Frazzle

What was De Gea's mistake like? What would the reaction be on here if Krul did something similar?

Be no good when then MTV crew turn up and trying to fish his house keys out of a drain.

We had a right footer playing at left back, two lads making debuts, a midfield which had never played together (and was split across three continents in pre-season) and a CB partnership that hasn't played together for an extended period of time for ages. We've still got new signings who haven't played yet, with more likely to come and still have Ben Arfa to come back. But you don't think we'll improve?

15 seconds is the serial killer stare

The price wasn't irrelevant to Liverpool though. Surely they would've rather paid £20m for Carroll and spend the rest of the money elsewhere. Just because the fees were linked does not mean that Liverpool didn't overpay. They didn't have to buy Carroll at all and could've spent £35m on Aguero (just an example) or anyone else. You misunderstand mate, Liverpool weren't getting £50m whatever Carrols price, they told Chelsea it would be Carrolls price + £15m for Torres. £35m+£15M = £50m, if we had accepted say £25m for Carroll, then Chelsea would have paid £40m for Torres. I understand that but if Chelsea were willing to pay £50m on Torres then they were willing to pay it regardless of where the money went. Liverpool got £50m to spend on whoever they liked, they chose to spend £35m of it on Carroll. It could've been spent more wisely IMO.

The price wasn't irrelevant to Liverpool though. Surely they would've rather paid £20m for Carroll and spend the rest of the money elsewhere. Just because the fees were linked does not mean that Liverpool didn't overpay. They didn't have to buy Carroll at all and could've spent £35m on Aguero (just an example) or anyone else.

I don't think we would've got £35m for Carroll if we hadn't sold him at the last minute, Liverpool panicked. We ended up without a replacement but Liverpool probably ended up paying £10m more than they wanted to. Obviously doesn't help us a great deal unless the money is invested wisely but we did benefit somewhat from the timing of the deal.

7 tackles and no free kicks yesterday (best in the PL).

You gave him 3/10 in the match thread, at least he's improved since yesterday.

To be fair to him, I like his BBC interview. 'Alex Song seemed to stamp on Barton' '...well he did'

To be fair to Pardew, as I said in the other thread, Arsenal aren't the best team to implement a new passing football style, the result was the important thing today.

Apparently not.

Best is just the same in getting caught offside all the time. Fair enough he tries to get in behind the defence a lot more but he still gets caught offside a hell of a lot.

Shola closes down as much as any striker (at least today), people just make their minds up before the game. As I said in the match thread, Best looked just as cumbersome. I like both because I think they actually care but neither is very mobile or the next Tevez. Not sure how Best 'looked like a goal threat' either considering he didn't do a lot (not his fault because the service was poor but he wasn't great either way and I don't think he had a shot? Can't remember anything standing out anyway).

Forward line needs to be this Ameobi----Ameobi----Ba Guaranteed goals,

Taylor seemed to step in to break it up I think. Only it seen it once more on replay though. Read something about an elbow? He put his arms between Barton and Gervinho, I've only seen it once on replay as I say, I dunno if he did anything else.

Showed his class. Most wingers would've messed that up and kicked it into touch.

Taylor seemed to step in to break it up I think. Only it seen it once more on replay though.

Yup. Best's first touch was the same today (worse on occasion) but not as many groans...

If we are going to still implement a possession based game then Arsenal is probably not the best place to start is it? We did what we had to do on the day and got a good result.

Agreed. Its embarrassing.

Krul bar one occasion where he should've punched looked assured (couple of dodgy kicks but he got better as the game went on). Taylor and Colo were both good, Colo obviously top notch as usual. Taylor did well except his little run from CB that failed and ended up with a rubbish dive. Raylor didn't do as bad as everyone said he would and got better as the game went on. Cabaye and Tiote did well in the middle. Anyone slagging off Cabaye is mental, he obviously did what Pardew told him to do which was to stay deep the majority of the time. Jonas wasn't great going forward but tracked back really well and made some quality interceptions. Shola did well I thought, obviously a lot of people formulate their opinions before the game starts but I thought he did a fair bit better then Ba and better than Best. Best tries to play of the shoulder of the defender but doesn't have the pace, he's cumbersome like Shola a lot of time, I agree he's not very quick at all. He did work hard though but I just don't think he's the answer to much, we need a forward who can get in behind, Best to similar to Shola and Ba.. Ba is still getting to grips with playing with the team and I'm sure he'll improve as time goes by. We drew with Arsenal ffs, no matter how bad people think the performance was (which wasn't that bad) it is a very good result!

The mystery of our age.

People act as if it's Lovenkrands/Guthrie sanctioning player purchases and picking themselves for selection. They're decent people who've done a decent job in one way or another when we've had nowt else to step forward to the plate. What do you expect them to do? "Sorry Pards, I don't think I'm good enough so don't select me!" Its just attention seeking man.

I only bumped it because it was his birthday and I couldn't find another thread that wasn't some relegation depress-fest