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TEAMtalk Your Say
From the Editor :
Welcome to TEAMtalk's General Your Say, where we discuss everything to do with the beautiful game.
Sunday couldn't have gone much better for Manchester United as they won 1-0 at City and then saw Arsenal come from behind to beat Chelsea.
Wayne Rooney got the only goal at Eastlands but the result was never in doubt really as United dominated - just to remind us that City are a long way off top four material right now.
And what do you make of Cristiano Ronaldo's sending-off? The first booking wasn't even a foul but the second has split opinion right down the middle. He certainly didn't look to gain an advantage but why the hell did he handle it? A whistle? To protect his face? Just because he was bored? Only he knows.
Thankfully for United it didn't affect the result and the gap between them and Chelsea is now five points. Luiz Felipe Scolari's men had the game in the bag against Arsenal but they seemed to go to pieces in the second half and fair play to Robin van Persie for two cracking goals - although the first one was definitely offside.
The Gunners are still well off the pace but at least it's made things a bit more interesting going into December. Roll on the Christmas fixtures...and dodgy TEAMtalk headlines!
Sunday's other games saw Everton win at Spurs and Portsmouth throw away a two-goal lead yet again against Blackburn - but then win anyway. It was certainly a better day of football than the previous one anyway!
Bolton thrashed Sunderland in the day's best game and West Brom's problems got even bigger as they lost at Wigan despite dominating. The other games saw Fulham get a point at Villa, Premier League new boys Stoke and Hull share the spoils at the Britannia, and Newcastle nick a 0-0 at Middlesbrough - as predicted by Ian Watson in our new tipping service - TEAMtalk's Top Tips.
Mark Holmes also tipped up Bolton's win at Sunderland to give us a profit for the weekend and finish off a decent first week for us...keep your eyes peeled to see if we can keep up our good form.
Don't forget the Your Say boards are just one of TEAMtalk's great features. In addition we have:
* Our Football Live centre - clockwatch, vidiprinter, scoreboard, line-ups and live league tables, all in one handy pop-up window.
* TEAMtalk Insider: Mark Holmes is spending the season deep in the heart of Stoke City's Britannia Stadium to give us the inside track on a newly-promoted top-flight club. He'll have access to training and the players, and will be providing weekly updates on their battle for survival.
Get your messages in - just keep them clean and clear...
Cheers
Simon Wilkes
TEAMtalk Editor
rza1984 (Manchester United fan)
Posted Today @ 19:42 View all rza1984's postsmouse78 (Liverpool fan)Posted Today @ 18:04-you have forgot to mention Rio, Vidic, Evra, Tevez,Anderson and Carrick who has been tremendous we also have better youth players coming through such as Raphael, Fabio, Welbeck, Campbell, Possebon and Ravel Morrison. So please don't insult united again by comparing your players to ours as most of your players still need to win a medal for their club.
Aragorn (Chelsea fan)
Posted Today @ 19:32 View all Aragorn's postsAnalysing the game yesterday, i thought the game was quite open but Chelsea looked much the stronger team in the 1st half. The 2nd half started well too until Arsenal's 1st goal came, & the 2nd followed quite quickly which made us go down. Good finishes by RVP, i must add. Then came the decisive moment as Big Phil made the unfortunate decision to sub Mikel for Malouda. Mikel was the reason why we had looked good in the 1st half, as he won every 50-50 ball in midfield. Taking him off proved to be a tactical mistake, as it reduced our midfield bite & we never looked the same thereafter as Mikel was the 1 snuffing out all their attacks & then helping starting our own. The fact that Scolari's dear Deco wasn't taken off was the other tactical mistake, as he was by far our worst player. He kept giving the ball away whenever we tried to attack. 2 good passes & 10 or more times the ball given away cheaply. I must say Arsenal won fair & square, the offside goal notwithstanding, but their performance wasn't much good either. They only seemed to improve after Mikel went off & even then, couldn't play the pretty football they are famous for. Unfortunately, we couldn't capitalise ourselves due to our limited attacking options due to injuries/suspensions, & we are currently dependent almost totally on Lampard to have a good game to create or score a goal. Nobody except him seems currently capable of creating a goal & Anelka also only scores if the goalkeeper or defender makes an error or if Lampard serves up the ball for him right in front of the goal. Hopefully, with Ballack back now but not fully match fit, he will help create some chances as Deco simply does nothing for our team, & with Drogba & Joe Cole out, both our squad players Malouda & Kalou are played regularly. Essien's return in Jan/Feb will give us more options in midfield too, with hopefully Deco moved out of midfield
nine,nine,nine (Chelsea fan)
Posted Today @ 19:17 View all nine,nine,nine's postsk-dogg@18:55 Given Rafa's penchant for demanding apologies from everyone from the FA to the refs etc I thought you may have been a bit more sympathetic fella!!!
wyncs (Manchester United fan)
Posted Today @ 19:14 View all wyncs's postsmouse78 (Liverpool fan) Posted Today @ 18:04...i may be biased, but im pretty sure our list of top players in world football terms contains a few more than Roo, Ronnie and Berbs... Ferdinand and Vidic are widely recognised as 2 of the best centre backs in the world, Evra widely recognised as the best left back. we have Anderson and Rafael, players of huge potential and Giggs, Scholes and Van der Sar, 3 players who may be on the wane now in their advancing years, but have played at the very highest level for well over a decade. id suggest these players also qualify as 'class' wouldnt you say???
Kop_19 (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 19:11 View all Kop_19's postsTappman (Manchester United fan)--you unsurprisingly forgot a certain steven gerrard..and please for heaven's sake..don't call Evra a 'World Class Player'
shibbyness (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 19:04 View all shibbyness's postsI'm simply stunned by football fans sometimes. I haven't seen Ronaldo's handball, but I don't really need to. I've been reliably informed of what happened. Rooney takes a corner, Ronaldo handles it instead of heading it away, bizzarely, gets sent off. Seems the right decision, but reading on here some people seem to believe this tells you something about Ronaldo's mindset. Given the millisecond between when he jumped and when he handled, I don't think he or any other player would have been carrying out an in depth analysis of the developing situation. Trying to read into his mindset is not only difficult, but I believe pointless. It doesn't say anything. It's a strange thing to do - but a cause for concern for Man Utd fans or jubilation from the rest of us? I don't think so.
sammyd (Manchester United fan)
Posted Today @ 19:02 View all sammyd's postsFree transfer or not, Degen IS another horrednous waste of money by rafa as Liverpool are paying him a weekly salary.
shibbyness (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 19:01 View all shibbyness's postsForever Red, in answer to your question Messi may be a better player than Ronaldo, but that would not be a slight on Ronaldo at all as Messi is simply incredible. Ronaldo should win the European and World player awards as he has done more than Messi this season - that is beyond question. But in terms of pure ability it's tough. I love watching Ronaldo, as he is simply incredible, but watching Messi I'm simply blown away. He is absolutely amazing, you can't throw too many superlatives at him. To think how young he is too...is quite awe-inspiring
k-dogg (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:55 View all k-dogg's postsSo I see Scolari asking for an apology from the officials. But how many times have we seen Coaches and Managers go crazy at the fourth official when they believe there is or isn't a penalty, or a red card, yet when replays clearly show the opposing arguement and then not apologise for losing their rag? All too often i'd say, its a two way street!
manu4ever73 (Manchester United fan)
Posted Today @ 18:53 View all manu4ever73's postsFFCfan[fulham fan]-no matey not all manu fans think that Roy keane has done a fantastic job with limited budget.he has spent nearly 80 mill+ this season alone-much more than ARSENAL in few season COMBINED so imo he has been a failure so far.but its their money and they can do anything they want,but it just shows that Quinn and the board have no ideas,strategy how to run a club.they should give ARSENE WENGER a call.blackburn and spurs too.cheers
Aragorn (Chelsea fan)
Posted Today @ 18:51 View all Aragorn's postsfarwen (Manchester United fan) Posted Today @ 09:35. I am sorry to say your analysis on Arnesen is entirely wrong. He did not clash with Avram, i don't even know where you heard that, nobody at Chelsea has heard that for sure. Scolari hasn't moaned about the club's setup, again the 1st we hear of it is from you. The only person who had some problem with Arnesen was Jose, who felt his powers may be curtailed if Arnesen was responsible for scouting for the 1st team too, but even then there was no open fight, Jose just wanted to keep those powers himself. Also, Arnesen moved to Chelsea in 2005 only & initially was responsible for youth squad recruitment only. As anyone would know, it takes a good 4-5 years before change in youth setups start to show affect & even then only 2-3 players make it big out of every crop. We have realistically been investing in this only the last 3 years, & in an year or 2, we will see how this has gone. Stoch / Di Santo have been had to be promoted currently due to our injury situation, which seems to hound us every season. When Arsene overhauled Arsenal's youth system, how long did it take for them to produce 1st team youngsters? or ask the same for SAF. So why are you judging our youngsters so soon? And there really has been nothing to judge them. Stoch came on for just 10 mins & only once touched the ball. How can you judge him so soon? Same goes for Sinclair, & Di Santo has just had a bit more. And all of them are 19 or younger. How many of your 1st 11 is under 19? None. Only Rafael has started a couple of times so far. In an year or 2, when the 1st of Arnesen's recruits get some good time on the pitch can we judge them or him, not before that. At least currently, judging by their performances at the youth level tournaments, our youth setup seems to quite good, so i see no reason to blame Arnesen.
Redjon4 (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:51 View all Redjon4's postsTappman (Manchester United fan) I take your point mate and thanks for trying to be as unbiased as you can. We have slipped up this season already though to be fair Spurs (twice), Stoke (no offence Homzy), Fulham the difference this season is that all the top four are slipping up we've just slipped up less than your lot and Arsenal mate. So we'll have to wait and see if were still 5 points clear of your mob in Feb/March (you've still got to win your game in hand and the way this season has gone so far I wouldn't say its guarenteed fella). As many people are saying on here the title isn't won in December its won in May. Cheers
LIVERNIL (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:46 View all LIVERNIL's postsBRACK66 - I think he might be making a reference to my username, in which case I just took the comment in jest. He's probably already in the spirit of xmas :-D - Anyway, I really enjoyed the Histon game yesterday afternoon, Cambridge will be proud - Cheers.
Vapour (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 18:43 View all Vapour's postsBTW have real madrid realy signed JKH?in spain its being said!!!!
frankopool (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:40 View all frankopool's postsHi ed. Im just wondering. Is it allowed to talk dirty on these pages? And most of all, our nickname, are they allowed to be offensive? I must admit that I find pikkhaues name a bit strange. Im norwegian myself, and I can tell you it means dickhead. Im not sure if pikkhaue is a di..h... but I find it a bit strange...
The editor says.... We do try to filter out the bad language etc but sadly, few of us here at TT Towers speak Norwegian. Some of us struggle with English! Cheers, Ian
pilsnarfc (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:39 View all pilsnarfc's postsThe reason why Cristiano Ronaldo is much discust is because he is one of the best players in the world, but also the most hated player. if Cristiano Ronaldo wins the world player of the year award, he will be the first player ever to win it thats hated by everyone exept his fans. When Ronaldo(brazil)won, no one was pointing fingers because he was a likable player, same goes for Ronaldinho and Kaka, and the rest of the players who have gotten the titel. Cristiano is feared by every team and football fan in the world, but is not respected by them. He can do amazing things, but the way he does it is repulsive. I have time in and time out felt bad for him, but then he just keeps on doing the same things the very next match. He is 23 years old and is digging his grave deaper and deaper as each day passes, in a while it will be too late for him to do anything about it and will end up being hated for the remains of his career.
cy (Manchester United fan)
Posted Today @ 18:36 View all cy's posts
Roy Keane has not done the greatest job with Sunderland especially with some of the signings he has brought in (Chopra sticks out) but he has done what has been asked of him in the last couple of seasons (promotion & making sure they stayed in the league last season). He has spent a lot of money for one of the teams in the bottom half but I think the biggest mistake is to admit that he may not be the best man for the job. I just think his confidence is shattered at the moment after so many years of success (United, Celtic & now Sunderland). Sunderland are goin through a bad phase, the worst since he has been at the club, but he shouldnt have hoped for a fairytale the whole way through. He needs to get his head on straight now & instill that belief & determination he is so famous for havin in his playin days. But someone needs to tell him that cause he is lookin a bit frail for the first time since I have ever known him to be in football.
Vapour (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 18:35 View all Vapour's postsi cannot believe some of the utter rubbish some are saying in this forum, not saying people shouldnt express their opinions but its just utter madness at times, first of all u have people who are obsessed with ARSENAL when they support tottenham and some team called bradford???proper obsessed these guys are, i think us arsenal fans should cheer them up 4 supporting lower ranked teams bu buying them a arsenal kit each. and now the CLICHY,EVRA,COLE debate, all of them are great LFbacks, the best in the world!!But as an all round defender evra is the best, he can defend, hes got pace and he can shoot, then its clichy, please people remember how old clichy is??all he can do is improve and thats what hes doing, if u watch football u wud notice the times that he was caught dwellin on the ball hes learnt his mistake from that and hacks the ball away WHICH IS DEFENDING right?will be the best LF in a few years i reckon, as for cole...well hes the best english LF(not hard to be) and thats all hes gonna be, hes not on the same level as clichy and evra, if u ask any fan in the world who they wud like as their LB honestly how many would choose cole over clichy or evra???thought so, it would only be chelsea fans cos they have him and have no choice. With regards to Mido...newcastle fans normaly are known as great fans...but what happened over the weekend was disgusting, i thought the only bad thing bout ur team was barton...i stand corrected!
yasenal (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 18:33 View all yasenal's postsluis garcia was not a flop at all and he was a good player and a thorn to arsenal.i dont know why rafa sold him and buy flops like babel and pennant
slapmyface (Chelsea fan)
Posted Today @ 18:33 View all slapmyface's postsTapman... Interesting to call Forlan a flop. Didn't think he was that bad TBH. Maybe for United but gone on and done it in Spain.
shibbyness (Arsenal fan)
Posted Today @ 18:27 View all shibbyness's postsnordicred - yep, the linesman was rubbish. But given how much bad luck we've had in recent times, we were overdue that!
ih08 (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:19 View all ih08's postsEverytime i come on here i keep my pillow and blanket beside me ,why i hear you ask? because some of the posting on here is soooooooo boring, alot of you are a complete joke!!!! get back to your one roomed bed sits and stick to your porn!!!!
PhilyRed (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:06 View all PhilyRed's postsbdasteve (Manchester United fan) Posted Today @ 16:45- And add these to the reason you gave that we can't win the PL- the weather, the economy, Gordon Brown, the Tories, Obama won, Al-Queda, my worn-out shoes, global warming, Angelina Jolie's twins, famine in Africa, Prince Charles won't ascend the throne, immigrants, X-BOX, lipstick-on-a-pig, the Republicans, Californians want gay-rights, etc.
LIVERNIL (Liverpool fan)
Posted Today @ 18:06 View all LIVERNIL's postspikkhaue- With regards to Ronaldo it's not so much how he reacted when United took the corner, what got to me was when previously reacted sarcastically to the referee after his initial booking. That for me lacked total professionalism. Kids at home are watching this sort of stuff ans some will adopt the mind set of bad habits instantly rather than ascertaining right from wrong. I can believe Ferguson publically defending him, but I'm sure he'll get an earful from him behind closed doors - Cheers.
cy (Manchester United) : "...Roy Keane has not done the greatest job with Sunderland especially with some of the signings he has brought in (Chopra sticks out) but he has done what has been asked of him in the last couple of seasons (promotion & mak..." view full comment
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Aragorn (Chelsea fan)
Posted Today @ 19:56 View all Aragorn's postsForeverRed Posted Today @ 17:49. Messi's naturally more gifted than Ronaldo, & his skill is sublime. How he leaves the players for dead is amazing to watch. As a dribbler & taking 2 or 3 defenders on, he's far better than Ronaldo. But to Ronaldo's credit, he is a better goalscorer & a good header & a much better athlete with his pace. Aesthetically speaking, Messi may be loved by the purists, but for results & more goals, Ronaldo is better. However, i think Ronaldo is already at the peak of his powers & Messi is still improving & this season has been scoring more goals. I think overall i much prefer Messi as he always plays with a smile & also creates much less of an arrogant show on the field, as well off it.