Stottie

Them's the rules these days. Miss or overstep a dropping ball, which may be spinning, with the base of your foot and you're out for the best part of four games. I wonder what the approved method of trapping a dropping ball is. A method where you can miss and the result is not getting sent off. Any stretch to try and get it these days risks a red card. In terms of the advantage gained, it's minuscule compared to the straight red professional foul, which stops a goalscoring opportunity and only gets a one match ban.

The 9 men of Stoke had 49% possession. 13 shots to 15. 6 corners to 5. Apparently the 9 committed only four fouls, while the 11 had nine.

Palace vs. City next week so Pardew could go top! Seriously WTF!

Pressure will be on. A big win and Man U could finish him off. They've only scored 2 in 4. At least we have mitigating factors.

Another straight red card, Mark Ward for West Ham.

Cabaye missed a sitter

Great goal by Wilson for Bournemouth

Waddle's a mackem. He comes out with some embarrassing comments about us. In that Villa game we won 6-0 after coming back up, he reckoned they should have been three up before we scored. Just for having two attacks and missing a penalty.

He's definitely a marked man. The new pantomime villain. It was a bouncing ball and I'm not sure he had a full view of the fouled player, so it looked very harsh to me.

When a player walks back on the pitch and continues to play. It's madness. I wonder what percentage of "leg breakers" break someone's leg? The percentage of red cards that ruin contests must be pretty high.

Howay Ayoze!

Yeah, still very harsh though and it kills the game. The only people it pleases are the arseholes who want to watch a scripted pantomime with goodies and baddies and not a match of football. Unfortunately there are quite a lot of them watching football now.

Pretty good team. Not such a bad move to play Colback and I'll judge him now has better options to pass to than Obertan and Gouffran. His main job will probably be to get stuck in. Thauvin on the other side to midweek presumably, and good luck to him there. Same to Mbemba, who is a big call after Taylor's performance last week. Ayoze is my favourite Toon player, and we'll probably see him if Sissoko can't last the whole match. No Giroud is a bonus, but they've still got a good team out. It's a tough ask, but howay the lads!

With the way they play, I don't think you "dominate" the midfield against Arsenal. Unless you have much better players. 60% possession for them is a given. Just stop the forward pass 25-30 yards out and hit them quickly when they lose it. Hit their makeshift CHs at set pieces. If you have the skills and/or pace, run at them too. Mitro may even be able to muscle his way in. Step number one though is don't let them pass it through you. The last time we beat them was with that looped header from miles out by Carroll. It went down as another error by Fabianski, who came and didn't get it, but since then he's been reborn at Swansea. He's a good keeper now.

There are some fantastic goals from distance in that de Bruyne compilation on YT. Some great skills too. Looking forward to seeing him play.

I though Everton looked pretty good against City. Southampton looked rough at the back. Maybe Bertrand and Forster will improve that though. I agree that it will be good to see what the lads can do now that they don't have clowns coaching them. Tenth would be my guess. fwiw, Everton's points total in 13/14 would have got them top four in 14/15. Maybe its just temporary turmoil at Man U and Liverpool, but the bar was not set very high last year. I don't like to admit it, but maybe the biggest problem for clubs snapping at their heels is indeed having to play in the Europa League without a top-four level squad.

Haven't read the thread so might be Giggs but how about the Hollies. Hey Flo-ri-an! What's your game now? Can anybody play?

How do you know that? Has Ashley told you? Ashley only cares about himself, NUFC being relegated was a big concern for him - hence the summer changes. Why would Ashley give a toss about a very small group of supporters singing and holding banners up? The sit-in after the game, the group who stood outside Nine bar before a game (forget which one) were both awful and taken up by a very small number. The Tottenham no-show was probably the best, but was still not great. I wasn't there, and live overseas as it happens, but I don't think you can talk about only a very small number of fans having banners if stewards at the turnstiles have been photographed with large bin bags full of confiscated ones. Especially after the club claimed that it would do nothing to stop protests beforehand.

Stones and Sterling aren't such good examples of players who should stick around their present club to develop more and further their careers. Although young, both have already made much bigger jumps from smaller clubs with complete success, from Barnsley and QPR respectively. They also have a clear path into Chelsea and City's teams, unlike say Sidwell and Scott Sinclair who only looked squad players at best. I dunno about QPR and Sterling in particular, but being at a lower level club will usually mean a lower level of coaching. It could also mean potentially disastrous advice, like pressure to bulk up or to convert to another position.

Thanks lads, I suppose most of our transfers have some kind of backstory to them that brings the fee down, it's almost Carr's remit, but I'd forgotten the one in Cisse's case.

22 million quid? Is that what the approximate going rate on Cisse would be now? He was second top goalscorer in the Bundesliga when we got him.

They looked much softer in the center without them against Liverpool, and less of a threat from corners etc. In the stats, Arsenal have conceded more shots than the three teams we've played so far, including shots on target. Callum Chambers in the middle vs. Mitro sounds pretty tasty. Even more so than Swansea, Arsenal are a throughball team, so you have to press them hard and stay alert to all the runners. Otherwise they'll be in behind within 10 minutes like Swansea were. Though we are improving, I think this fixture has come a bit too early for us. Giroud is pretty good in the air too, so maybe 2-1 to them. I thought Ayoze looked the part against Man U, so assuming that Thauvin comes in for Obertan, he'll be unlucky if he misses out to bring Sissoko back in. In the coming weeks, I hope Gini or Sissoko can show enough positionally/defensively to be played further back in place of Colback and Tiote, even in difficult games.

The goals are on YT too for anyone region-blocked by Sky. Well chuffed with the result. Weak opposition I guess, but signs of positive changes to our playing style from the goals. Changes that should bring goals in other games too. 1. Thauvin in virtually the six-yard box (!) getting onto a cross from the other side. Fantastic finish fwiw. 2. Thauvin hitting a whipped freekick that could well creep in even without the SDJ touch. That kind of freekick will drive keepers mad. 3. Good ball out to Thauvin, well controlled, and nice drive in and pass to Janmaat, who was very far forward. 4. Non floated set penis!

Pearce played for City as well. Someone there must have royally pissed him off. That or he's a complete clown.

It'll be a factor, but the manager is ultimately responsible for what happens on the pitch. He could have got in different coaches or tried different set penises if he'd wanted to.