Tomo

In terms of getting a few extra points maybe, but Zaha or not, this team are going down and fast.

So we have to scrap our high pressing plan because Mata's a great person? As great a player Mata is, Mourinho wants a high pressing game, so he has to play his part. Every player in our team has competition for their place, Mata's not going to be an exception because he was our best player when we finished 3rd and 6th.

4-1 at home to Fulham, that's bad no matter who you are. Palace seem to be getting progressively worse after a decent August, could see them finishing the season with less than 15 points, maybe even less than 10.

Carragher's pretty decent as far as pundits go, but he always looks out of his depth when debating with Neville. That's the deal you get with these type of players. Lucio was exactly the same, so is Pique. They will take risk's and every now and again the risk will backfire, but what he brings to the table outweighs the risk, English pundits are still have their head buried in the get stuck in and hoof it away. All of the pundits and commentator's go on about Luiz, even when he had a near perfect match in Romania, the commentator was bleating on about his supposed wreckless side, it's relentless.

I agree with that, he is a good squad player to have and a solid understudy to Cole, but if he was as good as has been made out before, he would have took Cole's place by now given the latter hasn't been that great himself for a while.

We should play Blackman. Cech needs a rest and Schwarzer needs a loan.

We could viably have the complete attacking midfielder on our hands, no exaggeration. To think, QPR and Spurs nearly got him

Can't see that being too high a priority given the fixture schedule. Jose will play a 2nd string at The Emirates, even if that means losing his unbeaten record against Wenger.

Even tho he has still been good i would say Balotelli, when he can be fucked he is absolutely unplayable, he would easily be the best after Messi and Ronaldo if he played like he did against Germany at the Euro's or Mexico in the Confederation's cup more often, he has so much talent it's insane. @Rmpr, The Denilson that played for Betis? i remember playing LMA Manager 2003 and he was the best rated player in the game alongside Recoba for Inter

What's the odds off another controversial Felipe Santana winner in the last second?

Wenger should be if he is on a neutral channel, Neville probably hates being rational towards Liverpool but he is professional and just gets on with it.

Apart from Gary Neville, is their a proper decent pundit around? Carragher's ok but even he has had his backside handed to him by Nev a couple of times (Scholes/Gerrard and Luiz). Neville's punditry is so refreshing, he gives different outlooks and perspective on thing's and really makes you think, i remember when City lost 1-0 to Arsenal in April 2012 i thought Aguero was quiet, but Neville's punditry actually showed that Aguero was making the right moves all game and could have got 4 if his players saw it and played him through. His anaylsis on the Classico two years ago brought a complete new perspective on how Barca play (as i have already alluded to on this thread). He gives a completely different outlook to the general consensus, he one of the very, very few pundit's who really earns his money as far as im concerned. It's fucking depressing, i never thought i would see the day where im grateful for the presence of Neville in any way shape of form.

When Townsend was the age Josh is now he was on his 6th loan at Millwall (following a epic fail of a spell at Watford). Too early still to say for sure.

It's been like that ever since Jose was here last. Too many games we came unstuck (Fulham at home the standout example) when United were romping the same fixture. Even in the double season we dropped a lot of stupid points, we got away with it because of our perfect record against the big 4, as much as one draw against Arsenal, United, Liverpool we would have lost the title.

Haven't you heard? they always wanted Chadli and thought he was the superior option

Hopefully we won't, between City and Arsenal games is a chance to really put a run together, it's said that the title comes down to the head to head between the big boys, but i think that's an over-rated cliche, more often than not it comes down to who tosses away the less stupid points, that's the reason Rafa and Ancelotti don't have that many league title's while Jose and Fergie have them coming out of their ears.

I have been saying that for a few weeks now, considering we have already got three of our hardest away games out of the way, i think we are in a very strong position. If we can beat City next Sunday, then we will be in the best position to win the league since 2009/10, it would be that huge a victory.

This may sound crazy, but if it comes down to it i would rest him for a CL game (if he really, really needs one), our priority this season has to be getting back on the wagon as far as a title challenge is concerned, the cup's (CL included) come a distance second for this season atleast.

True, what upcoming matches (along with Arsenal) would you suggest resting him?. This would have been the time where Van Ginkel would have got his fair share of games, what a shame, we are basically back to the pivot of last season but with Essien as the emergency 4th option instead of Luiz.

Agree about Luiz and Ivanovic but Ramires is our most important player right now, we have enough problem's with the pivot with him playing let alone without. He needs to play as many games in the League and CL as possible until January then hopefully we can sort the pivot once and for all.

The next 2 months we will be able to get a better idea on where Arsenal actually are. 09/10 they looked just as good in the lesser games at home but crumbled against Chelsea/United and physical teams away from home.

That's true, while Eto'o hasn't been scoring i think his overall play for us has been fine. Makes the slating off him bewildering, even more so given the time and excuses given to Torres.

I think we should do another marketing campaign to get another few teams in, their must be some members we can persuade to join. Also i think we need to have atleast 3 preferably 4 pre season games before kicking the season off, we need them to build up fitness and form.

I think its best to go down to 8 personally, but im happy to ride along with the majority vote.

He does ok at centre back, but i remember under Ancelotti, he was the best right back in the league, one game that sticks out was Arsenal away (when we won 3-0) Arshavin was one of in form players around and every 'expert' predicted him to rip the 'makeshift centre back' apart, but Ivan marked him out of the game and rendered the Russian anonymous