Krul 7 - did everything that could have been expected of him in the game, good on crosses and recovered from his rick where he spilled the ball adequately. Can't have been easy for him coming back in for the derby but it was like he'd never been away.
Simpson 7.5 - best game in our shirt so far, and I can't stand him as a player. He was economical with the ball, managed to limit the number of hoofs (even with ten men!) and was tight to his man, stopping the cross fairly consistently.
Coloccini 9 - our man of the match, an absolutely superhuman effort from our captain. It was like he'd never been away, he has such fantastic footballing ability and awareness and it showed today. Superb.
Williamson 7 - would have been given a higher mark had he not been beaten by O'Shea for the equaliser. Prior to that he stood up to everything the mackems were throwing at him and I particularly liked his piece of 'professional' defending that earned him a booking.
Santon 7 - didn't get forward as much as he has been doing lately but still a useful showing. He seemed to communicate better with the other members of the back four better than he usually does today and I think that helped him.
Ben Arfa 6.5 - a few fantastic bursts with the ball, particularly in the first half, and an excellent bit of play laying the ball onto Shola for the build-up to the goal. He seemed to tire a bit and fade as the game went on but we shouldn't have taken him off, particularly when anything we were gonna get was on the counter.
Cabaye 7.5 - best performance of the season so far and looked back to somewhere approaching his proper self. Class finish early doors and was an absolute terrier in midfield, covered so much ground and grafted like fuck. Short passing seemed to improve too.
Tiote n/a - was doing fine until his moment of stupidity. You can't give a cunt like Martin Atkinson any reason to send you off and sadly Tiote lost it for a split second and that's precisely what happened. Frustrating that he goes out of the team, again.
Gutierrez 5 - fairly solid for parts of the game but absolutely minging with the ball, he looked tired and weak when he had it today. He's normally prevalent in big/away games as a stand-out performer but he was the opposite today.
Shola 6 - did well to get a shot on target prior to Cabaye's goal and was doing some good work before he had to be sacrificed. Two words - nuisance value. I felt sorry for him when he went off.
Ba 7 - superhuman effort grafting away all afternoon on his own, utterly thankless task and he handled it manfully. He really needed taking off after 75-80 minutes though, he was absolutely spent and it really showed. Really didn't deserve to register an o.g., just hope it doesn't knock his confidence.
Perch 6.5 - slotted in fine and made a few excellent blockbuster tackles. He's a very reliable player to bring off the bench and shove into the midfield battle, because he acquits himself well every time and gets stuck right in for the team.
Taylor n/a - seemed to win a few headers but I think we missed Colo's leadership for those final minutes. Not his fault though ofc.
Obertan n/a - pointless sub and I can't even remember him having a touch. Not the sort you want playing in the derby, you need guts and he has absolutely none at all.
The ref: was shit and gave the mackems pretty much all the small, niggly decisions all afternoon long. Then again, we know that he's a fucking biased cunt. He couldn't have flashed that red card any faster, and Larsson not getting booked after so many bad challenges is an absolute mystery. The linesmen weren't as bad, however, they were areet I thought.
A word on 'Sess' too - absolutely shit and 'HAULED OFF!!!1!' by O'Ziff after 60-odd minutes. He was absolutely invisible and I can't wait to see the mackems claim that he's better than Ben Arfa again because today proved that he's vastly inferior as a player. We all saw what Ben Arfa did last season at home against ten men in the derby - Sessegnon barely had a kick. He's crap.
Overall - we didn't lose which is very important and it's a decent point (although a bit disappointing after leading for so long) to take from this sort of fixture. We should annihilate the horrible bastards in April, they looked such a piss poor side. For Bent, read Fletcher - one man team.
