Parsley

I thought Dzeko should've had the assist for Silva's goal on Monday as well but got nothing.

Dear god.

Clear foul on Coloccini there man.

Stinks of a panic buy - to placate their spoiled fans after the result at the weekend and to fill out the squad in light of recent injuries.

Seems pretty downbeat in this pre-match interview.

Yep, starts as captain. Had Paulinho in this week but have read that he played really deep today. Might swap him for Sigurdsson.

Villa have a tough set of opening fixtures so I've stayed clear for now. Interested to know what people make of Oscar though. He's a fair bit cheaper than Hazard or Mata and I think he could be on for a good season.

Don't see the problem with it whatsoever. Quick walk out in front of the fans for a player who is going to be huge for us this season. I dont see the problem with it, however it does seem like the club are making as big a deal of this as possible, as if to disguise the fact we haven't bought anyone so far. I think it's more to try and justify Kinnear's role at the club after all the negative press we've had.

Anita was one of the best players on the pitch when we played City in the reverse last season.

HBA was good today at least. Looked sharp.

Got to be injured surely. Haven't seen much of Bayern's pre-season but I thought he was class in the Super Cup.

Think I've just about settled on this team for the opening day. Midfield could probably be better but am reasonably happy all in all. Mignolet, Harper Yanga-Mbiwa, Azpilicueta, Zabaleta, Collins, Bennett Silva, Paulinho, Hazard, Bellamy, Marveaux Sturridge, Aguero, Soldado Aimed to get in 3 City players as they have an easy set of opening fixtures but am not sure how often Navas, Jovetic etc will feature so stuck to the tried and tested.

Isn't De Bruyne back from loan as well?

Wouldn't be a terrible shout at £5 million providing his wages are reasonable. Downing's certainly more proven than Sinclair at least, who imo is still riding off the back of only one half-decent debut for Swansea.

Well in Besty.

Gomis would be a sound bit of business at £4 million.

If the question over Wonga is a moral one rather than a religious one, then why is Cisse still the only member of the playing squad to object to wearing the shirt? Unless I've totally missed the point here, surely every NUFC player, Muslim or not, has a right to protest against advertising payday loan companies on the grounds that it can be seen to be exploitative rather than sacrilegious, and yet Cisse is out on his tod. Either Papiss is some sort of selfless humanitarian or he is simply using this whole debacle to further his own interests.

The thing I don't understand is why the other Muslims in our squad - Tiote and Ben Arfa - haven't kicked up the same amount of fuss if money lending at a rate of interest represents such a fundamental breach of Sharia law. http://www.mirror.co.uk/incoming/newcastle-cheick-tiote-willing-wear-2007779 To me, it seems as if Cisse wants out and is just using this whole situation as a sort of moral smokescreen to protect himself. I'm not the biggest fan of the current regime or Wonga by any stretch but I think Cisse has to be viewed as the primary cause of all the disruption in this instance.

Sorry if this has been posted already but was quite an interesting read. http://www.eplindex.com/35034/central-midfield-combination-newcastle-united.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kebabs

£15 million is a ridiculous price.

Shaun Maloney has always been Wigan's stand-out player whenever I've seen them play.

I thought they were awful, there for the taking today.

I dunno, we definitely seemed more up for it in the first half and, despite being utterly toothless for the last period of the game, we were definitely playing with a bit more rigor than we have in previous weeks. The almost desperate way in which we piled men forward at the end makes me think Pardew might well be under the cosh. Fingers crossed that's the case at least. Either that or the team was under pressure to finish as highly as possible.

I was expecting a Sunderland win before the game so it's a good result for us imo. Another fairly big player out for the rest of their run-in as well. If Southampton can take a point at the weekend (not exactly improbable - they're playing well at the moment) then that would leave them on 39 points, with playing Spurs at WHL on the last day. A win at QPR is absolutely essential but I think 41 points will be enough. If the race for fourth is done and dusted before the 19th then a point against Arsenal maybe isn't totally out of the question either.