Barnes23

Said this would happen. The incubation period of the pardavirus is about 6 weeks. You can see it all over the pitch if you watch us play. Players are hesitant to move forward, and our attacking moves are either long balls or indvidual runs by a gifted dribbler. There is virtually no one two passing, although those two introduced it briefly when we had a spate of new signings. This is undoubtedly our biggest problem. That said, I think Gouffran may have been overrated initially by some. Still a good option to have in the squad, but not first XI quality for me.

A decent performance today. Uses the ball well, finds space and always trys to make things happen. Have to wonder how much better he (and the whole team) would look in a more progressive setup.

Crossing the ball in early and hoping it lands favourably off Cisse/Ameobi's head shouldn't be our primary strategy. Don't think he's weak, either.

this. Really hope Ashley surprises us in the summer and pulls the trigger (assuming we stay up..). Not sure which side of the debate I fall on as to whether Ashley/Llambias would make a progressive and possibly more costly managerial appointment. I really hope so.

Most of the balls played over the top for him were ones he was never going to get. Rose had a comfortable job dealing with such unimaginative and direct service.

Good game. Surprisingly strong in the air.

Needs to be played in a box-to-box role, not as an 'out' to be launched up to behind the striker. Would look much better in a team with better attacking strategy, fluidity and movement.

Limited player who is only a hindrance in situations like today where we are looking for a goal. Been said before, but should be told to keep it simple and perform his specific function for the team.

Looking a lot better than Pardew today.

Shola on. At least our shitty direct play will be a little more effective..

GW 33: Arsenal 2-0 Norwich Aston Villa 2-1 Fulham Everton 2-1 QPR Reading 1-2 Liverpool Southampton 2-1 West Ham Newcastle 1-1 Sunderland Stoke City 0-2 Man Utd Chelsea 2-2 Tottenham Arsenal 2-1 Everton Man City 3-1 Wigan West Ham 1-2 Man Utd Fulham 1-2 Chelsea

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2308271/Newcastle-make-Toulouse-defender-Cheikh-MBengue.html

. Gouffran in for Hatem if he isn't fit enough for 90 minutes yet.

Solid game I thought. Slightly kneejerk, but think I would be happy to keep him as 4th/5th choice rather than get rid in the summer.

Such an intelligent player . Should be in the team every week, alongside Ben Arfa.

Put in a great shift tonight. Some decent forward play, too .

Not sure they are a better team tbh, player for player they are not. They just play cupcake teams every week therefore they have much more confidence and lack the mental sapping that pl clubs go through, That's the difference, I think pards is absolutely right that team is a mid table pl team, like we are. They are a better team in terms of their fluency and attacking impetus (collectively)and their tactical gameplan. Individually, there isn't much between us. Both ourselves and Benfica have teams which could compete around the top 6 level in the premier league imo.

shola? fuck off

No Marveaux is a disgrace if he isn't injured. Also : Williamson over Perch/ Sissoko playing outwide/ Anita and Bigi playing in the centre seem to be pretty poor selections to me. Look forward to seeing Shola warming up on 70 mins ahead of Campbell, HBA and Marveaux aswell. Hope i'm wrong and we're witnessing a tactical masterstroke.

Shut up. You won't f*** any whore when you go to Amsterdam. Stop treating woman like that. Instead of f***ing the bitches, how about getting to know their hopes and dreams? How about taking a joke. Are we really at the stage where you have to put a smiley on the end of jokes now just so people know you are joking? I was joking too. I like being racist and treating women like s***. I'm not a racist and I don't treat women like s***. I made a joke about shagging a prostitute, a prostitute in a country where it is legal and they only go into that industry by choice. Quote me where I've been racist, quote me where I've treated women with contempt.

Reckon this might be a draw. Would probably take that too, after today's result. Di Canio will have them fired up and it will no doubt be a scrappy encounter.

We certainly won't see the best of him unless we do see a pretty radical transformation in playing style.

Jol repeated his tactic of just telling everyone to ignore Simpson Probably got the idea from some of our players

Beautiful scenes after the goal. Deserves kudos for actually setting us up properly for the second game in a row. Maybe he might convince himself we can win playing proper football instead of negative grind. Wasn't convinced by the subs at all, if anything they nearly cost us the game. Nice to see Adam get a run out. More of the same please Alan. The way you're going on we played some scintillating stuff at times which we certainly didn't. We got the three points which at this stage of the season is very much needed but don't try and gloss over the fact it we weren't exactly brilliant today. I agree. Improved performance from the turgid stuff we've seen all year but it had to be. Still no real urgency until the end of the game and limited showing in terms of attacking play (lack of movement/not enough players going forward and supporting play still being our most obvious weaknesses).