Ketsbaia

Leon Best http://www.thegrio.com/assets_c/2009/07/Drake2-thumb-400xauto-3548.jpg Drake http://www.nufcblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/best2.jpg

So who would you drop for Ben Arfa? for the short term, im not sure. imo ben arfa has to play because he is on another level to the others, but nolan still has an important role to play. routledge consistently plays well, barton makes us tick, jonas and jose are wonderful and tiote destroys. i'm excited to see how hughton does it though. in conclusion, i'd sometimes drop nolan, sometimes jonas.

the most important players aren't always the best ones. for all nolan's weaknesses, he has a knack of scoring goals, which justifies his selection. its delicate because nolan is the figurehead of the team spirit that transformed this club and, although its dangerous to let off-pitch popularity affect the teamsheet, nolan is just useful enough to keep around the first team, at least in rotation. the difficulty for hughton is to judge at what point selecting nolan turns into loyalty, rather than quality (because lets face it, ben arfa is much better than him). this is where hughton earns his money.

Jack Wilshere was arrested this morning and then bailed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1307221/Arsenals-Jack-Wilshere-arrested-released-bail-early-Sunday-morning.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

This 2nd half has been crazy.

Harper Perch Williamson Coloccini Enrique Routledge Barton Nolan Jonas Ben Arfa Carroll Bench: Krul, Campbell, R Taylor, Tiote, Smith, Ameobi, Lovenkrands ....as it stands. obviously if keane comes in i'd put him instead of ameobi/lovenkrands. 2 weeks is aaaaaaages away!

Maybe he's reading the forum. Hughton is Dave.

class save by howard. he floated in the air! EDIT: then a fantastic save by friedel

to be fair it was a good win for them. shows that man city are still miles away from being title contenders. dunno why they need asamoah gyan when they already have a penalty taker though!!

Squad too big? Are you serious? The idea of having actual competition and a subs bench with quality on clearly alien to some. It's not happened here for ages so maybe fair enough. Nobody outside the top 8 teams will have such competition. If Smith and Xisco go, and we loan out Vuckic and/or Ranger, then fair enough. I just don't see it happening though.

Its massive man, especially in midfield and up front. CM we have Barton, Ben Arfa, Nolan, Guthrie, Smith, Tiote, Gosling, Vuckic (8) and with Keane there'll be Carroll, Keane, Best, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Xisco, Ranger (7)

Gosling must wonder what he was doing. He'll be well down the pecking order when he recovers.....the squad will just be too big if Keane comes in.

Be hilarious if he goes there. Fulham are so lucky though because he's far too good for them.

Should be introduced from the bench against Blackpool, just so he gets an ovation when he runs on!

If anything happens to Delap, they're in deep trouble

that Trezeguet transfer is mad. From Juventus to Hercules!!!! the wife is from Alicante, apparantly.

to be honest i'm ecstatic just as it is. we can afford to let smith go though, as we're stocked well in midfield. maybe let vuckic and ranger go on loan, especially if a striker does arrive. and obviously saylor would need to be replaced if needs be. great work

Last game of the pre-Ben Arfa era. Excited for the future!

FT. Thats alright, that is. Dirty, brutal animals tbh.

ranger score there? server madness.

soccer saturday. while jeff is away sorting his mic out, the 4 pundits are holding the ship haha!

blackpool and wigan. can't believe it!

just a comment on how blackpool aren't just bad, they're extra bad (at least on paper).

yeah, teams like west brom!! but blackpool....

blackpool are ridiculous, man. look at their squad!!!!! this doesn't add up