aimaad22

He's the only one who's been looking good so far, Im more concerned about the others being able to raise their game right now.

Whats the bloody hell's just happened there? The first red was a bit harsh, but Im not complaining Why Ben Arfa or Cabaye didnt take the penalty I'll never know. Think we've been very poor to be fair. Sissoko's had a shocker, Remy is shitting himself and we've seen very little of Gouffran. We can be thankful to Atkinson for being back into this. At home against 9 men with a whole half of football to be played, surely we cant mess this up now.

I'd rather we try and keep possession like we did against Palace, give the dirty bastards a good run about. Tiote will definitely be a miss, but with Anita and Cabaye doing so well currently you'd think we should be able to cope.

Enough of the partying, time to get back to business! The point of interest for me today will be how we shape up without Tiote. Considering we're playing Stoke the obvious answer is to ask Anita to fill that role and stick Shola back up front. Personally I'd like to see a bit of Ben Arfa though, behind Shola/Remy with Anita and Cabaye sitting behind him.

It looks class. We should definitely use it more. Wish I could get my hands on it from somewhere.

Arteta's getting on a bit now, he was quality at Everton though.

Interesting. What statistic would that be exactly? Pitch coverage? tackle percentage? headers won? interceptions? Possibly all of them! How refreshing to have a couple of top class defenders at the club. And Santon, Mbiwa, Haidara with the potential to be the same.

Arsenal coming up soon

Remember his goal in his first season in the Europa League. He's got that in the locker too (unless it was a Tiote-esque once in a life time goal). Once he's got a few games under his belt he may get confident enough to try a few of those too.

Excellent performance, excellent result. Some lovely passing and possession. Ben Arfa's penalties are bloody mental

Looking forward to this. Hopefully we can boss the midfield, keep good possession and move the ball around. Especially with Cabaye back. We should knick this 1-2 or 0-1. Something of that sort.

Cup, definitely.

I agree. They're still in the mix. How many great players from abroad have taken time to settle in this league? You cant throw a whole bunch of them in together and expect to win the league immediately. I think its the manner of the defeats against City and Liverpool that have cost him though rather than the lack of points.

Also, anybody else notice how Santon always seems half arsed about getting back into position when he loses the ball? Yesterday wasnt the first time he's done that.

Happy birthday

Steve Clarked sacked. WBA on a poor run at the moment alright but Im not sure about this once. They've looked pretty decent at times under him. Lack of a regular goal scoring striker is their problem more than anything.

Not a bad result, Southampton will feel they deserved the point. Cant help but think about Remy's sitter though, 3 points would have been wonderful. Usually you expect to beat a team below you in the table at home so its 2 points dropped for me but its not the worst draw ever because Southampton are a very neat outfit.

Our kit,our colours. black and white. Really does some up the club.

I'd go with that too. Cabaye and Debuchy will be a real miss though. They bring so much energy and guile, along with the quality.

Happy Birthday Sir!

When we havent beaten them in a few decades

We're doing to well on the pitch. Something was bound to happen. But its still unbelievable.

He did struggle, but you could still see there was a player in there somewhere who could be top class given some time. Patience doesnt go hand in hand with modern football. Thankfully in this case we stuck with him.

I'd go with that. If it doesnt work we could always bring on Shola. I suspect Pards will do the opposite though, go with Shola and bring HBA on around the 65 min mark.