[Dancer+]

Villa can go equal top for a short period of time on Saturday...if only they had one more win instead of a draw. Villa could go top if the other three drew this week.

Of course because Villa can go equal top they'll probably screw it up, after all Wigan have been playing reasonably well recently although they've suffered a few key losses in recent times so their strength may be diminishing (especially away from Home).

[polishgenius]

60% of our conceded goals have come from set-pieces and Everton are great at taking them, so we do have a little to worry about.

[Thelomen Toblerone]

You do have defenders who can actually head and arent midgets though, so you're better prepared at least. Plus, I assume Vidic or Ferdinand will actually mark him - even Stevie Wonder could see Cahill needs to be marked from set pieces, yet the Arsenal defence cant.

Read a good Arshavin comment earlier, it said if Arsenal do get him it would be "like putting brand new leather seats in a 1979 Skoda", which sums it up pretty well for me. Im incredulous we havent made about 5 signings this month, half our players are so far below what's required that it's depressingly comical.

[polishgenius]

Thing is, you do need a player like Arshavin in Fabregas' absence, to break down teams like Everton last night, but you need others more. I cannot believe you haven't signed a DM, it's incredible that Wenger can't see or acknowledge the problem. People mock City's transfer policy, but in all the big-money fuss they've signed De Jong and Bridge, two players who pretty much fill precisely the most gaping holes in their team.

[Binder of Demons]

I agree Polishgenius. I mean we've seen Palacios move to Spurs, and Diarra move to Real Madrid, in the time that Arsenal have been looking for a DM (both of whom have shown they can take the rigours of the Premiership season). Of course since Arsenal let Diarra go in the first place, they were never going to take him back. But still.

But to be honest, I'm struggling to think of other DM's that are available, since I haven't been able to follow the European football scene as much as i'd like living down here in NZ. I still think Arsenal should have signed either Gareth Barry or Xabi Alonso last summer, as both are excellent players that know how to hold a midfield together and seem to do the right thing 99% of the time.

But I'm just looking forward to a crazy next few days of transfer activity. Surely the panic buying has to keep in soon?

[Impirion]

Binder of Demons, on Jan 29 2009, 02:39 PM, said:

I agree Polishgenius. I mean we've seen Palacios move to Spurs, and Diarra move to Real Madrid, in the time that Arsenal have been looking for a DM (both of whom have shown they can take the rigours of the Premiership season). Of course since Arsenal let Diarra go in the first place, they were never going to take him back. But still.

But to be honest, I'm struggling to think of other DM's that are available, since I haven't been able to follow the European football scene as much as i'd like living down here in NZ. I still think Arsenal should have signed either Gareth Barry or Xabi Alonso last summer, as both are excellent players that know how to hold a midfield together and seem to do the right thing 99% of the time.

But I'm just looking forward to a crazy next few days of transfer activity. Surely the panic buying has to keep in soon?

But do you really see Arsene as the panic buying type? I don't even think Arshavin is required... because when your first team is fit you will have to keep Nasri, Rosicky Fabregas, Arshavin Walcott happy while still having Ramsey Wilshere Diaby Denilson etc also wanting a game....

In addition given Wenger's real reluctance to spend large amounts of money for a player, did you really see Barry (quoted at 15m or something) or Alonso (roughly same) being bought? Personally I think Bullard would have been a great buy for Arsenal, just the type to get some fire into that midfield, and he has no little skill as well.

I really wonder what Man City are gonna try and pull out of the bag having failed at getting Kaka. I really really hope that the rumour that they are turning their attentions to Tevez isn't true. Althought hopefully he would reject them anyway

Impirion

[polishgenius]

I don't think City are going to bother with anyone after Kaka- Arshavin would have been pretty much the perfect buy if they really wanted someone of the ilk, but I think it was just testing the waters, see if they could. Tevez isn't that much better than the options they already have to be worth them splashing out. And they've done pretty much what they had to in defence, they're getting Given too. Still going after Santa Cruz too though given the amount they score that seems redundant too.

[Impirion]

OMG I always thought Ramos wasn't a great coach but he's just made me sure.... Faubert signed on loan?!?! When he was barely good enough for West Ham, how the hell is he gonna be good enough for Real? OK, so he could turn out to be an amazing signing but right now I seriously doubt that....

Imp

[Binder of Demons]

@ Impirion : re: Real signing Faubert
One thing I'd never underestimate is the effect of a foreign player moving from the Premiership to another european league. The hectic pace, increased physicality and to be honest poor coaching and tactics at a lot of premiership clubs often make it hard for the overseas players to adjust. I'd say his time in England won't have done him much harm and he'll probably find it much easier in La Liga (plus he'll be playing with better players than at West Ham).

[polishgenius]

So VDS has beaten Death?


Good result. We're looking ominous, though I'm faintly worried because if we do cock it up it'll be all our own fault, which would be embarrassing.

[Impirion]

VDS has indeed beaten Death, roll on the world record !

Well, to be honest any team who come second can say it's all their fault, they should have won games which they drew etc... In any case, it is extremely hard, if not impossible for a team to not suffer a slight dip in form sometime in the season, and while I guess we could say that was at the beginning of the season, we are notoriously slow starters (don't know if it's to do with the fact we generally play commercial pre-season tours rather than challenging games but that's another topic for debate) so our slump could be about to come, as the games build up with us still challenging on all 4 fronts.

Fingers crossed, now that our injury crisis is coming to an end, we will be able to summon a great effort and see ourselves safely to the title. However, like Ferguson said, there's always gonna be turns and twists, although it is advantage us, especially as we now have home games against the top sides for the rest of the season.

Imp

[polishgenius]

Impirion, on Feb 1 2009, 01:53 AM, said:

so our slump could be about to come, as the games build up with us still challenging on all 4 fronts.

S'true, but we always finish the season strongly, and we have such a fantastic squad that I'd be surprised if we suffer more than anyone else from fighting for more than one trophy. I'm a bit worried about Liverpool, since after January they're generally quite good, but we're comfortably the best team and we've still not quite played our best yet.

Obviously you can say any team that comes second it's their fault for not winning, but that's taking it to extremes. From here, if we lose we've bottled it.

Don't know why we always start slowly, but I reckon that's better than starting strongly then fading, because psychologically we have the momentum. The amount of times we've overhauled a lead is testament to that.

[Macros]

RE: Faubert - Mascherano couldn't get a game at west ham.........

Heading to pub soon to watch the game, whoever wins today will be uniteds only challengerr for the title

[Macros]

Torres!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111oneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneone

Makes the match at old trafford so much more important.

[Yellow]

I would have preferred the draw, but oh well.

Liverpool will lose many more points this season anyway

[Binder of Demons]

So, what did you make of the red card. Fair or not?
Seemed quite harsh, but i can understand why he gave it, since Lampards studs were up. But despite being a Chelsea hater (and a Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool hater too mind), I still think it should probably have been a yellow.

What I can't understand is the nonsense in the corner at the end of the game, when Bosingwa puts his boot right in the middle of Benayoun's back and doesn't even get a warning? Evening things out? The linesman was all of 2 feet away from the incident!

Torres' first goal was a nice one though. Glad Liverpool won cos at least that way we might actually get a decent title race. But I doubt it.

Also, I feel it's important to point out that Benitez is a tit. The latest transfer rumour has Keane going back to Spurs, with Aaron Lennon goingto the Pool in part exchange. Aaron Lennon!! Seriously, I mean Aaron Lennon. They already have that twit Al Zahar (sp?) who is a useless showpony. And Babel who is an athletic useless git. And now Lennon, who is a fast, flashy brainless donkey who can't help out defending. They do all have a common denominator as wingers though, in that their crossing is f*cking rubbish. Fair enough if he doesn't want Keane and thinks he has enough strikers, but Lennon?

[Thelomen Toblerone]

Im more interested in the bottom of the table now Man U have won the league, it's bloomin' tight down there, especially after this weekend - West Brom, Stoke, Bolton, Blackburn, Boro, Newcastle and Sunderland all picking up point(s), 14th to 20th places are seperated by only 2 points - it's tough to say who'll go down out of Sp*rs, Stoke, WBA, Boro, Blackburn, Pompey and Newcastle. Obviously Im hoping the spuds take one of the relegation spots, but realistically I reckon WBA, Stoke and one other - I expect Blackburn to escape, so it depends who's awful form out of Boro Newcastle and Pompey continues the longest.

[Macros]

Red card was farcical, although I cheered as heartily as any when it was produced.
At best a yellow, realistically no card.
Boswinga the fucking tit was just asking to be booked (he already had a yellow I think?) by kicking yossi, how there was nothing given there is beyond me.
Hopefully Gerrards yellow will stop him falling over so often.

Regarding the transfer front - don't really want lennon, I'd prefer to keep keane. Sell that gobshite Ngog so we don't have to see him strut around in a pool jersey ever again please.
And no wingerr we get will track back as much as Kuyt currently does.
Provided we keep playing like that and united drop a game somewhere, the match at old trafford could be a title decider (unlikely though)

This post has been edited by Macros: 01 February 2009 - 08:58 PM

[Satan]

Macros, on Feb 1 2009, 09:57 PM, said:

Boswinga the fucking tit was just asking to be booked (he already had a yellow I think?) by kicking yossi, how there was nothing given there is beyond me.

There was. Chelsea got a freekick.
Latest rumour regarding Keane says that Tottenham will only pay 15mill to get Keane back - 5mill less than what they sold him for half a year ago. Taking that with getting Cudicini for free and DeFoe for another 15, someone has to give that droopy-eyed bastard Redknap a fucking medal!

Binder of Demons, on Jan 29 2009, 03:39 PM, said:

But to be honest, I'm struggling to think of other DM's that are available, since I haven't been able to follow the European football scene as much as i'd like living down here in NZ. I still think Arsenal should have signed either Gareth Barry or Xabi Alonso last summer, as both are excellent players that know how to hold a midfield together and seem to do the right thing 99% of the time.

As I recall, Arsenal tried but couldn't match the price for either player. Liverpool went as high as 18mill for Barry, but Villa wouldn't let him go for a penny less than 20mill. Given that Alonso was only for sale to finance the Barry-buying, Liverpool would never let him go for as little as 12mill, which was what Arsenal was prepared to offer.

[Thelomen Toblerone]

Arsenal have fucked me off beyond belief. Not content with being tight season after season, persisting with shit players like Eboue, and stubbornly refusing to do anything easy that would obviously improve the team, they now cant even manage to complete a signing after a month of trying.

Let's not mistake things here - we have made a killing lately just from sell-on fees (Diarra got us 5 mil alone), and had easily enough money to sign Arshavin. But we wont pay any more than £12mil. We could have got him for maybe 500k more. That's dpown from the £20mil in the summer they were asking, and we desperately need a player. And we especially needed a defensive CM and a decent CB, but we didnt even look at any, let alone make an offer. Fucking crass stupidity.

And then they have the balls to go on about being financially sensible and inmjured players coming back being like new signings. No, it's like old players coming back from injury. We werent great with them, so even once theyre back to full fitness we'll still be shit. If you're going to fleece us out of £60 for every game, £40 odd for a shirt and huge amounts for any merchandise, at least have the decency to reinvest transfer fees earned. Or hell, maybe give the players liek Adebayor who stand around on 80k a week doing fuck all and being teh laziest swine on earth enough of a bollocking to actually try.

Sigh.

That aside, WTF ARE LIVERPOOL DOING?!?!!? Selling your 2nd best striker at a £5mil loss after 6 months?!? If Torres gets injured, they are FUCKED. It's suicidal decision making, absolutely barmy.