Neil

Went to this game (yeah I know, it was all my fault) and I tell you what, Cabaye felt like your captain. Barely a couple of minutes went along without him talking to everyone, getting them into position. Coloccini to his credit did this as well but Cabaye I thought stood out in that aspect. Having him on the pitch as much as possible is going to be massive for you. He was easily your best player.

He can enjoy a 3rd (maybe 4th) year of being the 2nd best left back in the league. I see Martin Samuel has shat out another article linking someone to a "top club" - this time talking about where Moyes is going to go next. Calling it an "opinion piece" implies a sense of logic and knowledge. A sense of logic and knowledge sorely lacking in most of his articles.

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Rooney points have turned into Van Persie points. 3 bonus points, fuck off. Made doubly worse by the twats who have him as captain every single week regardless of who they're playing.

I'll be your good luck charm today. Ohhh Ameobi, you are the love of my life.... that's how the song goes, right? Right? Oh, right. Personally think, while it's far from ideal, Shola and Cisse in a 4-4-2 - if that happens - could have some potential. The one thing Ameobi seems to be good at is winning it in the air so if Cisse's sharp, it could work. More so than Ba-Cisse. I hope to see Ameobi perform many bicycle kicks, regardless. Edit: basically what Fenham said.

Unlucky, as I'm going for Cisse anytime.

needs work on his passing then. Oh no he doesn't.

Not a chance. That level of money suggests someone you'd build your team around, someone who will lead the way to success. Cazorla, Wilshere, maybe Vermaelen are players Arsenal should build their team around. Not Walcott. Not to say he can't be a very dangerous player, nor that he isn't going to score you goals, but I think he's the archetypal "will play well against poorer opposition" player. Just don't think he's cut out to make his mark regularly against top teams, which is what you'd expect of someone on that sort of wage. Dunno if that's a clichéd observation but that's what has always struck me about him. In that sense it's a big risk giving him that much money as it implies Wenger thinks he will develop into that player. I can't see it, but we'll see. Vermaelen is definitely not worth that amount of money. He's still error prone, liable to lapses in concentration and his on the pitch decision making isn't that great. He shouldn't even be starting for them tbh, Koscielny and Mertesacker are superior defenders. Disagree. He's not a top-class defender and I wasn't implying he should be paid that level of money, hence the "maybe". However he's someone I'd be more willing to see as a key player for them than Walcott. Ultimately Wilshere is Arsenal's future. Build around him. Don't get the hype, if there is any as such, about Koscielny. He was awful when he first came, he has certainly improved but "improved" doesn't mean he's suddenly a very good defender. Vermaelen is better.

Not a chance. That level of money suggests someone you'd build your team around, someone who will lead the way to success. Cazorla, Wilshere, maybe Vermaelen are players Arsenal should build their team around. Not Walcott. Not to say he can't be a very dangerous player, nor that he isn't going to score you goals, but I think he's the archetypal "will play well against poorer opposition" player. Just don't think he's cut out to make his mark regularly against top teams, which is what you'd expect of someone on that sort of wage. Dunno if that's a clichéd observation but that's what has always struck me about him. In that sense it's a big risk giving him that much money as it implies Wenger thinks he will develop into that player. I can't see it, but we'll see.

Nah I'm not having this, you don't know the work I've put in this January window at obtaining a 2nd laptop for maximum research (because for some reason it can't be done on 1 laptop I've now decided). I saw Barnes' January plans of getting as many as TWO mice and I had to react, I put it to you that you're just becoming complacent in this competitive league. Every week's a tough week, but then again proper players don't need research, there's a swirling wind, caused by my increasingly failing fan in this laptop. Exceptional stuff from those two. Deserve to be deducted points for sheer incompetence.

The issue is one of momentum. Of course I don't know the exact goings on at Southampton but if they'd survived this season in, say, 16th, and then decided to go with someone else in the summer, you could see their logic. But the timing of this is just bizarre. The reason I think Adkins is a decent manager is, not just due to his achievements in the past few years, but because he's shown signs of learning in this league. First 8-10 games they were very entertaining but often do their own undoing. They had 4 points after 10 games, yes, scoring a decent amount but conceding fuckloads. But in the past 10 league games H 2-0 H 1-1 A 1-0 H 1-0 H 0-1 A 1-1 A 3-3 H 1-1 A 0-1 A 2-2 The Stoke game aside (some very weird goals in that) and even the Chelsea game, I thought they only really went for it because they had to - showed zero ambition in the first half - I think you can say with some confidence they've shown a more cautious approach in the past couple of months, and it's paying dividends. 14 points in those 10 games, which is top 10 form, let alone just staying up. He's shown he can adapt to the demands of this league and frankly out of the bottom 5/6, they were showing the most signs of staying up. The boat has surely been rocked.

Bizarre. Hopefully their heads will drop and we'll tonk them on Monday. Unlikely, though.

Still got my eyes on the "highest average GW score" award (an award I've made up this minute) but Barnes needs to gtfo.

Similar to mine, mind yours has seemingly gone further. He'll keep track of results and news and watch if it happens to be on but just doesn't have the passion like he did 10 years ago. Still tells me about all the away day stories of the 70s/80s. Shame he doesn't have that level of passion but I think that will hold true for an awful lot of people.

Jose Enrique.

Pfft, everyone seems to have done class. Only 50 for me.

Time for some amateur psychology. The reaction to someone admitting something like this is usually one of "wow, that's a brave decision admitting that" initially. The reality is that when someone admits something like that to make it look as though it was just an individual mistake (note the fact he's trying to cloud the Stoke dive in a haze of "well loads of times I've been fouled and haven't dived"), really the truth is much worse, i.e. that he has dived loads. He has clearly dived on numerous occasions and is hoping that admitting he did it on one occasion will make people see him in a more positive light somehow. Summary: he is a cheating piece of shit.

They don't score much better on point b) either.

Wheyyy cheeky Paul Scholes.

Interesting.

I think it was his son anyway.

pel

Rob Lee's son coming on for West Ham.

Boooooooooooo, get me home to my cous-cous.

Torres floats it out for a goal kick. Disturbingly bad.