The Prophet

Obertan gives the ball away near enough ever time he gets it. He's been piss poor in the attacking third.

Montage-tastic.

Arsenal's midfield and forward line is far better than ours, when fully fit of course.

Chelsea Blackburn-Spurs over 2.5 goals Leverkusen-Schalke over 2.5 goals Udinese PSG

That's why we're here, Proph'. We're all friends, here to support you. Man U, Everton, Rangers and Arsenal for a fiver would get you over 90 quid, bud. Wouldn't touch Everton with a shitty stick like, they have a woeful record at Fulham.

I really need to take a break today but I can't help myself. Think I've got a problem.

Yep, could quite easily see it being 0-0.

Chelsea aside their start to the season hasn't exactly been outragously difficult. It's only an 'easy' start if you make it one, we've fully taken our oppertunity.

Not sure why people are pointing the finger at Fabregas rather than Kanoute, shocking behaviour.

Yep, conducted himself like a right tit. Knew Vargas would save it though, the lad had a cracking game.

He improved today after two or three poor performances.

While Cabaye sometimes goes missing as an attacking threat you can't knock his effort and defensive graft. He's only really had the one all action performance against Villa, it isn't really his game.

Messi misses a penalty, collectors item. Vargas has been brilliant.

I wouldn't boo the lad because it's pathetic. He's clearly trying, but thus far he hasn't been good enough.

Looks to be an abhorrent footballer. At first I thought it was just a confidence thing, but even after a run of games there's been no improvement. Defensively he's alright. He tracks back every now and then, but he rarely puts a foot in. There are times when he should be challanging for the ball and he simply lets the opposition drift past him, not good enough. That's before you shine a light on his woeful attacking play: he gives the ball away too much, he oesn't release the ball early enough, he rarely beats his man and his final ball is woeful. There's absolutely no reason he should still be in the starting eleven.

A good team yes, a strong squad no. It'll be interesting to see how we cope during the ACN.

The thing is when you go with two forwards like Ba and Best your wingers are so so important, they provide the service they thrive off. It's fairly one dimensional, so when one of your wingers isn't having his greatest outing and his team mate on the opposite of the pitch is a piss poor player you're going to be fairly ineffective in the final third. However Ben Arfa and Marveaux provide a different kind of threat. Intelligance, vision, passing range. All of a sudden the threat is different, it could come from a through ball or a shot from range while the cross still remains a threat. Bringing the pair of them just gave us that little bit more cutting edge and it showed.

Krul 7 - Great save in the opening exchanges, did everything asked of him. Needs to cut the aimless long balls out. Simpson 6 - Solid. Taylor 7 - Committed display. Colo 8 - Class. Taylor 5 - Alright overall but given the run around by Moses at times. Obertan 4 - Looks to be an abhorrent footballer, gave the ball away almost everytime he got it, his crossing was piss poor too. Cabaye 7 - Not as influential as he should of been in the final third but put in a good shift and grabbed the match winner. Tiote 7 - A bit sloppy in possession but did a canny job overall. Jonas 6 - Not his greatest day at the office but effective in spells. Best 5 - Battled hard but looked toothless. Should of burried his chance at the end of the first half. Ba 5 - See Best but should of taken his own chancce in the second half Ben Arfa 6 - Added a new dimension but looked to be trying too hard again. His dribbling and vision was there for all to see but he needlessly surrendered possession on a couple of occasions attempting to be too clever. Shola 5 - Some decent hold up play but didn't look particularly threatening. Marveaux 7 - Looked twice the player Obertan is. Great control and intelligance on the ball. Pardew 6 -Thought he got the starting line up wrong again, missed a greater oppertunity to get Santon and Marveaux in the side. We looked flat until his changes, so while he gets credit for making them you've got to ask why we were so methodical in the first place.

Speculative bet of the week: Mancs - 1 Marseille DNB Porto - 1 Milan - 1 Stoke

They still think they can lure Moyes.

Aye, but in an good defensive shift today.

The lad clearly oozes class but there's no doubt he's rusty. Almost tried to do too much at times and as a result got caught in possession a couple of times. Can't wait until he's back to his best though.

Jonas's celebration for the second. Class.

The only positive I can remember from Obertan's game was a bit of tracking back he did towards the end. He's lazy, if there's a player near by there's not chance he'll track him, bottles any form of 5-50 challange too. Offensively he's frustrating. He squares his man up then neither takes him on nor crosses it in and on the rare occasion he does knock a ball in it tends to be piss poor. At first I thought it was just a confidence issue but now I'm beginning to think it's more than that. Hope I'm wrong but he looks to be a very average player.