David Kelly

Totally agree. Also it's unfair (just as it has been with Jonas) to single any players out as poor this season when they all have been!

Referee's buying the shite that is put forward about Tiote's tackling could get him sent off!

His diving could quite easily get Tiote sent off though!

It's already been moved to a 1.30 kick off

I'm sure he was played most as a midfielder. I'm sure he just happened to play there against us when they were short and had his best game ever there on that night.

I really can't see them paying the price for him and I don't think he'd be desperate for a move there. If there was anything in any potential swap deal, Ashley would value Ben Arfa at a hell of a lot higher than Carroll (who's done very little in two seasons now). Carroll's value will by the end of this season fallen to sub £10m and I have a feeling Ben Arfa will be immense for the rest of the season. If that does happen £30m would certainly not be out of the question. I also think that if there was any chance of this, bigger clubs than the bin dippers would come in for him and I can't see why he would choose them at that stage. I'm not confident he will stay though as I think he's a player of more than enough quality to be playing at the very best teams and if we're not going to make the commitment to try and get up with those teams he would be well within his rights to look to move on.

I only say free in that I don't think losing would hurt us much. Winning however would give us a massive boost and I agree completely that the last two games should give us plenty of optimism that we can get a result. I also completely agree that the Villa result was anything but lucky. We absolutely murdered them in the first half and our defense and keeper dug in and got us the result in the second. There's nothing lucky about players doing the job they're paid to do. I'm not so sure about the downgrading of the wafa cup if we get beat off Spurs bit. We play Metalist on the Thursay after Spurs and then we have no game the next weekend until we play them again the following Thursday. I think putting out a strong team against them at home could see us going over there in a strong position, allowing us to be more protective of players for the away trip. I also think that if we lose to Spurs then put a weakened team out to Metalist we would be making a big mistake. If we put out a weak team, and lose at home then most likely make no effort in the away leg, we put ourselves in a position of three losses in a row which could completely decimate the confidence the last couple of weeks had brought. I don't think we will make that mistake.

Agreed, I certainly didn't mean to suggest we should take it easy or put out a weakened team or anything like that. We should be going looking for a win, it's just that if we get beat it certainly wouldn't be something I'd be terribly concerned about. Getting beat off Southampton on the other hand would be a big problem and I agree, any game against teams that are down there with us at the moment is a six pointer until we've pulled away.

I'd be more disappointed at seeing Perch play there ever again than I would seeing Simpson. Perch is an average midfielder who can do a job for us sitting, winning the ball and laying it off simple. He's not a defender and we shouldn't need to play him there. I disagree he's as good as Raylor there.

I don't think the next game is massively important. Certainly if we did win we could theoretically move right up into mid table and things will look very good but I don't think losing away to Spurs would harm us in any great way. It's almost like a bit of a free game after winning the last two. If we hadn't won those then we'd be desperate for points and we'd all be saying that we can't see where a win will come from. But now we know we can win away and we know we can beat one of the top team and we know we can come back from being behind. The last two game matter much more than this next one. If we get beat off a very good Spurs team away then we just dust ourselves off and move on to the Southampton game and look upwards from there. Overall I think it's madness to say we're not still in a relegation battle, our position and points total (combined with the fact that Reading and Southampton have both improved a lot lately) say the complete opposite. I am however confident that we will win that battle and we can finish the season strongly and safely in mid table.

I remember Sheedy scoring a good one in the promotion season. Pretty sure we were wearing the yellow and green adidas kits at the time.

Did they not change the rule about indirect freekicks in the box all being penalties the other year? Mind you pass backs are still indirect so there is an ever so small chance I'm talking shite! Anyway, he still got his attempt away so I don't think it should have been pulled back for a penalty or a freekick.

Cabaye was more than slightly under par earlier on tbh. Don't know if it down to his fitness, other players being missing or him being in a huff because of our failure to strengthen/he was prevented from moving on. But whatever it is he looks right back to his best now.

Let's face it, one in two is an excellent return for any striker.

I seem to remember when we signed Cisse, reading from someone who had seen him a lot (actually it might have been some makem on the smb when I was laughing at their bitterness) that he's the type of player who needs a good few chances to score. It sounded like the way Cole was in his first season with us. If you remember back then, Cole would miss chance after chance but we would create so many that he would inevitably score. When Cisse first arrived everything he hit went in. Some of them, the Chelsea goal being the perfect example, were ones that you thought he could try it a hundred times and never manage to do that again. Obviously if we were expecting him to repeat that again this season we were expecting too much and he is looking more like the player described back then. That player is still getting into positions to score and in recent weeks he's started to hit the back of the net more regularly. When we show him that we can create more chances (something I'm confident of with the new signings and I will be even more confident of when Ben Arfa's back) I think he will get more confident and he will start scoring again more regularly.

This whole incident does raise the question, what was a professional athlete (and one trying to recover from an injury at that) doing out on the piss at four in the morning? I appreciate that he's a young lad and whatever his job he deserves to be able to go out and enjoy himself on his free time but surely he should be getting himself home before that time. He could still go out and have a good night but be back in at a more responsible hour. It can't be good for him physically being out that late and going for a kebab/pizza or whatever at that time certainly isn't what an athlete should be doing. Quite apart from the fitness issues of such a lifestyle, that time at night is when there are a lot of pissed up people walking the city center. There's obviously going to be more chance that he'll get into an argument with someone who supports another team (or given Simpsons popularity with our own fans, someone who supports us!) that could lead onto something just like this. I have to admit I'm not really one who can take the high ground on a healthy lifestyle or not being pissed up at four in the morning but then again I'm not getting paid what he is to do a job where looking after himself is of paramount importance.

Heard him compared to Obertan at one point during the first half. Can't think of anything further from the truth. I seriously doubt he's ever going to be able to replace Ba (don't really think that was ever the intention from the move) but I think he'll be a good addition to the squad. He's already looked a bit better than I was expecting tbh.

And Cabaye

According to his wiki page he's allergic to certain trees not grass.

Just seen it on goals on Sunday and it's definitely a straight red. Two footed and he jumped into it. He probably landed a bit in front of Jonas so certainly didn't make that bad a contact but it was definitely dangerous and exactly what theyre supposed to be stamping out. With regards to the Colo/Ba incident, it could have easily been a pen but I think the fact that he got the effort in so he got the advantage was why Webb didn't give it. It wasn't a red card though, his eyes were only ever on the ball. It was just unfortunate for Ba.

Did they show Ramirez's challenge on football first? Thought it had to be a straight red at the time but I've not seen it again.

Fucking great day yesterday, I couldn't complain about a single performance and the atmosphere was just brilliant. Loved the team reactions to the goals (especially the winner) and at the end of the game. Sissoko is looking like he would have been a bargain at £15m let alone for what we've paid for him. Gouffran looks like a very usefull addition to the squad. Pacy, great work ethic and just keeping stuff simple. Could argue he could have had a better shot for Sissokos first goal but on his weaker foot (looks pretty comfortable with both tbf) he made the keeper work and we got the reward. Most pleasing of all is that we showed the fight to come back from behind which bodes very well for the rest of the season.

How the fuck have we managed to sign this bloke? I know it's been said our reputation in France is really high over how we handled Ben Arfa's injury but you would have expected a lot of champions league teams to be in for him! He's not playing anything like the role I expected from him, he seems to almost just in behind Cisse he was absolutely epic yesterday. Pace, power, passing, shooting he had the lot. There's not many home debuts I can remember in the last twenty five years that come close to that.

French pre season tour to book methinks!

I'm running out of a bit of steam with the third series of Breaking Bad. Don't know if it's because I've been too tired when I've been getting in on a night or if I'm not enjoying it as much.