Stottie

Well in son! What a legend!

Must play next week. I'd like to see him on the left though. Playing inside out only encourages him to shoot more than is probably welcome.

I think there's more of a problem with what Tiote and Cabaye are being told to do, and with their options out wide, than simply with their ability to play together. I bet Krul could throw it forty yards to a wide player too, if Pardew told him too.

Up to 40 mins I was relieved it was only 0-1 from a gift. A bit better at the end though, but I hope Pards focuses what happened before that. Both our wide players are passengers. Cabaye's been poor too, but he's had no options. Strikers aren't even getting scraps. Krul caught at least two corners then kicked long twenty seconds later when everyone is back. That's very poor instructions. (the Ba one looked a pen to me)

"Beardo never scored enough goals". What a ferking mong

He'll just have to hit another free kick then. Though HBA could well be our best chance of getting one in range.

Pass, move, triangles, ... it can't be that difficult when we're near full strength.

After Spuds I thought the first thing we'd work on was not losing possession easily. Think again. Terrible ball retention throughout the game. Really woeful.

You can blame our midfield for the pressure our defence came under, but you can't blame them for how poorly the defence dealt with it. It was only a simple ball into a space in the box to Saha for number two. He lashed it in unchallenged. It was woeful defending.

I think any semblence of sympathy people have for Liverpool and Dagleish after Hillsborough will be gone. My sympathy now is only for the families and those who were at the actual game. I agree with Grant in that I thought Dagleish would have been above this.

He reacts slowly and is much too slow to recover. I think Taylor would have cut out at least one of the crosses for the first two goals where Williamson soon fell behind the play. Taylor would also have made a better attempt at blocking the third. The pen shout showed we still had a glimmer at two down, but it was game over at 3-0.

Mate, we were losing the ball everytime we went upfield any-case with no support for the front 2. You are more likely to lose the ball if you lump it long than someone trying to run with the ball. I agree with this. Also Ben Arfa usually loses it with three of them around him. Some of the other lads lose it against one opponent.

Ah well, only one game, and one with players out who'll be back soon. Move on and hope the goal difference doesn't matter, I suppose. Spurs were excellent and exploited all our shortcomings brutally. They pressed us into losing the ball cheaply and then played very incisively. Spurs created little at Liverpool, so I thought we'd be looking at a 2-2 or 2-1 to them beforehand, but they played far more openly and expansively. Full credit to their full-back for being that high up the pitch in the first five minutes to score. Some of the space they got from then on will have been from us chasing the game.

I'd fancy Carroll in the air against Rio and Evans meself. Assuming they could cross it to him.

Bollocks. Hard to bear Besty. Hope it heals properly for you.

Being knocked out twice in games where ManUre players were sent off for petty retaliation doesn't help. When it comes to big games, the margins are fine.

Lads, eight games since we didn't score, which includes all the ones without Ba and Man U home. No-one has beaten us this season without scoring three goals. Spurs barely had a shot at Anfield several days ago. With a decent finish from Carroll or Suarez, Liverpool would have won that game (god forbid). Adebayor hasn't scored in his last seven league games, all starts. Don't let the doom mongers get you down. Unless we set up negatively for a draw as we did at Anfield, we could do well.

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.