Andy84

We need another game ASAP, but no it's the international break

Need a Krul performance a la Spurs away a few seasons ago

The point made was a fair one, we aren't going to dominate possession v Arsenal anytime soon. We need to find a way to get the result and it's true that they do struggle against a packed defence. Think it's pretty likely we will be pushed deep for long spells and then look to counter when the play breaks up. I don't think being at home has much bearing on it, neither does them losing 2-0 against West Ham.

They looked vulnerable v Liverpool against stuff flashed across the penalty area and against direct runners like Coutinho, especially when facing their own goal. Hopefully a combination of Thauvin/Perez with Mitrovic holding it up front will give us some joy. A draw would be a very good result

He's got some nerve saying he wants a Europa spot. Imagine if they qualified? He would be absolutely devastated

Bas Dost scores for Wolfsburg

just received a lovely email from Steve Black We're evolving things together Dear Andrew, I’m very pleased to be writing to you this week as we look to take the momentum of two positive results into the game with Arsenal this Saturday. As part of Steve McClaren’s new backroom team, I firstly want to say it’s wonderful to be back in the North East, to be home. I’m biased but there is incredible passion for sports here and especially football. It’s in the blood. As a coaching team, we are evolving things within the club together. Steve and I have a great relationship and have known each other for a number of years. He has a good mind but first of all, he’s a good person and that means a lot to me. He’s a very good football coach and importantly, he wants to get better. That drives standards. My role is simply to help people to become better at what they do – to act as a supporter, a catalyst, a mentor, a coach, an advisor. On a day-by-day basis, I work with the players, Steve, the coaches and the medical staff to create a winning environment; an environment of excellence. When I first arrived, I saw a team that had a lot more talent than results suggested. That was my first impression. Another was that if we could get them organised, find out what was driving them and get them motivated – which doesn’t happen overnight, we could move towards creating a probability of success rather than just a possibility. To achieve that, we have been talking to players about their personal quality control and team quality control. We ask what they want to achieve and we talk about how they can go about doing that. We want to create good habits. If you use your time wisely and have quality control that ensures you meet your expectations and ambitions, you can’t go far wrong. You need to do the right things and to do them effectively and efficiently. In my career, I have been fortunate to work across lots of sports and with lots of different athletes. The common theme is that it’s about coaching people. I have an obsessive love of sport but a lot of the messages I want to to convey and questions I ask could be applied in sports, in business, across all sorts. ‘How hard have I worked? How high have my standards been? How eagerly have I interacted? Have I enhanced my standing in the group? Have I enjoyed my work?’ You need to glean from sports science how to treat individual players in a bespoke way and gel that to produce team performances. Ultimately, ‘well done’ is better than ‘well said’. We have to walk the walk and so far, our physical statistics are excellent. We’ve seen a group of people who have awoken their desire. Invariably, great teams show incredible ambition when they’re attacking and unbelievable spirit when they’re defending. Against Manchester United last weekend, when we had the counter attack at the end, it showed incredible ambition at that stage in the game and I was delighted we really went for it. That’s a sign of team ambition manifesting itself. We were sharp, bright, alert, we saw things first and we got there first. We smelled opportunity and threat. We did a lot of things well and over time, that will get better. On Tuesday evening, we wanted to give Northampton the utmost respect in our cup game against them and the best way to show that was to go out there and do a really good, professional job. To show ambition and spirit. As the fans who were there with us on Tuesday will testify, we did that. It’s important that we don’t get carried away in victory or defeat. Our professionalism should transcend that, so straight after the game, our focus turned to Arsenal. We have a general strategy of how we want to play but that has to adjust and adapt to each opponent. We obviously want to accentuate our strengths and our opponents’ weaknesses and we’re now working hard on that ahead of Saturday’s game at wonderful St. James’ Park. I hope to see you there. Steve Black Newcastle United

Really promising start What makes it even better is that I don't think any of us imagined his signing would happen this window. Really pleased to have him on board and hopefully that quality he brings pushes us that little bit further.

Seems to be like that coming off the bench Too eager to impress and impose himself on the game? He needs to start every week now like

Sounded like he linked up well with Daryl down that right hand side. Hopefully that is something that will continue, potentially very high quality down the flank to cause teams problems

What lies below the surface for us at CB is worrying like, that is without even considering how much work it already needs

Alan McInally God I hope Celtic go out

This has a different feel about it this time, new manager bounce not going to work

Liverpool are a difficult team to work out this season, they look great defensively, but they look to lack a bit of quality up front. Benteke was a real handful, but when he got good chances in front of goal he looked clumsy in the finish. Two rookie cb's for Arsenal kept a clean sheet at the end of the day, I don't know why Brenda was getting orgasmic about that performance. They should have won, but ended up hanging on for dear life. They don't lack quality up front like, Benteke will well for them plus they have other options up there. Coutinho just seems to get better and better and Firminio started his first game tonigh.

Don't think I've ever seen Arsenal give the ball away as often

Class that like. Hahaha!! The bitterness and bile on there

Very good start by Bournemouth

He looks more physically robust than Cabella

God, these are really there for us

If we sit deeper at least we have the players to hit them on the break. Would like to see Mitrovic given an hour and bring Cisse on after that, we need the ball to stick in the final 3rd

Aerial power at the back is something we desperately need Would be happy if they signed a young and upcoming defender like him or Byram

Totally agree. Perez would add another dimension to our side

I thought for an hour we were the better side. Their goal was against the run of play and took away our momentum but we managed to get on level terms by persevering. After Gini scored we just couldn't kick on and get that crucial third and as the game wore on we started to struggle. Anita coming off had an impact as their penetration through midfield increased massively. Tiote was a disgrace and didn't look fit to be on the pitch, 5 minutes after he came on his socks were falling down and he just looked like a bag of s*** and he performed that way. Colback was excellent for us and for them Mane was an absolute menace, very good player. Southampton are a serious football team and I thought in general our performance was decent, mistakes need to be ironed out but I think we can improve. Generally feeling positive

Absolutely ace

His f****** agenda? Like Cabaye, Ba, Cisse and Remy