Stottie

Shaw is starting to look solid at the back but he doesn't achieve much going forward yet. Lots of bluster but not much of the ol' end product. Less than Clyne, just to pick the most obvious comparison. Among full-backs, he mightn't even be in the top ten in the league when it comes to attacking. He may get in the England team ahead of Baines, but his delivery is nowhere near as good. Like Phil Jones, he went for a big fee based on potential rather ability. The contrast is with Rio Ferdinand who was 30m of world-class finished article.

That sounds all too likely to me.

The only thing awful about Cabella was his constant failure to not fall over as soon as another player came within 6 feet of him. One reasonable half against Chelsea that was it. On the subject of players falling over, in Jonas, we arguably had the best player in the league at drawing fouls. Winning freekicks was by far his greatest skill and most useful attribute. He wasn't much good at anything else, especially by the end.

From the Youtube videos, Thauvin looks like he could well be an upgrade on Cabella and should definitely be one on Obertan. We look a long way off a team where Cabella could thrive, so it's not a bad idea to cut our losses. I hope we'll see plenty of Ayoze and Aarons too.

You'd expect Rooney to head somewhere like MLS once he stops playing regularly for Man U. The only lesser Prem table you could see him going to is Everton, and that would be with a 70%+ pay cut. To break Shearer's record, Rooney will probably need to score the remaining goals for Man U. Given the likely scenario, Ancelotti/Pep/Klopp etc. managing Man U in two seasons' time is going to want to play someone else and will have anything up to 100M to get that player in. That's if Van Gaal doesn't do it first. Common sense says they should buy a central striker this window or next, and they can afford the best one available and willing to go there, whoever he may be.

They were shitter last season and still finished top 4, they'll sadly be fine. Possibly the biggest factor is whether Sturridge can get and stay fit. If he can, there's twenty goals in him and the whole dynamic of Liverpool's attack changes. Nine more points and they overtake Man U. Rooney looks very far off getting twenty on the evidence so far. I hope something happens anyway because Man U don't deserve an unchallenged run to the Champions League. If it weren't Van Gaal and Man Utd, the press would let rip for creating so little with the most expensive squad in Premiership history. Imagine if it were Avram Grant at Chelsea or Mancini at City. Juan Mata in particular looks wasted in the role he's currently in.

Towards the end of the game when Tiote was on, Southampton started getting lots of joy going straight through us up the middle. When I say they, it was mainly Mane on his own. Swansea are a throughball team, so we'll need pressure on Ki and Shelvey otherwise they'll pass us to ribbons.

Swansea should be much tougher defensively than the new/makeshift back five Southampton had out last week. The stats have them down as not much of a crossing team though, so they mightn't be able to exploit our most glaring weakness in the opening game. Maybe a low scoring game. 1-0 to them or 1-1.

The knives would come out in full force if Pardew were England manager. All he has is a career of false dawns followed by failure. He has no record to fall back on, like Van Gaal at Man U. Any tantrums etc. will be met with the pushing the lino, headbutting that player, and calling Pellegrini a cunt stories getting another airing. Whoever's up next also has the perfect banana skin of two competitive games against Scotland. At Palace in the meantime, their new keeper looked a bit slow getting across to the long ranger he conceded against Norwich. The lad in question, Alex McCarthy, couldn't displace Rob Green at QPR last year, so we might have some classic Pardew transfer logic (Obertan etc.) at play. With that clown that was here as goalkeeping coach, I can see them conceding a few more this year. Crap at the back is the easiest way to slide down the league.

Re: Townsend, I think he's been a victim of the big squad rotation and general instability at Tottenham in recent seasons. All the changes in manager and all the transfer ins and outs, esp. with the Bale money. Sigurdsson slotting back in at Swansea so well suggests that he wasn't used properly or given a proper chance at Spurs. Danny Rose may well have slipped under the radar too if he hadn't done as well at the Mackems. Some players have thrived at Tottenham, Lloris and Kane obviously, but it doesn't seem like the easiest club to have played for.

Gayle has 12 in just under 2000 minutes in the Prem, just over one in two. He might be a good bet for top scorer in the Championship.

They have filled 54,000 seats before, but it might be a push for them to do it in 2016/7....

His big cross came with him pelting down the right touchline. Well played by him, but I don't think he's capable of doing that on the side he spent most of the match.

Maybe the problem was that Thauvin's agent heard Pardew talk about attractive attacking football and then checked out some of our games.

It's almost Ronaldo's trademark expression, but Colo is so weak now. He really is a soft touch. So lucky that Yoshida didn't score or Mane after Colo let him cut inside. Janmaat was beaten far too easily for #2 as well. Wiki has him at 6'1 to Shane Long's 5'11, but he didn't get much of a challenge in. They ran us ragged in the last twenty minutes, but let's just say that was fitness and the disruption from Anita going off. All in all, a good point!

I'm second guessing other peoples' thoughts a bit, but I got the feeling watching the game that it demonstrated what the Pardew Out campaign was all about. For anyone who didn't know, that is. We've still got Ashley and a squad with plenty of problems, but we got a glimpse of our players playing closer to their potential than they have for a long time. It was heartening to see.

If Obertan is not going to help Haidara into the bargain, we might as well have kept HBA.

I don't rate Haidara as a defender, or as much of an attacker for that matter, but at least he might get some decent coaching now.

Pretty good on the whole. Positive going forward and 60% possession against a team not on its holidays for the first time in ages. We conceded the second most goals in the league last year and needless to say it still shows. Still lots of work to do, but three weeks in the window to get someone else in. They've got a makeshift/depleted-by-transfers/new-boy back four and keeper out and that shows too. Miskicks galore and a handball. It looks worth going for the win, esp. if they played away in Europe on Thursday. Obertan off and Ayoze or Aarons on for starters.

Pretty much out of nothing and against the run of play. Great header. Bright start on the whole, should have had a penalty.

I'm disappointed with Obertan over Aarons or Perez but no Gouffran or Williamson after the preseason games is a relief. Good to see Chancel go straight in too.

Yoshida is a big step down on Alderweireld. Bertrand out too, and Schneiderlin was part of the midfield screen. Defensively they'll probably be weaker. Rodriguez back starting. He only got a few minutes in their Europa League games.

No Ayoze/Aarons but otherwise pretty good. They're tough opposition who've already played competitively, so maybe err on the side of caution. Howay the Lads!

From their viewpoint, if they think he can get them promotion, they should keep him and let him walk for free next summer. Promotion will be worth what 50M?, four times what they'll get by selling him. From our time in the Championship, the biggest difference looked to be in the quality of strikers. You can make defensive mistakes and not get punished. See also the number that Nolan and Shola scored. You'd expect Austin to get 25 plus if he plays 40+ games. If Spurs have ended up with no cover for Kane this late in the window, I can see him going there though.

In fairness to Keano, didn't he ship out all the players involved in that sex video straight away? Now they just make you captain.