Dr Gloom

Another win here and we're buzzing - coming to the boil at just the right time.

i'm embarrassed for him. i don't know how can he show his face after that flounce. clearly no one's interested in anything he has to say anymore. ignoring him is the only way. hopefully he'll then get bored and fuck off for good next time. the problem is too many bite. shame really, as this place improved tenfold for those couple of week when he did keep his word and leave us alone. sad that he couldn't resist coming back to continue the torture.

really? i thouht they looked good. 0-0 wasn't it? i din't remember us deserving to win. i liked the way they passed it on the deck too

One of my favourites i couldn't have got it more wrong, i'm happy to say. but the prediction didn't feel that silly at the time - we'd just sold key senior players and bought in a bunch most of us had never heard of. it didn't sound like the recipe for success but fair play to all involved - it worked a treat. i'm hoping this summer we hang on to our players and build the squad rather than selling the senior pros again. if that happens, i'll be making a much more confident prediction this summer. i think he strategy was a bit of a gamble last summer - selling a bunch of senior players is unlikely to work every year. last summer was the equivalent of us selling tiote, ba and colocini this summer.

reckon we're more likely to see Jonas moved to midfield, his work rate will be valuable against swanseas game, keeping the pressure on them. yeah. jonas to centre mid, santon to left back. simples.

fabregas, definitely not

petit? nah. gilberto? possibly

well, that's kind of the point innit. there's more to all of those players than just winning the ball. they had more defensive responsibilities than the players they played alongside in central midfield but they were also capable of starting attacking moves and beating players. modern defensive midfielders basically.

god, won't he just fuck off already. how can he even show his face here after he flounced off like a big girl? getting our hopes up like that then coming back to unleash the same old shite is just too cruel.

i personally think tiote is the classic modern defensive midfielder. he's not just a ball winner in the david batty/nicky butt mould. he can beat a man and pick a pass, while having the discipline and athleticism to excel in the position. i reckon he's up there alongside vieria, keane and makalele as the premiership's best defensive midfielders. he's our most important player after colo right now.

this "claptrap" is what you have described that I've told you for years, that you won't respond to and tell us exactly what has not happened that I said would happen Whoa, can I get a rewind, dungeonmaster? is that even english? what language is he talking?

i thought leazes was going to fuck off already. mad how he keeps coming back when he's constantly made to look the tedious old tit he is. i almost feel sorry for him.

the front three of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa is the most exciting since SBR's days of Shearer, Bellamy and Robert

thanks mate

i'm excited about the rest of the season now too. we're pretty much nailed on to finish at least 6th. and we've got nothing to lose because no one really expects us to finish any higher. if the confidence continues to build and we go on another run, who knows how high we could finish? definitely the right time of the season to be finding form again.

Correct, and when you have 360 degree vision at the match you could really see it many, many times when we were on the attack. We were rigid and disciplined. How people can question Pardew's tactical awareness beggars belief. We were saying yesterday, he's been good literally everywhere he's been apart from 4 shit months at West Ham, he really set the foundations at Reading for them to become a decent Premiership club in later years. i can't believe he hasn't won everyone over now - even those norweigen knob jockeys must recognise the job he's done. look at the league position and some of the victories - beating man u, liverpool, hammering the unwashed etc. i'll hold me hands up. i was gutted when hughton was sacked and fuming when pardew was appointed. but you have to give him massive credit for what he's done this season. defensively, we're as solid as i can remember us being. the positional awareness of players i'd previously written off has improved massively - that is down to coaching. and you can't dispute his man management - he's handled ben arfa perfectly and has kept the team spirit going in the camp. i thought that would go after hughton was sacked and when the senior pros were flogged in the sumemr but if anything it's improved. plus he seems to handle the media perfectly; he's got a bit of confidence - even arrogance - about him, which i like and he talks honestly and tells it how he sees it, instead of talking in cliches. plus he's done it all on a small budget by premiership standards. manager of the year tbh

if we're playing a midfield three, the strongest on current form is arguably tiote-guthrie-jonas even perch is in the running to be a regular starter. never thought that'd be the case, particularly not at the expense of an italian international left back.

i find beating liverpool more satasfying than beating the mackems. mainly because most of my mates down south are liverpool fans, despite having never been to the city let alone seen a game at anfield. they're basically the man u of our generation when it comes to plastic fans.

Jonas excelled in cm in the previous game against WBA. He'll start ahead of Guthrie when everyone's fit.

Ben arfa finally looks the player we can build our side around. Agree that pardew has played the man management of a potentially difficult player to deal with perfectly - a combination of public criticisms and compliments has resulted in a hungry player that has played his way into the side instead of sulking. The front three now is the most exciting we've had in a while. All have pace, good movement off the ball, can create for each other and finish. Exciting times.

Perch has stepped up to the plate. Fair play to him. Won me over like. Motm today alongside cisse

Interesting comments, cheers fish.

I interviewed him after the emergency budget, just after the Tories got into power while the labour leadership race was kicking off. In an age where politicians are expected to have a personality my first impression was please don't appoint this guy. The Tories must be laughing their tits off - they're one of the most unpopular governments ever and the leader of the opposition is a nerd with a silly voice. But then, John major won an election so you never know.

Been a member of this site for a while but not posted yet, I just couldn't help getting involved in this one. Part of the reason we are in so much trouble now is our move from a manufacturing and industry based economy into a service based economy back in the 80s. If you look at the countries that have coped best with the financial crisis such as Germany it is because they have such a well developed manufacturing industry (two thirds of German workers have jobs in the steel industry). Thatcher could have modernised our manufacturing and industry sectors instead of destroying them along with thousands of lives. good first post

yup. biggest game of the season in terms of where we finish. win it and 6th is ours. lose it and the run in looks a lot trickier.