The Forum's Club-By-Club Weekend Review

Arsenal fans are loving Alex Song, Man City fans are turning against Mark Hughes, Spurs fans are relieved, Burnley fans are delighted (and the other club reviews will follow after Sunday's games)...



From The Official Arsenal Thread...
"I'm happy with that. Not a classic performance by any stretch but it's exactly the sort of result/performance we bemoan Utd and Chelsea for getting. We looked a lot more assured with Song on the pitch. He makes it all look effortless. He's going to be a massive loss when he can't play. Thought Ramsey was pretty good today. Nice and neat with his passing, broke up play well and drove play forward" - Rugs.


"Song's passing is so good now its ridiculous. Good stuff from Ramsey. Shoddy stuff from TV but he was so good previous to that, he looked like he would never make a mistake" - Perry McGoldrick.


"Surely Ramsay must have jumped Diaby in the pecking order??? I thought RvP was a bit unlucky today and, perhaps as usual, we could have had 10. I also think Wolves are a good case for the Premier League to be 18 or even 16 teams" - Boydys Bonce.


"We were always going to cede a little control in midfield without a naturally defensive minded central midfielder on the pitch. What Arsene judged right is that this was a game we could still get a result without one starting. Ramsey managed again to show why he is so highly rated but also not quite ready to be a regular first teamer. Expect to see Nari partnering Cesc and Song away at Sunderland (assuming Diaby is ruled out) so no big problem at the moment. Again, options. It's so reassuring!" - Carlos Kickaball


"Song clearly made the difference when he came on. Before he came on Wolves were putting alot of pressure on us and all of a sudden with Song on it was all Arsenal. Goes to show how important he is. I think he is the best in form defensive midfielder in the premiership atm. Loved our attacking play. Fantastic to see that especially the 3rd goal. The only bad point i thought was when there was a period during the 2nd half where we were making too many long range passes. Other than that, an excellent game. I thought Ramsey was much more effective passing the ball forward quickly than Diaby. In fact i thought Ramsey was much more effective getting involved in the final 3rd than Diaby. He did make mistakes but they are easily correctable as he gains experience. Diaby's injury opens up a fantastic opportunity to play more games. However i won't be surprised if Wenger favours Nasri or Rosicky. I thought Sagna was man of the match. He bombed up and down all night and provided the cross that led to the 3rd goal. Defensively he was very solid and he looked much quicker than normal tonight" - Sir Killalot.



From The Official Aston Villa Thread...
"Admittedly I wasn't at VP but I watched the game live on the net and I thought JC was MOTM - and he was up against some excellent performances today; Sidders, Ash7, Gabs, Warnock all very very good. I thought JC's close control was of a very high standard, on one occasion he 'trapped' a long ball on his chest, chip-volleyed it over their player, re-controlled it back on his chest after rounding the opposition player and then laid it off first time to Ash. Impressive stuff from our lothario giant. More of the same please big man" - Voodoo Guru.


"Big John, Ash and Jimmy were class. Honey Monster was f**king excellent as well. love the way he organises the defence. welcome back luke young too. great win and hopefully it sets us up to go on a bit of a run now" - Dr Nick.



From The Official Bolton Thread...
"Our defending is just such a joke" - Gill Grissom.


"Even Cahill was ***k today. If it wasn't for Jussi they'd have had double fligures. Managed to find a pub with it on and it's embarassing how much better they were than us in every single way" - Wanderer88.




From The Official Burnley Thread...
"I thought Attwell was poor all round today. Generally looked a bit lost, blowing his whistle without deciding which way he'd given the decision first, giving free kicks one way then changing his mind, giving fouls against one team and then letting exactly the same go the other way. I didn't know whether to be angry with him or feel sorry for him. Great result today and I agree exactly about getting into that position to start off. We've given other sides head starts far too often this season so it was good to put ourselves there for a change. I thought Eagles was tremendous (somewhat aided by Bridge) but my main praise today goes to Coyle. We were being over-run in the midfield in the second half and a fourth City goal would have finished it. Bikey was looking loose-cannon-ish and Blake doesn't give much defensively in the later stages, whereas Joey and Big Mac shored up the middle and gave us a bit of a platform to build from" - Eli.


"Too often this season we've given a good account of ourselves away from home but conceded bad goals at bad times and that has been our undoing. Coyle, as ever, continues to impress. while the team is playing well and getting results I can appreciate why he doesn't want to make the changes to the team that a lot of us think should be made - ie bikey for caldwell. good to see him not criticise the decision that led to the equaliser but, as i said, it would be a bit rich to complain after the decisions we got last week. Eagles has definitely impressed since getting back in the starting line up and looks confident. Regarding away form - I know it's only a point but we've scored 5 now in 2 away and it seems that the players are getting more accustomed to life on the road in the premier league. let's hope it can continue - west ham away next which is a good opportunity to build on the recent improvement" - D-Beck.


From The Official Chelsea Thread...
"We were poor today. I honestly dont think chelsea have been tested this season. Man City could do a job on us with the amount of width they can get. Arshavin's creativity could have ripped either of those teams apart today. Will be looking forward to playing them both in a nervous way" - Jazz Cardigan.

"We weren't that bad. It's not like they're a sh*t side is it? 5 points clear, early November, 6 points from 2 games against other top 4 teams. This is so f**king important" - Private Pikey.

"Been back for about an hour, and have to say that we were poor in midfield today. Mind you at the back we were strong, bar Ivanovic at the start of the second half where he got drawn in and left Giggs all to his own. The boys at the back were great.

"On a negative note Drogba was absolutely useless today. He just was not interested. I think we all agree that Deco is not great, but Lampard and Ballack too left a lot to be desired.

"Essien - this guy was awesome. Always is, and is immense. I do think that we should think about playing Mikel in the holding role and letting Essien a little more freedom though. Anelka again was strong and showed some great touches...

A draw would have been fair I think, but I'm not complaining. 3 points and it should be pointed out that it was Anelka scored the first goal! Lol. And from the angle I saw the foul for the freekick, it looked like Fletcher went in two footed or at least over the top. Fletcher should have seen a booking at some stage in the game - he was a joke and even hacked down Essien when we had 4 on 4" - fly_half83.

"Ivanovic was MotM for me. It was a pleasure watching him, he was involved in all of our good attacking plays and defensively he was so solid and shut Evra out of the game completely who normally tears us to shreds. He also got his head to absolutely everything. The final 10 minutes were pretty nervy and he was the one who kept bailing us out of trouble by getting his head on everything. Freak of a player" - petrcechthefridge


From The Official Everton Thread
"*phew* We made bloody hard work of that win.

"For a while it just looked destined for West Ham to equalise. Thank God that Hines bloke had such a shocker today

"I think Distin and Yobo both looked good, as did Heitinga and Rodwell in front of them. Gosling will be happy tonight, too

"The important thing is that defensively, we looked like Everton at points today, and I didn't realise how much that had disappeared until you see everyone working hard and pitching in again. Plenty of room for improvement, mind" - davethedudeUK.

"Yet another riposte to the doom merchants. You can injure our players, you can write us off in November, you can mock us when we lose against Benfica, but we are always capable of a result.

"Our game in hand is against Hull, a win would put us into 8th. The fact is we are without our 3 best players. After Christmas we should put a run together and do what we always do. Leave the idiots to talk up the chances of Spurs and City, Everton will once agin prove to be 'the best of the rest' - R0ckface.

"What a great day! My dad's mate works for West Ham, so I managed to get pitch side before the game and watch the lads warm up. Yak misplaced a pass and it came directly to me. I went to volley it back. I f**king sliced it and it went miles away.

"Great win, and after I went to an Everton Supporters Club London meeting, with Robert Elstone, all the lads from behind the scenes eg head of ticketing, head of communications etc and Graeme Sharp" - Leon Osman.


From The Official Hull Thread
"Yes! Amazing result, 3 points is just what we needed. Not the best performance but a win is a win all the same. Nice to see Bullard complete the full 90 minutes too, at home as well. Hopefully the international break won't affect us too much. Next match is at home to West Ham, another must win" - CityHull.



From The Official Man City Thread...
"Today is the first time I have seriously started to question Hughes. Petrov was the Etihad player of the month and can't get in the team. S W-P has been awful since September but gets a game every week. Everyone on here was screaming for Petrov to come on yet Hughes waits till 70 mins. In that last 10 mins Hughes must have known that Burnley were gonna press for an equaliser. That's when you take a striker off and bring on De Jong to shut up shop but Hughes just sat and watched" - The Sheikh.


"I just wanted Dunnie to be given the chance to fight for his place and right now we could use some of his better qualities. Would rather see Kompany in Lescotts place at the moment (I would prefer Neds) and I'm not a big fan of Vince as a defender. Had we brought in world class players I wouldn't have minded, but these two are not world class and we are stuck with the for a while, because they are Hughes signings" - Bandolero.


"For about 3 or 4 minutes before the inevitable goal, i sat and watched with the mrs, and we both said, that punting the ball upfield in the 85th minute only invites pressure straight back on to the back 4. she said, "if we can see it, why can't Hughes?" . and she's right. we got what we deserved. that's five points now out of 15, anyone fancy our chances at Anfield now then?. and the commentator on the radio said, and i quote, our "defending, was frankly laughable". I'm a little bit angry to say the least, and for the first time since the season started, and no matter how hard i try to suppress them, doubt is starting to creep in about Hughes. and it embarrasses me to admit it" - Bernie Lugg.


"Fact is three individual errors cost us today. Lescott hanball, Barry for the second giving it away and Bridge for the third letting it bounce off his back. Given didn't have a shot to save outside these. Hughes can be blamed for somethings, but not a lot he can do about them ones. For me sorting out the "individuals" into a team and getting us to play with a spit manure spit like attitude week in week out is the biggest thing facing him. At time's today (and v Brum) it was like there were some just saying let's hoof it up front where the big names will do sh*t with it. Well that don't work. We're not getting the best from Tev or Ade by doing that. Until he fixes that we'll huff and puff our way to sixth. And Bernie I still think we'll get something at Anfield, the players will be up for it, sadly we need to get them up for it every time" - Muck Savage.


"Evening all, not much more to be said about today. Decided not to post immediately after the game as it would've been an angry, incoherent and unfocussed rant. Having had time to think about I'm still bitterly disappointed about the fact yet again we've let another average side turn up, score easily and then later we were in a winning position and failed to put them away. a bit worried about two things - firstly how disjointed we've been for the last few games and secondly what kind of monging will happen post Anfield as we go there with no confidence, no cohesion and a history of poor results there. After today I think we've really handed the initiative in the battle for fourth to Liverpool, villa and spurs as we just don't look like a team at the moment. need to somehow get back on track asap. of late we've had heightened expectations not being matched by our performances anyway another weekend ruined by typical city" - Wehadthatterryphelan.


From The Official Manchester United Thread
"The most dissapointing thing is that the result was expected. We are very predictable, and I think Valencia offers very little on the wing. He has no tricky and he always does the same move, check and then cut the ball on is right foot. Any defender who studies a few tapes of him can suss him out. Central midfield offers very little creativity. Our leftback is our most dangerous attacker. Rooney isn't good enough to lead the line on his own. He's more of a support player. A world class player in the support role. He was brilliant with Ruud and Saha, less so with Berba.

"Berba doesn't fit into our style of player nor does Valencia. O'Shea will always be O'Shea. Nani doesnt have the trust of the manager, and it really isn't suprising. hes way too inconsistent in games, and doesnt have a good understanding with any of our players.

"Think we will still finish in the top 2. But not because of our brilliance. We need to freshen up the squad.

"One thing I never get is why there is no man on the post in those situations... would have been knocked away very easily" - Kayo.

"How on earth are people writing us off a already? It's really astonishing. Really it is. Still, I'm really f**king annoyed. And if we don't win it, I would be with Wenger and Arsenal all the way. It's about time they won it.

"All our players gave 100 percent. They all wanted to win. Valencia and Giggs are under-par and prove they can't do much during big games. We need one more good midfielder and striker. Fergie should start Obertan every single game. He is such a threat.

"The players should take heart from this performance. We should defend with that passion and we will tear apart all that sh*te in the premier league. Up front, we just have to stop experimenting and trying to be like Barcelona. We could have scored today easily. If Giggs gave a sh*t...And I think Anderson did damn well" - CharlieArches.

"Ferguson and the players should take heart from that performance. I'm sure they will. The game has an important positive to take from it and Fergie definitely will. It highlighted our superior strengths and of course our weaknesses, which can quite easily be discarded. So, chin up and ignore the toss on the main forum. Utter unreasonable cretins" - CharlieArches again.

"I am not convinced with all this tke the positives from the performance. I am a massive united fan but I just have my concerns. You can boss a game all day long and say that we deserved to win it but to win games you need to score goals and thats something we didnt look like doing today.

"I dont think the missing piece was berba by any means, I actually think we play better without him as he slows play up way to much. its just that against the bigger teams you need to create chances. Granted that you are not going to create a lot of chances but what you do create you need to put away. We didnt even create any realy half chances. Thats why I think someone like owen should have a place in the games like this because if a half chance falls to someone I would want it to be owen.

"Valencia has been poor, his inability to use his left foot as well as get past players infuriates me as he has a lot of strength and pace. Not convinced by united at all and at this rate if we dont try and keep up with chelsea and arsenal we will end up in third place" - mysterio1984.

"We need a different type of striker. Rooney and Berba are too similar. That said, Rooney gets injured for about a month of every season, so it will be interesting to see how Berba plays as the focal point of the attack rather than Roo" - Smithy.


From The Official Tottenham Hotspur Thread...
" Well you if you play like that against a top side you get spanked......like we have been. Hopefiully Redknapp has cottoned on now not keep playing players out of position - Keane up front and Niko on the left" - Vandelay Industries.


"So, been going to spurs since 87 and I think that is the first time a spurs keeper has saved a pen in a league game in that time. Someone mentioned erik the viking against coventry in 92 but I don't recall that" - Blaino


"We were better against Stoke, we lost. We were worse against Sunderland, we won. Such is life. Another game closer to Luka's return" - Thayden.


"The lack of width today was horrible, no Luka or Lennon left us so so narrow. BAE and Corluka didn't do enough to get up and provide the midfield with a man on the flanks.After a good end of last season and a solid start to this one ,BAE is starting to look dodgy again. Wilson looks f**ked and Jenas was average at best again. Keane looks a stone overweight, his wife is either a good cook or a very bad one" - elvisramone


From The Official West Ham Thread...
"The result was unfortunate - we had a lot of possession, which would usually stave off a defeat, but you just can't get away from them when your team is in a relegation fight.

"We need to turn possession into attacks and shots, not just pass it around the defence and be afraid to make a break or a single daring pass. It's all down to mentality in my opinion.

"We can take comfort in the return of Diamanti to the side - he has tremendous energy, show's passion. I like it. Welcome back Diamanti!

"Let's look forward to the next couple of games. We know it's going to be a fight as we are playing Hull and Burnley, and our players need to be passionate and want to play for the shirt. We can't afford to have any less than 100% from every single player. I just hope every single one of them who are lucky enough to pull on the shirt puts in 100% effort, plays to the very best of their ability and wins. We really need to win these two.

"We can stay up" - Heavier Than A Cow.

"Oh well. At least we showed we can keep our heads up today. diamonds looked good but some of his shots were a bit sh*t. seems desperate to please. his passing was amazing though - we need to get him to play full games.

"Hines had an off game but he's only young. Franco did well and was never offside at the end" - MistahJ.


From The Official Wigan Thread...
"2 points dropped today. One of the most impotent displays I've seen.

"I know the idea of playing a right footed player on the left wing ( and vice versa ) is that they will cut in a provide support to the 'lone' striker but both Rodallega and N'Zogbia found themselves in positions normally occupied by othordox wingers. The amount of half baked crosses played with the wrong foot today was frustrating.

"Not that I believe better crosses would have had much effect. Jason Scotland's only role in the team seems to be holding the ball up for play to catch up with him. He struggles to turn, struggles to compete for the ball and hardly ever gets a shot away on goal. He is in need of some proper support from the 'wide' players or Latics need a better front man in January.

"Not sure I saw the tactics behind removing Edman, barring an unknown fitness problem, and putting N'Zogbia to left back. N'Zobia had spent the previous 10 minutes actually linking up pretty well with Scharner and Scotland. In saying that we saw flashes of what Scott Sinclair is capable of once he came on.

"If I could have changed anything about todays lineup, it would have been to just move Rodallega and N'Zogbia infield by 5-10 yards and overlap the wingbacks when crosses were the order of the day. Thomas and Diame between them could have covered for anyone caught out of position.

"I left the ground feeling deflated today because I think we were the better team. I'm looking forward to MOTD2, even if it is just to see Phil Dowd give a penalty for someone falling over the ball" - Dee Em.


From The Official Wolves Thread...
"Well that could have been a lot worse. Don't think Arsenal ever got out of 2nd gear, they didn't need to we were so bad. I might be being overly harsh but the lack of any chances or even shots in open play is really starting to worry me, because this isn't the first time. For me only Stears and Doyle can really come out of that display with their heads up. The rest ranged from mediocre to dreadful" - Bion.


"I turned it off at half time to be honest. I'm seriously concerned with McCarthy's tactics and by the fact he doesn't make the right decisions even the most simplest of them. Again he got it wrong today, OK arsenal were always going to beat us but ffs let's at least threaten, we didn't have 1 shot in the first half, but it has been like that for the past few games." - Chulo.


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