switters

Absolute dream first 20 mins. Bent showing just how effective he can be if the opposition defence isn't alive to him. Would be great if he could get a hat-trick. Doubt there's been many (if any) visiting players score a hat-trick at the Emirates.

He's my hunch too. Some reasons why: 1. Available and would jump at the chance to come back to Premier League 2. Has experience in this league (one of the main traits they were looking for when we got Houllier) 3. Has experience in other leagues and in Europe 4. Good reputation for bringing through youth players & as a coach 5. Lots of links in football from time at Man Utd, England & overseas I don't much rate him as a manager based on how he did with England, but maybe his experiences with Twente & Wolfsburg make him a better bet now. He'd actually be more inspiring than Hughes, a mediocre manager who aims to not-lose, rather than win. He'd be an utterly underwhelming appointment. Moyes might be good, but Everton do seem to have this inconsistency - I'd worry that if he started out with a bad patch (as he often starts seasons with Everton) it would all turn bad quickly, because he doesn't have the same history to fall back on at a new club and fans would quickly lose faith. I don't buy the Benitez rumours. Don't think we're the club he'd go for. One of the above 3 the most likely as I see it.

Utterly mediocre. Only good thing you can say is it may well make us mathematically safe. A game of few chances for either side. Bent should've won it, but it would've been flattering as we never dominated. Hard to pick a MOTM. Defence did themselves no favours with the goal. Reo-Coker was pretty solid, so perhaps him. No-one inspired.

Awful game. Stoke set out to ruin and their tactics won out over ours - which disappointingly never changed, despite limited success. I thought the game was crying out for someone like Pires to try and play through the middle. Crossing from deep just played into their hands. It worked once for Bent's goal, but that was the only one that even resulted in an effort on target that I can remember. Mostly it was just comfortably for Huth and co. to head everything away. Bent MOTM for the goal. Though it could've been Friedel for 2 fine saves. No-one else much stood out. Downing was poor, Young had lot of the ball but didn't cause enough threat, Heskey was anonymous and CM pair just did a solid, uninspiring job. Defence wasn't too bad - lost Jones for the goal but had previously stood up quite well to a string of corners. Bear in mind this is the league's foremost experts in set-piece power-plays. 2nd half was the most disappointing. Stoke had given up on attacking by this point, but we never had anything to put them under pressure. All attacks just petered out. Gabby should've been on for Heskey much earlier and as I said I'd also have liked to have seen Pires. Albrighton was fairly lively but didn't offer anything different from what Young and Downing had been doing and it wasn't working with them. Basically our style is not effective against a side who are happy to sit deep and defend crosses. It's something we need to address next season - perhaps we already have answers with likes of Makoun, Delph, Bannan.

Shawcross went for the ball. Clearly impeded play. Right decision.

How the heck did that sneak in?! Out of nothing!

Might be a game for Pires to impact on actually. He'd be able to get time on the ball with Stoke sitting back and may be able to pick the pass.. Heskey's pointless in this because we can't beat them at that type of game.

Watch here

Respectable result, though frustrating when we had the lead (coming from behind always so much more satisfying that dropping a lead). Still, it was very important we got something today and not an easy fixture even though they were missing a few key attackers. Positives were Downing and Bent - we need Bent to be scoring if we're to survive and this should be a big confidence boost, took both very well. Downing was good throughout, positive and created good chances. I give him MOTM. Defence was still ropey. Walker had a bit of a 'mare, Dunne-Collins was the usual mix of solid and awful at different times, Young on left was certainly improvement on Baker/Delph and another positive. Friedel could've done better with first and the penalty was not brilliantly hit either. Can't blame keepers on pens but a save there could've been absolutely massive turning point in our season. Thought we probably should've made a change to tighten up when we took the lead. Everton kept pushing after that and although the pen was soft, the situation came about because we were camped too deep and couldn't hold the ball up and slow the game down. A point is something to hopefully give some confidence going into the Newcastle game. That is a must, must, must win now though.

Friedel and Collins should be shot.

Looking better now. Some decent moves going forward.

Friedel on form so far, thankfully. Not a confident start defensively.

Well it's the most experienced defence we've lined up with for a while. 442 with Gabby alongside Bent would be an attacking statement. Gabby is long overdue a good performance, though he hasn't been given a run in his favoured role for a while.

I suspect if Houllier does go in the near future, we'll get McClaren. Think he'll fit the bill on most counts of what the board wants - history of bringing through young players, experience in this league plus should now have good links in Europe. On top of that he's currently available and would likely jump at the chance to be back in PL with a big club. I'm not a fan of his, but this is just my hunch.

After 2 week break the team should've been fresh and full of running if nothing else. Whole game looked laboured - slow start and never got going, never put any sustained pressure on. Wolves weren't very good, but they got a goal after a few close calls and could then sit happily on the lead. The subs in the 2nd half did nothing, so while I thought initial line-up was okay, Houllier didn't react well to how the game played out and completely failed to lift the side after poor first half. You can forgive a poor first if they show some signs of trying to rectify it in the 2nd but there was so little. The last 20 mins were woeful. Gave Herd MOTM for doing reasonable job in unfavoured position and difficult circumstances, though that's pretty faint praise. Nothing much looked good in our team. And now it's another two weeks till the next match. Two weeks to dwell on that horrible performance. I can't remember a more miserable season than this one. I'm even starting to think it might be not be the worst thing in the world if we do go down. Get a hungry young manager who's willing to start building up a new team around the youngsters who can learn how to be winners in the league below - a campaign chasing promotion would be a lot more fun than what we got at the minute.

Defence is not strong. The 1st disallowed goal should've been big wake-up call, but Wolves look likely whenever ball goes in box and the goal was almost inevitable. It's a bit blunt as a tactic, but I'd be tempted to put Heskey on alongside Bent, for either Downing or Young who've both done little. Heskey would be useful for corners at both ends..Wolves have much more height in their team and that's given them much of their edge.

Very, very frustrating. Bolton were woeful other than corners. We should've been comfortable, but just can't defend corners. Now it looks like the saved pen turned the match - 3-1 at that point would've killed it. There is no way Bolton should've won that match. A draw would've been massively flattering for them. MOTM: Downing.

We should line up strong, but can tweak it anyway with Heskey, Petrov, Gabby in for probably Bent, Albrighton, Pires. City have injury problems and have played a lot of games recently, so it's as good a chance as we'll have with this fixture. We should be fresher than them, confident after Blackburn win and they really won't want a draw as they have a big battle for 4th plus Europa cup games. I think we've got a good chance if we play it conservative first half and avoid going behind early as we did in the league game there.

Great performance. Completely controlled the match in midfield and that was where it was won. Scoring 4 and winning should be a big confidence boost - if we can follow that up in the next couple of games, we're in a battle for top 8 rather than bottom 3. It should be noted Blackburn were very poor - some of that was down to how we played, but they also had zero strength up front (Santa Cruz was beyond anonymous) and were generally slow and did not seem much up for the game. Rather than signing Ronaldinho in the summer, they could be in relegation trouble if that is typical. Still that is not to take anything away from a very fine performance. Young, Pires, Downing and Albrighton all stood out at different times for their parts in goals and chances and there was some great interplay. Only shame is Bent not being on scoresheet - we need him to be confident and firing as we won't have that many chances against many other teams. Defence were solid and their goal was a bit of a deflected fluke I think, though he was perhaps given too much space. I'll give MOTM to the much-maligned Pires. Houllier, as he acknowledged, made a mistake in throwing him in straight away against Arsenal, but he's obviously fitter now and showed his quality on the ball today. Maybe a Berger-style late-season renaissance is in order. Fair play to Houllier in that choice - Petrov being on bench today is something that simply would not have happened last season.

Frustrating. Had a pretty good first half and probably should have go in ahead. But 2nd half was pretty woeful, even before the red. A loss would've been very nasty, so take the point and move on. Really need to get 6+ pts out of the next 3. Friedel 6 - not much to do, few catches and easy saves but nothing serious. Had no chance with goal Walker 6 - I love his willing to take the ball up the pitch, just needs to be a bit more aware sometimes. Gave Friedel a couple of nasty backpasses. Dunne 7 - some key blocks & challenges, particularly in 2nd half after being a bit ropey first Cuellar 6 - okay. injury will be very frustrating just when he gets picked ahead of Collins Clark 5 - struggled a bit defensively and consistently failed to get crosses in. It's not his position, we know that, a proper LB would give much better outlet, particularly to do the overlap if Gabby's on left Reo-Coker 8 - best player for us, remained strong throughout Makoun 6 - probably our best player 1st half, but the red could've been very costly Gabby 6 - got the goal, but didn't get much change out of their right back otherwise Young 5 - frustrating afternoon - where was the cool head he showed midweek in that injury time chance? Downing 6 - v.good first half and had a lot of space for much of the afternoon, but did not always use it most effectively. Disappeared for much of 2nd half Bent 5 - got the assist but that was his only notable touch Collins 6 - got some important headers Heskey 4 - was literally just sitting down at one point; won a few headers but kept falling over and being offside Bradley 6 - not long on pitch, but he played important role in closing stages and made some vital blocks

re: Petrov. Think his reaction to being subbed may have been annoyance with himself as much as anything, as he needs to perform to keep his place and he clearly did not have a good game. Still has a role to play if he can accept not being 1st choice all the time - see City home game where he was very good. Still, I imagine we'll see Coker or Bradley alongside Makoun at the weekend.

Utd very rarely let opponents back once they go ahead at home so it was all-too easy for them tonight once they had the first minute goal. From there they let us have plenty of possession, but we had very few chances because they are so good at absorbing it and not allowing our attacking players the space they need in final third. Defensive mistakes for all three goals, really, but with the way the match panned out, they were always going to get chances on the break after the 1st - that was the real big error. Shouldn't be too disheartened though. We've now played 5 of the top 6 twice, which means the worst of the fixtures are done. Arsenal away is the only one that's probably a write-off and that's not till May. Positive signs from new signings with Bent picking up another goal and Makoun looking impressive in one of the hardest fixtures in the league - aside from a couple of loose passes in first half, he looked very calm and sensible with the ball, quickly moving it out to players in space. Against sides who aren't so good at stifling Albrighton/Young/Downing, this will be a big asset and lead to goals. How often before have we seen breaking opportunities wasted by slow-thinking in CM? Walker probably needs to improve his understanding a little with team-mates as to when to run/not, but he will also be an asset. His pace made a difference at times in stopping likes of Nani. Just need to accept this result as not exactly unsurprising - despite our renewed optimism, Utd at home were always going to be very difficult to get anything from - and hopefully bounce straight back against Fulham for a good run-in.

Petrov makes sense to me. Replace him with Coker later if he tires, but he will use the ball better and his experience is useful when Makoun is new to team and there's several youngsters in.

Good that it's O'Shea rather than Rafael - should alternate Downing/Young/Albrighton on him and give him as torrid time as possible, 'cause he's not the fastest and Nani doesn't give much defensive help. Heskey, Fonz and Gabby all on the bench means we have plenty to throw at them later on, if needs be.

BBC lists Makoun as a doubt with thigh injury. I haven't heard anything anywhere else about that, mind