The Prophet

Was absolute quality at Wolfsburg, why was he thrown out?

I agree with Petrovic to an extent, but then it's a completely subjective matter depending on the individual’s footballing ideals and excitement. Sunderland/Everton provided a personal example of what I deem to be a decent Premier League football match: low on quality compensated by a decent tempo, goal mouth action and the fact the game was balanced on a knife edge. I don't associate the our top tier with great football, you only have to look down the division to find sides that are heavily reliant on game plans, set pieces and stifling the opposition. To an outsider looking in I can see why that may seem a bit dull. However growing up as a Newcastle fan I've learned to love the style of football in this league, it's difficult not to when it's the brand of football you grow up with. There are much better leagues in terms of footballing quality, you only have to look at La Liga where even sides trailing at the bottom play some fairly decent stuff. You'll be hard pushed to find a side reliant parking the bus, perhaps the only vague example springing to mind is the Osasuna side of a couple of years back and even then they were much better to watch than Stoke or Blackburn. Even so every league has problems which seem to common place. There is a dominant pack at the top of most leagues with perhaps the current exception of the Bundesliga. The bigger teams have the bigger revenue and therefore can buy/bring through the better quality it's the way of the world. Debt is another issue, again with the exception of the Bundesliga most football clubs and divisions as a whole are suffering from different degrees of debt as a consequences attendances are declining which is particularly evident in Italy where sides now have to rely on TV revenue as their most significant income. I can't speak for other countries on this but perhaps the thing that annoys me most about the Premier League is how far it is up its own arse. You have Sky declaring it 'the best league in the world' every other week while there's media hysteria if any of our sides fail to reach a European semi-final. I still enjoy the English brand of football but at the same time its not everyone's cup of tea and it's pretty evident the standard of football isn't great. Like I say though, its completely subjective on what you deem to be a decent league and a poor league. Our top tier isn't perfect but I still find enjoyment in watching it.

What's with the Port Vale love in?

Although Smith is especially bad we were still going to have problems no matter what midfield combo we went with. Stick Smith, Guthrie or Nolan in the middle as a pair and your going to have problems containing the opposition. Perhaps playing all three with two wide men may have helped in terms of numerical advantage but the defence are always going to be exposed due to the lack of defensive ability/fitness between them. Smith is just an all round poor football, Guthrie's fitness is simply awful and Nolan seem to need a competent defensive midfielder along side him to play his most effective stuff. To that extent Hughton had his hand tied, but playing all three of them in a 4-4-2 was a beating waiting to happen. These factors were undoutedly made to look worse by a bang in form Premier League outfit but the ponit still stands, without Tiote in the middle of the park we're in big trouble.

Exactement.

I'm not sure where all the Taylor love is coming from. He's alright when he has an experienced partner next to him so it may be a blessing having Sol next to him for a couple of weeks however his overall game is still somewhat unconvincing. He doesn't seem to have progressed as hoped in the last couple of years and makes the same rash, reckless decisions that hinderd his game when he first broke into the fist team. Don't get me wrong we could do a lot worse but if it came down to a choice between Sol/Williamson/Taylor to partner Colo I'd pick the former pair every day of the week. Hopefully some time on the sidelines has seen the lad improve his temperament but the jury is still very much out on that.

I've seen it again and I don't think Williamson can have any complaints really. If the FA were to set a precedent and introduce some consistency they'd now have to sweep every game looking for bannable offences. We all know they only do it when it suits them though, take Huddlestone's stamp for example.

Our fans were singing that at West Ham. And in the derby game as well. It's the young fans that do it, pathetic song tbh. Fair play. Hate the chant though, that and 'easy, easy, easy.'

Sunderland fans really are the epitome of childish soccer AM fans: 'Who are ya? Who are ya? Who are ya?' Christ.

FYP

Bar Billy that can't be far off your strongest eleven.

That's now three players who've needlessly lashed out leaving the squad weakened for three games, it's completely unacceptable. The squad is paper thin as it is without pety score settling in the form of violent conduct. It can hardly be called a trend but indiscipline is creeping in and it has to stop. The three may claim to have been caught up in the heat of the moment but they need to learn to restrain themselves. All we can hope is there is some form of internal discipline proceedure in place to deter it from happening again. We're now heading into three difficult matches without our first choice centre backs pairing and for what? Not being professional enough to see through the red mist? We've got a tough enough season ahead without our own players shooting us in the foot.

Bollocks.

Colo and Barton should of both been diciplined internally. I realise this is coming from someone who wasn't caught up in the heat of the moment but at the same time it was completely unecessary and puts in a position of having two fit senior centre backs. We've already had our woeful squad depth exposed once this season without the need of risking it again.

I'm not sure what's funnier, the fact their world revolves around ours or their attempts to make out it doesn't.

'A pragmatic performance.' Aye righto.

Silva------De Jong------Toure------Johnson ----------Adebayor----------Tevez----------- Is surely how the midfield/strikeforce should line up?

The return of Tiote is huge, we just need to hope Hughton finally sees sense and plays Routledge down the right. Two natural wingers with Shola and Carroll up top and we'll cause them problems.

Get a grip man.

'Strikers challange'

We really have to be looking to capitalise on Chelsea's weakened line up, they've shown they struggle without Lampard and Essien. If we're at it from the off ala Villa/Sunderland I see no reason why we can't turn them over. Regardless of the result we need a performance after this afternoon though.

except always look a decent standrad premier centre half, something the jury is still out on with williamson. Is it? Williamson looks like a steady Premier League centre half to me. Certianly has more composure than Taylor.

Today showed why Tiote and Carroll have to be the first two names on the team sheet.