tomlkier

Hmmmmm no it wouldn't. Hmmmmm

I found it frustrating at the lack of movement when he's on the ball, seems like we just pass it to him and everyone just stands around waiting for a moment of magic. Our players need to adapt to Ben Arfa's game as much as the other way around.

Would be nice to try: Krul Jonas Williamson Colo Santon Tiote Guthrie Cabaye HBA Ba Cisse

"Ba has has to live on absolute rations in this game"

Javier Hernandez? He's hardly getting a look in at Man Utd, cheeky 15m bid?

We have to be in for Salomon Kalou, he's out of contract at the end of the season, apparently Arsenal have bid 3m, absolute bargain at that price. Great player who is familiar with the premiership and can challenge both wingers and the strikers.

Just watched it twice again and then again in slow-mo .. gotta love Sky+ Two top notch goals. Start > Viewer defined > 80mins.

I blinked, what happened?

Krul Jonas Saylor Colo Santon Tiote Cabaye Guthrie Ben Arfa Marveaux Ba

True, but I think Colo/Tiote should be looking to give Krul the option of going short.

He tried it against Rooney's free kick when we played Man Utd, leading to Utd players being right on Krul and we ended up conceding a goal from it. That made it so much more frustrating, twice now that we probably wouldn't have conceded goals if we just had faith in a keeper who is one of the best shot stoppers in the league. He didn't, I've just watched it again, it's Steven Taylor who does it against Man Utd so it obviously is something that has been instructed by the manager. My mind can't even begin to comprehend what a stupid f***ing tactic that is, to let the opposition be able to stand right in front of the goalkeeper when you're facing a free kick. Staggering incompetence. Ah, you're right, just watched it again too. I suppose it's justifiable if you have a bad keeper, but there's no reason why Krul should need the extra support. If it's a cracking freekick then it deserves to be a goal, I would rather we concede to an inch perfect effort than handing out easy goals with shoddy tactics.

It desperately needs to improve though, the amount of times we 'retained possession' by passing back all the way to the keeper only to give it straight back to them. In fairness he only had Ba to aim for in the last match, but it'd be nice to see him playing it short to the defence occasionally.

He tried it against Rooney's free kick when we played Man Utd, leading to Utd players being right on Krul and we ended up conceding a goal from it. That made it so much more frustrating, twice now that we probably wouldn't have conceded goals if we just had faith in a keeper who is one of the best shot stoppers in the league.

N'Zogbia / Hoilett / Chung-Yong would be a nice upgrade on what we have.

Could do with giving the wingers a day off. Best Ba Ben Arfa Vuckic Cabaye Tiote Santon Colo Willo Simmo Krul

Thought at half time that this was the best performance he's put in this season, a return to last season's form. Second half wasn't as good, but he still had a decent game. Needs some more movement ahead of him though. Awful refereeing for the second goal, there was nothing wrong with that tackle at all.

Santon needs to start at LB, Raylor RW.

Just swapped Kompany for Walker to cash in on Spurs's double game week. I think I'll use my January wildcard to bring in Cleverley and Fabio, as both are cheap and returning from injury.

Snap. You should bring in Gary Cahill too if you're after a 4th Chelsea player.

Someone needs to sit him down and show him a video of Gareth Bale vs. Inter. Just do that Obi!

Southampton.

Can he actually defend? I've seen plenty of him going forwards on youtube, not much on the defending front though.

Aye. Obertan never even played. Were we watching the same match? We were expected to sign a new LB before the match, we had a week to do so, Pieters was our only target at the time, hence he was in my expected line-up. What's not to understand? You were being a bit premature and discussing things that were only possibilities. If we're going to start naming players who aren't actually at the club... I assumed that there was a basic level of competence in our board room and that Pardew would keep his word, I'm sure we've all fallen for that one from time to time.

Aye. Obertan never even played. Were we watching the same match? We were expected to sign a new LB before the match, we had a week to do so, Pieters was our only target at the time, hence he was in my expected line-up. What's not to understand?