fightoffyour

Not likely. TV almost certainly to go with Leeds vs Chelsea and Bradford vs Arsenal.

A win is a win and it may have been against lower league opposition, but in the other 3 games last night that featured a Premier League team vs. lower league, all the PL teams went out. Worrying that we let another lead slip, a 2 goal lead this time, but they should learn from that about seeing a game off. Also worth bearing in mind that we started with what I would consider 5th choice CB Herd (after Vlaar, Clark, Dunne, Baker in whichever order), who then had to replaced by 6th choice Lowton, meaning that we had to revert to a 3rd choice LB Stevens (after Bennett and Lichaj). Any team is going to have problems with these injuries and with changes being made mid game. Great that we bounced back and won the game before ET though. You might have expected us to just drop off at that point.

I could see us getting about £12m for him. Hopefully we won't have ending up paying the full £24m (presumably) based on goals/appearances and it was more like £20m. He was definitely worth £8m to us that first half season, but is too ineffective in this current squad without the sort of service he needs. I'd like to think we could get 2 very decent players in for what we would sell him for. Or Sturridge, if Chelsea sign Falcao.

I stopped reading after that.

Was he really? Who knew?

I can't stop laughing at this! Just what one needs on a Monday morning.

Didn't he turn us down last year because McLeish was in charge?

5-2-2-1 I'm on a 25 game unbeaten run on FIFA so that will work in real life too.

We bid about £4m for Dempsey and I doubt we would have signed both him and Benteke, so how does bidding for Dempsey in any way show that we had more money available?

I'd rather have Benteke for what we paid than anyone on that list. He'll come good, starting on Saturday.

We would go down if we had Downing back at the club. Useless player.

geo number would be free on (contract) mobiles though, isn't that the point? When I've been out in the past when a games on and you try to get it on the internet radio on a phone, you can't get BBC WM when the football is on. This seems ridiculous as it is surely the only time anyone would want to listen to BBC WM when not actually at a radio. Therefore I can see value in such a service, unless someone can tell me how to listen to football on internet radio streams.

Hard to say. In that first game with Benteke everyone just reverted to McLeish tactics as they must have seen a big target up front and just started lumping it. It was completely pathetic.

It's good for the manager to have this approach AND good that N'Zogbia isn't moaning about it, something that certain others players should learn from *cough* Bent *cough*

Or, if you wanted to compare directly with teams the played in both seasons, swapping Premier League bottom 3 with Championship top 3 gives: Lambert West Ham away 1-0 loss Mcleish Wolves away 2-3 win Lambert Everton home 1-3 loss Mcleish Everton home 1-1 draw Lambert Newcastle away 1-1 draw Mcleish Newcastle away 2-1 loss Lambert Swansea home 2-0 win Mcleish Swansea home 0-2 loss Lambert Southampton away 4-1 loss Mcleish Blackburn away 1-1 draw Lambert WBA home 1-1 draw Mcleish WBA home 1-2 loss Lambert Spurs away 2-0 loss Mcleish Spurs away 2-0 loss 2012/13 Lambert PL Games 7 W 1 D 2 L 4 Pts 5 2011/12 McLeish PL Games 7 W 1 D 2 L 4 Pts 5

If we'd played the equivalent fixtures as the first 7 games last season then we'd have 2 points or something.

It's about the mentality. Most of those players would have come into the side knowing that it wasn't on merit, but that it's just an attempt to keep them happy as the majority of them are squad players. Man City's concerns are the Premier League and Champions League, anything else is a bonus. You'd also only have to look at how many of their fans turned up to the game against us compared to what they normally get to see that they weren't that bothered either. Oh come on, the City result can't just be completely dismissed. Ok we shouldn't read too much into it (just like we shouldn't read too much into the 4-1 defeat at Southampton) but it was a very good result and shows that we are capable of beating sides much better than ourselves. That City result will be the highlight of our season, a one-off, much like the win at Chelsea last season. Unfortunately the Soton game has been more like us this season, as we were also equally poor against Everton and not very impressive against West Ham either. How do you know it's a one-off? Can you see into the future? No I can see our past record away at the top clubs over the last couple of seasons and that we haven't improved enough to expect to go to any of the top 5 or 6 and win in the league yet. But THIS ISN'T THE LAST COUPLE OF SEASONS. It's this season and we have a manager now. You might as well say that City are due a relegation soon because of their record.

But this was on the ground, one footed, controlled and he couldn't have got more of the ball. Studs were showing, but there was no way it was excessive force. He was unlucky to get booked. I agree it was never a foul. If someone has decided that "in this day and age" that is a foul, then the authorities need to go and change what is acceptable back 10 years. I also don't understand the argument "studs showing". Please explain to me how it is even physically possible to slide tackle without studs 'showing'. It's not possible to slide with your foot facing flat down on the ground as your leg is on it's side.

Would love Gabby to be our main man, 20-goal-a-season striker. He's shown glimpses of brilliance over his career, hopefully this season and onwards he can deliver those performances consistently.

Brilliant.

We just want to make the world dance, forget about the price tag Haha thanks for that, my first laugh of the day on a particularly miserable Thursday in Manchester.

He does seem a tad Dutch.

I said Benteke wasn't reading what Bent was doing either, meaning that moment was Benteke's fault. You're reading it like I put that one on Bent. Doesn't really matter whose fault it is when stuff isn't coming off. In terms of linking up, reading each other, Bent couldn't have put that in a better place and Benteke equally couldn't have been in a better place. So they DID reach each other. The result was just a fluffed shot.

Come off it. You can't attribute the missed sitter to poor link up play. Where else was Bent supposed to head that to? He put it on the six yard line in the middle of the goal! You can only attribute that to poor anticipation/lack of composure because he'd only just come on or whatever. Fine if your opinion is that they didn't link up well, I have to disagree and I'm not going to change your mind. But to use that as an example is nonsensical.

Bent setup Benteke with a sitter and won a flick on which resulted (after a mistake by the defender) in his goal, all in the last 5 minutes, so I don't agree that Bent should have gone off. I would have preferred Gabby to come on instead of Zog though.