Gallowgate Toon

Really nice first half, disappointing (in terms of tempo) but professional second.

Benny's had a sloppy second so far.

HBA taking French nonchalance to a new level there.

Pulis doing his best Castaway impression there.

Really want Demba to score today.

What a fucking goal.

Hatem is lush.

Is Williamson incapable of playing a ball on the floor?

'THIS is where the two sides are very different. In Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye, we have ­midfielders who are essentially holding players, two of the Premier League’s best in my opinion.' - From a John Carver interview this morning. Very interesting comment, don't think he's a holding player myself but shows what they think of him.

Messi lost the ball in a dangerous area, bench him and make him play for the reserves.

Barca are shit.

The idea of goals or assists to minute ratio doesn't exist in their eye.

I love how they go on about Sessegnon and Ben Arfa's stats, how it doesn't matter how much less the latter has played because that's just baseless conjecture. Talk about 'Marty' though, 'we've been amazing since he came in, imagine if he'd been here from the start, we'd be level if not better than the Mags!', aye cause that's not baseless either. Tits.

I love how he's becoming central to the team now, gets some claim on free kicks and corners. Thought he put in an alright performance up until the goal, he seemed a bit reluctant to drift and show for the ball (perhaps the more rigid formation) and run at them and force the issue but when he finally did, it yielded results. In games like that, he really needs to be encouraged to have the ball as much as possible and take the game by the scruff of the neck and it was good to see him try similar just minutes later. He's going to be massive for us in terms of breaking down defensively minded teams and it seems he's finally becoming the creative heartbeat we've craved. Great stuff.

How do you know he was a French footballer? Well, I flew back on Friday and he was on the flight. He was dressed in a team tracksuit then (couldn't tell which team) and got to skip a full waiting queue of about 200 people, pretty much a sign he's someone well known in some capacity. Fair enough. When you mentioned that he arrived with Abeid I thought it may just have been his brother. I realised afterwards that it sounded completely daft after you pointed it out Kind of forgot the important context.

How do you know he was a French footballer? Well, I flew back on Friday and he was on the flight. He was dressed in a team tracksuit then (couldn't tell which team) and got to skip a full waiting queue of about 200 people, pretty much a sign he's someone well known in some capacity.

That reminds me, some lad who works at the airport posted a picture of him, HBA and Ba about an hour after the game yesterday, Ben Arfa looked absolutely buzzing. They just rolled in and got on before everyone else, they looked pretty chuffed alright. Single class plane though so everyone walked past them and tried to talk to them on the way to their seats. Quite surreal tbh, being that close after he'd just scored what was probably one of the best goals i've ever witnessed at SJP.

Just edited my original post, he seemed a genuinely nice guy, having a laugh with some fans who were sat in front. Benny seemed pretty shy though.

Ben Arfa and Demba were on my flight last night, the former enjoying a massive bottle of champagne with who I assume was Simon Stainrod. They were also with a mystery French footballer who arrived at the airport with Abeid. Demba seems a really nice bloke btw, was chatting to people from the row in front for a while.

Played them perfectly yesterday, got a feeling he knows we can rip Bolton on Monday too. Doing very well at the minute, top work.

Played well enough yesterday, performed admirably in his role, I love his shimmy to fool defenders, so agile and it's not like he's a midget. Did seem slightly off the boil at times in the first half with his touch and passing and probably would've preferred him being taken off to give him some rest for Monday but still, a good performance.

This retention is pathetic.

Is that Swansea are like every week? I'm not really a huge fan of the Barça-esque way of football anyway but that seemed ridiculously tedious.

We've been so careless.

Well this is boring.