Gallowgate Toon

Despite HBA being an inconsistent starter for his teams, he's still produced similar amounts of goals and assists to Sessegnon, who was the main man for PSG. Perhaps a goals/assist to minutes ratio will show you who the superior player has been, Wearside.

This lad seems to have a very solid scoring and assist record (scoring wasn't quite as high last season) he doesn't sound particularly defensive.

A team of N'Zogbias might not get you a magnificent fightback to gain a point against Arsenal but they'd do a lot to get 3 points against the like of Stoke and Bolton. I know which one I'd pick.

Exactly. It just stinks of complete bullshit. I mean, who would honestly think we'd ask him to return to training, if his leg hadn't even straightened out properly.

The rumour started on RTG and it looks to have been relayed by Wraith via Twitter. The rumour 'quotes' suggest that his leg hasn't fused properly and his leg is now bent, so going by the rumours, his problem would be nowt to do with playing, as he's just 'crippled' and couldn't play a match anyway. Doesn't seem quite right though, this type of problem would've been flagged ages ago imo and if his leg wasn't straight, surely he wouldn't have returned to train at all, as it's a pretty serious problem.

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses. Where did he play positionally when you saw him the most? Winger, either right or left. Sometimes as a sub, sometimes as a starter.

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses. I agree with most of what you are saying, but in terms of end product (in Ligue 1 anyway) there isn't a lot between them. Sessegnon is a very underrated player. In terms of end product, you're spot on, there isn't. I just feel that in terms of ability, in its rawest sense, HBA is in that league above.

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses.

I agree that Zog's a better player overall but they're in that same bracket/level of ability. Both good with the ball at their feet, decent passers and crossers and can get a couple of goals (this is where Zog's better). HBA on the other hand, is a complete step above, he has the potential to be a top, top player. His acceleration, ball control and passing were just outstanding against Everton, I still watch that video quite a lot.

Sessegnon's a good player, I'd put him in the Zog level but he's in the league below HBA and could only dream of putting in the kind of performance we saw against Everton.

They're not a very good side at all, don't deserve to be anywhere near 3-0.

Aye, he's in Viduka's old house if i'm not mistaken?

It's a strange comment to make, considering he's supposedly fitter now than when he first arrived here.

Can't believe Shola lasted that long, he looked knacked for the majority of the second half and was giving the ball away virtually every time he touched it. Sloppy performance in general, we didn't look particularly organised defensively and lacked retention and ideas offensively. Pards will probably say the game against Man U will have fatigued some of our players, i couldn't tell if they looked half-arsed or tired, it just wasn't good enough. Krul played well though, decisive performance.

The only positive from that game (actually Krul played well) but that was more down to the ineptitude of our own players, not him putting in a great shift. Looks confident on the ball and played some intelligent passes but he just never got into the game, probably because we never kept hold of it for long enough.

I like the look of Ireland, he seems comfortable on the ball, keeps it simple and gets into good positions.

This is embarrasingly bad like, we just seem incapable of keeping a hold of the ball, so poor.

Unlucky for Loven but we need someone who has more quality on the ball up top.

Running through our midfield here, we've been awful at just holding theplay up and making them work for it.

Cracking strike.

He had to more disciplined than usual, looked to me like he'd been told to do a job on Rooney, who's been on fire for the last 6 weeks or so. In other games he plays higher up and gets his stamp on games with quick passing etc today he just couldn't do that. I was impressed by a quieter and more disciplined but equally effective performance.

How long was Valencia in training for before he came back to the team? I remember seeing some photos a couple of weeks ago but he seems to have gained fitness rapidly.

The team you have? Who are these supposed players that are so good? You say you've got a better team than Fulham on paper but you don't have players as good as Hangeland, Dempsey or Dembele.

No point in pissing about with him anymore like, just get him back. He would have been fit for the Wolves game imo but we've become far too complacent over recent weeks, letting him go back to France symbolises it imo.

There's definitely a feeling of complacency within the team at the minute, thinking it's just going to take the minimum effort and we'll be fine. It's now coming back to bite us, hopefully this will give us the kick we need to get us back into gear.