Tiresias

I think Pardew seems desperate to keep everyone happy, hence tolerating Obertan's poor performances etc and keeping him in team. Harper was probably pretty upset to not be getting any footy so Pardew, with maybe too much respect for his feelings, has allowed him to go out. It is way way too soon to judge Eliot, one bad game ffs.

Harper probably wanted to play games. Krul stays uninjured we're fine...

Well if MOTD say it must be true Do kind of agree, but Santon has more potential than either of our current full backs and he needs to be folded into the team to gain that understanding, I wonder if Pardew's weakness is being too nice to squad players, if he's willing to cause some bother by subbing players. It works wonders for morale, but it's keeping better players on the bench, so there is a trade-off. Santon working on both flanks is good though, keeps everyone on their toes, and as such can be switched around to find out who he works best with.

I was going to try and put tiote in for god but that was too much work

sorry couldn't resist lol http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6202/space.jpg

Shockingly we're not going to have Cabaye and Tiote available for every game all season in all likelihood , Abeid sounds maybe like a better prospect but have heard Club do rate Gosling.

I wonder if we're overplaying them, maybe need to consider rotating Gosling or someone in for a game.

I was less than impressed, I thought his positioning at times was poor contributing to a few of their dangerous breaks, but maybe being harsh.

Yeah this was a bit right, we were better dealing with their midfield 3 after he came on, even though wasn't really too much to write home about. He'll improve.

As seems likely that the Idea is the 4-2-3-1 with HBA in the hole, I doubt he's meant to do much tracking back, since we are operating with 2 midfielders in the holding position, and even if Cabaye is attack minded he also does a lot of the defending, this gives us the extra cover to theoretically let HBA have a freer role, as opposed to operating a 4-1-4-1 or something where you might be doing defence work further up or such.

the bosman rule I think

Just got back from weekend in Toon, was at the game, and I had to get the incredibly nervy game. We didn't play great, thought both Tiote and Cabaye (bar the goal of course) had a bit of an off day, and I think Wigan were quite sensible in packing midfield and hitting us on the counter. Having said all that 3 points from a poor performance is great, though we really should be scoring more past Wigan. Ba had a very quiet game, as had Best, though he impresssively beat defenders few time. HBA didn't seem to do all that much when came on which was disappointing, he obviously needs more game time. Yet again needs people closer to him supporting him on his dribbles. Great goal, though honestly looks better now I've seen a vid of it, I couldn't have been further from it at the time. Great result, poor performance, Marveaux needs to start ahead of obertan, I feel sorry for the lad really if his confidence is so low, but can't really let it hurt the team.

I'm going now, so yeah, doomed it probably, sorry everyone

I dreamt we were 3-0 down from a Gary Caldwell hat-trick 20 minutes in Well think we can at least rule out that happening

well at least they're not putting in cattermole for colo, they get some credit for that

I'm really glad our gamble signing him has paid off so far, he's bound to get injured sooner or later, but helping us to this start has made him worth the risk already imo. Got us some proper momentum going, and won us precious points.

Please tell me Colo doesn't have that ridiculous Tevez agent, Joob what's his name.

Scenarios a) It's just taking time hammering out the details b) they're in no rush because both parties are content, Colo's not going to move away where his kids are settled etc etc (yeah appreciate footballers say this sort of thing all the time) c) Colo's playing hardball and wants another year on it or something d) Colo's been approached by a big club and is pondering leaving e) Colo secretly hates the club and is going to bugger off asap f) the club accidently sent the contract offer to Smith who is signing it as we speak

I'm now waiting for the news that Gosling is injured with every bone in his body broken

I'm glad actually he said target was safety and knows it's going to get tougher, I'd hate to think the players are all desperate to stay at forth and once we do start to move down table morale would collapse. Obviously looks like relegation is pretty far from probable at the moment (though if colo and taylor and tiote all got injured or something I'd be fretting a bit) but the team morale both being high and also grounded is excellent

Bale was very effective against Italian teams because the Milan's are both pretty slow at this point and also operate without traditional 'english' wingers. Which actually is a fairly big weakness, Udinese really successfully got a lot of success out Wide because noone else in the league really tried that. Bale's effectiveness was thus pretty much against his idea opponents, and shouldn't have been surprising despite the prestigious opponents. He's a good player, but his form is changeable. A lot more players have such fluctuating form than I think the main press ever really mentions, if a star has a quiet game it's not mentioned, if he has a great game he gets shouted about. Rooney got benched against Liverpool presumably because of his mental state, his mental weakness is born out in his form last season and internationally, and yet the press never dare mention that as brilliant as Rooney can be, he's weak headed, and fluctuates. This is massively unfair on the steady going players, who put in the same shift game after game and are great but they don't dazzle, and disappear, dazzle then disappear, which monopolises coverage. Example of that would have been Vaughn at Blackpool last season, better than Charlie Adam, but Adam threw a strop at transfer day and scored a bunch so he got the media coverage. Vaughn doesn't appear to have carried the form to Sunderland though lol

On it's day perhaps but Guti's reliable, whereas I'd fear Taarabt would affect the team ethic negatively. Wouldn't say no though still, he'd be an odd signing though, unnecessary and a gamble

I guess he's predicting Ben Arfa will get injured again so need another mercurial talent. He is a good player, but can't see him fitting in first team though, and he's also incredibly changable, he hasn't done anything in the premier league yet, I'm not especially keen.

The addition of Ramsey and Wilshere being back will probably improve England squad a lot, players actually capable of keeping the ball in midfield, rather than just losing possesion. Not convinced by Pearce though as a manager

Disagree, Mertesacker made plenty of spot on tackles, did well from teh corners and him and Koscienly looked much better than he...ever has. Looked improved at the back, still rubbish up the front really. If I were an arsenal fan I'd be slightly cautiously encouraged.