i really hope we don't resort to defensive tactics versus man city. yes there's a prize at stake, but if anything we must show some courage against the current league champs. sitting back and trying to hit on the counter will just show we're afraid of losing more than anything else. we should not set such a precedent so early in the season, as it sends out the wrong message. especially to roman.

didn't cavani flop badly at the olympics? missed an open goal against U.A.E as well. didn't catch his other performances though..anyone care to give a short review?

wonder who was the last italian striker to make it big in the epl. err...paulo di canio anyone?even then his best haul was only with west ham, getting 9 goals in 19 appearances. one thing's for sure, adding another striker will either result in an unhappy torres or studge. although i don't mind strengthening that position further (just look at how many strikers man city has!) our priority should be getting a quality RW first.

zola not a striker laa i remember he did bring in alessandro diamanti when he managed west ham for a bit. not sure why they sold him though..he was quite decent.

bertrand in,time for some good old fashioned damage control

get in there bertrand!!!!that's what speed and youth give u!

some respectability in the scoreline i guess.aguero missed a sitter.hehe.

savic should've been off first for blocking off nando's run.it was a second yellow plain n simple.ref must've been looking at some squirrels or something n decided to give it against torres.

good spirit shown.i'm not going to judge mata n hazard after we went down to 10 as we lost our shape after that.don't forget he got the assist for torres's beautifully taken goal.i'm more upset with iva than mikel.the latter was sloppy at times but he wasn't the cause of our loss. nice goals from nasri n tevez btw.

should've had an assist as well!woot shades of drogba from the big belgian

lukakuuuuuuuuuu!!!thanks steve clarke for giving him a runout!

i think lukaku had a great cameo,albeit against 10 men.could've had two assists to add to his 1st goal in the prem and buried the ghost of 'missing'an open header (straight at reina from 5 yards out) in that 4-1 defeat to pool last season.

okay my turn to throw a spanner in the works

first of all..i think epson nailed it. in a nutshell, our attack is still way too disjointed. too many 'clueless' passes between terry, luiz, cech and then boom, clearance. half the team is still playing like drogba's leading the line. but the problem becomes much more pronounced when our defence tries to play the ball out through midfield. 90% of the time we'll get lampsy and mikel playing their own little passing game without much progress going forward. neither of them has the speed nor technical ability to go past a player or two/drift into pockets of space and link up with the forwards. therein lies the problem, the dreaded double pivot. the mikel and lamps combo simply isn't working as both don't complement each other well at all. both goals were down to hazard's brilliance in unlocking wigan's defence and the first was off a counter from a mistake they made. so what happens when players double/triple mark him? my guess is the little 'tiki-taka' game between luiz, terry, and cech will commence in its full glory, ending with a huge punt upfield to.....no one in particular. you can bet any team from the top half won't be as 'accommodating' once we start throwing possession away.

in case anyone didn't notice, this was wigan. wigan athletic. we smash two past them in the opening minutes and end up being dominated for the remainder of the game? anyone else who thinks this is acceptable should review our performance again. i'd like to stress that my take on the problem remains the double pivot. note that both players should be fresh with neither of them involved in the olympics so tiredness is not an excuse. want to talk about new players adapting? both hazard and oscar were close to perfect, especially the former. yet we were still given the runaround all over the pitch, noticeably lighting up only on counter-attacks and the disjointed style of play remained.

am i satisfied with the three points? hell yes. is it enough to paper over the cracks? after what happened with carlo and AVB who both shared a similar problem in our attacks going 'stale,' i'm getting that little bit more worried. if RDM chooses to stick with his double pivot combo of mikel and lamps, it won't be long until much better teams find a way to snuff out the individual brilliance of mata (who was quite anonymous by his standards) and eden, while punishing our lethargic midfield. robbie needs to break that dysfunctional partnership quickly, and train hazard/torres for penalty duty.

what i liked was bert on the left (bye, bye malouda) with his blazing speed and tidy tackles, hazard's silky dribbling and oscar's creativity. solve the double pivot (oscar could be put to good use here as well), and i'm quite confident we'll start putting some serious hurt on other teams!

note : it took some doing to keep moses quiet, and even then he was the standout player for wigan with a thunderous shot, coupled with some neat dribbles. verdict : transfer value hasn't decreased or increased, and remains the same. sorry dave whelan, nice try at extorting us though.

sneaky bid for fellaini please.useful for taking down those endless long balls from the back which we're addicted to

azpi's deal is close?we're gonna need him. reading tonight should be an interesting game.if we do get an early goal or two,i'd certainly don't want us sitting back.try and keep decent possession at least

more of oscar!

niiiiiceeeeee!

i wonder if astro has a repeat of the match though? they show championship games sometimes. would love to see how he performed. daily mail keep rehashing the cavani and hulk rumours. this final bid, yada yada that final bid. i won't be surprised if cesar is our last signing, but you how chelsea works..we just love those deadline deals!

schurrle would certainly be a cheaper alternative to hulk and as expected there are still no new developments on moses. it'll be a wild guessing game from here on end as to who the 'smokescreen' is for. moutinho is not a bad shout, though AVB seems to have eyes for him.

on another note, if anyone watched nando's quick dribble down the left when we were 2-0 up, he was clearly fouled INSIDE the box and it was a definite pen. too bad the ref decided to keep things interesting for all the viewers. third goal would've definitely settled the nerves, i'm sure. after how liverpool were so quick to be 'punished' with 2 pens within five minutes against west brom (in which the second was highly debatable), i was really expecting the ref to call ours

hoho our first real test of character now. absolutely horrrible passing game. time to bring in studge for ramires. can't believe some here still consider him a RW to be honest.

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Aug 23 2012, 03:35 AM

joonwei i think the answer is..oscar coming

loooooooooollllllzzzzzzz

keeper overconfident.heehee

pity ramires. square peg in a round hole although he should've square it for nando before the penalty. having said that, rami's wide play was actually pretty decent today but for some reason his touches exuded some unusual rustiness. the ball kept bouncing off him, bad touches, etc. however just because lampsy scored the pen, i'm not going to exclude him from criticism and imo he was just as bad today. i would've taken him off before mikel, who was doing a fine job.

if we're making teams like wigan and reading look world class (no disrespect to either of them), newcastle will be one hell of a test. haih. still it was an entertaining match and hazard really is an unselfish magician. such a joy to watch and i think oscar was good as well.