alexf

Blackburn line up is tragic except the two centre backs

Not sure but he has only started after he got injured. I'd still like to see a cabaye tiote ben arfa triangle purely because on paper it looks awesome

The fact that he played alongside Shola today and scored two suggests otherwise. Shola is basically poor, but he's very capable of turning a lot of loose balls into solid possession. That's certainly something that Ba needs. He's also capable of turning solid possession into loose balls. That's certainly something that Ba doesn't need. Had a proper moment reading this

My confusion comes from Pardew's reluctance more than anything. Just don't see why he can't play the juan mata type role where he is still like a number 10 but starts from a wide position and drifts. Pretty much how he has played his whole career until he came here.

Im a massive Ben Arfa fan but Benarfanufc10 all your doing is pissing alot of people off with your anti newcastle talk. Yeah alot of us would rather he plays but that's football. We aren't the manager so we cannot make the decisions. So all this "he should hand in transfer request" etc, isnt helping anybody.

Stu I think your missing the point. By half time everybody was calling for obertan to be replaced by ben arfa or atleast sammy but it took till the 80th minute for him to do that. Yes we all know Pardew is stubborn in not putting ben arfa out wide but it wasnt like obertan was doing any defending and the game was very open at that point and many feel it was ideal for Ben Arfa to come on and run at people in space.

Yeah some of the comments are getting abit ridiculous. I think the "pardew y u no play ben arfa on wing" comments will go on all season but i really can't imagine Pards backing down on this one. Which will be crazy considering Marveaux is out for the season

Santon came from playing first team football for Inter Milan and was kept out of the side because Pardew didnt want ot disrupt a defence that had been playing so well. Kadar has barely played in the first team, not even sure he's played much in the reserves. He's clearly not good enough unless he would have at least been on the bench. The two situations are utterly incomparable. OK, but i was just coming at it from the angle that just because Pardew hasn't put his faith in him yet doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't up to standard as i believe Pardew is making some very questionable team selections of late as well as ofcourse the whole Tevez/Mascherano thing at West Ham

Man i hope so! The football gods have been well and truly against us since that penalty against man u. Maybe we would have been better off long term not offending the mighty man united.

he said about coming through the game unscathed, then mentions maybe a slight problem for santon which we need to be careful with, then says it will be a bonus as in a bonus if we havn't picked up anymore serious injuries

Impressive, given that he wasn't booked. Pathetic. Ease up, thats straight from the pardew video on nutv. Says "hopefully have cheik back ande we'll need him because i think yohann got booked today so he'll be missing" I think Pardew jsut got it wrong because i agree unless something happened in the tunnel then pardew must have got mixed up

Cabaye didn't get booked today, unless it was after the game. He's on four though, making Gosling's red even more annoying. to be fair in the interview pardew doesn't look like he has much clue so maybe were ok?

Out of the next game after 5th booking according to pards

He says Yohan not jonas so Cabaye is out. FUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK!!

Don't even remember Jonas getting booked today

oh FFS way to kill my optimism immediately skirge!

I'm in the mood to be stupidly optimistic and believe that everything Pardew said about injuries is true. I'm also going to dream that Alan sees the light and drops the crap. so...... Krul Simpson Williamson Coloccini Santon Ben Arfa Cabaye Tiote Jonas Best Ba

Fair point.

You're the one manufacturing ammunition against Pardew. Comparing the patience afforded to Ba and Ben Arfa really is scraping the barrel, even for you. Not sure if i missed the point you were making but i think Ben Arfa should be given alot of patience aswell due to his record in france, the fact,like Ba he is a pardew signing according to the man himself and he had 12 months out with a broken leg. He had 3 starts against 3 of the likely top 4 and showed glimpses of real ability but could not sustain it for a full game understandably. This isn't directed at you as i know you have said you want to see him on the wing as well but when compared with the performances of Obertan it would take a stubborn person to argue he is more of an asset to the team than Hatem.

Just turned on this "You're on Sky Sports" thing before the real barca match and what the hell. The girl on the phones chatting absolute crap about us and then a norwich fan comes on trying to moan about the fact they said we were injury hit. haha laughable.

You could argue Santon was "nowhere near the standard required" while R.Taylor was keeping him out the side but we've seen that isn't the case haven't we

Slight exaggeration that

Maybe that should have been the headline on the club website when we signed him, just so we wouldn't get our hopes up? "He's not Alan Smith"

Has to play him on the wing. Because if he doesn't it means that even if he is playing well he will be dropped for all the games against the "physical sides" which will just kill any form he may have from the previous game and just piss him off. I think there is something in Obertan potentially but he would be far more useful as an impact player and hasn't earned the right to be first team.

Just watched it he said it looks like we have got through today without anymore injuries except santon who we may need to be careful with this week.