OTF

Pardew, Mike and Dekka were far too busy at the coal face desperately trying to fend off approaches for our stars from rival clubs to be able to make any signings. ... And meanwhile in here everyone were sad tedious little cunts of arrogant tossers on a power trip through a midlife crisis fannying about all day playing FM on iPads.... or OOT'rs with intimate knowledge of 1990s meat sellers.

Anita bought for his utility value, not to replace Tiote.

Well that's a bit of let down.

Two in one...

Written off?

Glad Obertan had what sounds like a decent match. The first leg against them he was pathetically bad. As much as I don't like it he'll have a role to play this season.

Ready yourselves. Knock knock.. Who's there? China China who? China get in, but the doors locked.

How does fucking Allardyce have an agent. He definitely does his own PR.

For us no, but for West Ham I think it is. If he stays relatively injury free he'll make a huge difference there.

Job done.

That'd be the one. If we base our expectations on previous Pardew comments regarding Carroll we can expect that he'll be here come the end of the window. Re-fuel the chopper Dekka....

After Obertan's last performance (and most of the other stuff he has done here) I would take Routledge back in a heartbeat.

With Wayne Routledge in the first 11.

Whatever the gate is, it's additional revenue over last season.

Would love us to get a few goals in this, but honestly just progressing will leave me happy. Pardew won't let anyone be complacent.

He's been back on the whine of late.

EU37M for Modric seems like overs for me. On the whole I think it will help Spurs. Remember how often we were linked with Modric - wonder if we were actually in for him...

Intentionally said 'some' of those.

I agree, but the real cause of the problem is FIFA and in this case the English FA who don't retrospectively deal with simulation. The application of the rules is such that players increase their chance of getting decisions in their favour when they overplay contact. In cases like this where the player anticipates the contact and reacts prior to it actually happening it's particularly annoying. Gerrard is a bandit for that style of milking it - probably tried to teach Carroll. Very seldom is there a negative reaction from a referee for that variety of simulation. Basically the reward is great and the risk is minimal and therefore it will continue. It was a penalty though unfortunately.

The answer to your question was in the Chelsea game. I do prefer that we try to play to best utilise our attacking players, but you have to appreciate the talents of opposing sides - particularly some of those with wage bills vastly in excess of ours. A fullback like Enrique would leave be with no concerns as he has the pace, strength and defensive prowess to not need the cover. At the moment we don't have that in either of our fullbacks. Santon is improving in high level terms (despite a relatively poor showing verse Chelsea) so hopefully we will have that from him soon.

My thoughts on this match FWIW. On the whole I thought we went there with the right attitude and a positive game plan, it wasn't executed properly on all front and here's why I think that was - Our midfield and forwards failed to work together throughout, the forward balls to Ba and Cisse often found their target but left them isolated with no direct outs. Cabaye in particular didn't play well in this respect. On top of this I thought Chelsea defended well. Our defense as a unit did well for much of the game, but gave them a few chances through lapses and poor positioning. To this end Santon was the weak link. His positioning and decision making was off. He made a lot of forward runs that didn't help and consequently left him out of position. On the other side I thought Simpson had a reasonable game. Chelsea are a tough team to play with Hazard and Torres in particular having the accelleration and control to burn past defenders. This meant that our defense - Taylor in particular game them a little too much space. Anita's let out for the penalty was soft and annoying, but was still a penalty. We can hope that he'll learn that in a league like this forwards are conditioned to play for that inside the box so stick your leg out if you're not 99% sure you'll get the ball is a bad decision. Other than this though he looks like an enthusiastic, skilled player with good accelleration and a great engine who should be of immense value across what should be a long season. Ben Arfa again showed the close control, skill and reading of the defense that makes him such a threat, shame that he kind of shanked it when he worked himself some space on his preferred left. He looks right on top of his game at the minute, making the right passing options depending where he is on the pitch (ie. not trying to dribble it out from the back). Overall I'm not too disappointed with the way the game played out, as others have noted three points from these two league fixtures is a solid start to the season especially if we turn over the Greek side at home. Krul 7 Simpson 6 Colo 7.5 Taylor 6.5 Santon 5.5 HBA 8 Jonas 7 Cabaye 5.5 Anita 6.5 Ba 6.5 Cisse 6 Subs weren't really on long enough to rate.

Wages would be ridiculous though.

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.