Stottie

Barton getting Song banned was one reason for the Arse's poor start and the 8-2.

Don't let him eff up this thread man! It's been going all season!

Pretty funny how Given dived for the goal. He didn't get within four feet of it. It was like when you put the smallest kid in goal.

I think we got some lucky results early in the season, Fulham missing point blank headers at SJP etc. but things have pretty much evened out since. We're not completely outplaying teams as you may expect a team with our league position to do so, but Ba doesn't need lots of chances to score. For a wacky stat on our defence, of the 31 goals conceded, 21 were in our 6 defeats. No-one has beaten us by scoring less than 3 goals! In the other 18 games played, we've only conceded 10 goals, for a 12 win, 6 draw record. Perhaps you could say our defence plays well three games out of four.

Well said that man. We usually do well against them. Colo was inches away from winning it against them at SJP. It would have been a fair result in a "took our chances" kind of way.

I dunno what happened to Villa but they outplayed our long ball first half and then started playing long ball themselves, taking Keane out of the game. If it was a half-time adjustment from Pards that made them do it, then credit to him. Couldn't understand it myself. With the game opening up, taking off Zog was a gift too. Great finishing from the Dembas. Fantastic work.

FERK!!!!!!

Outplayed first half but nearly went in a goal up, so I'll take that. I thought Colo was at fault for the goal. He should have left Zog to Simpson and not chased the ball. Warnock was definitely out of control there, so if that's the rule, that's red. Early days, but Cisse looks promising.

Huth never a sending off. No studs showing, not two-footed, just a bit late. Sending off is bad enough, but three-game ban for that is absolutely crazy.

Does anyone think the Scousers making a big thing about the 50-50 in their game with Cabaye set the stage for this? Jamie Redknapp and Joe Cole as pundits were all over it. Cabaye is a bit tasty, as was clear as early as the Mackems game, but its only really the Scousers that have been going on and on about it. They'd be better off telling Glen Johnson to stop flying in two footed.

I only saw the ITV highlights but they weren't as bad as I expected having read some of the ratings on here. Things didn't go for us in the Blackburn league cup game either. Both are disappointing considering what the team has shown in the league and that a number of potential winners were already out at the time.

They needed Shola coming in with a scissors kick to finish it off.

Sky struggling to hide their disappointment there.

Hasselbaink clearly punching it into the net didn't help SBR that season either. What would have happened if we'd started the season with a win?

In hindsight, it might have helped more had he gone for the foul in the first half (the first pull at the half way line, not the offence he got booked for). We were still one up then. Anyway, it was a massive warning that Pardew didn't heed in spite of having half time to deal with it.

Lucky at the end there and silly to be leaving it one on one with against him of all people and them playing with the wind. Deserved lead on the whole though. Should be easier for Krul with the wind.

Isn't the current system a bit of leveler? Join the Man U or Arsenal academy if you like, but your chance of getting the high level football you'll need to develop is limited.

Look at the goal records of the players I listed. People paid lots for them. Anyway, I like him and the price is only a bit craic. He's a great option to have. One of the tactics folks mentioned it recently, but if you're losing at the end of the game, its more effective to bring on a physical striker than a skilful one, because the latter will not get the space to perform against a team shutting up shop.

Didn't see this coming at all. On youtube, it looks like he's got a hard shot on him and he likes to attack the ball in the area with head and feet. Both are very good signs. As for the offside stat, Aguero gets caught quite a bit but its not his fault if the ball isn't delivered quickly enough. It may take time for the other players to click with him. Sounds like a bargain!

I like Besty and I'm not suggesting for one second that we sell him, but wouldn't he be worth close to what we paid for Cisse? Based on Kenwyne Jones@8M, Crouch@10M, [email protected], Doyle@7M, Wickham@8M?

Liverpool's problem is goals. Since last January, even their top man Suarez has scored one less than Leon Best. Kuyt and Maxi got a quite a few in the second half of last season, so maybe that papered over some cracks that ended up not being addressed in the summer.

Good win lads! That'll do! Shola FFS. Lets buy someone, anyone. I think his time at Citeh showed that Hughes is a joke, so that was doubly satisfying.

BERBABEST!

He's not a flop, but Phil Jones has enough to learn about defending to suggest that they could have bought someone much more solid as the defensive cover they clearly needed (Carrick at CH last season etc.). They should buy another CH in this window. Nasri started well but has looked mediocre recently. Maybe its over-rotation, as the suspicion is with Dzeko. Milner's looked good of late, but he looked meh for a while after joining Citeh. It can't be easy being in and out of the team. Loaning Adebayor to Spurs could come back to hurt Citeh big time. They're not that far behind.

In that one run, he beat more men that Obertan does in how many games?