themanupstairs

I'm as equally inclined to say that Cisse's baron spell cannot go on as i am to say that Remy's purple patch can't. Ramsay and Giroud have 55% of Arsenal's goals. Remy and Gouffran have 63% of our goals. Soldado and Sigurdson have 64% of Spurs' goals Rooney & Van Persie have 68 % of Man U's Sturridge and Suarez have 72% of Liverpool's. Having an in form goal scorer or two is vital to the majority of teams that want to be doing well. You are absolutely right of course. Having said that, if you watch all the above goals scored between all the above players you will notice a glaring difference in the way they were scored. We create nowhere near as many clear cut chances as the above pairings get (barring Soldado & Sigurdsson). The football we play relies on scraps and moments of individual brilliance in the majority. Naturally, scraps and wonder goals are part of football, but they are not as sustainable as playing in a way that creates more clear-cut chances for your forwards and midfielders to score from. The worry is, if we go through a barren "unlucky" spell, where we get no scraps to feed off, and Sissoko/Cabaye/Remy don't pull rabbits out of hats for a while, what do we do then? Surely there must be a way to score "easier" goals with a more distinct style of play? This is clearly evidenced by Cisse's horrendous lack of form. Yes he's missed one or two sitters, but they come so rarely. A forward lacking in form and confidence needs even more service. We spent bloody 10M on the lad, might as well figure out a way to get that confidence back up again. (Not excluding Cisse from criticism here at all, as I believe he also needs to pull his finger out).

Sorry like, but this is a cracking post. Monkey is spot on as usual. We created almost nothing from open play. We keep the ball well in our half and around midfield, but are absolutely dog s*** hopeless in the final third. This recurring theme cannot continue for long, in addition to relying on a different in-form striker to bail us out every half-term. take your NEGATIVITY elsewhere sir, we don't believe what we see with our eyes in here (when we're winning), we look purely at the league table then close our eyes, put our fingers in our ears and scream NEGATIVITY until the doubters go away that's how you discuss and analyse football good sir, we'll have none of your s*** in here

Sorry like, but this is a cracking post. Monkey is spot on as usual. We created almost nothing from open play. We keep the ball well in our half and around midfield, but are absolutely dog shit hopeless in the final third. This recurring theme cannot continue for long, in addition to relying on a different in-form striker to bail us out every half-term.

73 points by the end of it. Back in the top 60 on N-O which is always a decent indicator.

HTL was the Dave Jones fanboy was he not?

Isn;t Cabaye one yellow away from a suspension as well? Wouldn't mind seeing HBA, Cisse and Anita come in for Ameobi, Gouffran and Cabaye. One of the few occasions this season we need to rotate a bit as we begin the heavy winter schedule.

I reckon HBA will start this ahead of Ameobi reverting back to 433.

Paulinho looking very good today.

Why on earth would the wall jump for a direct free kick that close to the area? Awful defending.

I've only seen it from the other side of the ground but I would have felt it was harsh if we had given away a penalty for that. The only 2 things I was p*ssed off with the ref for was when Remy went down, it looked like a terrible decision. And early on when a West Brom player went down and the ref stopped the game when the ball had already gone out for a throw in and the prick started the game with a drop ball when it should have been our throw in. Don't think it would have been harsh to award a penalty there as Jones' arm was out, despite it being bent at the elbow. As "deliberate" a handball you are likely to see assuming the player doesn't actually think "i'm stopping this with my arm", which apart from Suarez and wor Tayls I haven't seen many do. It would have been a foul for handball outside the box I am sure. Edit: I'd say it would have been harsh had the shot been from point blank range in relation to the defender. It wasn't in this case, as Cabaye had unleashed a goal bound thunderbastard.

Anita. Any known reason? or was he just preparing to come on?

Cracking to get a 4th win on the trot, but I echo the sentiments about being sick to the death of hanging on to dear life. Gouffran MOTM and should be in the running for player of the month tbh, as he has been instrumental in all 4 of our wins. Tiote and Cabaye controlled the midfield well in a duo I also thought. Shola looks a different player, somehow. Loved his leading of the pre-match huddle chat. Also want to know who Sissoko ran to in the dugout after he scored. Looked like Ben Arfa from one of the replays, but not sure.

The commentator seemed to doubt it was worthy of a free kick, same with the second penalty appeal. The second handball is the very definition of penalty imo. Regardless the distance the ball has traveled, the hit on the outstretched arm changed the direction of the ball. Penalty every single day of the week, 100 years ago, and today.

57 pts with Vertonghen, Terry, Lallana, Suarez and the Kun to come.

Yes. Was pretty obvious he'd have a blinder over in Cardiff.

Ryan Babel is still only 26! Kicking around in the Turkish league. Career gone from strength to strength... Reckon he was on about Marcus Babel.

Skippered Aguero who duly saved my bacon. Was regretting it having seen the points Suarez got the previous day, but turned out to be the right decision. Managed to stay with the leading pack in my league.

Football is a game of mistakes. If no one made mistakes, all matches would end in draws.

Yup. Aguero could have and should have at least had a hattrick today.

Sessegnon will score.

This is exactly the point I tried to make earlier. He is far far better than a Gallagher or Lovenkrands. Because he works so hard, people lump him in with limited hard working players. Only lumping him in with them because he was cheap as chips, as they were, and none were expected to shake the earth for us, but ended up making great positive contributions.

This is what is frustrating. We're 8th with Pardew showing in glimpses what we're capable of. A better manager and why couldn't we compete for a top 6 place rather than just top 10? IMO there's nothing between our squad compared to Everton's. If anything, we have better overall individuals in some key areas. No reason why we can't be toe to toe with them all season. edit: the bold bit is a clusterfuck of a sentence. Meant to say that there's not that much difference between our squad and Everton's. blame it on the moonshine.

The french Kevin Gallacher/ Peter Lovenkrands only better. Love his attitude. Not seen anyone play for the team as much as this guy does for a while now. Dat composure to get out of the pickle in the corner

Absolutely. Had this argument with a fellow supporter at full time. He was delighted and full of praise for Pards as if he wasn't watching. Granted the first half was quite good, but fuck me do we make hard work of it. To let a deflated Norwich back into the game the way we did was borderline madness. How about you carry on from where you left off Pards? How about ENTERTAINING THE HOME CROWD for a fucking change eh? How about trying to remedy that goal difference a bit? It's one thing hanging on for dear life having taken a lead against Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs, and it's another doing it at home to a poor Norwich side missing their two best players. Worryingly, my mate's response to me asking why we shouldn't be aiming to put 4 or 5 past a lower half team at home? "Well Pards didn't want to risk injuries to players by going all out for a thrashing". That's how far this shyster's negativity has seeped into the mentality of some fans. Could easily have done a Hull. Although I must say, Cisse did score a perfectly good goal which would have polished the scoreline a bit.

Aren't NBA players wearing t-shirts for some part of the current season? Found that a bit funny.