Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

Oh wow you can book them - if our awayday ever happens, they must play at it.

or maybe it's not

god how many shit Arsenal bands are there?

that was a day of football

steve clarke reminds me of andy capp or an alcoholic viz character.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02312/steve-clarke_2312609b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/brown-bottle.jpg

nope, can't see it

Clarke looks exactly like a guy I work with in that picture.

i don't remember him looking like this til he went to west brom. is it a midlands thing or just ageing?

coward cunt ref

top top marks for 'fan forums on first name terms with administrators'

And hi wmc

adebayor heads home lennon cross

WTF

the fuck is vertonghen at, he's brutal at getting back

deems this is yr best squad in living memory innit

sans kaboul and kotto too

it's better balanced than the cb-light effort of last year, tho imo they had better depth in players like kranjcar, pav, pienaar, corluka.

Naughton's emergence as an ok option, vertonghen being quality at lb & cb, sandro/dembele/bale/lennon possibly being a more effective four than you'd have thought (wonder if parker changes this, but i doubt it), two good gk options- all improvements on last year.

tbh the form of defoe, lennon, bale is masking a possible drop in overall squad quality. I'm not easy calling yet as to whether that's down to more intelligent use of this historically patchy trio or whether avb's having a lucky streak- if we had to look at dropping/resting/covering injury to either winger i'd soon be able to answer you more firmly.

Lennon is probably having his best season for us. That's partly due to lack of injuries (he tends to be slow in coming into form after he's been out), partly due to Defoe being in the team and partly due to AVB managing him better. Because we have Defoe upfront, on his own sometimes, we don't play high crosses in very much any more and that suits Lennon because he still isn't very good at them. Both Bale and Lennon tend to cut inside more often nowadays, there are fewer overlong Lennon crosses going past everyone. Would go so far as to say that AVB has got Defoe, Bale and Lennon all playing more intelligently.

they had better depth in players like kranjcar, pav, pienaar, corluka

Players who Redknapp basically didn't bother with at all. Not sure we need as many of those players any more because Vertonghen, Dempsey, Sigurdsson etc can play in several different positions. They're all getting plenty of game time as well, AVB is better at using a squad properly than Redknapp was, and he's bringing through young players properly as well. We do need at least one more striker and another central midfielder, the most worrying thing about our season so far has been the apparent inability to play without Dembele in the team.

dude on 606 tonight described Lennon as "a better winger than the likes of Ashley Young" and i thought come the fuck on that must cover 25-30 percent of the population

i don't think any of that refutes that last year's squad was better, matt- tho i agree with most of it (we need other right/left wide options before we need another central, and dempey and sigurdsson have not been good enough (nor will they be) as cover in more than one position each) (and even sayin that, those are not positions that we use)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/31/article-2255488-16B48654000005DC-136_634x502.jpg

inshallah

and i couldn't criticise arry on brining through young players, livermore, walker came through very well, i'm p certaing caulker and naughton were already pencilled in for this season, and tbh he gets credit for improvement in lennon, bale, ekotto during his time.

I don't think, essentially, that there's been a great leap forward on last year, but maybe we're on a more solid foundation. Time will tell.

thought avb would shuffle the deck a little more today. sandro walker lennon and defoe have played nearly every game. think townsend was ill today but would like to see him and falque play to see if they can be sufficient cover for the wings.

parker looked amazingly tidy in possession today. 100% pass completion and almost got his first ever spurs goal. could just be reading.

In other news, not PL but a haunting memory: VAN DER VAART HIT HIS WIFE AND THEY ARE SPLITTING UP

(back to lurking, good new year to y'all)

A quote, just because it sounds so amazing in German:

​Rafael reumütig: „Das war eine große Dummheit von mir. Ich bin ein Idiot. Es tut mir sehr leid. Das hätte niemals passieren dürfen.“​

As you were.

hey lbi

i rate parker, mizzell- but couldn't justify disrupting the four. I wonder if avb will be able to resist dropping a striker and going to a 5-1

hey deems - lurking here when the footy is on. for a shite league the pl keeps on giving and giving, always. the pl deserves more <3 imho. shenanigans, great goals and lololol dire defending is all you desire when times are tough. it's like homeopathy: medicine you know it won't make a single difference, it's a shambles, but ahhh the hope and distraction it briefly gives you.

‘Tweet something like that and then you see the nicer side of Twitter. The minority always ruin it for genuinely decent people.’

He then followed up with a picture of his trophy cabinet that includes European Player of the Year trophy, a Premier League medal, a FA Cup winners medal as well as three League Cup winners medals along with the Tweet: ‘Oh, and just to remind the trolls with a short memory out there.’

That then prompted his former team-mate Didi Hamman to reply: ‘Hahaha nice one mukka.’

hamann the beria to owen's stalin

what kind of stupid cunt thinks that decent people are in the majority ffs

In fairness that guy's missus *is* quite sexy and it's cute when he meets his kids in the park midway through. Nice touch how it finishes up at a gig with all the atmosphere of the Emirates too

Plus it is quite catchy and they all look rather jolly. Might be time to switch allegiances.

I've had it playing in my head all day. Seems like a nice guy too - he might break that Chelsea mug, but you know he'll've cleared it up afterwards. I mean I like You'll Never Walk Alone and all, but you might be on to something there.

In other news, Chelsea have ponied up for Ba, and Harry says you'd need to be a real dope to fail at Chelsea. No word on what failing at QPR makes you.

par

That's 'Arry taking a shot at AVB surely?

could be read as a dig at rafa, avb, a reminder that arry's doin alright considering relative assets, standard arry groundwork in general tbh

avb has had a nice little dig himself the past few weeks, pointing out that we're doing ok now, but the trick is not to completely fuck it up from here until may like previous manager

'Arry's also talking up the prospect of Joe Cole to QPR, clearly the sort of man you want around in a relegation dogfight.

Daniel Sturridge has gone to Liverpool.

mail reporting cole's going back to west ham

benayoun probably been telling him what a footballing paradise it is

carroll, cole, i'm starting to like big sam.

Sturridge told Liverpool's website: "I am humbled and happy to be here. Brendan Rodgers said he sees me here for a long time, and I also see myself here for a long time. I've not signed here to play for a couple of years and then move on.

"I've signed to be here for as long as possible. It's a humongous club – for me, one of the biggest in the world – and to have the fans and world-class players we have here is amazing."

Good start on two counts, website subs young man

He then followed up with a picture of his trophy cabinet that includes European Player of the Year trophy, a Premier League medal, a FA Cup winners medal as well as three League Cup winners medals along with the Tweet: ‘Oh, and just to remind the trolls with a short memory out there.’

a solid thirty seconds of thinking "when did michael owen win the premier league?"

really need a player to sign to lfc and acknowledge 'we're not great at the moment and it's very likely that my time here will be marked by failure and disappointment, also our fans are shit and the club isn't all that'

could say the same about any club, tbf, i'd just like to see it happen- did someone do this p recently?

hodgson iirc

It's going to be a rerun of Arbroath v Bon Accord at Stamford Bridge tonight, I fear.

(just caught up on motd)

This butter-fingered self-conscious Polish clown at Saints shares a name with a keeper I remember being a solid regular match winner :(

he was fine apart from those 2 early slips, not that arsenal gave him much to do. def had krazy keeper eyes tho.

Is there any chance of Sturridge playing tonight?

apparently not. FA Cup is the soonest he can play

I know I shouldn't, but I'm starting to get excited about him signing. Wrapping it up fast is good in any event, as is 'undisclosed fee' - was worried it was going to be £12m.

what if it's £30m

it's okay cos nobody will know