acrossthepond

Including the one that gave us our second goal? Simpson had a fine game yesterday and looked up for it in a way that he hasn't really done since last season (cue allusion to woman troubles.)

Colo fannyed about a bit though. He took a hit to the face and that can't have been fun, but he has to get on with it instead of whinging. Maybe if he got back in position, we could've dealt with the clusterfuck that was their third goal. More offensive to me was the non-foul that resulted in the free kick that they got their first goal from. Mike Dean had a sterling game today in my opinion but he got that one wrong, and obviously the Valencia tackle was a second yellow.

Brilliant game of football, some of the best we've played this season. Spoiled by the utter disgrace of Valencia going through the back of Anita at deep left-back position with 30 seconds to play and walking away from it. Guess who didn't walk away? What a complete fucking cock. Speaking of complete fucking cocks, Fergie wants to really have a word with himself. That was embarrassing from a 71-year-old man and it makes me wonder just how much of the Chrimbo whiskey the old fart had been into last night.

Merry Christmas all!

I'm a high school teacher and wouldn't swap it for anything. Plenty of stress, plenty of sleepless nights wondering about how I can reach some of the kids, the job comes home with me every day, the pay isn't great, but I'm doing what I love and helping to make a difference and that's good enough for me.

They're utter wankers, loving this.

That was one of the most dire showings by a centre-half I've seen at SJP since Cacapa v. Portsmouth under Fat Sam. Clint Hill can count himself lucky to have completed 90 minutes and only seen one goal. How we only managed to score 1 against that shower of shit is bewildering. For all CT's dramatics I think Marveaux (or Obertan) should have started instead of Perch. We showed them too much respect and were too narrow. These are the same players that got us to 5th last season and I do think overly negative tactics are holding us back somewhat.

We'd have done better leaving Jonas on and taking off Perch for Obertan to add some width on the right. Everything in this game has come down the left and has been unproductive - meanwhile, the dodgy left-back Fabio is left untouched when we could be exploiting him.

Comparing it to how shit we were when he was out of the team, I'd say no, Jonas isn't finished. Pardew has shifted him from the familiar "zig-zag runs down the left, get chopped down, win a freekick / don't get chopped down, put in a poor cross, concede possession" player he used to be to one who's much more workmanlike. I'm not sure I like the new Jonas as much but he offers a lot to the team no matter what position he plays in. You don't see him bottle tackles, you don't see him give up on loose balls or stop chasing, and you don't see him failing to track back. Most of the attacking impetus has been taken out of his game and I maintain that was a deliberate move by Pardew, as it started shortly after we began playing the 4-3-3 after Cisse's arrival last season. He's now been moved into more of a covering, defensive role and it's not got as much to do with his legs being gone as it has to do with Pardew's need for that type of player. A type of player, I might add, that we were sorely missing during the West Ham and Swansea defeats. I thought he was shite against Southampton myself but he was just coming back from injury there. Good luck finding a replacement for him. Still one of the lynchpins of our team as far as I'm concerned.

That was truly dreadful. It could've been 5 or 6 and we've been lucky to escape with 'only' a 2-0 hiding. You can't even try to explain why as it's, by and large, the same players as last season who are playing such shit this season.

We are such rubbish. Completely bereft of quality in midfield, two strikers who play as though they've never seen the other, and a suspect defence. Something else that continues to irritate is our reliance on this "floaty back-post" free kick routine with Williamson. As far as I know it's never worked and we just concede possession over and over again.

We are pretty woeful and have been all season.

Cracking goal. We looked very dubious for the first 15 minutes but have grown into it a bit now.

It sounds like your problem was that you spent time in Tennessee. Don't go south of the Mason-Dixon line except to D.C. and all will be well.

Cheers LTB. Midtown will be and probably is already getting hit hard I reckon. Nothing like buildings floating away or anything but it'll not be fun down there for a while. Still only high wind up where I am but the hurricane hasn't technically hit yet so fingers crossed.

Nothing but high winds so far here in northern Manhattan, but all reports indicate the lower end is getting flooded pretty brutally. Not expecting much up here. Plenty of yuppies turn their noses up at living in the Heights "with the immigrants", but I think they'll be laughing out of the other side of their mouths tonight in their underwater $2500/month Chelsea two-bedrooms.

I recognise that, but what I'm saying is that it should've been academic since Gera should never have been given the time to deliver the cross.

I don't think that goal had a lot to do with Shola. Three men on Gera and nobody really attempted to close him down. He's 34 or whatever and can't run, but giving him that much time is only going to create problems.

The dire standard of the opposition?

Pretty flat game, but considering the mix of first-team and fringe players and another clean sheet, it's job done. Good work lads and Pardew.

Never meant that.

I think we're about to get destroyed. That defence looks incredibly dubious. If we win the midfield battle we might have an outside chance, but if we try to play hoofball and keep turning over possession to them, we're in for a long afternoon.

You reckon it was a joke? I don't. He didn't even know what they were doing, that's why he said "I'm not aware of every player's religion." I don't think this is anything "offensive" (extremely overused word), I just find myself dismayed at the ignorance of people who get paid to talk and haven't the faintest what they're talking about. P.S. There haven't been "huge riots" or any riots at all over this as far as I know.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3r7j7z/

Can Waddle literally not say 'penalty' or does he think he's being cute?