Tiotes Witch Doctor

Aye but we'll squeak a 2-1 against Villa and they will be asking him for a wave.

0-2 defeat.

I wrote him off too early admittedly because of his second name but hes winning me over, quick, skillful, direct but really needs to work on his end product, as does every other fucker in this team, not one of them can cross a ball, coaching issues? Surely not.

Perfect

Pardew said something before the game about hoping De jong will do well, then followed by saying that he wont get many chances today anyway so has to be sharp.... not the kind of thing I want to hear from our manager, defeatist from the off and the tactics applied show this. Clearly isn't motivating the players to go out there and sweat and bleed for the cause. Probably just tells them to keep shape and keep the score down and sends them out, gameplan second half was definitely to keep it at 2-0, no doubt in my mind. Thought our general play was actually OK, but Chelsea didn't even need to break a sweat to get the win, Sammy looks a player mind, has impressed in the last few games and thought some of De Jongs hold up play was top notch, definitely need to have him AND Remy starting together when we can.

Krul Debuchy, Williamson, Yanga, Haidara Anita Tiote Sissoko HBA De Jong Gouffran 4-1 loss.

It was a nice little system with the 3 in midfield of Cabaye, Tiote, Anita, they all had their own roles our passing game Tiote the interceptor Anita would then mop it up put the ball where it needs to be and Cabaye would round the move off. If we are going to play both Tiote and Anita it has to be in a 3 man midfield, basically we need a Cabaye replacement, Ben Arfa shouldn't be anywhere expect the wing IMO, cant hack it anywhere else.

Probably the fact that he looks out of shape.

But neither of those things will happen, and if we do claim a 1 in 1 out strategy then we need to sell to buy.

Has looked canny, might aswell give him an extended run in the team to find out once and for all what he can do. Already looks better than Shola.

The lad is a waste of time as far as I can tell, can be brilliant on his day but its never his day, he is lazy, has no heart and is out of shape. If we can get a decent fee for him I wouldn't be that arsed if he went provided him and Cabaye were replaced (HAHA) Same goes for Santon, Taylor and Shola.

Pretty obvious one but the team is the same as against Norwich with Shola in for Remy, mate of mine from school gets the lineups from Dummett the night before. #ITK

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAn5IjSC628/T_EUaI3o9TI/AAAAAAAAAu4/F01qJwwR4l4/s1600/Face-Off-Nicolas-Cage.jpg

Shola wins again i'm afraid, although Ben Arfa is only sensible replacement (Although I would put him out right and move Sissoko) Thing is Sissoko has 5 assists from right midfield this season and I'd like to see what Hatem could do with an extended spell at no10.

Straight swap Ben Arfa in for Cabaye if he doesn't play. It just has to be. Anita and Tiote holding.

The only potential positive from Cabaye's impending exit is that HBA might get more game time, hes the only other player we have with the creativity levels Cabaye has, but more than likely Pardew will play Gosling.

2-0 up at half time with Remy and Gouffran as the scorers, second half we'll sit back concede and be under immense pressure but we'll survive and win 2-1.

At least if the transfer fee is higher theres a slight (VERY SLIGHT) chance some of the funds could be spent on a replacement rather than all going into Ashley's pocket.

It pains me to think how good Cabaye would be under a more positive and tactically aware manager who knows exactly how to use him. We will see this when he does finally go and that will be the biggest sickener.

They will win the cup like, I'm fully convinced. Will beat us in the derby aswell.

Classy buggers

I think we will win this with a scrappy 2-1, quite fancy Cabaye for a goal he looked very dangerous against City. As far as our finishing position goes I'll stick with what I went for at the start of the season, 9th.

I know we obviously have issues in providing good balls into the box etc... but Cisse for me just looks utterly disinterested and looks as bad as Shola when he gets the ball at his feet. I just can't imagine him ever finding that sort of 11/12 form again, it just seems like hes completely lost it.

The second swing was more a clumsy last ditch effort to win the ball back rather than being anything nasty, I'm on the fence as to whether or not it was bad enough to be a red.

Still more useful to us than the likes of Sammy, Gosling and Obertan, wouldn't have been my first choice to move on but I certainly wont lose any sleep over it, hes been on the decline since the end of the 11/12 season. Wish him all the best though.