Neil

Balls. Forgot to take Zamora out or make Malouda my captain.

I agree on both counts, but that's the line-up I'm expecting. It's a perfect chance to start Bily tbh. Perhaps Yak won't start, no. I'd like to see him given an hour or so though. I think he could give the Newcastle backline a torrid time. Could, anyway. Fellaini and Arteta in centre midfield ideally.

He's completely gone off his considerably sized mantits.

Keef man, it's a Saturday. No need for the bait.

Got to say, surprised we're at 8/13 for the win. Good value... There, I've jinxed it.

Cahill = unlikely to play. Therefore I'm expecting: ----------------------Howard--------------------------- Hibbert--------Jags------------Distin---------Baines Osman------Mikel------------Heitinga---------Pienaar ------------------------Fellaini-------------------------- ------------------------Yak------------------------------

I'm downgrading my prediction to 2-1. We'll ship our token goal and I can see us going 2-0 up, cruising, but not pressing home our advantage sufficiently. I also refuse to believe you winning can happen because regarding that actually happening, I unfortunately made a rash claim involving myself, running down my road, and nudity. Hmm.

I can't think of an accurate word to describe Bergkamp. It was a pleasure to watch him play at Arsenal.

As I said, Hibbert isn't actually that bad defensively. It's just he'll probably cause you about zero threat from that flank offensively. Personally I'd play Coleman there anyway.

So after winning a bet I'm obviously now qualified to say what isn't and isn't good value. But seriously, looking ahead to the weekend, Barnsley have won 3/3 at home, up against Derby who have been mediocre/shit: Barnsley are 11/10!

So you should be Tom, because... 15/09/2010 15:00:03 Chelsea @ 1/3 Arsenal @ 1/3 Bayern Munich @ 4/6 Trebles, 1 bet * £14.00 14.00 41.49 15/09/2010 14:59:32 Arsenal (-1) @ 20/21 Chelsea (-1) @ 21/20 Doubles, 1 bet * £9.00 9.00 36.03 ...even I won. First bet for a while not posted on here beforehand and for the first time in a while, I win. This place is cursed. Not surprised to see a few people winning tonight. Bar Marseille, all predictable results pretty much. In fact, Marseille let me down for what would have been another £60 or so but I'm just glad to finally get a win under my belt!

Leon Osman's older than Kevin Nolan!?

Sums it up like.

Fuck's sake do people actually think my name is Niel? Argh. Hate it! Forgotten which arse changed it. Anyway, sorry everyone because you can guarantee Arsenal aren't winning by more than 1 tonight.

I've got the POWER! To ruin it all.

There's something about Bayern-Roma I'm not keen on. It should point to a Bayern win but although Roma have had a bad start, Bayern have hardly been great so far either. If I had that sort of money to bet, I'd go very big on Arsenal and Chelsea.

Agreed, Apisith, but there is also the element of defenders knowing this and going down easily, and the referees buying it. To me, it's similar to the situation of goalies coming out and instantly getting a free kick in their favour if absolutely anyone as much as brushes them. It's absolutely infuriating.

should be a good contest, that! A titanic tussle of mediocrity.

I agree but it really is a case of where do you fit him in when Shearer and Henry existed? Absolutely loved watching Bergkamp like.

Ok, this has probably been done before, but what the hell? What is your all-time Premier League XI? Do it as 11 best players in their positions or what you'd perceive to be the best "team", whatever you want. It's designed to spark a bit of debate and that. It stems from a lad at work (yes, a Man Utd "fan") saying he'd put Vidic in his PL XI and me being disbelieving. My initial thoughts were something like: Schmeichel Neville Hibbert Adams Bruce Cole Beckham Scholes Vieira Giggs Shearer Henry What do you think?

Common denominator: beloved United.

Arsenal -1 tomorrow? They've been handed yet another easy CL group and I expect them to put in a few at home against Braga.

Feel free to correct me, but whenever I've watched him he's looked decent enough on the wing against poor defenders and that's about it. His final delivery is more often than not wasteful and I see no obvious passing ability that would merit him being in the centre of midfield. I can see why people would like him because he does seem to put in a shift but I don't see any particularly outstanding offensive attributes. Make of this what you will but I'd have no problem with Hibbert being against him on Saturday.

I've got my fingers crossed for this.

Arteta doesn't play on the right. And although Hibbert is an easy target, defensively he's relatively solid actually. It's just getting forward he shows he has such little talent. Just depends if it's one of those days. If so we'll dominate yet again and then draw 1-1. If we however attain a two-goal lead with more than half an hour to go, I can see it being 3 or 4* *now that Geremi won't be given the freedom of Liverpool.