OTF

If that was indeed the case then why did they purchase Papiss Cisse for 9M pounds? That turned out to be the most expensive piece of business by an English club in that window, and we were in no danger of being relegated at the time. There's a strong element of cross promotion involved, but apart from the visual eyesore I don't think it has a large bearing on the footballing operations.

I just like that we can have a discussion about why Ben Arfa is doing so well. I don't really care why, so credit to Alan Pardew, credit to the ground staff, credit to the canteen lady, credit to Obertan, credit to all and sundry inclusive of little ol' HBA himself.

It's still better for us if they do, otherwise we need to rely on Tottenham not beating Chelsea. If it's a Tottenham vs Everton FA Cup final then we're stuffed either way. If Everton win they obviously get Europa League qualification, if Tottenham win Everton will still be qualified as a result of Tottenham qualifying for Champions league (assuming they stay ahead of Chelsea on the league table). In that case we'd be SOOL in 6th place. I'd prefer Chelsea beat Tottenham and Everton beat Liverpool then lose to Chelsea in the final, but it's a much easier equation for us if Everton lose as we don't have to worry about any other results including the final.

I don't think that's the case. The prize money isn't particularly grand, but the increased ticket revenue for home games should be a significant amount. Certainly you don't end up behind on being involved. And like I've said it can't harm our European profile which in turn keeps us on the radar. I really wish they'd do away with sticking the Champions League drop outs into the Europa League, I don't think there would be much argument about that from the Champions league qualified teams either. I'm sure they do it to increase the profile of the Europa league but it can be a little counter intuitive if the teams involve don't give two hoots about it regardless of the stature of the club.

Nothing too unexpected in there, but nonetheless I'm feeling a little warm and fuzzy after reading it.

The way to move on is to maintain the core good feeling and playing staff at the side, whilst strengthening the area of weakness and adding depth across the board. Ashley is vastly more cautious with his money now, but apparently will spend money where deemed necessary. It still annoys me that we haven't seen close to all of the Andy Carroll money invested into the side, but on the strength of this season I'm resigned to waiting it out to see what happens. Money will be spent on players who are deemed to be the right options, it's more the departures that are cause for concern. Unfortunately mate the climate of World football has changed. We were left behind a long time ago now, and it was nothing to do with Ashley. He certainly accellerated things when he took over, but we have hit the bottom and appear to be rising again faster than anyone could have predicted. We can only hope now that the rise is properly managed so we don't push for the sky only to come crashing back down. Sensible, sustainable growth is the answer. Froseeably we have a strong foundation to have our revenue amongst the top 5 or so in the league. If that is established again then it's a solid platform to once again mount an assault on the Champions League positions. as it stands currently there is a certain amount of biding our time required. We have to hope that the owners of Chelsea and Manchester City grow tired of their playthings and move on as it's flat out ludicrous to exxpect us to compete financially with teams that more or less don't care that they're throwing away fistfulls of dollars by the second.

Spurs are the perfect example of why you're wrong. In order to bridge the gap to the very top sides players need to be sold - for the right price. It's not so much the season, but the trend that was established in our Championship season and continues to this day. It cannot be disputed that we are now in a vastly superior position to where we were in 2008/09, with a younger superior squad on lower wages.

On your last point I strongly disagree. If we don't make Europe this season it could conceivably be an excuse for letting go of some players, where-as if we do make it the (albeit small) increase in revenue will hopefully fund some inbound movement, or at the very least make departures less likely. Plus, I'd never say no to any form of Europe as it increases our continental profile and provides additional options for the development of promising young players who otherwise aren't seeing enough competitive football.

Ben Arfa's explosive pace was too much for Enrique. He goes from 0 to 60 in no time. Over 100 yards I'd fancy Enrique over HBA but over that first 5-10 yards it was no contest. Enrique had a very ordinary game by his standards but most of that was down to Ben Arfa absolutely terrorising him. I'd like to think that's why he put his hand up to go in goal, because on the face of it you'd expect someone like Carragher to be the one. Ben Arfa's touch is phenomenal at the moment, and he's not pushing things too much as well which is great. It's no surprise that after a run of a few games in the side he's really gelling with his teammates... makes you wonder what could have been earlier in the piece?

Pieters and a centre back in.. and noone of importance going the other way...

The atmosphere translated to the TV viewing experience as well, but damn it must have been a great game to be at.

I don't know what's more embarrassing, the dive itself, the fact that he dove when he could very easily have scored or the way that he has since claimed that it wasn't a dive. Face should be matching the colour of his shirt after that showing, particularly as it didn't curb his enthusiasm later in the match. Have to say that it was a classic Steven Gerrard style dive, just not done as expertly as the high waisted DJ decker, who would also have sprung to his feet and got in the referees face gesturing for a red card.

Reina's headbutt, although weak as piss, was a straight red every day of the week with any referee. There's no two ways about it. Any sort of violent conduct like that will see an early shower. Honestly I thought it was a handball from Simpson off the line. was lucky that he was close to the post as that would have blocked the linesman's view and Carroll and Williamson would have likely been obscuring the ref's view. A yellow for Perch was also the right decision, it was nothing to do with him going down and ebverything to do with his silly trip on Reina. I though Perch was kind of lucky to stay on the pitch after he grabbed someone's shirt in the last 5-10 minutes. Technically that was a yellow but it wasn't given. Perchy really went up in my estimations yesterday, he's playing with some real confidence and the timing on his slide tackles is spot on. More than happy to eat my words based on the way that he's playing at the moment. He surprising more than a few.

Yeah, was the same with Robert and the alternate with Solano. When their preferred foot is so damn good they barely need the other. Remember that outside of the right foot curler from Solano against Everton?

After watching that I don't know what I was worried about! Great game from our midfield in particular, but everyone played their part. Enrique going into goals was comical but ultimately was a bit of an anti-climax. Wonderful result.

Something about Bellamy against us... Carragher is their weak link defensively, not very mobile and thinks he's better than he is. Flanagan doesn't get a lot of action for them sohopefully we look to target him rather than Enrique. Enrique's weaknesses are marking off the ball and keeping the line in defense. Hoping for a good performance from Perch and Williamson.

In roster comparisons West Ham are the Real madrid of the Championship... what was that you were saying about managing Real Madrid Sam?

Seeing as I am a frequent 'reader' of this here fine thread I feel duty bound to post the following: Uncle Scoopy's Top 20 Nude Scenes 2011

That's a fair set of questions Fish, will have a go at them later. Get on over there Fish and post them up. Good questions and would be interesting to see the responses. Give the non-stereotypical fans a chance to respond.

I'll go on record and say there is no chance that Chelsea will win the Champions League.

What's the take on 'best' defensive line-up to go into this game with? Is Santon capable of playing in central defense? Will Perch or Simpson be played there instead? None of these options inspire me with any confidence. One particularly big worry for me apart from their defensive frailties is the abaility of that back four to play the ball out. If they revert to hoofing the ball up the pitch then it's likely that posession will be turned over and the pressure will be heaped on. If we can't get the ball consistently to where our strengths lay then our weaknesses could well be shown up. Cabaye (and Tiote if fit) will be key here with a responsibility to help play the ball out from deep. Basically my take is that the best form of defense for us will be attack. The more chances they get playing into their final third the more our defense will be shown up as being inexperienced and out of position.

Aston Villa 0-1 Chelsea Everton 2-0 West Brom Fulham 1-1 Norwich Man City 2-0 Sunderland QPR 0-1 Arsenal Wigan 0-1 Stoke Wolves 1-1 Bolton Newcastle 0-2 Liverpool Tottenham 3-1 Swansea Blackburn 1-3 Man Utd

Thread closed.

There'd only be 21 points to play for at that point. What we don't want to do is play Liverpool back into goal scoring form courtesy of our severely weakened defense.

Not getting ahead of myself but we'd need mainly defenders. We have some promising young players that could be given a chance in other areas - Vuckic, Abeid, Sam Ameobi, Ferguson, Obertan , Inman.... with some off our fringe players and the odd first teamer we should be able to put out a somewhat decent side if we gain some strength and depth in defense.