Pilko

I missed the first ten minutes... how has Gouff been booked if he's on the bench?

can remember a class caption competition in the Chronicle from years ago of Dean Saunders happily relaying something to Souness, where the winning entry was "Good news boss, Craig Moore does exist. He was seen coming out of a chippy in Sunderland"

GW5: Norwich 3-1 Aston Villa Liverpool 1-0 Southampton Newcastle 1-0 Hull City West Brom 1-1 Sunderland West Ham 2-1 Everton Chelsea 2-2 Fulham Arsenal 2-0 Stoke City Crystal Palace 2-1 Swansea Cardiff City 1-3 Tottenham Man City 0-0 Man Utd

Arsenal, Dortmund, Atletico treble Eto'o, Giroud, Neymar, Higuain anytime scorer accumulator

Wasn't it Ivory Coast v Senegal last year anarl? Howay the Ivorians.

Sturridge 1-0 at 28/1

Skybet have given me 66/1 for this. All over it. 91 points from 40 games is possible you'd think? That's a brilliant price. Might email other places and see what they give me.

I'd say he was the pick against West Ham by some way. He and Ben Arfa have absolutely ran the show the last two times out.

what a f***ing awful post baffles me when people, even when trying to take the p*ss or wind people up, can display such f***ing awful patter like. It's just dreadful in every way. you're wrong kidda. He doesn't do anything effective where it counts. He lacks physical strength, he doesn't win the ball. He's not very good. But canny to see people behaving like 5 year olds. Is this a message board for 5 year olds as well as thickos ? He doesn't win the ball? Have you watched the first goal from Saturday? He robs El Ahmadi and gives it to Remy who lays the goal on, you fucking nugget man. And since when was retaining possession and keeping the tempo high of no value? I can't begin to tell you how wrong you are.

what a fucking awful post

He'll still have the odd useful performance, and the very occasional great performance (1 or 2 a season that is), but I don't think he'll ever be a consistently effective force for us anymore. The 7-3 away at Arsenal was the point of no return for me.

The City game is a shit example because Anita came on and was completely anonymous. Tiote was also poor but we had a collective off-day there really. Only Krul and HBA (and Dummett) played even approaching an acceptable level.

The only games I'd want to see him starting in are against the bigger sides when we could probably do with another body in midfield to generally break things up and 'spoil' if you like. As much as I really rate Anita I could see him maybe being bullied out of those sorts of games, when we won't have much possession.

didn't seem like a strong push in real time. as if ben arfa went down easy because he received the slightest touch. when you see it again and again you see there was more in the push than at first sight. It was a push with two hands, surely that should be a penalty when the player is running full tilt with the ball under control in the box? It's not as if it's one of these 50/50 shoulder challenges, he uses both hands to shove him over. No doubt in my mind, poor decision.

I got the same price for that with Betfred, happy days.

Successfully backed the Soton/WHU draw today at 12/5, bringing me another tenner. Been a really successful weekend. Of course, I'm still pushing it, got a Defensor Sporting, Penarol and Tanque Sisley £1 treble which brings in just shy of a fiver.

I don't see a problem with what he's said there, actually. I think what he means is it's one of those times when the commentators always say "Newcastle don't want half time to come!" because we were bossing it, whereas Villa needed it badly, to regroup. That bit of Villa pressure at the start of the second half was always going to come about.

I reckon his lack of height was a positive for the first goal - if that's Sissoko who dumps the Villa player over while trying to nick the goal it's such an obvious free kick.

Peterborough were the same price and they cruised to a 3-0 win at Bristol City. Didn't go for a single but they were the 'value adder' in my accumulator which thankfully came home.

No matter whether we're having a good, average or shit season, we always seem to have at least one awful home result against a promoted side and I think it's most likely to be Hull out of the three that have come up tbh.

Think it'll be a tense, nervy, efficient sort of performance in the same vein as the Fulham win. Think we'll sneak it by the odd goal.

I agree, but today I reckon Vurn was the pick, by a slight margin.

Krul 4 Debuchy 8 Yanga 8 Colo 8 Santon 7 Anita 8 Cabaye 7 Sissoko 7.5 Remy 8 HBA 9.5 Cisse 5 Gouff 8 Tiote 7 Sammy n/a

Nice way to put those two very bad misses in the previous two home games to one side. Great cameo. Would love to see the lad score at SJP.

Would have been my man of the match had it not been for Hatem's near-perfect showing today. There was a brilliant bit of play when he got it near the dugouts and span two players with a class bit of skill and then dissected them with a pass through to Sissoko waiting in the centre circle. He's a very polished, tidy player and his energy and precision really add a lot to our midfield. I love Vurn.