Neil

yeh but dey got dat kwl thing dey do wen dhey skaw

Barca vs. Zaragoza at 7: it'll be interesting to see how Barca line up and if they rest a few for Tuesday. Atletico vs. Villarreal at 9: potential of a or 2.

Thought he did alright today.

Class on FIFA.

Harper - 7.5 - kept you in the game Enrique - 6 - did OK, unlucky with the injury Williamson - 6 - alright Colo - 6 - same. Neither were hugely convincing, though. Taylor - 4.5 - presented our best 2 players with the space to run the show Simpson - 6 - alright Tiote - 6.5 - did his best to get attacks going and was relatively solid, but not as good as I've seen him in other games Nolan - 6 - for whatever reason, he was too deep a lot of the time. Quiet. Jonas - 7.5 - although the incompetence of Hibbert made him look brilliant, he did very well today IMO and caused us danger on a number of occasions Lovenkrands - 4 - I think he played, anyway. Best - 7 - handful, deserved a goal. He's not amazing but gave our defence plenty to think about for the most part. Shola - 6.5 - did quite well, held the ball up decently enough and kept some sort of pressure up. Ferguson - 6 - decent showing for the time you gave him, you should play this guy more. Kuqi - N/A Overall, a fair result IMO and ultimately it hinged on you giving us far too much space. I was very surprised how many times Arteta could pick up the ball and run for 30 yards before anyone decided to go to him. He's had a poor season so far but give him that sort of room and he has the ability to run matches. Baines, similarly, was given too much time and it was almost inevitable that at least a goal - and as it turned out both of them - would be set up by his left foot. In the 2nd half, we did our usual trick of sitting deeper and deeper. How on earth we managed to mess up countless 3 v 3 / 4 v 4 situations I don't know, and it was quite worrying how un-clinical we looked. From your POV, you huffed and puffed and caused plenty of panic in our defence but I felt you lacked a bit of guile and attacking composure - something the imminent introductions of Barton, Ireland and HBA will surely aid. I highly doubt you'll get sucked into any serious relegation trouble. You just need your best players, when fit, to do the business and you should be looking at a top 10 finish, which whatever way you look at it would represent a superb first season back in the top flight.

You're definitely going down, apparently.

4 out of 14.

I don't think you were "pathetic" or "awful" today at all. You had us pegged back for decent periods of the 2nd half and with a little bit of guile, i.e. Barton, it could so easily have been a different story. Equally, I'm bamboozled as to how we didn't get more than 2, we impressively managed the feat of having 4 or 5 goalscoring situations in 10 minutes and not looking like we were going to score in any of them. I can understand why some would be frustrated on here with the tactics, yes, but I would certainly not call your performance "pathetic".

That sounds like a truly boring double-header tbh.

What happened in the Arsenal match? Is the Mackem's luck-o-meter back to the regular standing of "maximum"?

A highly confusing chant of "Leon!" there.

Please just take Hibbert off, David.

You what? There are more goals in this. It's not like we've been solid, we've panicked whenever the ball's come near our goal. I think it's a fair scoreline overall so far but I definitely don't think it's the end of the scoring. As I've said countless times, when we have space (or should I say presented with space) we're a pretty good side and that's been true for decent parts of that half. Equally, get into us more and shut us down and you can easily get something from this. I did think we were very in control after we scored. It didn't last for a very long time, admittedly! But we did look comfortable. Oh, the 10 minutes or so after you scored, you were all over us. But I think generally we've merited a lead - not that that means much, of course. The first 2 goals came when the other side were on top, but that 2nd goal for us seemed to knock the stuffing out of you and I think you needed half time more than us.

You what? There are more goals in this. It's not like we've been solid, we've panicked whenever the ball's come near our goal. I think it's a fair scoreline overall so far but I definitely don't think it's the end of the scoring. As I've said countless times, when we have space (or should I say presented with space) we're a pretty good side and that's been true for decent parts of that half. Equally, get into us more and shut us down and you can easily get something from this.

I've always rated Osman.

Good thing you're playing a side that defines the opposite of clinical.

The last time I claimed Hibbert was solid defensively was West Ham away. I'll keep schtum.

What a week coming up for Arsenal.

Wouldn't have mattered, Heitinga's on the bench. Even from the bench he'll still probably be closer to closing him down than his was at Goodison Great strike no doubt, but I'm still confused to this day as to what Heitinga was attempting. It was though he decided that on average, more people are right-footed than left, so took a chance he wouldn't be able to do anything by going left.

Wouldn't have mattered, Heitinga's on the bench.

I don't. Really? The way this season's gone I'm not ruling it out. Also, the very fact I laughed off the suggestion automatically makes it 25% more likely.

A riot would be preferable because I'm fearing a bore draw.

I don't.

At least Anichebe's able to come on and knack Nolan.

Deary me Birmingham. I thought they'd stay up because they were solid at home; having second thoughts now.