Away Day Gadgie

Paul Walsh wearing the creepiest glasses i've ever seen on Soccer Saturday.

This is what it boils down to. Sky wanted to show us getting humiliated in our own back yard, fans walking out early or booing, and the pressure getting cranked up on Rafa. None of that happened and they've massively spat their dummy out. c***s.

I haven't seen much of Casilla for some reason. Is he good?

I hadn't thought about Luton. Still think i'd rather give the rookie a go instead of a guy who seems error-prone and low on confidence.

In a crucial Premier League match? Aye a crucial Premier League match where our 1st choice keeper is injured and the supposed 2nd clearly isn't rated since he's just recently been dropped after what? 2 games i think? If Rafa rates him enough to have him sat on the bench then why can't he start instead of our already proven dodgy alternative option? I'd also say if he can't handle the pressure of a crucial game at his age then he's in the wrong game.

Surely if Woodman doesn't get a chance here then he's probably never likely to under Rafa?

He's been a major disappointment this season. He's missed a quarter of it through suspension and been mainly garbage when available. I'm struggling to see where we can fit him into our side, apart from as an impact sub when we're chasing a game. If we got £20m+ for him and Rafa was allowed to invest it i'm sure he could find someone more useful for that kind of money.

Haha! I genuinely like Brighton (might be biased as I lived there for a while). One of the best cities in the country, solid affable fanbase who have supported there team through some truly genuine bullshit over the last 2 decades. Well run and managed club who came up organically and of course big Chris at the helm. That said I hope we pump 'em tomorrow and furthermore we can both avoid relegation. Fair play you obviously know the area better than i do. Still don't like them though

Probably Siem De Jong. Sounds ridiculous now but he was brilliant for Ajax at times.

Didn't Phillipe Albert score a free kick for us? edit** Almost certain he did but not sure if it was rolled to him first.

I'd say quicker than Mitrovic and Joselu but he'll not be turning the opposition defence all the time.

In fairness, the keeper is in an excellent position there. Aarons probably took the right option.

Aye i get the feeling that Mitrovic is one of these who'll stand for 10 minutes getting instructions off Benitez nodding his head and seeming like he's taking it all in, then goes out and does the complete opposite on matchday. Anyone who's managed a football team or played in 1 will know players who do that and it's annoying as f***. Especially for someone like Benitez who likes players to stick to the plan. I reckon he lost patience with him a long time ago.

Can't stand Brighton. They were gifted a place in the Premier League by being awarded 643 penalties over the course of the season, their fans are polite-clapping cunts, and they've got some really unlikeable players such as Knockeart and Hemed. Love Hughton though, top bloke! I'd like to see Saivet and Merino as our midfield pair, and Gayle up top. Not too bothered about the rest.

Thought he was poor with and without the ball, but his workrate was good. Starting to think he's only usefull as a sub when we're chasing the game though (ie when the opposition sit deep and he has loads of time and space)

Fucksake!

1st half i thought we were shocking. Defensive tactics are fine against a top side but you need every single player switched onto the plan, quite a few of them weren't and we could've been 3 or 4 down. 2nd half we were much better and Pep actually payed us some respect by keeping 3 or 4 players behind the ball most of the time, he didn't want to lose a goal and ignite the game for us. In the end we had a couple of chances to rob something, i was fuming with Gayle for taking a tumble instead of shooting, you're a striker FFS take a shot man! And the header was a bit unlucky. Positives - Not getting humiliated against a brilliant side - Merino looked good when he came on. - No (obvious) injuries ahead of the Brighton game. Wont mention any negatives cos the main 1 is zero points from this one.

Ignore Neville. He's just frustrated the noisy neighbours are running away with the league, and he probably hates Rafa from his time at Liverpool aswell so he'll do his best to stick the knife in. The rodent-faced cunt.

I've got no problem with us being defensive against this lot but some of our defending has been shocking. We've gone to sleep at least 4 times and we're lucky to only be 1 down. Big improvement needed in the 2nd half or we could be on the end of a demoralising loss.

This has been piss poor. 9 defenders and they can't even stay with runners or anticipate anything. Our work with the ball has been even more embarassing.

Agree with everyone praising Silva, the guy is an absolute wizard and one of the best i've seen. He reminds me of Messi but with less turn of pace and shooting ability. That's not meant to make him sound average but it does somehow If he doesn't play it'll be a big boost for us.

When the club stops feeling the affects of his tenure. Technically we have really. It's Ashley's tenure that we're feeling the wrath of. Think i disagree with that. Pardew being there for as long as he was strengthened Ashley's grip on the club a lot. That was Ashley's doing not Pardew's though. Ashley calls the shots not Pardew with relation to whether he was in the managers seat. Aye Ashley was in charge but Pardew made things a lot more comfortable for him by being the ultimate yes man, in Ashley's eyes he was perfect for the job. Having a puppet who will spout s**** to the media and tell barefaced lies to the fans is unvaluable to a boss like Ashley. Pardew's job was to keep fans' expectations down, rave about our better players to the media so we could sell them for more money and say nice things about Mike to try and keep the heat off.. In fairness to him he did that pretty well and ever since he left Mike has struggled to keep things ticking over. Some of his moves since have stunk of desperation - The interview on Sky before the West Ham game, appointing McLaren and Moncur onto "the board", spending big money in the January window on Townsend and Shelvey, then finally being forced to appoint a respectable manager in Rafa, something he never wanted to do as good managers ask questions, demand transfer budgets and generally make life uncomfortable for a dictator like the fat man. Something he never experienced in the 4-5 years the Pardew was here. If Ashley eventually does go in the next few months then i'll always see Pardew leaving as a significant step towards it. Aye, fair dues. I'm not a defender of Pardew FWIW, I just don't get why so much energy is wasted on the prick. I know you're not ?. I've still got an unhealthy hate for the bloke. I actually think he managed to kill some of my passion as a fan so that's probably why. Maybe a lot of other fans feel the same as me and that's why there's a bit of a weird obsession thing going on Possibly. Fair enough, I guess. Nowt I can say to that All I know is it's mint when we score now. Now that we're back where we should be (in the top flight) and we're a little bit up against it. Kinda like the fact that we're not that good under Rafa, cause for so-long as we stick with Rafa I feel we have hope and the siege mentality might also help build us. People hate that we haven't turned on Rafa across the country when deep down the real football fans probably like that, and are probably jealous rather than having tired old PFM's (?) as they're called on here, who get binned off and replaced by the next one. For me it says a lot about our club that Rafa came here at all and even more so that he is still here. A lot of that is down to us, the fans, not the prospect of turning around a sinking ship. Aye fair play to you for focusing on the positives. I'm right behind Rafa aswell! Hopefully he stays and takes us somewhere. I reckon i'd still find time to hammer Pardew though

When the club stops feeling the affects of his tenure. Technically we have really. It's Ashley's tenure that we're feeling the wrath of. Think i disagree with that. Pardew being there for as long as he was strengthened Ashley's grip on the club a lot. That was Ashley's doing not Pardew's though. Ashley calls the shots not Pardew with relation to whether he was in the managers seat. Aye Ashley was in charge but Pardew made things a lot more comfortable for him by being the ultimate yes man, in Ashley's eyes he was perfect for the job. Having a puppet who will spout s**** to the media and tell barefaced lies to the fans is unvaluable to a boss like Ashley. Pardew's job was to keep fans' expectations down, rave about our better players to the media so we could sell them for more money and say nice things about Mike to try and keep the heat off.. In fairness to him he did that pretty well and ever since he left Mike has struggled to keep things ticking over. Some of his moves since have stunk of desperation - The interview on Sky before the West Ham game, appointing McLaren and Moncur onto "the board", spending big money in the January window on Townsend and Shelvey, then finally being forced to appoint a respectable manager in Rafa, something he never wanted to do as good managers ask questions, demand transfer budgets and generally make life uncomfortable for a dictator like the fat man. Something he never experienced in the 4-5 years the Pardew was here. If Ashley eventually does go in the next few months then i'll always see Pardew leaving as a significant step towards it. Aye, fair dues. I'm not a defender of Pardew FWIW, I just don't get why so much energy is wasted on the prick. I know you're not ?. I've still got an unhealthy hate for the bloke. I actually think he managed to kill some of my passion as a fan so that's probably why. Maybe a lot of other fans feel the same as me and that's why there's a bit of a weird obsession thing going on