Happy Face

As funny as this new Aeris character is, let's not get dragged into overcompensating. We've not been stellar week in, week out.

Some top character acting from KSA here.

the legs

Sammy's photos of the squads xmas do going up tonight. Fancy dress. Canny funny.

and parky thought his transfer request bollocks would be the most extreme over-reaction.

Tell him to fuck off Aeris. Bill Shankly famously couldn't spell Borussia Munchingladback, but he still pissed all over them in the UEFA cup final.

I think Steven Taylor and Jonas are the ONLY players in our squad who aren't either world class and able to win a place in most top teams, or utter dogshit and barely deserving of Championship football.

Graham Holden on Twitter: "Scott Parker has probably had his worst 45 minutes for Spurs and without his presence they look a shadow of their recent selves." Win, lose or draw, it's down to dahling Parker. How come we weren't title contenders when he was here?

Moves them to within 1 place of us

What complete bollocks, "lucky passes". The assist was very well taken. And the pass for Ba where he should maybe have scored was a great piece of play. Tricked his man, and found Ba with an unpredictable chip. Shola did his fair share that match. I'd love to see Ben Arfa play but I think it should be on the right personally. 2 strikers have worked well for us so far. There are rules round these parts. Shola, Perch, Obertan, Lovenkrands, Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Smith...they do owt well? luck, pure and simple they're shit and deserve nothing but contempt for every touch (though I've never seen an example of owt done well from the latter). Colo, Barfa, Tiote, Ba, Cabaye, Krul...they fuck up? All well and good, they're quality and deserve patience.

The injury crisis is so severe I think it'd be worth contemplating a change in tactics because of it. Suggesting the loss of our core, Tiote and Colo, has no effect on the rest of the team is hallucinatory gibberish. Agreed...the tactical change I spoke of was to bring in something you lose when you're missing Colo and Taylor (not so much Tiote who's been missing a while and Guthrie/Gosling have filled in for admirably)....Ameobi offered some height to help defend set pieces, an area everyone could see they were going to exploit....and did so regardless. How anyone thinks Ben Arfa fills any tactical gap left by Colo/Taylor is beyond me. If you're going to argue he deserves a place ahead of anyone on merit, that's fair enough, I would hope he does in Pardew's eyes soon and can't wait for the day he actually justifies it. But I cannot see any way that his inclusion can be justified by our injury problems at the moment.

Obertan ffs!!!!

Once again, rather than accepting the FACT that YOU are wrong, YOU have presented US with a false dichotomy after your hollow points have been criticised--a rather childish display on your part. You're not completely thick. Consider this: it's not just how much you see of a player, but your ability to judge a player well that determines your ability to deploy them to good affect. For instance, you, being a poor judge of player, could watch a footballer for 100s of hours and still not have a clue as to their true value to the team. Pardew is a man who, when required to save his football club from relegation, decided that Mullins and Reo-Fucking-Hokey-Cokey were better options than Tevez and Mascherano. Clearly he is capable of making mistakes when selecting his team. He has done so by continuing to select the likes of Obertan over Ben Arfa, even if it means shaking up the team's structure. Our hand is being forced by an unfortunate injury crisis: do we adjust, or stick and lose points against the likes of Norwich? The injury crisis had had no effect on the left or the right or up front. Barfa being started or not is entirely tactical. Of course you have the imaginary scenario of barfa winning the game for us single handedly if played to support your argument. I'm sure you're right and he'll rape swansea once colo is back and we don't need shola's height.

Again too simplistic, making the situation fit your argument. You have your two first choice CB's and your first reserve who would fill in for either in the case of injury, then if your unlucky enough to lose all 3 you are into 4th and 5th choice, they are NOT going to be as good as your 1-3. Simple common sense would see that. PLUS how do you balance your squad. Yeah let's have 5 good CB's, then what happens if your midfield gets wiped out, you play a CB in midfield and the cry goes up "our squad is paper thin" we should have more midfielders. It's nonsense. As for the "not particularly bad luck with injuries" haven't looked at the stats anywhere but if you are right, I would suggest even if we have not had a significant number of injuries in the squad (compared to others) we have had an very unusual concentration of injuries in a particularly key area of the squad. If you don't see that, and I am completely wrong, what's the answer then ?? you are completely wrong and the answer is more strength in depth. It's not a case of having internationals on the bench, but Taylor should be the back up for an international in our team. You can't go on like this is unprecedented bad luck in one position when many have feared exactly this and warned about it. One in 3 of Stevies posts since the season began have been about Perch being league 1 quality and that inevitably fucking us up. So now you're saying Taylor and Colo aren't good enough, the same Taylor and Colo who proved one of the best Cb partnerships we've had in yonks should be broken up to for some pursuit of "strength in depth". Hilarious. The concern previosuly expressed was if Colo get's injured we're fucked, not if Colo, Taylor and Willaimson are fucked. Perch did not cost us the game yesterday. Never said a word about Colo. Our best player. ALWAYS said Taylor ain't good enough. There's no 'now' about it. The fear has always been Perch getting a game. Under any circumstances....or Williamson tbh...though less so.

You are using a child's logic there rather than evaluating the situation properly: "Ben Arfa is left-footed, therefore he can't play on the right." Why don't we take a look at the FACTS? Stating it's his 'worst' side clearly demonstrates that you have probably never seen HBA play prior to his signing for NUFC, and that, along with the fact that you are a poor judge of player, and also the fact that you are a tendentious character who takes great pleasure in going against what you perceive as popular opinion, is what is leading you to be so critical of Ben Arfa. He frequently played on the right with great success earlier in his career, at international level too. It was usually on the right of a front-three so he was not expected to track back as much. HBA actually showed more tenacity and effort in his closing down vs Manure than Obertan has shown in his entire career. I've only seen his home performances for us...but then if seeing more than that gives you a better view of his capabilities, then Pardew knows better than any of us, what with seeing him day in and day out. Yeah and he said he was magic in training.."he can do things nobody else can". [/pards] Why do you want him sold then?

You are using a child's logic there rather than evaluating the situation properly: "Ben Arfa is left-footed, therefore he can't play on the right." Why don't we take a look at the FACTS? Stating it's his 'worst' side clearly demonstrates that you have probably never seen HBA play prior to his signing for NUFC, and that, along with the fact that you are a poor judge of player, and also the fact that you are a tendentious character who takes great pleasure in going against what you perceive as popular opinion, is what is leading you to be so critical of Ben Arfa. He frequently played on the right with great success earlier in his career, at international level too. It was usually on the right of a front-three so he was not expected to track back as much. HBA actually showed more tenacity and effort in his closing down vs Manure than Obertan has shown in his entire career. I've only seen his home performances for us...but then if seeing more than that gives you a better view of his capabilities, then Pardew knows better than any of us, what with seeing him day in and day out.

We will be if he gets fucked and isn't available for selection in those games where he'll be a better choice than ameobi.

Mackems boo off the team at Half time. Fucking champion

We scored 2 yesterday. The problem was conceding 4.

It'd be hilarious to see it tried to be honest. If you thought obertan did no tracking back....Ben arfa would be a rude awakening ...and on his worst side.

Many gifts are squandered to those who apply themselves. Yeah cause Pards knows the territory doesn't he like when he refused to play tevez and masch... Like mancini is you mean.

Many gifts are squandered to those who apply themselves.

think he'd have to play on the left and guti on the right....and pardew doesn't want to fuck over one of our best performers to accommodate temperamental, infrequent, gallic flair.

What two of the worst players in the PL? This is the sort of mediocrity MA has got idiots buying into. Ameobi with an assist yesterday. Can't remember one from Ben Arfa this season. with our lack of height yesterday it would be daft to start a 5 footer ahead of a 6 footer. He needs to play a few games first mate. And not just 2 of them away against the top 3 like. he done fuck all against Blackburn, Wigan and Everton too.