FairWooney

Gulp! After chatting about yesterdays game with my dad with quite a bit of possitiity after a few good performances and confidence boosting come back he asked "who have we got next week then?" The confidence drained from the conversation at that point, we may be on the way up performance wise and ready to kick on with some wins but I think Chelsea was the last team we'd have wanted next! HOWEVER, We've frequently given them good matches before and if we can carry that confidence gained at the end of the Spurs game into this one we can make a good match of it. Chelsea picked up a rare loss at the weekend however they are still on an impressive 7 wins from 7 games at home and it's hard to see that change. Their goal scornig record has also been phenominal with 37 scored in their 15 games and just 10 conceeded, only 1 goals conceeded at home. Our team for the game Howard Coleman Hibbert Distin/Yobo/Neil Baines Piennar Rodwell Fellaini Heitinga Bilya Saha Very defence minded central midfield. Big test for Coleman but after his MOTM in the last game I think it's worth giving him his chance. Will need to do a lot more defending than wing back attacking in this one but that's his main job anyway so we'll see if he can stand up to it. Saha has to start, Jo has given it a good go the last few games and worked hard but he just hasn't got the finishing ability of Saha (or Yak) and his persistant offsides need to be addressed.

The chelsea game will be a big test for him if he does start it. While he looked great bombing down the wing and taking players on that won't be his priority against Chelsea and he will have to show a lot of discipline. He made some ver good challenges but he'll just need to be aware of Chelsea's threat whenever he does go forward and make sure he's quick to get back. For that reason I'm not sure if Moyes will pick him though with Cahill out he may go with the solid midfield centre of Rodwell and Heitinga leaving a defensive space depending on injuries.

after first half I fancied Hibbert had a good chance after some great stops and vital last man challenges but his challenge that gave away the pen as well more importantly as Coleman's awesome performance took it away from him. Thought Cahill had a pretty decent game today as well, hopefully the goal will do his confidence some good and we'll see more from him. Shame he's going to miss Chelsea now.

come on Howard. We don't fuckin need this

unlucky Saha there awesome technique on that overhead kick.

That assist from Coleman wraps up an awesome performance from him. more attacking the defending but some good challenges at the back as well. That running down the wing has been fantastic, takes players on, passes will and picks out great passes and crosses into box. 2 more now lads...COYB'S

lol i came on with the intention of saying exactly that! he's not having a bad game but always takes off too early. Very entertaining half with some good football but it could go either way at the moment. can't see it being 0-0. Liking the look of coleman, looks comfortable on the ball and works hard getting forward as well. A couple of dream passes from bilya as well

On second thoughts i'm thinking Piennar was our MOTM but I voted Fellaini, I felt he deserved a vote as he had a quality game playing defensive midfield role especially after we lost Distin and Gosling to injury. He slotted in behind and won the ball every time leaving them to take long range shots all game. Calm and collected on the ball, 2 very good performances in a row from him. everyone played well again just like against Liverpool and coped well in tough conditions. Would have been nice to see another goal as we were quite capable of it but I'll take the 1-0 win and another fine goal from Bilya.

Is duffy any good? I've not seen Duffy or mustafi play but Mustafi is very good on Football Manager, worth millions with bids coming in from loads of clubs seeing his potential! I hope he lives up to his football manager billing which is i'm sure what the Everton scouts based the signing on!

I thought we played up until their second goal our best football we've played all season. We played the ball around nicely, worked hard to win it back and generally looked pretty good all over the pitch. We struggled to score but then that was partly down to the shites scoring so early and putting everyone behind the ball after that. Were not used to playing teams who put everyone behind the ball like they were and struggled to break them down. A very possitive performance I thought and I just hope we can play that well against Athens and next week in the league.

piennar for me. I felt most of the team played well, Fellaini had a very good game especially but Piennar got about all over the pitch, provides us with pace and creativity and was involved in almost everything we had going forward. Agree also heitinga was solid in the middle.

it's sometimes amazing how long it takes footballers to get over an injury. I turned my foot pretty badly playing squash the other week but after a bit of ice decided that I didn't need to see a doctor or physio. It's been painful since but after missing 1 11 a side match and 1 5 a side match I felt mildly ok walking so decided to play the next weekend. I could feel while warming up that it was already hurting. Did I pull out...did I bollocks?! I played 60 minutes of pain probably damaging my foot even more eventually scoring and asking to come off! It may have been a broken metertarsal(yep i'm trying to join the club) as having looked at quite a bit online it seemed like the most likely thing. Did playing in pain damage me....probably. It still has the occasional agitation 2 weeks later but i've done a fait bit of running and a few football matches. what am I saying...footballers are pansies who with a pain killer could put in a full stint on a damaged leg....but who would probably shorten their career's by about 5 years because of it!!!

An update direct from the Tweets of Mikel Arteta today. Sounds like pretty much another month before we see him playing. His message today: " Jogging today and feeling good, kicking the ball by maybe next week, I want to play by Xmas maybe. M.A. " Amusing post a couple of days ago about the big Philly style "Finch Farm is Sunny today , Phil is like a Duck on crutches. M.A. " And other exciting Arteta news is that he's now adding Welsh to his already impressive list of spoken languages!

has someone not already confirmed it's not possible to play them in the next round. and as said lets just worry about qualifiying first which is still a good bit of work away yet. COYB'S let work it in take them out in the quarters, semi's or even better the final!

difficult call for me regarding the rooney taunts. As a non regular fan I never like to make heavy comments regarding our supporters who put in a great effort both home and away to support our side. If there were Rooney child chants I don't like it at all, yes Rooney has upset us with his attitude at times but I feel taunts of someones family with no reason are not nice at all and go beyond agrivating the individual. Rooney die also seems a bit over the top to me to be honest, I think Rooney is a fine player to wind up for any opposition, us or otherwise as he's easily wound up and it can affect his game. However I think a bit overly nasty without any humour to it which is what i prefer to see. It's easy to wind up a player without saying you want to kill him. in the same way i'd rather see us take the piss out of how Liverpool are doing than say we want to kill the buggars! just my thoughts and how i'd choose to make a noise when i'm at the ground.

think their still going in Ireland Bill...just took their ambitions of big time back to Ireland with their tail between their legs! I was quite shocked when i read the first post but now I see you are a new fan I welcome you and hope that you will continue to have such grounds for optomisum throughout the season. I don't see anyone beyond Chelsea (probable winners in my eyes), Arsenal (if they can keep up form) and Man Utd (yawn) winning the laegue this season. I wouldn't be suprised to see Man City battling for 4th though it remains to be seen how they'll do throughout the winter and they're still struggling to produce form away from home. Spurs are also a team battling to show their full potential which I believe is top 6 potential based on their squad. We have potential to be in the top 6 again also but it will be tough and we will have our work cut uot no matter who is fit or injured throughout the season. My honest prediction Chelsea Arsenal Man Utd Man Shity Liverpool Spurs Everton Villa Sunderland Fulham A bit of a dissapointing prediction but I feel that both Spurs and shity have strong enough squads and are showing enoguh on the pitch that they will keep decent form throughout the season. Our best hope of securing 6th is Rafa continuing his fine work at the red shites throughout the season!!!

I don't think we need to be panicking but I wouldn't definately be concerned over keeping our european place. we may have done that well last year and I do expect that we'll have a better second half to the season than the first but we've still got a lot of players out and tough games coming up that we need to try to get points from. Our next 3 league games are all away from home with Bilya missing them all if we don't have Piennar back then we will really be lacking any creative flair in the team. The games are West ham, Man utd and Hull and we really need to get at least 4 points from those 3 games if not 5 or 6. We definately can't afford to lose to both West ham and Hull.

on a possitive note they couldn't beat a pretty shoddy looking AEK Athens. Having spent a bit of time on bluekipper I can see Lisbon is certainly going to be pretty blue on Thursday! I think if we can get something out of this game then it'll give us plenty of confidence for the tournament as there aren't many better teams in the tournament.

A very tough game against a proven european outfit and Champions League regulars. Benfica have won 6 of their first 7 games of the season, drawing the other. They've scored 24 goals and conceeded 4. Obviously tough to compare the leagues easily with the Portugese league not being all that strong. Benfica won their last game 6-0 away from home but then they lost their last Europa game to a team we beat 4-0! We seem to play pretty well in the European games (though the last game we weren't great but did the job) but I really hope Piennar is back as he is a huge miss when he's not playing. He adds some pace to the team that we otherwise lack as well as his creativity and general hard work. I'm going to this game, off to Madrid on Tuesday and going to Real Madrid v AC Milan on Wednesday night. Should be a cracker. Getting to Lison on Thursday and staying with a mate there for the weekend. My prediction. 2-2 - we'll go 1-0 down then come back and go 2-1 up before conceeding again (though i'd take the 2-1!) scorers - Saha and Fellaini

he'll probably also understand it's pretty expensive to buy your way out of a contract when you've got no where else to go!!! He'll get a game soon i'm sure but he's got to earn a place in the team and others have got to lose their place in Moyes eyes for him to get in. He's taking on Yobo and Distin for centre back or Hibbert and Heitinga at right back and I don't see him taking either position easily. I'm sure he accepts that he's joinned as cover and will work hard in training to try to earn a place and keep up his fitness.

fairly tough call agree Yakubu did a good job when he came on and made a difference. Bilya played some lovely passes, especially that first time pass from the half way line that landed straight to Saha inside the box, however you can still see he's got a lot of settling in to the Premiership to go yet. I didn't notice a lot of cahill though his chance that he crossed for someone else after Bilya's chance was saved I don't understand why he didn't shoot. He looked pretty solid around the pitch and some nice touches of wht I saw though. Baines looked very good going forward I thought, don't recall his defending as much which is what he generally gets stick for.

that sending off was weird, didn't look like much in it to me, I thought Howard's relatiation was worse from what I saw! Lost the plot for a minute there ol' Howard! got the rage and chased him down, grabbing him by the neck and pushing him over! Poor performance I thought, no creativity, we miss Piennar, I hope he's back on Thursday. Yak played alright when he came on but did seem to get bogged down on the edge of the box by their defence a lot. Jo did alright and good ball across the box for the goal. Baines looked quality going forward as well.

fuckin hell were playing awful, very sloppy passing, loads of possesion but keep losing the ball all over the place.

found one. i had to install some software, not sure if it was necessary goot stream, english commentary http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-epl-3.html

shame piennar's not back yet, hopefully he's back for Benfica. Good to see Coleman getting his first match on the bench.