Lush Vlad

Some good points, but Cabaye is far from a shit tackler.

They can always alternate, would mean Drenthe would have to do his fair share of defensive work and he'd probably start wide right, think that's where he's been playing for them. Jonas never stops running and him and Obertan seem to drift during the game anyway, at least now with him and Marv they aren't both right footed.

I fall into the Ben Arfa 'fan boy' camp, but I agree wtih quite a few points, I feel Ba has can play higher up the pitch as well though. He didn't seem to be dropping quite so deep against Stoke and he more than held his own against their meathead back 4. His link up play was much better than usual with his back to goal, held the ball up really well, played some nice passes and little lay offs after shielding the ball. By all accounts, he did well and worked his bollocks off against Blackburn, on his own up top as well. When Ba plays with Best, he does tend to drop deep and I think he's instructed to, so far so good and I don't think it should be changed just yet. However, I would suggest Ba is versatile and good enough to be equally effective playing with HBA. From what I can see, he isn't as good as Besty in the air and maybe not quite as strong, but he still has the physical attributes and intelligence to do well with Hatem. Far too early for anyone to suggest they won't work together.

Saying on .co.uk he he will miss Saturday and might even be out for the Manchester games. Would expect him to be back in the squad for the Man U game.

My only concern is Marveaux's fitness issues. Would be pretty shit luck though if he got crocked during this 3-4 week spell. We would still have Ben Arfa to play wide right anyway, oh and Guthrie and Lovenkrands

£18m Are they forgetting he's out of contract at the end of the season :lol:

from .com's match report That is quality, who came up with the Cabaye/Marveaux chant on here? Would love to hear that at an away game

Guess he is the replacement for Obertan on Saturday. Hopefully he doesn't suffer from Benarfaitis and try to do too much on his own. Looks a tidy player and I'm looking forward to see how he gets on.

lee_ryder Lee Ryder #nufc AP: "Obertan was outstanding at Stoke, it is a big blow" On Tiote: "We will wait and see" Pretty inconclusive on Tiote, the fact he isn't 100% ruled out is promising though. Would rather he played in this, but if he didn't, you would be pretty hopeful he'd be fit enough to play against City in two weeks time.

Cheers Pards, nice to get that cleared up.

As others have said it could be a blessing in disguise. Would miss the two Manchester games, which is probably a good thing as Marveaux seems more comfortbale on the ball and wouldn't surrender possession so cheaply. That said, he's just coming off the back of his best game for us and did really well with that counter attacking role, perhaps could have been deployed in a similar role against City and Man U. If he didn't wear those hi-vis slippers and got himself some proper boots I bet he wouldn't have got this injury! Should only miss 3-4 games though, not theend of the world. Although he seems a confidence player, so that might affect him.

Any news on his injury, gone a bit quiet. I suppose we'll find out after AP's press conference later. That story

Wouldn't be surprised if it was Andy Woodman, seems to be the joker out of the coaching staff. Yip, his reaction to Ba's hat trick made me chuckle, everyone was smiling, hugging, high fiving. Woody just waks up to him and bursts out laughing :lol:

Agreed. Yeah, it was a great finish. The position on the pitch made it look easy, but it was a really nice cushioned header in exactly the spot the keeper couldn't get to. Yep, the old footballing cliche, head it back in the direction it came, or something like that. The keeper's momentum was going the other way and it was a clever finish I thought

I thought he came off as he was noticably more fucked than usual, probably due to him being ill. As I said in another post, AP seemed to signal to Besty to 'give me ten more minutes, keep going' when he looked really fucked after chasing a ball down in the corner then giving away a free kick, think he lasted about 15 more after that, althought there was stoppages for the two penalties.

Not being a bender, alright maybe I am but he's more muscular than I thought. Always looked really rangey and gangly I thought but he's starting to boss players a bit more now. I guess when he was settling in and also fasting it obviously affected his game and I thought he looked a bit weak for his size. He was a man on a mission against Stoke, was charging about like a bull, hopefully he keeps it up, as if he says there is still more to come

Couldn't give a fuck really mate, a lot of other teams seem to be doing it, the English market is hugely inflated and you can get far superior, more techincal players, with a better playing style from abroad for less money. I sort of get what you mean, as it was sort of a nice feeling having Harper, Simpson, Taylor, Barton, Nolan, Ameobi and Carroll in the team. But if they get replaced with better players, or more effective for our gameplan at least then who cares?

Lots of fans wrote off Enrique and Coloccini early on as well, while others insisted the quality was there and it would show through. Who was right in the end? I wrote off Colo, have no problem holding my hands up, that was after quite a few games mind. Me old man is an Arsenal fan, likes his old school defenders, always thought he was a bit prehistoric in that sense, but he told me I was mental and Colo was class, fair play to the old bastad Always said Enrique would be quality though, mismanaged and kept out of the team by N'Zogbia. Got one right at least! My point about HBA is, he played about what a total of around 160-170 minutes last season. Came back from a massive injury, got injured again in pre season and has played about 200 odd minutes after a year out. Still trying to adapt to the English game and still trying to get his sharpness back after a horrific leg break. I've heard/seen comments like 'he's a liability, he'll cost us points' 'what's the obssession with Ben Arfa, he's a luxury player' 'he's like a young Dyer, will never make it here' 'won't adapt to our game' etc So despite being touted as one of the best young prospects in Europe, showing glimpses of class for us and doing the business at the top level from a very early age, fans are happy to write him after about 4 or 5 games of playing time. Fucking clueless.

Made another good cross on his left, to go with the beautiful ball to Marveaux on his left peg against Wigan. I thought against Wigan and Spurs he started to show a bit more on the ball and almost looked comfortable with the ball at feet. My only gripe with him, and I didn't notice this last night, is he sometimes gets a bit gung ho. He just overlaps Jonas and bombs on about 50 yards, without offering much of an option, we're fucked if we lose it. So far he's been great though, only player he's struggled with was SWP. Still concerned about the prospect of him against someone like Silva or Nani though, but better players have been torn apart by them TBF.

Sounds like a beast of a goal as well, 20 yards, bar and in. Likes a long distance shot does Abeid

Some people still let that WBA game cloud their judgement about Guthrie. My mate says that he can't really forgive Guthrie for that slip because it essentially cost Hughton his job. I still rate the lad and his performance last night just shows that he is pretty reliable. What a naive, narrow minded view from your mate, his days were clearly numbered anyway and we deserved a pasting that day, the entire team were embarrassing.

Seems a lot of fans on here, on my FB and at the matches have written off HBA. Pretty fucking laughable like.

Was never a game for someone like him to shine, it's a right bitch playing in matches where you don't get many touches and you're bypassed 90% of the time. Still showed the odd glimpse though and put a real shift in, not afraid to get stuck in either. Feisty little f***er as well, cheeky sod is learning English ok, told the linesman to f*** off/you're f***ing joking or something similar His two worst games have come for us, on small pitches in games where we have sat deep and played a lot of long balls, coincidence? I think not.

Could see he was fucked near the end. After about 65 minutes you could see Pards saying to him, "Leon, give me 10 minutes more" and signalled 10 with his hands before giving him a little motavational clap. Could have released the ball earlier a few times, but worked his socks off and had a hand in all 3 goals, fair play Besty.

I love how according to them we're still just lucky, hard working, well organised and we fight for each other and Pardew is just a great motivator, nothing more. They go on as if we're Wimbledon or Hull City, they can't even admit they've fetched in a load of one paced, mediocre cloggers and we've got some class players.