Tomo

Drogba will get a well deserved standing ovation before and after the game at The Bridge, but between the first whistle and the last, he is the enemy, and i will be chanting the names off the players trying to take us through, not knock us out.

Don't do it Hiddink, don't you dare!!!!

Am i the only one a lot more relaxed about the CL since we have won it? it's great. Before that there was all this anxiety knowing we are still to win it and even more so given our squad was getting on that little bit more by the year. Now im looking forward immensely to the draw, in a hopeful optimistic mood, hoping we can do it, confident we could but at the same time if we didn't we won't have this "another chance for holy grail gone" crap we had to deal with for nearly a decade. Can't wait.

-----------------Schwarzer----------------- Azpi--------Cahill------Kalas-------Cole (whichever two are not facing Arsenal) KDB--------------Mata------------Schurrle/Willian --------------------Eto'o-----------------------

We parked the bus against Steuna (who we brushed aside this season) and played negative at Eastlands, what was it 3 shots and 1 on target? I wasn't a Rafa hater, infact i found myself in a position where i was defending him half the time, but we had some god awful games under him, as bad as anything we have had this season, something that seems to have been forgotten just because were not blowing teams away this term.

At the start of the season, for a little bit. I didn't see this "pretty football" on a consistent basis, we had our fair share of games when we looked clueless and never looked like doing anything (Swansea away twice, West Brom, Reading away, Saints away, City away, QPR home, Liverpool away, City home, Fulham home, West Ham away, CWC final, Stuena away, Prague home, a number of matches off the top of my head were we were complete and utter horseshite and devoid of ideas, i can't remember many fancy flicks and 1-2's in those games).

That's good then, every time i have heard we are going to get hammered, we either win or draw when we should have won. It's all becoming a bit too predictable.

How do you know? he featured in 4 of the 8 matches before his injury, 3 of the one's he didn't being at Old Trafford, Goodison and against Bayern Munich. And regarding KDB, do you think if Rafa stayed he would have played him ahead of Mazacar and Schurrle? never in a million years. Rafa played Moses a lot for the sake of team balance, Schurrle would start every single match if Rafa was still here.

While also neglecting Zaha and too an extent Kagawa to occupy a 40 year old. If Van Ginkel didn't get injured, he would be playing a lot right now, no doubt.

This time next year Newcastle are in the top half, Stoke are a tough away match at the best of the time, it's not even close to losing at home to one of thee worst teams ever in PL. Regarding the other points, AVB still had a multimillionaire squad full off winners, he shouldn't have had us outside the top 4, never in a million years. Also AVB has had £100m to spend in the summer for Spurs (the fact he got twice what he should have for Bale shouldn't be an excuse, just like Liverpool getting £50m for Torres shouldn't excuse the fact Kenny wasted money on average journeyman) and upto a few weeks back averaged one open play goal every two games. We have been getting by on individual moments for years now, how many games since the double have we had a top, top, top match? Aston Villa at home last season, other than that i can't genuinely think of one I accept thing's haven't been great this season, but this myth that things was all garden and roses last season is hilarious, i remember watching us face Liverpool at Anfield, we created nothing all game, all this nice supposed on the eye football and we created fuck all against a team with a manager who is hardly known for defensive solidarity. We had our moments last season, but i wouldn't say we were playing nice football on a consistent basis, far from it.

No he doesn't, the media and Andy Gray said he can't, so it must be true.

But, but, but, we were playing more short passes, triangles and party tricks

Was that before, during or after we lost at home to QPR? You on about the Arsenal game that was won through 2 set pieces? or the Arsenal game that was won through a debatable penalty after we got thrashed over for almost the whole of the second half? or the United game were we didn't wake up until we were 2-0 down after 20 minutes? When Rafa was here the performances got constantly criticized ,now he's gone all off a sudden we were playing like Brazil in the 70's under him, i don't get it? I do, i also remember we got outplayed in that game and got very lucky while a few weeks later we lost to Juventus in one of the most one sided games i have ever seen which as good as dumped us on ITV4, but oh well atleast we were playing a few triangles, thankgod for that hey.

He brought Piazon on once when we were 6-0 up Regarding the highlighting bit, if it was so easy then why didn't AVB or Robbie crack it?

This season so far has gone similar to the previous years since 2010. Good start for the first 3 months (August-October), dreadful November, not much better start to December. But there is one key difference between now and the other times, we are still in the title race, by this time for the last 3 years we fell well off the pace by this time. Onwards and upwards.

Please, please, please get a 3rd, please

None have been Azpi's fault per se, and i think he has done as good as he can do considering he is out of position, but watching the games it seems our defense in general have turned completely shite since he's been out. I don't have stats to back it up, it's the conclusion i have reached with my own eyes. I know Cole offers fuck all going forward these days, but for me defensive solidarity comes before attacking prowess, 1-0's come more frequent than 4-3's.

Sorry, but i cannot believe it's a coincidence we have gone completely to pot defensively since he has been out. We have only conceded 7 goals in the 9 league games he's played this season.

Seems to me we have missed Cole's defensive game more than we initially thought. 10 league goals and counting conceded in 6 games since he's been dropped.

God why do we use previous games we played as a kind of indication on how we will get on at Eastlands. 1. A lot can change in 2 months, we might have a CM and Luiz on top of his form by then. 2. It's fucking tedious to read things like 'Sunderland scored 3 past us so City will score 6' football just doesn't work like that.

Please, i just want a nice, trouble free relaxing 2-0. None of this you shoot, we shoot crap.

Micheal Owen makes Garth Crooks look like Gary Neville, embarrassing.

I hope he doesn't, i would rather he faces us than Cazorla.

Don't ask me why or how, but i just have some weird strong feeling we will win at The Ethiad

I would rather worry about a more complete striker when we have a more complete team. Right now we are an unbalanced team so having a natural goalscorer will do wonders with getting us more points. Imagine if we had him last season? he alone would have probably got us at-least 10 more points. Having said that i think the ship has well and truly sailed with Falcao, best to find someone else who won't cost upwards of £50m.