Stottie

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.

This is the last thing we need, so fingers crossed. If the players we've signed have an impact and Cisse finds his shooting boots, we could even let him go in thirteen or fourteen weeks' time if safety seems assured. Europa League aside, this season is now all about doing everything to stay up. If that is achieved (basically six wins), the rest of the games are largely meaningless.

I don't get Redknapp's point. We have an Academy and youth teams, but such teams have a very poor record. If that's the standard of our youngsters, doesn't that leave us no option but to buy for the first team? No sensible club uses its first team to develop youngsters. Man U didn't with Wellbeck and Cleverly. They got the mackems and Wigan to do it for them.

Now if we can just get rid of the pretense that Man Utd were somehow rivals to Liverpool in the late 70s and 80s and not just an underachieving joke, we can then drop all that biggest rivalry ever hype Sky like to push.

I don't mind us missing out on a star player who wants more than we can afford and more than we were prepared to give Demba Ba with his proven goal record. Well I do mind, but its more a worry about us having all our eggs in this particular basket and a game we really should be winning just days away. I definitely do mind us not having better non-star players who we can afford and trying to make do with a second XI of players who are clearly not ready or not good enough. The "oh we've had injuries" is thinnest of excuses. In modern football its a certainty that you'll get them. The days of Villa winning the league with 15 players are long gone.

Just be grateful it wasn't around when one of our players said he'd "knock seven bells" out of someone.

From a "that's the way it is" standpoint, maybe the reputation he's largely earned was enough for the non-foul to be given as a free kick for the first goal. A less marked man may have got away with that challenge. It was travelling and hard to see, but did Baines shot deflect a bit off Obertan? It looked to me like it did.

Good shout on the passing accuracy stats, there is definitely something there. The "Tiote getting caught in possession" one is him simply being found out. Of course, teammates more willing to give him an option after he's won the ball, the turnover phase or whatever its called, would help. And no, he shouldn't be shooting from range either.

Knowing our luck, him going back in the middle will coincide with a resumption of hoofball or hopeful (hopeless?) crosses from deep by Jonas. Anyroad, here's hoping we can let him show us what he can do. I might even go as far as cautious optimism. fwiw, I would say Chicharito is a poacher, a converter of clear chances. Last season, Cisse scored far too many barely half chances in a van-Persie-on-steroids manner to be a simple poacher. Conversely he hasn't impressed in one-on-ones.

Agree with that. After we had that c*nt Michael Owen, calling Ba the "ultimate mercenary" is bollocks of the highest order. Ba cost us very little. Our bit of the fee in will presumably cover what we paid to his agents, and he was on an incentivised contract so he will have earned a good chunk of the wages he received by scoring goals. He's been a fine player and helped us to an elevated position in the league that has since been pissed away by questionable tactics and ultimately the shoestring approach with which the club is being run. The problem isn't Demba Ba wanting a payday from a CL challenging club that he's earned with his ability. The problem is bringing on Nile Ranger in the first game without him. Debuchy coming in now looks like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Simply staying up has to be objective #1 now, but that mightn't be enough to keep the other players who played the biggest part in us finishing fifth. Thirty five fucking million in and some epic scouting and this is all we have to show for it. As an impact sub (statistics suggest bringing on a big man is more effective than a skilful one when you're chasing the game) or plan B from the off, he could do a good job for Chelsea. We'll also get to see how his first touch and link-up play look in a team with Mata, Oscar, and Hazard. I just hope he's wise enough to say what he likes about Ashley or Pardew but doesn't slag the fans that sang his name.

It sounds like our marriage of convenience is set to continue. I just hope he's not been picking the team or formation, or has some last chance suitor lined up in China or Turkey or somewhere to be revealed at 9pm on Jan 31st. Fwiw, I think he's a more useful player than Sturridge, who won't be cheap either.

HBA was on the left for his screamer against Villa. He cut in and hit it with his right. I also remember him floating across the line and and doing damage on that side in that WBA game last season.

Our wee club got four points off them last year, helping their nearest and dearest to their first title in how ever many years were on that sign at OT. I can't remember ever doing that well against them before.

I believe Ferguson won the title the first time with nine million-pound players. The next most at a single club was five. I heard something along the lines that the average cost of a Man Utd first-teamer was higher than third-placed Norwich's record signing. He's kept the passion going and rebuilt several sides, so you have to respect him for that. As a domestic manager his record is unparalleled. Given he's at such a rich club, his CL record conversely is nothing special.

Hope Anita's okay more than anything. The lad's really come on. Good performance, but too many mistakes at the back mean it was all for nought. Ferk me, they may be top but they are nothing special. You'd think the first European team that give nothing away will have them easily in the CL.

That's a second yellow at least.

Mike Dean is a fecking legend for this.

That goal then Simpson as Messi, what a game!