alexf

Strange game. Up till his injury I thought Tiote was our best player today, looked like the old Tiote the way he was controlling the midfield. The he goes off and suddenly the whole team turns around and goes on the attack? Coincidence? No idea but Anita should never have been dropped, he's been quality every time he's played this season.

What a tank. Shame about the sending off against Liverpool as he'd started that game in the same way and we could have done with him in the derby. Class act today and think he may prefer that left side of defence like Colo does.

BTsport are a a joke. Why do they need Mark Halsey on every decision like he was some kind of good ref. Not to mention the fact that before the game he proved why he was a dodgy ref with his predetermined opinions of each player and also the fact he basically admitted being pally with fergie.

Yeah Terry is one of the best defenders there is in the air. Shola wouldn't get much out of him.

He was up against Jesus fucking Navas. I'll bet he's a hell of a lot faster than most left backs

What if he went to Crystal Palace and did well? like got them above us who would probably be free-falling under the stewardship of Mr.Kinnear actually don't want to even think how bad that would be.

Like I said, there's no shame in losing to Man City if you go for it but still come up short. The team selection just spoke volumes to me that we wern't fussed about going through or not. We were more concerned about saving some key players for the premier league and saving a bit of face so that our best team wern't beaten by City's B team.

Like we did on that epic losing run last season?

yeah but watching the game you can't tell me they were up for it and motivated. We stopped them from playing, we targeted their two centre backs and looked to hound them soon as they received the ball in the middle. Always quick to double up on Navas and not allow him much space to run in to. Don't think Pellegrini deserves stick for not having his players up for it, just thought we did well nullifying their biggest assets. Do you not agree if Remy plays instead of Cisse, Cabaye starts? or if Ben Arfa starts ahead of Sissoko or something that we probably stand a far better chance of winning? I just hate the lack of ambition where we accept that because City are playing a weakened team then so can we. Who cares if we lose to Man City, it's no embarrassment, like you say that squad last night cost hundreds of millions.

I disagree that we were worse after he came on. We worse after Cabaye came on for Shola. The only thing that was working was the long balls to Shola and we lost that once he came off. Thought Ben Arfa looked far better than he has recently. Touch looked good, he was picking out the right passes and was dropping deep to be the playmaker. Could be because he was against tired legs but for me he showed enough to be a certain starter next game. Will say one thing though. When was the last time anyone would say they saw him sprint at full speed with the ball? Probably his best attribute was the way he could run through the middle of the pitch at times at full speed while keeping the ball under complete control. I haven't seen him do it once except for maybe a few bursts against Villa.

yeah but watching the game you can't tell me they were up for it and motivated.

I disagree that we were really good last night. We should have beaten that City team and if we had gone full strength then we just might have. They were there for the taking, looked like they couldn't be arsed/didn't care about the cup. Plus they played a weakened defensive partnership which looked vulnerable to say the least. So no, I'm not going to heap loads of praise on us because we played slightly better because we still couldn't get the job done. If we had played Remy, Cabaye/Ben Arfa from the start and really gone for it and still lost then fair enough but we didn't.

Yeah shame about the goal but an excellent game from him. Shame he missed the derby as he probably would have helped us alot. When he's switched on and alert he reads the game very well.

Cabaye and Negredo seemed to be having a few words in extra time so I assumed that foul by Debuchy was just him looking after his lover.

was he injured or did he really just get "hauled off" despite only coming on at half time?

Decent little cameo

Least Ben Arfa looks better tonight

Still look like we can't score to save our lives without Remy.

Would like to see us throw on Remy, Ben Arfa or Cabaye at some point. We should be going for this, it's a great chance to get through. City clearly don't give a fuck so we should be really going for it.

Think he may regret not going full strength for this. Man City are here for the taking if we really went for it. Hope they don't bring Silva on.

Ben arfa should be.starting. He's out of shape and out of form. The more games the better for him.

Why the fuck are we not full strength? Fucking bullshit this. Who gives a shit if we lose to a weakened man city as long as we give it a go. Oh sorry we're protecting the lads for the oh so winnable Chelsea game.

I'm convinced Pardew is trying to turn Gouffran into the new Jonas. The almighty "defensive winger"

"super lucky fluke strike"

I think Brett has messed up saying he was desperate for Hughton to be sacked. Contradicts everything he says about Pardew now for me.