Tiresias

Oezil, Reus, Gotze, Schweinsteiner...

Pretty much our whole home game versus man u, the game I wish I could have been at, instead I was ranting and raving at Shola starting ahead of Ben Arfa (as you can see, I am the 'angry' oliver in this gordiad minute by minute, http://bit.ly/KMoXGB) Ben Arfa ripping West Brom to shreds was like the culmination of all his hype. Seeing Ben Arfa's Blackburn and Bolton goals after the event with so much hype around them...both cases of ben arfa just deciding that he's had enough and going to go and win us the game. Obviously Enrique in goal. Ba bullying defence after defence into submission early on. There are loads more lol

hope he finds a club where he gets regular footy, did well by us, can't have been a very fun year for him

Suspect they're pretty upset about losing and champs league maybe slipping through their fingers.

Agree twitter abuse is obnoxious, if we want players to be more engaging on twitter and not just run by PR people they shouldn't be subjected to hate, even if their performances are poor.

I'm laughing at ben arfa wearing the t-shirt over his coat and waddling around, thought for a second he'd quickly put on a lot of weight See a few of them did that :/

Was it really nearly a year ago we bought this guy and everyone was wondering if he was good or not? The kind of midfielder we were desperately short of last season, extraordinary vision and passing. Next season I hope to see him clocking up a better goal tally.

Think it's because while he's pretty full on don't think I've seen him tackle someone with malice, could be wrong

Don't forget the special feature on paying for Cisse's flight but not wasting more money signing him!

lack of talent caught up with them

Fair chance they'll sell mcclean over priced to spurs or liverpool imo. Money they'll get for him may do good but precisely the sort of over hyped player those clubs love to grab.

So they've had a pretty odd season haven't they, honest appraisal seems to be they started terribly, briefly looked pretty great (for sunderland) under O'Neil before all the motivation he provided dried up and the quality of their team caught up with them and they just stopped bothering once safe. Next season? Needs a squad rebuilding if they are going to be any more of a threat next season but MON is hardly the guy I'd want in charge of that. Would laugh if they lose sessegnol

Very good shift from the lad again today.

Yeah indeed, brilliant season anyway.

Jeez seems tad harsh lol. Loan (or sell if anyone is sucker enough) Obertan out to championship where he'll get regular play. He's not good enough, but could improve I suppose.

Think we've missed out most likely. We didn't miss out today though, we lost when we let Wolves score 2 terrible goals, and let fulham and west brom run rampant over us etc. Today was not a day I had until recently has us down for any points from.

Commentary said it was his 9th

If he hadn't got that early yellow we could well have won that match, he had to hold back rest of match. Did very well anyway I thought.

Lets go full on with 4-3-3, possession footy and go for it.

He had a poor period this season, but he's ended it strongly, i meant consistency within a game :/

Like him in the central role doing the leg walk for a Cabaye further forward. On wing can be frustrating sometimes, but helps us maintain consistency throughout a match.

Indeed! Tough game though...

Completely. We didn't lose because of tactics, we lost because of a cracking finish by Toure. That too but i felt the system was the wrong system to use against City...... thier tactics revolve around the centre so imo 4-3-3 would have been better to combat that and allow Jonas, Cabaye and Ben Arfa to play in roles they are more comfortable in...... Also i dont believe it would meant more space for City because 4-4-2 is far more open..... i personally believed we would have gave City more problems going forward if we went for 4-3-3 and it gives a defensive stability thant 4-4-2 doesnt. It worked great against Chelsea because of what sort of team they are but i think it was wrong to use today. Maybe, but I think the margin's were tight enough that it's hard to be clear cut that he got it wrong, and also I don't think we played badly, Pardew wanted pace up the wings on the break and that showed at times during the first half. If we narrowed up to match them centrally I think we may have struggled to let off the pressure. It was bad when Pardew was using that system against teams we could have dominated in centre of park, but don't really think we played much hoof ball anyway, not until shola came on.