Stottie

We weren't very good but they were worse and had to be gifted their goal, so fair dos in the end. Unstoppable free kick from Yo Cabs, and nice one Marv and Cisse to win it. The rest though was pretty forgettable, especially all fourteen corners.

Rooney has a total of 22 goals and assists this season from 16 starts after that freak gash in his leg. RVP has 36 from 25 starts, and I guess he'll win every award going. His ratio is only slightly better than Rooney who people seem to want to criticize. I suppose you could say Rooney is massively overrated as an England player, but underrated as a Manchester United one. Personally I'd like to see Rooney overseas just to see what other approaches could get out of him. Ideally it would have happened a couple of years ago.

I didn't think it at the time, but the Rafael one looks a clear red and penalty from that photo in the Mail. Arms above your head has to be just as unnatural as arms extended out to the side. The photo of Nani shows a clear booking at least. Which makes a mockery of the fawning mackem arse and his prattling commentary. Regardless of the referee, 10 men teams usually put up much more of a fight these days and don't concede that quickly. Fifteen minutes and it was all over. Nothing Van Persie hasn't seen before though....

Wouldn't mind being in their position, thats for sure. For all the sneering against Bale, he's doing it week in week out. Just wonder if Spuds would collapse if Bale was sold, though You don't have to automatically hate them now Redknapp's gone! A lot of begrudging will do instead. Anyway, Spurs would have qualified for the CL last year had Danny Simpson been capable of a simple throw in in the last minute of our game at Arsenal. It cost them far more than it cost us, and papered over what were gaping cracks at Arsenal even when RVP and Song were still there. They've been on the decline for years.

It looks like the added attacking impetus of the January signings is negated when we don't have Krul and Colo at the back. Our defending was shaky all game and that was a real farce of a goal to concede. We made some good chances going forward and bossed the second half, so its meh, not a disaster. We more than matched a good team, which we wouldn't have done six weeks ago. Just feckin sort the corners out. Its such a waste.

You can sense pressure is going to build on the ref, who doesn't look up to this level, so get Tiote off and Anita on. Some sloppiness at the back from our lot made them look good for fifteen minutes, but other than that we've competed quite well. Very lucky with the one off the line and credit to Taylor for being the only one awake. Gouf and Debuchy have had some joy out wide, so we need to get them involved more.

It's great to be back to feeling excited about games coming up and not dread them. Even when we're up against strong opposition, which Swansea definitely are. Unlike last year, I don't think we can sit back and defend the 18 yard line if we go a goal up. There is much more attacking prowess there now under Laudrup.

Villa still have to play all of the top 3. That Reading Villa game is looking very important. QPR look down but they have games against the six teams above them, up to and including us. They games could decide who goes down with them.

Do they have Twitter in Middlesborough?

He's had a bad few weeks defensively, but maybe he'll be able to pick his moments more going forward if the team can settle into a shape with HBA. Citeh in particular have their fullbacks bombing on all the time, but their midfield is usually DM heavy.

With the other results, it's just as well we got 9 points out of 12. A loss to Chelsea and draw instead of a win vs. Villa or Soton and we'd be right down there.

I don't know if any fans rate him, but I would give the prize for hyped but nowhere near the finished product to Oxlaide Chamberlain. If anyone, I would say Arsenal have the most overrated players. I don't understand the surprise when supposedly lesser teams beat them. The "Duncan Edwards" comments out of ManYoo about Phil Jones also stick in the throat, because he's is clearly not that good just yet. I think Cech has lost his mojo, but he was instrumental in them sneaking the CL.

For all their so called purpose, speed and supposedly causing untold problems they didn't really cause Zenit any problems outside of set pieces. 2 of their goals came from free kicks and they looked most dangerous from corners and free kicks. Philosophy Imagine if Suarez had kept missing them like he did last season.

Eliot looks dodgy to me, but Harper's thread didn't change to "Timber!" for nothing. If HBA is available, I hope Krul missing isn't used a reason to set up more defensively. I have more faith in us playing postively and scoring than keeping it error free at the back.

That Van Der Saar expression is classic!!

I reckon he's a canny player. A definite improvement on Perch or Jonas and hopefully that's not read as damning with faint praise. He looks very decent as fullback cover too. As with Tiote, I'm sure he'll improve on the ball as Cabaye, Mou, HBA and Gouff offer more options than he's had in games earlier in the season.

If his job is to break up play and give a simple ball to Cabaye, Sissoko, or HBA, I can see him being a real asset again. Assuming that's enough to beat the midfield we're playing. Some teams overload the area. Asking him to create has been a bit of a disaster.

Just on the young Gazza one, there was a big drinking culture at Man United at the time, so I doubt Alex Ferguson would have made any difference. See Paul McGrath etc.

RESET THE COMEBACKOMETER!!!!! We might even score from a corner next week!

Ferk me this is like signing Ben Arfa again. Are other teams' scouts ferking blind??!?!?!?!

With all the newcomings hinting at better service and, let's face it, Ba out of the way, I hope the lad can have a new start. Some promising signs last time out.

Going only on the YT video, Bony looks like he is more capable from range.

Get him in!

Colo stays and the new signings mean back down to 4 or a pessimistic 5

70,000 every other week at Emirates prices should pay for lots of players. Even when you give 100k a week to Walcott. To even things up, I hope they have a difficult catchup fixture and our lads get a week off before the return game so we can see how much energy they have in the last fifteen minutes.