Rayvin

That's a fair point - I was going to say the one's where you expect them to get hammered but they tend not to lose by many because they're so adept at breaking up play. With that said, they're a team that we seem to be able to put away with relative ease, and the team that comes up could be someone like Brighton =/

I was thinking the other day that I can't remember a time when we passed the ball around so well as we are this season. I know the game has changed from a few years back and that ball retention is now more important than it used to be, but I can recall feeling the same way with Newcastle as I do about England once, in being perpetually frustrated by our inability to string passes together. It's nice to see that Pardew has us playing like this.

Agreed, when I read about it earlier it sounded bad but recoverable. Starting to fear the worst now =/ Hope he pulls through.

!!! Well, bizarrely, we all seem to be in relative agreement on this one. Happy days, even in defeat. We have a six point gap ahead of Southampton as well, which should see us comfortably for a while.

I love all of the predictions about how good he'd come at the start of this thread Shows what we all know.

I'd forgotten Marveaux even existed...

Took the words right out of my mouth!

Which is why if we get a player like Gomis (assuming he's any good - the Lukaku mold), and push Remy onto the left, we'll be some team.

Schadenfreude is about all they've got at this point. With that said though, I have the impression that a few people on RTG don't leave their houses (ever) so this might be what gets them through life.

This for me. I accept the points the others are making too but it's not like we lost because of him. That time he shot near post instead of far; no other player on our team would even have gotten into that position (I recall him taking Flamini out through skill alone).

Yeah I'd agree with that also. Strong both defensively and offensively, with a header off the line thrown in.

I think the positive is that for the first time in a long time, we looked within touching distance of Arsenal in terms of overall quality. On another day we would have held them to a draw at least.

I didn't understand that - it literally invited pressure. If they'd kept Walcott on we would have been unable to commit so aggressively for fear of him tearing away. I guess Wenger will argue that it worked though.

I think people are being overly harsh on HBA as well - he tried putting other people in plenty of times as well, but we had Shola against three centre backs - and our crosses, while frequently quite good, found no one all afternoon. He was the only player I believed could score.

Would also agree with this like, Remy was anonymous.

Fuck... to be honest though, we more than matched them for large periods. As has been said, just disappointing.

CT doesn't rate Ben Arfa either mind you.

Yep - I know Football Manager doesn't have all the answers, but it reckons he's on about £50k/week...

Thought that went well - Tiote has been vital so far but he's inevitably going to get booked and will be less effective once he is. Unless the plan was to play within ourselves and keep things tight (in which case well done), we should consider getting Ben Arfa on - probs for Gouffran?

Walcott is such a little prat

What on earth is Giroud doing...

Sorry yes, nervous a better word. You're right I hope!

We look scared... not good.

Yeah, this is going to be one of those tense games...

I read that he's just bought some team in Bosnia or something like that as well. The start of a football empire..! He must just have more money than he can spend.