Howay

I definitely enjoy seeing tufty trip up like Especially after how much the mackems were buzzing that he was 'closing the gap on the mags'. Bunch of bitches.

I think the attitude should also be noted, it wasn't so long ago that letting in two utter stinkers like the ones today would have saw heads drop and a guaranteed loss. Instead it sounded like we controlled long portions of the game, Norwich really didn't get much of a sniff besides the two individual errors and we leveled the game late on after a couple of near misses. Norwich are a tricky side and we've come out of it still top, Brighton drew at home against a side who were fucking hopeless against us.

It can be aye, but Mitro hitting the post rather than putting the header in is poor finishing (baring in mind I've not see the chance so could be being harsh). I know what you're saying though a Sissoko side foot that is 'on target' is a worse effort than a lad smacking a long ranger and seeing it just clip the inside of the post. Either way I still am comfortable saying our finishing hasn't been a strong point in recent weeks, we've all been frustrated by some big misses in recent games.

Aye but getting it on target doesn't necessarily mean the finishing is good, Sissoko used to get loads on target but they were shite little side footed chances that had no shot at going in. The Mitro chance was on target but it was a bad finish. I'd argue that hitting the post is bad finishing as well since it's really a miss.

Aye but we've come through a period where we had Shelvey banned and Gayle out for weeks, as well as tough fixtures. Huddersfield are a very streaky side when you look at their history under this manager, they were also a few points clear of us at one point this season.

Aye, we dropped two bollocks that let them get a draw but it sounds like we deserved a win. Hopefully now with Gayle back we can start putting away more of these chances as we've been letting a lot of them go begging in recent weeks. I think Atsu deserves to start over Gouffran, the lad causes all sorts of bother for the opposition when he plays.

Not ideal but still 5 points behind us

Aye if it all remains the same we get through a tricky fixture in the same position as we started.

Get in there Lascelles lad! 2-2

We'd be heading for an easy win if it wasn't for them fucking shite errors. Saying that we really need to start finishing more of the chances we get, hopefully that'll happen with Gayle coming back.

I fucking hate Norwich btw, the web-toed inbred cunts. Just get on with the fucking game man.

Most keepers drop the occasional clanger, he's far better than Sels which I guess is what matters at the minute. I'd be tempted to sub Lascelles if I was Rafa, the bloke is very reliant on his confidence levels and doesn't seem to turn his game around when he's having a stinker. Must be at least considering Gayle as well as it sounds like these CB's are very shaky.

Lascelles having another fucking stinker from the sounds of it, shame as he did alright last match.

Darlow fucked up, 2-1 to Norwich. Fantastic.

Cameron fucking Jerome scored from what sounds like Lascelles slipping on his rollerskates yet again. Fuck. Brighton losing.

Sounds like Norwich have a hopeless defence. Hopefully Colback puts them to the sword today with the passing we've all said he's capable of.

Never doubted the lad!

Every manager seems to. I don't particularly rate Hayden highly but he doesn't fuck up as much as Colback, which is an improvement considering some of the chances from nothing that Colback gifts the opposition every game. I get that we need to rotate the squad but Colback had an embarrassingly poor match at the weekend and absolutely deserves dropped.

Yeah I'm much less confident now I see Colback is starting. I really don't get what managers seem to miss with him, he was fucking horrific last game. At least I don't have to watch the performance this time.

I'm giving you the Mitrovic treatment to bring out your posting potential. You can thank me later for this invaluable help.

Aye, it's an utter bollocks lazy as fuck rumour. The pressure is on Wenger, he's out of contact in the summer, who is a top manager not currently in a "top" job? Nowt in it tbh. I'm not saying he'll be here past the summer mind, I'm still worried that stuff about the whole Ashley interfering and likely going back on his word (or at least pratting about and being pedantic about what his original promises actually meant) during the January window will have fucked Benitez off enough that he'll finish the job of getting us up and then leave.

I'm fairly confident we'll pick something up from this, especially if Gayle is fit. As Rayvin said if they're high scorers at home they may fancy their chances and open up a bit to chase the win, in the games that teams have done this we've mostly won. They have a good scoring rate but they've also let in a canny amount of goals this season and we have an excellent away record. I've went for 3-0 (as I do basically every game) but it'll no doubt be a mental score like 5-3 or something as last couple of seasons our games against these have been crackers.

Agreed. I don't know much about his time at Derby but he seems to be doing really well at Swansea as they looked a complete shambles under the last two managers, especially the way they were chopping and changing. It was interesting seeing his craic after the loss to Man City, you can see his continental background as he really focused on the fact the ball was rolling when Man City took the free kick. The pundits were having none of it saying it made no difference as Man City took a while to build up, technically he was right though. We definitely missed a canny manager when they went for McClaren over him, I suppose it worked out in the end that we now have Rafa but I'm pleased to see he's doing canny.

“I look at the Sunderland team and think if you take Defoe out of that it’s a bang average Championship team, let alone a Premier League one,” from Gerrard . http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderland-without-jermain-defoe-mid-12593604