Mattoon

I just voted no

If people are thinking we could lose this then the expectation dampening must be in full swing. A draw away to most sides is acceptable, a win here is more than doable, a loss is unacceptable. There's no such thing as an easy game in the premiership.... Yadda yadda. We're 8th on merit, they're 15th for the same reason and on nearly half our points, there's a gap in quality and we SHOULD be winning this.

But it's very uncouth to be yobbish whilst one is watching the Gooners play squire

Voted 7th, this season is a write off for spuds, can't see Sherwood leading them on a march to glory, Southampton have vertigo and are tumbling back down, we should be aiming to take on Everton and a poor Man U for 6th but think we may come up short.

I don't think people are witnessing two different matches here, though it seems that way, I'd tend to agree with both sides. I think we played well defensively, we contained and made one of the best teams in the league this year look toothless and devoid of ideas. A draw on the basis of that would have been a fair result, but also probably the best we could hope for. Pardew only has two modes, defend or attack, there's no balance there and that was evident today, I don't agree we were also contained, it was more of an unadventurous side that were slow to move forward with the ball and content with keeping shape with or without the ball. That left us being predictable and slow and we'd have never broken Arsenal down that way. In an attacking sense we were non-existent today and for that I have to agree with HTT we were poor. Until we can strike a good balance and know when and how to attack in numbers(which requires risk, not a Pardew forte) we'll never play a good all round game in matches like this. Had we got the point or nicked a lucky goal we could never really have argued with the tactics, on the basis of losing the game toothlessly people are bound to be frustrated with the lack of ambition.

Remy for me was the issue too, I only saw the first half and spats of the second as I was supposed to be working But every time we got the ball he was too deep and on a couple of occasions I noticed Sissoko with the ball as the last man forward and rather than make a run, Remy was dropping back to make himself available but it was just slowing the attack down. I thought we were good for the draw as we made them take shots from distance, we defended well for the most part and stayed tight and kept discipline. The goal was a sucker punch.

....and I concur, if we don't wear the "Brazil" kit we've missed a trick!

Must win game if we have any aspirations for a top 6 finish, we should be putting team like this to bed away from home. I've said it a lot recently but think we need to be playing HBA from the start, we have players that are feeling the pinch from the extra games. That said, I think it will be a nervy 1 goal win for us.

And why can't we be pissed up at 13:30? What is the world coming to???

Arsenal will pack the midfield, if we don't go 5 in midfield they'll pull us apart. Classic Pardew, soak and counter, just hope he pulls it off again tomorrow.

I think this one has draw written all over it, but then Pardew doesn't do draws! It shows how much we've progressed this year that I would actually be disappointed if we lost and feel rather confident about this.

Someone beat me to it, if Pardew is looking to rest a jaded Remy I'd imagine him to start with the Big Sho up top and HBA playing off him. Not ideal but I think Shola will play a part in this unfortunately.

Am I the only one who appreciates the irony of the post about us being obsessed and always being on their forum, however the poster particularly points out us and TT and happens to know we have one thread and how big that thread is?

Full strength, full tilt, we should be getting a cricket score at home to these, hope we break our duck and then they can fuck off into obscurity!

That's taking it to the extreme, he's no Bale but he's certainly our most talented player, along side Remy. To think otherwise is tantamount to going full retard.

In no universe should Hatem Ben Arfa be warming any bench in the Prem, he's an absolute talent and it's just highlighting Pardew's shortcomings as a manager that he can't integrate a player of his standard into the team. I'm sick of this brain washing the idea that he doesn't work hard enough in defence, did Sir Bobby worry about that with Robert or KK with Ginola? Yes there is an element of defending and tracking back, all flair players need to learn a modicum of defensive duties in the Premiership but it shouldn't be their main purpose. HBA has come a long way since he first came here as a raw talent, he has worked on his game, that much is obvious. We became too reliant on his moments of magic and the team has benefited from his absence in the short term but he needs to come back into the fold. He's the one genuine player that can carve into teams and cut defences open. We need him to open teams up like Palace.

Either we return to type and after a demoralising display at Southampton start haemorrhaging points again or put these to the sword and get our mojo back.

What's with all the HBA bashing today, he wasn't that bad!?!?

Wouldn't want him, not a chance we would sign a player in his twilight, next...

It was the performance and missed chances that was more meh than the result. A point against Southampton ATM isn't a bad result. It just feels more like we lost 2 points than gained 1. Remember a large proportion of us were voting for a draw/loss before the match started. Pick ourselves up and dust off, it's a should win game next and we always struggle with them, about time we took it to one of the crap teams. I'd like to see Pardew go with an attacking presence, drop Shola and bring in HBA from the start.

Fuck off!!!!!

Just in time for the goal, get in Gouf!!!!!!

AVB finally got Soldado running onto balls and facing the goal, more importantly in the 6 yard box and some width to the game and surprise, they actually look a little dangerous!

Absolutely this, been too long in waiting for even a win, feels like forever, time for Pardew to break his hoodoo and ignore his perpensity for winning by a maximum of 2 goals. There for the taking, couldn't come soon enough. An early bday present for me please.

Sorely missed and rightfully idolised for what he did here, can never fault the guy for the passion he always had for us. Though he is to blame for my infatuation with NUFC and for that lifetime of pain he needs to be held accountable! It's a sad indictment that we'll probably never see anything of his kind in the foreseeable future.