OTF

Pardew also confirmed midfielder Jonas Gutierrez faces a spell on the sidelines with a knee injury after missing the Boxing Day game. "He will be missing the next two or three games," he said. "Gutierrez will have an injection in his knee tomorrow. It is not clearing up and he is not 100%."

We will bring on 2 players in the January window. At least 1 player will leave. We'll finish the season in the top 10.

He wasn't that good against Man Utd in my opinion, however it was clear that in terms of technique he is far ahead of most other players in the side. His decision making wasn't great but that's to be expected given he hasn't played much in this side. He still doesnt strike me as the type of player that will put in the effort to get back when required, though happy to be proved otherwise. Ben Arfa is of course vastly superior, but an attacking midfield with Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Cabaye and Tiote should have enough defensive mettle.

Colo embarrassed himself with the way he carried on there, on replay there wasn't much in it. If he had carried on defending highly unlikely that they would have scored IMO. Can't be fun getting one across the schnoz, but if you don't get the call you need to keep playing. Defensively in the second half we lost our shape.

Ridiculous really.

Two footed lunge from Valencia has smashed Anita's ankle. It should be a straight red without doubt.

Ban the WUM.

No doubt we won't get all 6 minutes of the 4 added now.

Fuck. Horrible defending.

Sameobi couldn't have gone closer without scoring...

On replay Coloccini wants shooting for the way he took himself out of play for what ended up being van Persie's goal.

First thought was that we got lucky then - could have easily been given as hand ball.

First thought was that we got lucky then - could have easily been given as hand ball.

This has been a crazy game, not what I was expecting.

Nice work Obertan, and that's the Cisse we've been missing!!

Bollocks, think Krul could have done better there.

This is right. The ball never got through to where Cisse was AND it was blatantly Evans who initiated the contact between the two (pushing Cisse illegally) so there is no argument for him interfering with play from an offside position.

Commentators here made a good point, if it had correctly been given a goal straight away there would not have been this level of conjecture.

Ferguson is livid, claiming Papiss Cisse has put Evans life in danger.

This. Evans pushed into Cisse also.

Been a very interesting half, there seems to be a lot of space for our forwards to operate in. At the other end our defense has done well so far to limit their chances and to keep van Persie out of it. Glad Rooney isn't playing.

He hasn't had 5 months of poor displays to be fair. I think just one or two matches out could revitalise him, particularly if Ben Arfa is back when he returns, but all said and done we will miss aspects of his game even now when he's far from his best as we're far from spoilt for choice.

Unfair to judge one player on a 20 minute cameo against a tired defense and another who was out there from the start getting no help from an unbalance formation. I do agree though that changing it up to refresh Jonas looks like it would be a good idea and Obertan is the next best option we have for playing out wide. I'm not sure the reason why, but previously Jonas was reluctant to put crosses in, probably because he knows he's not good at it and yet now he seems to only want to send in crosses to the point where it is utterly predictable. Some balance there is required. I think he's at his best driving forward making short sharp passes utilising an overlapping fullback and an attacking inside option. I'd like to see the possession stats for our left side versus right and centre from the first half against QPR.

Merry Christmas to you all hope all and their families are well.

Next time pop in a safety wink and maybe one day he'll figure the internet out.