OTF

And hooray for our centre backs actually marking their players on set pieces.

Those feet from Jonas.. Lovely

That looked horrible from Best, but upon review it was a tough ask.

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

Absolutely. His worst performance since...I don't remember. Which of course made it totally impossible for Perch. That's not defending Perch, I'm saying he's a very limited player who needs a reliable defender alongside him. His worst since Bolton away last season. Coincidently that match is up next. He's prone to the odd horrible performance largely against pace. There's no way we should have been playing such a high defensive line when both of their forwards are pacy. Tactically that left us exposed on so many occasions. Obertan is copping stick for nothing in this match. He wasn't great but was effective. Won corners and the free kick that Ba scored from and actually showed some enthusiasm in closing them down. As usual he burnt out in the second half, should probably have come off earlier. Ben Arfa adds a dimension, that's for sure. That's now two ineffective matches from Best so he doesn't desire to hold his spot against Bolton. Perch goes without saying but inexplicably it appears as though he'll be out there again.

Norwich, Swansea, West Brom. 1 point.

This.

sigh

Demba Ba, amazing.

Anyone know anything about this guy coming on?

Coloccini and Perch forming a poor combination against their pace. Both of their defending for their second goal was embarrassingly poor. Colo was just standing there.

Raylor on for Santon just makes no sense? What's the justification? Obertan one of our better players TBH. That was bloody lucky...

Wolves 1 Norwich 0 Blackburn 1 Bolton 0 Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 3 Man City 4 Stoke 0 Newcastle 1 West Brom 1 Everton 1 Swansea 0 Fulham 0 Man Utd 2 QPR 1 Sunderland 1 Wigan 0 Liverpool 2 Spurs 2 Chelsea 2

Jonas and Santon would have benefited from having an attack minded player inside them, this would have helped to link up our midfield to our forwards. Didn't help that our two centre mids had poor games in comparison to their ability.

Jonas' end product has improved of late. He's looking to get the ball in earlier as well it seems - off either foot. Wins us loads of corners, such a shame that we're literally not doing anything with them. For all the corners we had we didn't create any clear-cut chances from them. Should have changed out Cabaye from taking them just to mix it up for a bit.

Two of their best three chances on goal were heavily influenced by poor defending from Perch. And that's in a game where he had bugger all to do. He didn't do anything.

Frustration stations.

Decent from Obertan there. Gettin absolutely bummed and didnt flap about like a pansy.

Not playing Perch > playing Perch regardless of whether an alternative is selected. I'd hazard to say any natural centre back is a better option. Guarantee that fish faced fuck with give away at least one completely pointless foul in a dangerous spot. The only alternative is that he goes fucking hiding again and becomes the most advanced centre half in the history of the game. Steven Taylor's retarded pointing arm would do a better job. At least it knows where it should have been. #Saturdaynightdrunk

Perch is starting. That's fucking fucked, that's what that is. Does nobody at the club have any eyes? A mong could tell you that Perch is no good, and worse than that he's a fucking thick footballer in that he has absolutely no footballing smarts. I literally cannot believe that a player can be so completely useless on so many occasions and yet continue to be given chances. It's fucking absurd. FUCK.

An early portrait of Obertans? Gabriel's attempt at a tackle.

Not his fault he gave a pointless free-kick away that lead to a goal. Or that he continually failed to mark anyone. He goes hiding. It's Pardew's fault for putting him out there. It truly is remarkable how many chances he has been given to prove how poor he is. Tends to excel.

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

If Colo is fit I'd go with Kadar as the other option. Should be a lot sharper. With Colo out I'd try Kadar with Willo. They just played a half together in the reserves and kept a clean sheet. From .com "Tamas Kadar put in a good shift at the back, as well as prompting attacks." On Williamson: "At the other end meanwhile, centre half Mike Williamson made his comeback after a three month absence due to injury and inevitably looked off the pace during a 45 minute run out, suggesting that an involvement in this Saturday's first team game isn't likely."

Hopefully we get a chance to find out a little more about him on the pitch over the weekend. Centre back pairing??