Papa Lazaru

Considering his kicking form this tournament i agree they were a bit risky, the first two anyway! Don't think anyone thinks they're a big force, just one of the teams who can win it and know what it takes to battle your way through the tournament when it matters. Personally i think this time for once the serial chokers aren't going to bottle yet another world cup and the all blacks will win it, wouldn't like to say who will be the 4 teams in the semis, its quite interesting so far as nobody is way out there ahead of the rest.

Impressive first half where we played some good football, crap second half where we disappeared for large parts of it but a win will do very nicely! I think Pardew's subs were bad, when BA went off we needed somebody to help relive the pressure and that wasn't Lovenkrands who offered little, either Ben Arfa/Marveaux to try and keep the ball or Ameobi to run at them and provide an outlet was required, We got lucky with the pen and the goal, but after the way they played last time and the way they often play tough shit, they had it coming, though strangely today they were soft as shite for most of it and didnt get stuck in at all!

They didn't at all, England would have been about 12 points further ahead of Wilkinson had been able to kick his pens and drop goals that the forwards had won for him so England didn't take their chances not Scotland. Second half England came out with more drive and purpose and scored the only try of the game when the chance came along. England deserved the win in a tight scruffy game, simple as that. And if Youngs at scrum half hadn't chucked every pass at head height we might have had more possession to work with, when he was replaced the try came as Wrigglesworth got good early ball to hand.

I think both the sunderland and the QPR game were very flattering results, fulham first half as well, and to a certain degree arsenal. Add to that no injuries at all so far and my view is that we have been sailing with the wind in our backs. "Very flattering"? Seriously? Sunderland were on top in that match for about 25 minutes. After that it was pretty even with us having the best of it on many an occasion. We were probably better than Fulham overall. It wasn't luck that QPR's strikers aren't very good, it's just how it is. They deserved to win. Same I guess goes for the Arsenal match. We have had injuries, no idea what you're on about there. We've also been unlucky against say Villa (hitting the bar). Arsenal had more possession but did fuck all with it, draw was a fair result to both teams, Fulham had their spell on top but our keeper did what he's paid to do and we took our chances, nothing lucky about it and the mackems as you say after their early spell did fuck all else and we ended having had the most chances, more possession (i think) and they got away with no penalty and another 2 players who should have been sent off, they were lucky. QPR is the only game people can call lucky if they have such a need to and every team in the prem has games like that where you create nothing and the other team misses their chances, you move on and don't worry about it. Doesn't mean by any stretch i think we're going to be staying top 4 all season and we will have problems when certain players get injured or lose form, but as it stands we've earned most of what we have.

Ref is trying his best to help Basel in defence like with some good obstructing!

Shouldn't have bothered, they'll win 4-3 now

Can't believe ive been sat watching the city match as i thought manu were going to cruise to a boring win and found out its 2-3!!

By the end of the three games against the top 3 ending with Chelsea i think we'll have a good idea of where we actually stand and where we can aim for this season (without knowing what awaits us come the transfer window obviously!) from there. The problem is Pardew talking up how good the squad is, because in midfield, out wide and strangely at the moment up front are looking ok but an injury to Colo and Saylor would suddenly show the black hole in the squad when Williamson and Perch take to the field to keep out the premierships best attackers. I don't think Williamson himself is that bad and alongside Colo he'll be fine, him and Taylor i'd worry, but Perch and anyone will have us in the shit. So whilst everyone is waiting for us to get a striker in Jan its just as important we sign a centreback and shift Perch out and hopefully Pardew will give Kadar a chance, there is no way he should be below Perch in the queue to play defence. I think we'll do quite well as it happens, and as long as the fuckwitts in charge don't sell Colo and/or Tiote in January we can have a good season with a bit of luck injurywise in key areas, but we need another centreback in. I'd be happy for us to sign a left-back, put Santon on the right and shift Simpson out. I'd agree, definitely want a fullback in as well, forgot to say! If Santon turns out well we still need another quality fullback like you say, get a LB and play Santon RB and if the LB gets injured, play Santon there and bring Simpson back in.

By the end of the three games against the top 3 ending with Chelsea i think we'll have a good idea of where we actually stand and where we can aim for this season (without knowing what awaits us come the transfer window obviously!) from there. The problem is Pardew talking up how good the squad is, because in midfield, out wide and strangely at the moment up front are looking ok but an injury to Colo and Saylor would suddenly show the black hole in the squad when Williamson and Perch take to the field to keep out the premierships best attackers. I don't think Williamson himself is that bad and alongside Colo he'll be fine, him and Taylor i'd worry, but Perch and anyone will have us in the shit. So whilst everyone is waiting for us to get a striker in Jan its just as important we sign a centreback and shift Perch out and hopefully Pardew will give Kadar a chance, there is no way he should be below Perch in the queue to play defence. I think we'll do quite well as it happens, and as long as the fuckwitts in charge don't sell Colo and/or Tiote in January we can have a good season with a bit of luck injurywise in key areas, but we need another centreback in.

I think some people have been taking the piss, sky's phone vote for motm went to Bramble to the bemused looks of the presenter and gary neville!

He is indeed, he slips in the odd win like the stoke game to just keep him in the job so he can go on another run of abject shite!

I think Quinn is a decent guy and wouldn't leave them in the shit himself, Bruce however will be in serious trouble if they lose here and at home to West Brom as then its two away games. Got a feeling Ellis Short might make a few changes maybe. Swathes of empty pink seats last home game . Wholesale shakeup in the offing I rekon True, he's the one with the final say, hope he keeps Bruce though, if they sack him and go get somebody like O'Neill they'll be far better off.

I think Quinn is a decent guy and wouldn't leave them in the shit himself, Bruce however will be in serious trouble if they lose here and at home to West Brom as then its two away games.

How did stoke concede 4 to this lot! I'm going for Norwich to actually get a pen to round it off since they're giving them away every match it'd be just like the mackems to concede one!

Going to have that for a good few months yet sadly! Teams like wolves and particularly the king of the gutless attempts to injure fellow pros in calvin henry are going to go after him from the first minute, its all they are and he is going to have to get used to it. But we can't hide him from these games as there will always be some talentless cunt out there going to clatter him, you just hope he now has the luck to avoid injury when it happens.

lol i'm struggling to figure out if you actually think that or are joking considering you'll still have to meet France and then Ireland(pending the italy result) who you haven't beat in a competitive match in years, clean run and people wonder why i like England losing. This is a world cup though, remember only the real big boys turn up when it matters and have a shot at it, its not the six nations when any old team can win Seriously though, he and other England fans are confident because England do get to semis and finals in world cups when it matters, even last time when the team was poor they got there, they know what it takes so until other teams do it as often as the main four their fans will remain confident.

I'd attribute that to his lack of a pre-season and the whole Visa farce. When you combine the fasting with the his pre-season he was actually playing pretty well considering! But when you watched the Villa game and especially the Blackburn game you remembered quite how good he is and it was great to see against Rovers that he broke up play continuously but never looked at all likely to be booked!

Definitely harder to snatch a proven finisher on the cheap, you can gamble on a lower league player or one from a country who's league is poor and hope they step up, or go for a very young player withe potential but strikers already good enough and ready to play at the top level cost money as we won't pay it!

When Ben Arfa, Marveaux and Cabaye were on the pitch, with others joining in we definitely saw a spell of passing that like you say hasn't happened for a long time, it was people with great first touch, natural and comfortable on the ball and moving around to pass and recieve and it was good to see. Agree about Ba, couldn't believe the people on here and at the match writing him off when he was playing football on no food and was still settling into the team not even playing full matches, but that's the way it is these days, if you don't look like Messi after 5 mins, your crap. And it isn't racist at all its a fair point about fasting, if theres going to be a month in which you can't do your job properly, you shouldn't get your full wages if you ask me, but no chance it would ever happen!

Great effort from the lads today, Ba obviously showed his quality, which has been coming with time, no idea why so many people wrote him off when he was sluggish from not eating for ramadan and having to play top level football. Tiote was everywhere, winning the ball using it well and but for a striker with a hattrick he would have been MOTM for me, Colo was class as usual and Taylor did well alongside him. I thought Best actually had a canny game but his finishing was off, whereas when he's scored he's usually not been in the game much. And i think Obertan had a good game, used the ball better and was involved in alot of what we did, he'll always frustrate with the odd moment but he did well. We played some nice stuff with alot of the team involved and the subs Marveaux and Ben Arfa were straight into it and played some lovely stuff

Last season this was the sort of game we'd come into after some good results, expect a win and fuck it up every time, but this year i'm hoping we will have sorted that. I'm going for a win, and if we score relatively early a comfortable win!

Ben Arfa if he avoids injuries, if not then Colo or Cabaye for me.

Be interesting if Vukic does kick on and show he's good enough to see where he ends up as i think he said ages ago he's happy as a striker, off a striker or in midfield so could potentially do a job in one or more of those roles.

All the people i know who've given up tickets and stopped going for the first time in their lives have all done it because of ashley, llambias and the succession of shit they've put us through. People have a breaking point and these two fuckwitts have found it in people that never believed they'd stop going. In the past we had some disasterous managers, spells of watching awful football but there was always the chance it would turn round and go somewhere, with ashley it won't and some people have had enough, and you can't blame them!

That could have been seriously good and wouldn't have cost much at all to do, it would just have required not selling players, sad really.