OTF

I don't think 9 changes will be typical. At this stage of the season you can understand it, particularly playing weak opposition. With our squad not fully conditioned you risk fatigue and injury trying to squeeze that many games in over such a short period. The heat would have amplified it. On the whole it's a positive result. If we can't turn them over at home we don't deserve to progress.

Decent result, crap performance.

Encouraging to see Campbell so obviously enthusiastic.

He's just made a decent run as well. Given his first half anything he does that is decent looks great in comparison.

Did nothing special, but had some decent touches.

Somehow Obertan still out there.

Amalfitano/Cabaye for Gosling, Jonas for Obertan, Campbell for Cisse - not all at once obviously.

Lovely free-kick. Salvaged the first half. They'll be shattered. We still need to make changes obviously.

Thankyou Ryan Taylor!

Has been embarrassing. Should at least be running at them, but no, gets the ball, slows it down and oft turns it over anyway!

That too.. whoops. Sorry Tim

Krul shouldn't have come out also.. Hope this spurs us into life.

Crap. WAy too easy.

Obertan crap thus far.

Likewise please. Have one at atdhe dot tw, but could be better.

Perch would be hovering somewhere in between. Was certainly bad/ugly initially but since his second coming he's been in the good side. Limited yes, but for the price has done very well especially when you consider how horribly poor he looked. To this day I am still astounded with how far along he has come - but still not totally convinced that we'll see old Perch come out again on occassion. Given Santon's age and coming from a different league I don't thin you could say that his signing has been anything but good. The best part about it as far as I'm concerned is that he's continually getting better.

There's more to a players involvement than out and out attack, some people here proving and re-proving their lack of understanding.

How utterly embarrassing for them if that's the case, and come to think of it, even if that's not the case how utterly embarrassing for them!

He's the most fouled player in the whole of the league. Him getting 'tackled' more or less means we win a free-kick which creates a scoring opportunity - and equates to end product from Jonas. If other teams could handle him he'd not get fouled. That clearly isn't the case so removing him from the side would not only be taking out an everpresent who works his butt off and creates plenty of opportunities but would also be making it easier for other teams. Anita will and should be used for his midfield versatility and to cover for times when the likes of Tiote and Cabaye are injured/suspended/unavailable.

Couldn't see him giving two hoots if playing for Sunderland. Would redefine 'casual'. Of course he won't go there anyway.

You're obsessed with leaving Jonas out, and yet on the weekend he was our second best player behind only Ben Arfa. The amount of free-kicks he wins is phenomenal (most in the league?) and his work rate cannot be faulted. Sprinted back to cover for Santon on at least one occassion against Spurs. You've seen Anita for 20 odd minutes where he was overall positive but a little over-awed and you're already hoiking poor old Jonas. CT I have to ask - what is it you have against him? Formation wise I think we'll see changes throughout the season based on who we're playing and which players we have available. Implementations of 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 can be quite similar at any length depending on the ability of the players to get up and down the pitch and the extent to which they focus on attack or defense. With Ben Arfa out there we need to be able to give him freedom to operate all over the pitch - perhaps in a 4-3-3 he's able to do this without upsetting the balance of the side defensively as much and for that reason alone it could be work it. I don't think the decision to play 4-4-2 would have been heavily influenced by wanting to play Ba centrally, more like;y by having more players in the midfield which is where some would argue the strength of Spurs is - a 4-3-3 normally wouldn't offer great protection to the fullbacks which is something you would certainly be wanting against Tottenham who have Bale, Lennon and a pair of quick fullbacks who like to push up the pitch. Funnily enough Ba scored from a Simpson cross, of which he actually put in more than one dangerous one! Defensively he still had his shortcomings, but recovered well and overall had the most work to do of our defense.

Dickheads.

Dawson = overrated IMO.

Very interesting.

Worried about our defense. Can see why Perch is preferred to Williamson. Pardew will have him set to mark Defoe. Attack wise it's a strong side, it's our pitch so let's hope we can control the game and limit the defending that we have to do.