OTF

Wolverhampton 1 Swansea 0 Aston Villa 1 West Bromwich Albion 0 Bolton 0 Sunderland 0 Newcastle United 3 Wigan Athletic 0 Liverpool 2 Norwich 0 Arsenal 2 Stoke 0 Fulham 0 Everton 1 Man United 1 Man City 2 Blackburn 0 Tottenham 2 QPR 0 Chelsea 2

I think it's about the fact they all seem interested in football, somehow discussing the fixtures while being noshed off appeals to a lot of guys This is the Australian equivilant, Mel McLauchlin who is cute and knowledgeable about football but supports Man U which would instantly turn it soft for me. She does ok.. from a discussion perspoective prefer when Adam Peacock is leading the charge, not just because he's a newcastle supporter. IN the end though it doesn't really matter when it's Robbie Slater, Mark Bosnich and Mark Bosnich's Marsupial Hat that are performing the 'analysis'. Anyway I've gone way off topic. She's definitely cute.

Liked the look of him when I've seen him, but you have to wonder about his injury record. If he can stay fit shuold get some time on the pitch this season with the first team.

Agree that giving some returning players a go here might be the perfect way to help keep the team motivated. Protecting an unbeaten record is great motivation as well, but this sort of match is one that players could easily go into thinking it's won already and conseqeuently be flat. Ben Arfa and Santon into the starting line-up at the expense of Obertan and Simson/Raylor. Marveaux given a good run out as well pending the results at the time, replacing Best with Ben Arfa moving into a free role.

He runs at defenders? Similar to Routledge. You don't always need end product when you play in his position. End product is overrated tbh. Having no end product hasn't done Jonas any harm! Probably could have chosen a better time to come out with that.

Likable guy.. but 10M!... worst 'journalism' ever.

I thiink the limited budget will finally catch up with Everton this season and they'll finish mid table. Honestly I'd be disappointed if we finished below them, though I'm probably being a little optimistic because of our current form. Reina is overrated, but has improved in recent years - he was cack a few years back but protected by the fact that they had Gerrard (on top of his game) and Alonso shielding the defense and bossing possession.

Year Zero, that's paying a little too much heed to the few moments of quality we've seen from Sam Ameobi. He scored that wonderful goal and has been dangerous another time when used off the bench, but he's also been wasteful off the bench once.All in all it's very limited minutes some coming against tired opposition where a player with running in his legs will naturally make inroads - how many times did we see Routledge terrorise opposing teams for a few minutes?

Does he seem to be at his best when he has just returned from injury? Whatever it was, it worked. Best had a poor game, but doesn't necessarily means he should be dropped. Shola is a definite fader where-as Best contributes little across an entire match but is likely to pop up with the odd goal despite that because of the advanced positions he occupies.

Might be right about the gears. Shouldn't matter too much though just has to take it down a notch then burst at top pace. Wasn't great again, but wasn't shite either. Somewhere in-between with the biggest detractor for me his reluctanc to get immediately stuck in when he turns over possession. At that age that should be able to be coached into him, a great start would be to sub him off and tell him it's because he's not doing his share defensively. We've definitely got other options and to be fair Obertan has been given a good chance to show what he can do now it should be Marveaux who gets his chance. Then a proper assessment could be made about who deserves to start.

... Forgot to mention, but what a finish by Shola! Absolute top shelf, could not have been placed better. Canny little pass from Raylor who would have capped a solid game if his defense for the Defoe goal wasn't laughably poor.

A good result in the end. Defensive errors resulted in the two goals we conceded which is frustrating, but shows that our midfield did well to restrict their chance creation. Frustrating that Colo couldn't put the ball in the back of the net, but you can't begrudge his effort and desire and he otherwise was again fantastic. Jonas for me though was MOTM. In the past when he'd play against a faster defender he'd hide a bit, but in this game he took the challenge head on and emerged triumphant. He wasn't perfect but that penetrating run and dunked cross for our first was divine. Keeping the unbeaten run was important, the longer we have that the better obviously but it adds that extra motivation to push to come back when behind. Credit again to Krul who pulled off a good save towards the end getting himself into the perfect position to make the block. Couldn't really fault him all game, came out when he needed to and was strong In the air. Really entertaining second half, was great to watch... The emotions soaring when Colo went close to winning it. Love it.

'twas a great run and ball from Jonas. Good enough finish from Ba. Great to get the early goal.

Agree, Best seems lethargic and out of touch with the pace of the game. He's clattering into their defenders on the floated balls in but winning precious few and even when he does it's often going straight back to them. Better keeping the ball on he deck and working it into the box from wide instead of from deep. Ben Arfa out there early for Best and then Marveaux on for Obertan a little later is what I'd be doing. Give HBA the freedom to go where he likes.

Who was is that made something of Taylor not giving away a penalty in some time? Thanks a fucking lot whoever it was. Since then he's committed two obvious fouls in the box. Somehow the one against Wolves was missed. Stupid challenge Taylor could have easily just kept Adebayor wide and stayed goal side. Some encouraging play but ultimately toothless in terms of goal scoring chances. Tiote and Jonas doing well but not without the odd error. Who was it that gave the ball away for their goal?

Got to love Colo. Great attitude since the relegation. Good to have a central defender with some skill on the ball, glad that he's made home at Newcastle with his family.

Liverpool 1 Man Utd 1 Man City 2 Aston Villa 0 Norwich 1 Swansea 0 QPR 2 Blackburn 1 Stoke 1 Fulham 0 Wigan 2 Bolton 2 Chelsea 1 Everton 0 West Brom 1 Wolves 1 Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0 Newcastle 0 Tottenham 2

The biggest argument against this is the Spanish league itself. The divide between quickly becomes a chasm and the competitiveness of the league suffers as a result. I can't see anything coming of this. Even though there may be some legitimacy to the claims it would not be possible to sustain the league as it is if TV money was dependent upon some arbitrarily constructed 'global profile' rating. It's not something that can easily be quantified. If these sort of changes were to occur it would further spoil the competitive nature of the league and would severely limit the lower structured teams to the point where they could never increase their profile to a level to match without literally throwing away excessive amounts of money. I'm sure Liverpool would love to lock themselves in as one of the big four teams now, before Man City do the same. Most international fans are fickle and will support whoever is on top at the time. That certainly isn't Liverpool, and won't be for the foreseeable future. Manchester City on the other hand are likely to challenge for the title this season and will continue to do so going forward so will naturally grow an international fan base.

Should be a good game for him to be given a lengthy run out, maybe even start (though I don't think Pardew will change anything, despite the fact that we got desperately lucky against Wolves).

In Primary school lots of cricket was played. A little bit of soccer. IN high school there was pleanty of basketball and some Grid Iron in the first couple of years, then lots of touch football still with basketball, and then in the last couple of years football (soccer) still with a supplement of basketball. At home I was big on the Lego and Masters of the Universe. Dabbled in GI Joe, Ninja Turtles and the like. First video games were on an Apple IIe, the likes of Karateka, Lode Runner, Choplifter ones that immediately spring to mind. Also played a fair bit of Commodore 64 with cousins. Then went on to Nintendo with all the Mario Bros games (3 being the favourite). Along came the PC and played lots of games on that Wolfenstein, Lakers vs Celtics, Doom , Microspore F1 all stand out. Then way too much of this Basketball game called TV Sports basketball. Mix in some PSX with Internation Superstar Soccer (PES precursor) Gran Turismo 1 & 2. Started big on Pro Evolution with a couple of mates around PES2 on PS2. But then I've gone pretty far, but I'd say still growing up, even to this day.

Well done lads. Will take a little getting used to but I'm sure we'll all be reaping the benefits in no time.

It doesn't change what he's being paid and at his age being so settled in the area I'd say it's unlikely he'd be looking for an immediate move. I think his contract is up next year though, so the feeling I get is that Ashley won't want to pay the wages Harper is on for a first choice keeper let alone a backup one and so there will be some effort to move him on in January. Failing that he'll be off next summer and a newly promoted or lower half Premier League side will pick themselves up a tidy, experienced competent keeper on a free-transfer. Elliot hasn't shown much that's good, and has shown a fair bit that looks worrying so it would be strange that he'd be elevated into the deputy spot behind Krul. Harper has always done reasonably well when played, so the only motivation behind intentionally making him thrid string could be an attempt to make him more likely to leave in January? We've also still got Forster in the picture who I can't see being worse than Elliot and has several years on him as well, so if Elliot doesn't improve they could always fall back on Fraser to deputise for Krul.

It's remarkable how poorly they've done with their recruiting on the whole. The thing that sticks, though is that when they get a player of decent abiltiy - Bent, Cana, Henderson, Gyan - they never want to stick around for long. Granted some decent money has come their way for some of their outgoing players but the money seems to get spent with not a great deal to show for it. They strike me as a tream that has no unity or care. Will have another dull season with few highlights finishing in the lower part of the middle of the table. I can't see that cycle changing unless the owners cut off the money supply in which case they'll start to slide closer to the drop.

Nice work fucking shit England. Northern Ireland burned by Estonia as well. Nevermind then, Wales were where it was at but only had a couple of bucks thrown their way. Up about AU$100 on yesterdays games in total... pretty much all from Germany winning.