Stottie

Great performance from the lads! Given the way it was conceded, even their goal can be viewed as a positive, i.e., stick to your job/don't get carried away. The move that led to HBA feeding Best who was stopped by the last ditch tackle was ManYoo/Arsenal type champagne football. The type we haven't see from Newcastle for a loooong time. Full marks to Pardew, esp. for playing Obertan.

BABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABA!

Citeh need to get it in to Aguero more.

Just looking but we haven't scored before half time in the five league games so far. Put that right today lads!

The mackem munter bouncing from knee jerk to knee jerk I see. It's great to be fourth but I can't recall us "creating lots of chances". The first League Cup game aside, perhaps.

Mentioning that Shearer was one of the best paid players in the league smacks of having a massive agenda. As for this season, you might as well write an article about how kind or cruel the fixture computer can be. It would make more sense.

I liked your comment and he deleted me too! Imagine if he'd gone to Arsenal, who really should have been in for him. If anyone is still his friend, remind him who's conceded the fewest goals in the league.

I guess Hodgson's record includes easy games in Europa League. Still, a great stat for winding people up!

Getting well excited about this. Yes to toptoons team with just Besty up top and to the suggestion that Ba should have played against Forest.

Seems mad not playing Kuyt like. Just when he'd started scoring as well. All for Jordan Henderson

He didn't get that long, but Albrighton was poor too when he came on, so I'm going take his and Zog's performances and blame them on McLeish. Goal aside, Agbonlahor (sp?) was also barely involved. It all smacks of bad use of decent or better resources.

Torres went and scored yesterday, but before that it was even stevens on the goals count since the big deal in January. Carroll 2 in 12 Torres 2 in 19 Suarez 6 in 18 Total 10 in 49 Wor Leon 9 in 15

One of Chelsea's Plan Bs, esp under Mourinho, was suspicious like Route 1 with Drogba as a targetman.

Its like when Bellamy played for Celtic and give it the "my gardener gets more than you".

Ba and Tiote improving and a fine overall performance, with Cabaye MOM. Another goal for Besty too. These all bode well for the coming weeks. My main concern was the lack of overlapping on the left with RTaylor seemingly only capable of inswingers from deep. With better delivery from that side, we would have had much more chance of a winner. I was surprised how poor Villa were though. I've seen their individual players do much better than that in the past.

Much better than last week so far anyway.

Big miss from Bent

I haven't seen Villa this season and dont rate AM, but I think we'll still lose 2-0. Given will get a clean sheet giving the press one of the stories they will have prepared before kickoff. As an aside, that letter is seriously depressing. Its bad for the league for well-supported teams like Everton, Villa, and us to abandon their ambition. Bolton seem to be going backwards too.

I dunno to be honest, but 58 were pens for starters. Take them away and it would mean one in four from a throw in, free kick or corner. Not unfeasible I suppose. The vast majority of Nolans came from them last year. The newer site for premiersoccerstats has assists and points (goals plus assists) but it uses flash or javascript or something and its hard to link to individual tables.

I remember someone saying Shearer overtook Beckham in the category for most goals from outside the box. I dunno what this site means by "long range" but it would seem to confirm it. http://www.premiersoccerstats.com/Top100.cfm There are lots of stats for people who like them there. One is that relatively few of Rooneys goals have been winners. Since ManYoo win most of their matches, they must have been non-winners in games that were won. Giggs has scored twenty less than Rooney, but has 38 vs. 24 winners. The same goes for Van Nistelrooy and even CRonaldo.

Simple question, but do the named stadia have their names in as many places as Sports Direct at SJP? Selling our stadium name may be a financial inevitability, but it doesn't need to be done as tackily as its appearing to be.

Sicklees Photoshop of Kluivert on the KFC bucket was quality. Any chance of another look? As for Rooney/Shearer, they're different players who've been coached to do different things in keeping with the tactical requirements of their day. Someone with Shearers attributes would be coached differently today, or at least he should be. He would become a different player to the one Shearer was. If Shearer was good enough in his day to score sh'tloads of goals over a prolonged period, that is all that matters. No one moans about George Best or Bobbie Charlton scoring goals in parts of the goal where you'd expect a modern keeper to stop it. If a shot was good enough for a goal back then, it was a good shot.

He was clearly far from the finished article when we bought him, so I suppose we've got to give him more pitch time and more patience than he got at ManYoo and see if there is a player in there to go with the attributes. Its not the easiest thing to do. With Newcastle too, they'll not be many games where we're in a comfortable enough position just to give someone a game. Obviously the best way to bring get young players up to Premiership speed is to loan them to someone else and get them to do the donkey work. See Cleverly, Sturridge, and Wellbeck to see how this works.

No way RTaylor should be sent out against the Zog. Its a hard first ask for Santon, but he must play. Obertan was a passenger yesterday, so maybe give Marveaux a game. I don't like 4-4-2, but Besty and Ba is the way until we can find someone to play off a lone striker. Aside from HBA, every other option would be untested. I ferking hate McLeish, so I really hope we win. A point would still be a decent result though. Given's dodgy on crosses but I can't see us exploiting it.

He looks better than a number of strikers in the Premiership, Boothroyd for one. Now lets create some chances for him.