rogerbarton

By the way, Webb hasn't actually been that bad. He's nowhere near as woeful as Mason, Probert or Dean

I dunno, as frustrating as Obertan is we've worked well with this system and he does get involved constructively very occasionally!! Cisse seems like a bit of a luxury player at the moment - he'll put the ball in the net when he gets the chance but he doesn't really affect play in any other way. Would like to see Cabaye get a grip on the game a bit more again.

I recall saying we needed a new centre back in January... Cabaye anonymous so far too.

Yeah, I remember Walcott ripping us to shreds in the Carling Cup and the first half of the 4-4. not sure whether he played in the emirates game. In any case, the defensive solidity we showed that day in the 1-0 looks a long way off effectively since Saylor got injured. Any kind of pace has terrified us this season. Think Sturridge and the Tottenham/Fulham games

Why on earth would they lie about that?! Seems like a completely counter intuitive thing for Llambias to have mentioned in the first place

Barton didn't get Twitter until Ashley/Llambias had backed him into a corner last summer and I don't remember Kevin Nolan ever spitting any dummy out - he was a fantastic servant to the club. Things are certainly looking more positive heading into the summer this season though.

Good on the bloke. He was about the only player who gave a toss at the end of our relegation season and was fantastic in the Championship. He's lacked a bit of quality in the Premier League this time round, unfortunately, but he still put in a few shifts for us last season. A good servant to the club and he clearly loves NUFC so I'm sure he'll be back to watch games in the future.

If Van Persie goes off in the first five minutes we might get something. Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain are going to be a nightmare for our defence. We've struggled against pace all season. Not at all convinced by our defence at the moment. That said, I'm not entirely convinced by Arsenal's defence either. We might be best having a go at them with Ben Arfa.

He was fantastic today and changed the game. We were so much better with an outlet like him to get the ball down and play it on the park. We have to include him and keep it on the grass going forward now. Cannot even imagine a situation where we're hoofing it aimlessly up to Cisse and Ba and winning not a sausage again like we did vs. Wolves and in the first half today.

T To be honest, all he has to do is tell Krul/Colo to pass it short instead of hoofing it up there

My half time thoughts: 1) Shirt pulling happens every time a set piece is delivered into the box in every single game in the Premier League. Fair enough if you're going to be consistent and give it every time, but has Dean actually given a penalty for that offence at all this season? And why the hell would you go and give it in a game as huge as this? 2) Hoofball has been prominent again. DOES NOT WORK. See my comments in the Wolves thread. We haven't won a single long ball again today. Get it down and play it on the floor. We have the players. Pardew HAS to change things at half time. Bring Ben Arfa on, give us a bit of a spark, get us playing it on the floor.

Wondering what team we're going to see out there on Sunday. Dead on that the mackems will line up with five in midfield and we've really struggled this season when the opposition has done that, Cabaye in particular gets taken out of the game. Wouldn't be too against Ba on his own up top with Cabaye Guthrie and Tiote in the middle and Ben Arfa and Jonas on the wings. Whack Raylor in at right back of course

The way we've played in the last two games it's been impossible to see how effectively they can link up. Against Wolves, Pardew's tactics was lots of long balls up to the two of them and see what would happen. That wasn't going to work. Papiss looked good when he was involved but Ba was off the pace on Saturday for once. We'll have to see how it develops.

Good piece. Interesting to see the stats showing Santon's solid start - I actually thought he was a little clumsy with regards to fouls but the stats don't agree. I would definitely suggest we ought to take action to bring in someone better than Simpson in the summer. I think we've kept faith with him for a while now but he commits basic errors too often and has been our weakest link defensively very often.

We were woefully short of someone to knit together the attack and midfield against Wolves. Ben Arfa, a ball carrier who can create chances, was exactly what we needed. I am struggling to think of how we can set up best with him in the team, but I do think he should get a chance soon. The Sunderland game may come too soon for him because I doubt Pardew will want to risk anything, but the 4-3-3 we experimented might come into play - just think we struggled a little with that system, particularly with the lack of cover for the full backs and I'm not sure where Jonas could fit into that system...

I'll be interested to see how we line up for this one. We struggle against teams who put five in the middle which I can see the mackems doing. I'd consider dropping one of Simpson or Santon (probably Simpson cos at least Santon offers something going forward) and putting Raylor back at full back.

Agree to some extent with what's been said. Ben Arfa should have started today and I think we might have won the game had he have done. At least he sparked some life into the team. But when he's come in he's tried to do too much in too short a period of time and it's sometimes been detrimental to the team. That said, he could easily have won it for us with his two shots and he was the only person who got a shot away late on.

Another point to note is that our defensive solidity has more or less disappeared now. We don't look particularly strong at either full back position and Williamson is struggling. Jarvis had a lot of success against Simpson today. Simmo's a nice bloke but I think we should tell him to shag off wit hthis contract business and get someone else in.

I agree, laregly after the knock. It was surprising then that he replaced Cisse rather than Ba. Cisse works harder at closing down. Slowla Slowmeobi as a late sub to inject seomthing into a game is laughable. Yeah, it's a shame we've not been able to see much from Cisse in the last two games because we've barely seen the ball...

I'd also say Ba looked a million miles off his normal self, might be a bit worried after he took a knock in the second half

Pure and simply, we just had the wrong tactics today which played right into their hands. Why the fuck did we play hoofball against hoofball specialists when we could have completely outplayed them on the floor? Wolves put in a decent shift but we needed to attack the fuckers down the wings and we didn't even bother. They dominated possession which was helped by their five man midfield and good pressing but we could easily have asserted ourselves more, we didn't seem to want the ball enough. Surely puts a massive dent in any chance of a top four finish but we weren't really expecting that anyway. Pardew really needs to get a grip on things ahead of the mackems next week.

You cannot go 2-0 up against one of the worst teams in the country who are in total disarray and throw it away. Pardew has a lot to answer for tonight.

Fair challenge by Ameobi. Fucking ridiculous behaviour by the cunt Henry. Should be sent off for that

Goodness gracious me. We could sitll nick this. Ameobi is a different player when he's a sub with ten minutes to go.

Ben Arfa man. Just get it in the box