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It helps that he's focusing more on defence first than his multiple forays forward. We should see an understanding develop with Ben Arfa in time and gradually knowing when to hold his position, when to offer an option crossing from the right.

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Really good yesterday, I feared he could be a disaster this season following his performance at City.

 

He's definitely very talented, and there seems to be a bit of spikeyness to his character which might not do him any harm.

 

It's very refreshing to see an entire back 4 that is so comfortable on the ball, and with Anita playing well in front of them. It's such a contrast to Williamson and Simpson starting the build ups, with Tiote in front of them, Perch often involved at some point, and the punts from Krul that inevitably went with that.

 

Only 1 set piece goal conceeded in 3 games is encouraging as well. The lack of aerial presence at centre back is the most obvious weakness, and it's not an insignificant one unfortunately (though Debuchy seems to be able to get his head on it now and again). Over the course of the season I think Pardew will have to decide when Taylor comes in to the side when everyones fit, but the best teams in this league even rotate their defence a bit and Taylor's fitness means he probably isn't capable of a full season anyway.

 

It certainly looks as if we are going to have one of our better defensive units this season, and if they keep developing together then it could look very impressive indeed.

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Right back has been a problem position for a good while. I'm not 100% sold on Debuchy defensively. Seems like a bit of a hothead too, but yesterday was a bit more assured - although he had a few lapses in concentration/poor starting positions for Villa attacks.

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Was his best performance to date yesterday. Almost beast-like, solid defending (bar one moment) and supported the attack as much as he could without compromising his defensive duties. The one moment I enjoyed was when he muscled his way down the Villa right wing at around the 70/75 minute mark.

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He's not slower than Simpson I don't think.

 

The difference is that Simpson hardly ever got forward, and so wasn't out of position as much. In addition to this Simpson always backed off, and gave attackers more room, so he didn't appear to be lagging behind as much, however he invited attackers onto us a lot more.

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