, they'll get plenty of goals.

He's a different animal at the minute, the spring is back in his play.

Plays the wing forward role brilliantly. Fantastic game.

As has been said, that run man

Gouffran is as good as Fletcher, never mind fucking Danny Graham man. The 6 fingered morons can't even use Google properly.

Still showing their utter ignorance regarding Gouffran's record then. Amazing, and they call it 'pure football'.

Epitomises their club. Thoroughly uninspriring player.

Having watched the game again, I'm less annoyed with him. I was frustrated with him straight after half time, but watching it back, he was doing well up until he took Perch off and went 4-4-2. That switch was daft, and while he quickly rectified it for a bit, he then went all out stupid with Shola as a centre back etc. He needs a better gameplan when we're under pressure. They had good physical players, so having height made sense, but we weren't set up to threaten them at all which could have been a massive help in pinning them back, more important than simply having some big lads there to help. In his defence, I think the new recruits were caught out in that second half and consequently tired very easily, and while we have strengthened, there still isn't much in the way of attacking options off the bench. Obertan would have been useful but he was strangely absent.

Christ.

Simpson and loans for us.

I rate Taylor but he's just not made for the Chelsea game, he lacks pace and agility. MYM should start as he's simply a better fit for the players we're going to come against.

I'd be happy with a point but they're vulnerable. I think we could grab a win, but it depends on how well AP sets us up.

Perfect game for Anita and MYM to come in to, Chelsea aren't a physical side and we need more agile players to combat their attacking threat. Formationally, I'd approach this the same way as Reading, using a single DM instead of 2 to pick up who ever they use at AM. Krul Debuchy MYM Colo Santon Anita Sissoko Cabaye Gouffran Cisse Obertan I think we can get a result here, 2-2.

It's not so much the beginning of the second half that scared me, it was his (slow) reaction to Lambert's changes. We needed Sissoko to drop back, we were effectively 4-4-1-1 against a team with a packed midfield, it was extremely risky and they were ripping through us at will. He tries to be too clever with the 'link' player, always using them to pressure full backs and centre backs, effectively taking away a layer of protection and giving us a 4 man midfield. He needs to be smarter and faster, he's been caught out by formational changes before, see Fulham for example.

Pardew said in his NUFCTV interview that MYM won't be used as a midfielder here, just today for height as they were bombarding the box. His words were 'he's a centre half or right back'.

I forgot all the Ba rubbish, amazing the amount of judgments made over little playing time.

He'll be far more effective when our other wide forward isn't a bit crap. I think we'll strike a nice balance with it really, Cisse and Gouffran will move around and keep defenders busy, while Hatem and co. pick them out. There's more to come from this one.

Indeed, like the wins we eked out over Norwich and QPR this year that sent us on big runs. I meant as in he seems to like grinding out a result after a hard run and then releases the shackles a bit. I don't think it's how he should go about stuff but that seems to be his usual style in these circumstances.