Hughesy

Poor today. Lack of movement from others didn't help. But he didn't attack with any pace or drive today.

Do Norwich and Villa have better starting XIs though? No - but we got 4 points from those games.

I think people are somewhat over-estimating our squad. Yes, we have a good starting XI and a decent enough bench, but I am not convinced that we should be doing any better than we currently are (by currently I mean last season and the start of this season). I think most people would admit that Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd definitely have better starting XIs and squads than us and, if we are being completely objective about it, so do Spurs. Any place higher than 6th and I think we are punching about our weight for the quality of squad we have.

I've met him a few times and as you say, he's a lovely bloke. Made up for him. Exactly the type of person we want in our club and contrast that to some of the dicks we had 5-10 years ago. He is now an invaluable player for us with the versatility and attitude he brings and was excellent again on Sunday. The appalling behaviour of some of our "fans" towards him initially just ticks another box as it proves he has the mental strength needed too. Just wish those who seem to always need a scapegoat would learn and lay off Obertan or whoever else it is they're getting on to at any given time. Couldn't agree more. Some of the criticism of our players is so often unwarranted and unjustified - see Harper for the most recent example of someone getting a load of misguided crap.

Hopefully in time this ability to control matches will develop. I am certainly prepared to give Pardew a fair amount of leeway on this given what he has achieved since he has been here. And to be honest, if he carries on delivering top 6 places each season (especially given the resources of the teams in the top 4), I am not sure I am really that bothered about whether or not we control matches sufficiently. Whether we can do that without controlling matches as you say is up for debate.

Not sure if Pardew necessarily has 'a lot to prove'. On any analysis, he has done remarkably well since joining us.

Think Pardew's shown more than enough in the last two years for us to want to keep him for a long time.

Bloody hell - has Derek spent the last 20 years eating?

Fair enough. Nevertheless my feelings remain the same - the ideas of what clubs can spend being linked only to their revenue streams essentially stops any other team being able to challenge the established Champions League clubs.

I think we can conclude that Shola moved around a lot in his childhood. But no matter where he was, he still got to training.

I know where you are coming from, but I have more of a problem with the efforts by UEFA to maintain the current status quo by their FFP rules than Man City. I suspect, but confess I have no evidence to prove it, that FFP would prevent any club from doing what NUFC did under Hall and Keegan. And to me having a closed shop is worse than having some clubs buying success.

Bet it was a classy sending off.

As someone else said, Campbell and Ferdinand were better players in an England shirt.

Appears Shola lived in Clapham Common for me..

Will struggle as long as he keeps scoring 2 per season. Might play for 15 more years though. Shola will never retire. He will get there..

Would love him to get to 100 career goals.

I admit that I haven't see endless replays of what happened in the Liverpool match, but it genuinely looked to me like Halsey got all of the big decisions right. Shelvey's tackle was appalling and a red card (to me, Evans' didn't look as bad). I couldn't see a penalty forthe challenges on Suarez or Sterling and it looked pretty clear to me that Johnson fouled Valencia (although Valencia clearly went down pretty easily). I assume I must have missed some Sky angle that showed these events completely differently from the reaction of Liverpool fans..?

What about all of the other teams in Europe though? I would argue that none of them have exactly looked at their best.

Beggars belief that the same old people were so quick to write him off. Might be worth just biding your time before the next scapegoat is found.

Think we might've been to Portugal. In two days, he got that healthy glow?

Has Pards been on holiday? looking tanned..

Great goal. Like one of Ba's against Norwich away.

Was slightly disappointed by his distribution last night. He seemed more guilty than most of looking for the long ball out of defence and midfield.

Cheers. So a crossover of outstretched arms would be offside, but a crossover of a big toe would be onside?

Possibly showing my ignorance of the offside rule here (it does seem to change quite a lot) - but is the offside rule based on any part of the body of the attacker and any part of the body of the defending player i.e. you don't use a type of athletics finish rule where the position of the torso is key? They used to have the 'clear air' rule, but I thought they got rid of that.