Tiresias

McLeish did mastermind their implosion last year mind, prepare for hoof it to Heskey

Wonder if his face might spring back into a normal shape?

Tiote seems to get better the better the opposition, need to trick him into thinking he's playing barca every game

Well seems like he's seeing out the season. In an awful kind of way would like a convieniant but minor knee injury to hit him at end of season which will scare the other clubs into thinking he's a liability :/ Can't see us keeping him in summer, hope we keep him this window.

Arsenal have a really poor frontline without Van Persie, Henry still knows how to score though so it worked. Arshavin and Walcott were terrible, Oxlaide Chamerlain not decided if he's terrible or just unfortunate not to get an end product from all the huff and puff. Shame on the rest of team as their midfield totally dominated, and Leeds barely did anything at all. Pretty poor game.

Oxlaide-Chamberlain wishes he was Hatem Ben Arfa

fair point. This is terrible game though.

Poor atmosphere and arsenal are on top but look relaxed like they're already 3-0 up and there's no threat. Recipe for disaster

Oh dear Arshavin, you used to be a delightful player

Yeah considering the reputation he has when up against teams using agricultural methods on his teams you'd expect them to have suffered a few upsets to desperate long ball teams. Still may also be a product of normally having a good crop of youngsters, which arguably has now rather deserted him.

On Football Weekly Gregg Roughley (liverpool fan lol) bigging up the Ben Arfa goal

I've stuck up for Mertesacker before and every time he immediately makes a crap mistake, but I choose not to learn that lesson/ It takes time for players to settle in, and he needs patience, I think he is rather worringly slow but could make a very solid defender, and with Colo being so great after such a bad start think we shouldn't write him off. Being a bit generous, has looked incompetant at times but think once he's adapted to the pace could be the graceful tackler and ball player he was in the bundesliga

My chief worry about the 4-4-2 we use is when we come up against teams who have decent ball retaining 3 man midfields like Swansea whom we have the quality to beat we risk struggling. Equally we struggle against teams that are hyper defensive due to a lack of creativity in the final third. Our wings aren't generally good enough to make significant penetration, and so much of our forward threat comes centrally. If Tiote and Cabaye are nullified by a 3 man midfield we lose a lot of threat. Hatem Ben Arfa has looked good in the no 10, remember a gorgeous little pass to Ba, but ultimately if he's playing with Ba (though suppose Ba may be gone this window) most midfielders will pick the pass to ba because he's going to hustle and bustle to get on the end of the pass more and will then probably immediately hit it into the net. On the wing Ben Arfa makes himself available easier and will find himself with space to run into. Much rather him on the wing.

Its his childhood club isn't it? of course he's interested, it's whether they are. More annoyed that someone asked him I suppose. If they come knocking he'll go I suspect.

:'( bye bye

A cash strapped club? We're signing Rooney!

If we are in process of offering a new contract, I can't believe we hadn't tried before transfer window to lock him down, maybe Ba wanted something extra and so this fuss is just a play. Sneaky, but for gods sake give him what he wants.

American sport is much better run than outs which is a massive money led free for all. If you ever call their sport system socialist though you get in massive trouble over there though lol

Fair play to the OP there for confronting them about it and most the thread is fine, every club has their idiots sadly don't think it's something one can single them out for. Ever since they've been doing alright over MON there do seem to be a lot of laughing at stupid things every fan of every club posts

Seconded. Though apparently there were a bajillion agents involved or something, so could be just one of them hopeful of a cut on a potential transfer...in my dreams probably though. How does one become a football agent? sounds like a sweet job

colo probably

At the end of the day it's up to Ba if he stays or if he goes. He seems nice enough and smart, so hopefully he's not going to be lured by big wages. Or he will. I'm just going to sit and hope.

Ack, sorry for the lad, good player

They knew damn well they were unlikely to sign another striker, so we desperate enough to get Ba in the door and agreed to everything is my guess