OTF

Nicely romanticised . The challenges I'm talking about are simply a case of not needing to be made. They're not a feature of his game, and it's not even poor judgement on making challenges. These are legs that are left out with the express intent of stopping someone. These have a place in the game and can be important in breaking up the oppositions attack, but in these cases they're in very silly positions when the other team are going nowhere. He can eliminate them from his game. If he doesn't he'll pick up yellows in more than every other game. We can't afford to be routinely missing a player like him given the difference he makes simply because of lack of discipline.

No defense in Emre and inconsistent as, as well as injury prone. Would be a poor signing for Liverpool as Gerrard already offers them an inconsistent spoilt midfielder who doesn't play in any particular position. Gerrard though is certainly capable of better than Emre, and gets away with all sorts of shit because he's England's Stevie G.

The others certainly take the cake, don't get me wrong, but at least 2 or 3 or Tiote's yellows have come from him leaving his foot in when he should be pulling it out. It's a nasty habit that will have him picking up loads of yellows. It could be easily avoided if he curbs his behiour slightly and it will have no negative impact on his style of play. Conversely for the team it will be of benefit as we won't need to defend as many set pieces. Fantastic player who has very good positioning, but that in my opinion is a weakness in his game. Thankfully it's one that can easily be coached out of him.

There is a lot ot be pleased about - namely the form of Andy Carroll and the difference that Cheick Tiote can make in the side. There has been some wonderful victories. However, at this very moment there's also a lot to be concerned about. There's a definite downtrend in our performances. Sure, a significant proportion of blame can be levelled at the absence of some of our key players, however the fact that those players are missing is down to the players themselves and not some external force or injury (or combination). Barton got himself chopped for three matches for stupid behaviour, Tiote got himself suspended for one game for constantly leaving his foot in in challenges that are well lost and now Coloccini and Williamson have done themselves for three matches each for some more idiotic on-field tomfoolery. Tiote coming back against Chelsea should make a huge difference, however with all the negative publicity they've been garnering of late they're due a good performance. They'll have to do it with plenty of their key players missing - namely Lampard and Essien (Terry's past it, his image having previously been enhanced greatly by having the likes of the Essien, Makalele and Lampard in front of him). Another loss in this one and we'll have picked up just 1 point from four matches - three of them being at home. Connecting the dots that doesn't paint a pretty picture for our next two fixtures West Brom away or Liverpool at home. Failure to pickup points in this tricky run will leave us dangerously close to the drop zone, a position where we obviously don't want to be. Connecting the dots is all. All said and done we have it in us to continue Chelsea's current woes - but honestly how likely will that be with an ineffectual Nolan in the middle and Guthrie down the right?

Barton and Tiote will definitely help. I think with Barton though people are making too mucch of his form. He's not a right mifielder and can't beat players on their outside, so he's getting by on guile and good off the ball movement. He's also being made to look better than he is because of picking up frequent assists from free-kicks where he's floating the ball into good positions. I'd rather see him olay in the middle alongside Tiote with a proper right midfielder on the right. Nolan deviates from wonderful instinctive finishing to complete anonymity, with the latter coming to the fore recently. Last season he was the same - having a horrible run through the middle of the season. Hughton didn't drop him then, and looks unlikely to do so now, bu the big difference is that we were playing Championship sides then, so even if we struggled to score we weren't conceding so it was manageable. Nolan for me has precious more than zero value when he's not scoring. Smith is complete and utter rubbish. His positioning off the ball was infuriating against Bolton. Guthrie though is a decent player. Never a world beater, but when playing through the middle he can pick out a pass and can occassionally crack a good shot when given space. He flat out should not be cconsidered to play down the right though, because he's lost when used there. The problem with our dip in form, even if it is largely based on some key players being not available, is that bad form can be highly contageous. With some very difficult matches coming up (Chelsea and Liverpool at home) it's entirely forseeable that bad form turns into low morale. With a manager who doesn't have a good (or long) history with backs against the wall if the going gets tough we could easily get succked back into the tail end of the table. The January window is almost 6 weeks away, and it's unlikely that much (if any) strengthening will be done over that period so if we leave that crucial junction with the lack of true first team depth that we have available now in certain positions I wouldn't be confident of us finishing outside the bottom three just because there's three or four teams on paper that are worse than us. Ciritical that we get at least three points out of our next three games. Four would be very good any more would be fantastic. If we come out of that three back in some modicum of form we have a very winable match at St Andrews, before we host Man City. Enacting some sort of revenge in that match would leave a very sweet taste in my mouth.

Smith... (fingers crossed) If we did by some small miracle manage to get rid of Smith in January there would be no excuse for not strengthening. With Hughton showing no confidence in Routledge we don't have a natural right winger/midfielder which is quite astounding really.

It was hard to tell with the Williamson one, it wasn't blatant, more of a collision. I hope we appeal Jose Enrique's yellow card. The card itself won't mean much because Jose doesn't acrue a lot, but on principle alone we should appeal because they got it blatantly wrong and a successful appeal will officially point out that the linesmen/ref got it wrong and the mark will be against them instead of Jose.

I'd rather we ship him and pay the difference on his wage wherever he goes for the next 18 months.

On the strength of their performances in this game neither Colo nor Williamson will be missed. Steven Taylor and Sol couldn't do worse, but with Chelsea the team visiting you hardly want to be debuting a new defensive partnership. It really doesn't make any sense. Guthrie wasn't horrible but is so clearly out of position. Miles better than Smith and Nolan in this match, but not given a look in in his preferred position. It's hard to judge Routledge on this match because of the position that we were in when he came on (ie. Bolton not that worried defensively) but he did look decent and put in a good ball or two. We need someone down both flanks who will look to go outside their player rather than having to check back constantly because they don't have the pace to do so.

100% our own worst enemies. If Bolton's finishing was better they could have had a swag more on top of the ones we gifted them. They didn't have to do anything in this match apart from wait for us to spectacularly self-implode. It all started with the stupid penalty that Nolan gave, then the failure to clear. Their third was down to them, but at 0-0 it's unlikely they would have created that chance. Coloccini served up their next on a platter, so all said and done they've scored one goal of their own making. The ref and linesmen conspired to add insult to our injury with the Enrique 'penalty' to top off a game that now rivals Blackburn for most forgettable performance of the season.

Ref is a cunt. Carroll copped it worse at the other end. Was fouled from behind when the guy had no play at the ball. This one was not a fucking oenalty in a million years and home town hero gives a penalty for a great defensive interception. FFS. Cunt.

Smith If we never see him on the pitch again it will be too soon as far as I'm concerned at the minute. Is this match the complete bursting of our bubble? Reality setting in?

It's the way we've lost though. Potentially devestating for our confidence. With Chelsea and Liverpool (who are shite, but still loads better than us and have a nasty habit of touching us up) in the next three, plus an away match at West Brom and we could easily be staring down a similar position to 2008/09 in three weeks time.

Great ball from Routledge. Carroll was fouled in the box from behind, cunt of a ref. Carroll deserves another for having to play with the rest of the side. Tiote can't be back soon enough.

Fuck. Hope that's not Colo's confidence shot for the rest of the season. That was fucking horrible. Lucky that Sol and Saylor are back. Williamson and Coloccini could be goen for three each. We're honestly our own worst enemies.

Soft from Coloccini, hope his head doesn't drop. Elmander has had our defense worried all game. Lovelyhands on.

Commentators confusin the issue about who Routledge is coming on for. Should be Nolan or Smith in my opinion, but there's no way he'll take off Nolan and he'll probably wuss out and take off Guthrie who is so obviously out of position it's not at all funny - but he should be moved into the middle because even out of position he's been 100 times better than Smith. ...and it's Guthrie off.

Time to make some changes Chris. We've got lucky to get our goal, don't think they'll be putting anymore through balls through for Carroll for us. Change it up.

Nolan started the game well, has all been downhill from there. Good defense from Coloccini there.

Excellent goal, and a composed confident finish. Took us apart clinically. Lets see if our players heads dropped. I can see us just hoofing it constantly to an increasingly frustrated Andy Carroll. ...Ahoy! maybe not so frustrated. Great finish Carroll nice assist from their bloke there...

If he had an avatar like yourself he'd at least have some value. sammy agree about getting Smith off. FFS, get them all off.

I'll tell you one place we won't be - Anywhere near an Everton forum you sad, pathetic bastard.

Half the time when we get the ball he's dashing forward as though he's playing lone striker. Hope Hughton serves it up to him. Catastrophic dallying lead to both of their goals, though for the first it was largely complete idiocy from Nolan that was to blame. Seems to me we're lacking some leadership out there.

<holds gun to head> FFS clear it you idiots. Off-side, but shouldn't even have had a look in. Have a look at the positioning of Alan Smith if you want to see complete uselessness in action. Drop back and give a passing option you idiot.

Nolan you twit.