FairWooney

had an outstanding game as he often does but he really got stuck in tonight. work rate was out of this world, up there with johnson. As well as that he's very good on the ball and puts in some lovely crosses. makes the odd mistake and the occasional fluffed touch but he's definatley a quality player who has the kind of attitude that moyes likes. we'd be fools not to sign him up.

can't believe people care more about finishing above the red shites than winning a trophy. pretty sad state of affairs really. i don't fancy our chances in the game againt Fiorentina but i dearly hope we can get the result, getting to the UEFA cup was a years worth of work, we've done brilliantly and it would be dissapointing to go out now. good result today, Sunderland have a good home record so a 1 goal win will do.

can't be bothered to add anything about our majorly below par performance. however i agree, ITV suck, channel 5 for all their liverpool fan pundits gave us a good bias and seemed to be backing us all the way. Tlysley seemed dissapointed we weren't' 1 down at half time and kept rubbing it in throughout! we didn't deserve anything though and 1 shot on goal says it all. even when johnson came on we couldn't create anything, Arteta didn't do much to improve things. next week were going to see a typical display of 10 men behind the ball Italian defending, we've just got to somehow break it down!

well that does their goal difference a bit of good and puts them in 4th on level games. now it's all down to scoring more points from the same number of games. Anfield will be a huge game, as well Chelsea, Arsenal and Villa. get 3 points from villa and at least 1 point from the other 2 and i'd be pleased.

I was very confident as i am over every game at the moment until i looked at Fiorentina's form and just as importantly their league postion. yes top scorer Mutu is injured but they have won both of their games since he's been out and scored 4 goals, 3 against Juve in a 3-2 away win. They're 5 points clear of AC Milan in the league who are admitedly having a bad season but still no mean feat. Clearly major comparison to us I suppose in their league, 4th place above one of the "big 4" and on excellent form. I think this will be a very tough and tight match which won't see many goals. we haven't conceeded a lot of goals recently and have defended well but have tended to let the odd one in in the European games. I fancy it to be maybe 1-1 which i'd be happy with, obviously 2-1 would be better but a score draw would do with the all important away goal. 1-1 draw Cahill (or yak) to score OR 2-1 with Anichebe getting the bonus winner!

you pays your money you makes your choice. I guess especially with midweek games peple have to travel along way sometimes to get home before work the next day. i've never left early but then i'm always on holiday when i go to games so don't have time problems myself but I do think if you spend that much on a ticket it seems silly to leave early even if it does slow you down a lot due to traffic afterwards. i'm sure some will reply with reasons for leaving early at games though.

what an awesome performance he had today, set up at least 3 goals and played some lovely passes, makes the odd mistake but has a good eye for a pass, a lot of enthusiasam and a lot of pace. that yakubu second goal that pienaar started by a long throw from howard is exaclty what we should be doing more often we've got the pace up front in johnson and the scoring ability in yak to set off quick breaks like that with pienaar sprinting down the pitch and picking out a perfect pass. howard needs to be looking to pick out pienaar in that way more often and goals will come from it. loving the comparisons by channel 5 to Arsenals counter attacks with henry.

apart from the damn player we got in on a 5 month loan that is! what a holiday he's having! not that gardner would actually make the team but it might have been a good game to give him half an hour to bed himself in just in case he actually needs to play.

from the look of it he's the only player playing for them! good to see who's doing well. hopfully if he's not going to play for us we actually get some money for him, i'd like to see him come back and get a chance at some point but if it's not to be then we need to make sure we get something for him. good to see he's dealt with going up there though, from the sound of it he didn't particularly want to go and didn't even know where Gretna was before going. i know a lot of people have commented on his attitude and that he wouldn't get his hair when told to and seems more interesting in his djing than football but to go up to Gretna is a good move in sorting any attitude problems, a long way from home at a small struggling club where he's got the chance to prove himself and away from any temptation to do anything but that.

hey i didn't notice reg was back, there's a blast from a couple of years ago! same old humours ignorant comments I see!

eek, that lack of Arteta could really hurt. travelling squad includes VDM, Rodwell and Gosling. I see the side being: Howard Neville Yobo Jagielka Lescott Fernandes Cahill Carsley Osman Johnson Yakubu not a great line up but it's what I expect moyes to put out or something similr. the problem is there are no wingers there. I don't like Osman on the wing but the other thing is an even bigger problem as carsley and cahill would never play out there so Fernandes would have to go out. Baines could give some wing support but I think Moyes is relecutant to play Baines with his current recurring injury still awaiting surgery. I see Anichebe coming on over Vaughan if fit given his excellent record as a sub in the tournament so far. I think Moyes will take a conservative approach given that it's the away leg. I think we might knick a 1-0 win with Anichebe scoring.

I know the Norweigian league is nout special but they are certainly on fine form. last 6 home games for Brann WWWLWW (5-0-1) however that was all last year and they haven't actually started their league season yet for this year and don't until march. their only game this year was a home win against copenhagen. not sure weather that was a friendly or not though. i think them being out of season will be a bit plus for us. a hard fought 1-0 win with Victor getting his customary UEFA goal.

a little off topic but still on the Everton based international theme without wasting space on a new topic. Cahill scored today! Good to see him back on target after a few games of not scoring for us. Hopefully he comes back ready to score against Reading.

he hasn't played a first team game, moyes obviously doesn't think he's ready or good enough so best send him out to play with someone else. Gretna's not where i'd want to be sent to work for a few months but he's certainly going to have to work hard, bottom of the table side where every game is a tough one. i hope he can come of age and make his mark there and we take him back.

I dn't think it's possible to predict how many points the red shites will score at the moment they're way to unpredictable! all we can do is hope we beat all of the teams below us and get at least a draw if not beating Liverpool. Anything against Chelsea or Arsenal is a bonus. that's no expectation though! i would be a little suprised if we came away with 10 wins and a draw from our final 13!

great result, means we have a 3 point gap to everyone except Liverpool. a bit loss for them against a relegation battling team. of the teams in 4th - 8th only Liverpool won this weekend while us, Pompy and Blackburn took a point each. could have been worse.

I don't think 0-0 with Blackburn away is a bad result. the lack of goals is a concern but that was 2 tough clean sheets this week. Once again the teams around us have dropped points though Portsmouth's doesn't really count as dropped against Chelsea! While Man City lost points against Arsenal, a first home defeat of the season. Villa to play tomorrow, i'd expect them to beat Fulham but you never know! Liverpool are playing Sunderland at the moment whoove only scored 2 points away from home this season but the way the red shites are playing you just don't weather they'll get a result against anyone at the moment. 35 minutes in at the moment and 0-0, I expect them to score in the last half hour though as they have done in quite a few of their games against easier sides this season.

suprised that we'd let Stubbs go at a time when were so short on players. and wasn't he looking to get involved in coaching with us and looking after the ressies? Presumably he's only going to play with them to the end of the season then come back to coach? strange move really, getting rid of one of our older players who i'm sure is good to hae a round with a young squad. I see supposedly Spuds have agreed a fee with Pompy for Defoe, how much you reckon that'll be then?

just watching MOTD lovely ball from Fernandes to set up Johnson in the second half, how was he for the whole match? Against Chelsea he was understandably taking a while to get his touch right in the English game. A few good chances but no complaints from me. Moyes'll make some kind of excuse for any result won't he! "a tough time to play at the moment because the grounds a drying out" if it'd been raining he'd have moaned about the dampness! he's got red hair and his moans always make me laugh but I still don't care!

excellent result. spurs are playing well at the moment and were missing a lot of players. tough game with a good result. As well as that Man City drew, Red Shites lost, Portsmouth lost as well as Villa and Blackburn drawing at the weekend as well. that means we are now 2 points ahead of 5th and 6th and 3 points ahead of the red shites with their game (they could do with a few if they want 3 points!) in hand. a few tough games coming up at the moment, away to Blackburn at the weekend, away to Man City after Reading then Portsmouth after that. All vital games that we must get points from as they're all teams not far behind us.

looks like VDM and Anderson are just making up the numbers, no game for either today unless they get on in the last minute.

lets not be too harsh on him!!! they did win 2-0 and it wasn't both his goals!!!

I've never understood why Arteta so often seems afraid to shoot. he gets space 20-25 yards out which he'd hapily take a dead ball from any time but he very very rarely shoots and will look for a difficult pass over shooting. I'm sure he could score a few if he was willing to have a go. Moyes commented a while back that he's been trying to get Arteta to try to score more goals as it's something that's missing from his game. the only other negative comment I have about his is that sometimes he slows things a little too much on the wing. as much as i love the casual way he stops the ball and draws a defender, I noticed that against Chelssea, a team with quality defenders who won't charge in all feet to give away a foul he often struggled to make head way. he could do with sometimes making the quick move and back to the original goal point, if he was willing to cut in with a bit of pace maybe he could power off a few shots in that way similar to that of Joe Cole or Ronaldo.

i agree, while many people have been saying the gap between the big 4 (ahem 3!!) and the rest of the league was widening, this season all of the supposed top 4 have dropped a lot more points than usual and teams like Everton, Man City, Villa and Pompy have scored points consistancy. last year both 3rd and 4th finished 21 points behind the league winners. year before 4th finished 24 points behind. season before that we came 4th, 34 points behind! the gaps coming in, hopefully the gap will be less than 21 this season, and hopefully we'll be within that many points!

I don't think it's fair to only compare us with Spurs, other teams maybe on more than us but so far as Mansion go they have a rediculous marketing budget. Since starting up only 2 or 3 years ago by with a lot of money behind it they have spent rediculous amount trying to market and take as much business as possible. just last year they gave everyone that signeded up before one of the NFL a free $1000 bet! I think it cost them over £100,000. If we really wanted a big deal we should have tried to get someone like Betfair who are starting to spend on advertising now and are raking it in and would probably be keen to get involved in football sponsorship. Hopefully we can make the most of this sponsorship, send the team over there pre season for a few days to do have a friendly or two and a bit of promotion.