Pilko

Hi, Arsene.

Not really. Ryan Taylor did alright. He wasn't amazing but he did his basic jobs way better than Simpson, who was awful.

Need to make a new one.

Absolutely fucking pathetic today. Ryan Taylor outshone him on his wrong flank.

Very good to see someone attempt to injure Lovenkrands during the celebrations too. Shame they couldn't have got a better hit in; he'd have been off ten minutes earlier.

Arsene's going for a drink with Steve Bruce later. Kindred spirits.

arseven wenger

Arsenal really look like they're lacking a positionless attacking midfielder.

He was quite poor in the first half - won some headers but was offside an awful lot. He came to life in the second half, was a lot more considered with his runs and touches and produced a pair of goals. Well done.

wp sir

Picking Lovenkrands was stupid but thankfully he replaced him before long. With Shola and Ben Arfa unavailable and Ba fasting, I'd like to think he wouldn't have normally. Vuckic probably should have started, like. Smith only came on as we didn't have any other central midfield options, I think.

Krul 8 - some superb saves. Looks the part, very confident and composed. Simpson 4 - fucking shite, so many loose touches out of play and complete lack of awareness. Twice he conceded a corner when a simple glance to the right would have allowed him to just let the ball roll out. Positioning is terrible. S.Taylor 7 - pretty good. Thought it may have been him who lost Dempsey, not so sure though as I was at the other end of the ground. Coloccini 8 - standard class performance R.Taylor 7 - not bad, much more impressive than Simpson. Special mention to his little flicked backheel in the Gallowgate/Milburn corner that absolutely merked that little cunt Duff. Obertan 6.5 - started off anonymous but grew into the game and made some good runs. Needs to take on his man more. Lovely pass to Ba in the build-up to our second goal. Showed a good work rate and covered Simpson's crapness often. Cabaye 7 - a useful display, battled well and made some nice passes, although did make a few dodgy ones. Wasn't helped by the complete lack of touch from Tiote or Simpson on quite a few occasions. Tiote 6 - got better as the game went on and did alright, but still absolutely nowhere near the standard he set himself last season. Referee didn't seem to favour him one bit. First twenty minutes or so he was terrible. Gutierrez 6 - not sure whether he deserves a higher/lower mark but he was a bit of a mixed bag. Usual high work rate and winning of free-kicks. Best 8 - two goals were well taken, had a stinker in the first half (offside count was about 5 or 6) but got better. Won a lot of headers and held the ball well considering Hangeland was marking him. Lovenkrands 4 - full of shit. Contributed absolutely nowt, would be genuinely surprised if he had ten touches in the hour he played. Work rate was good but that's all I can say positive. Subs: Ba 7 - lively and set up Best's second goal. Hit the woodwork in stoppage time. Vuckic 6 - ran around a lot, seemed to hurt his finger or something and went off again Smith n/a - came on for Vuckic, didn't do a lot wrong but we conceded nearly immediately after he was introduced ----- Few words - firstly the warm up was really unconvincing. Loose passing, over-hit balls, and Sammy missed about 10 shots in a row before finally putting one in. The referee was giving Fulham a lot of soft free-kicks and allowed one of their players to throw the ball away without a booking. He was a bit of a cunt, would rate him at about 5/10. Linesmen were a bit better than of late.

New rule: the only players who are allowed to instigate a conversation with the referee are the captains. Punishment = immediate yellow card. Problem stops within a month. Grey area, though, what's deemed 'instigating a conversation'? A player might instictively say "ah, come on ref" or "I never touched him" or whatever and that's a booking? That's too excessive imo. I agree that the crowding round refs needs to stop etc, and that the only players involved should be the player the ref wishes to speak to and the captain - but a rule like that would stomp the life out of a game. You should be allowed to appeal for a decision respectfully - often if you don't ask, you don't get.

Where does he say that?

Krul Simpson Happy Taylor Coloccini Sad Taylor Obertan Tiote Cabaye Gutierrez Vuckic Ba Subs: Soderberg, Perch, Sammy Ameobi, Ferguson, Gosling, Best, Marveaux

Hardly an 'exclusive', either. Typical Anal Oliver shite.

That's El Hadji Diouf, isn't it?

Bruce isn't learning from his errors. Point in case: struggling for goals at the start of last season, relying hugely on Darren Bent - £13m Gyan sat on the bench for about 6 or 7 weeks in the league, Bruce refusing to start him because 'he isn't ready'. This season. Struggling for goals again - persists with hugely out of form Gyan, with big money Wickham and that Ji lad both sat on the bench because neither 'are ready yet'.

Yeah, I agree. Souness rightly takes a hammering for being a shit manager, but the guy is an outstanding pundit - because he's not scared to offer a controversial opinion. I'm not saying that he always goes against the grain for the sake of it, because he doesn't, but when he thinks something he says it, and that's what you want really. Match of the Day's lot don't offer that. I also wish Lineker had more to do than read stats and make shitty wisecracks - he's wasted in the current role. Sky generally have better teams of pundits all round imo. Apart from Nasser, who always was a miserable boring wanker, they have always had a good cricket punditry team too. Much prefer coverage of the darts on Sky too. BBC's coverage is pretty wank these days, of nearly everything sporting (certainly that I watch, anyway). As I type this, that boring dullard Manish and everyone's favourite day-tripping cunt Clem have just popped up on Ridiculously Late Goals show to completely prove my point about the Beeb. Even ITV's coverage of the lower leagues was better; Matt Smith at one ground with one camera doing the links between matches. None of this stupid half-arsed analysis and no mentally oversized hangar to present it from, and especially no texts and fucking emails. Was even worth getting up Sunday morning and watching adverts - I preferred it to this waste of time on now.

Lee Dixon is a hugely boring cunt. By far my least favourite of the MoTD punditry pool; Shearer is merely boring and a bit dim. Unless they do the unthinkable and bring some new blood in, it should be Hansen and Lawro every week. Lawro is irritating as fuck when he's co-commentating (nearly as bad as Mark 'Poor' Bright), but I quite like him as a studio pundit. Matty Holland would be a good addition imo, he's been interesting every time I've seen him. I'd say the same for Robbie Savage, who's class, but sadly he can barely string a coherent sentence together.

Brucey did it again today btw. Brings on big lad up top (C.Wickham), immediately removes best crosser (S.Larsson) and brings on player with notoriously bad end product (Elmohammady).

the phrase "didn't get enough purchase"

Can't wait to see Brewcie huff and puff his way through another winless interview.

Even more impressive if he managed to do it in the stated order.