TherealnorthernTOON

If compared to Cisse this fella can actually control the ball and be a link up player up front aswell. Showed some good movement, like the header on goal he had.

Impressed by his mobility(played alongside Shola so shouldn't really take much to make an impression). But he was slowish in his mind yes, might be match fitness/sharpness, but guess we haven't got much choices upfront until the summer anyway so he'll get his chances to impress.

People slag off Pardew for taking off Anita alot on here. But West Ham intended to go route one from very early in the second half. Getting another big CF on the pitch would mean even more of that lumping it forwards. They took the game into the air and Pardew responded by getting some more aerial ability for set pieces aswell as an way out. I'm not for putting Shola on by all means, but tactically I can agree with the decision. Even more so if we actually had a decent alternative to do so.

Feel this is kind of get back momentum or loose form game. Which makes it a must win!

First things first and Williamson was marking Mertesacker, and should be. Tallest versus tallest and all that. The rest was pretty poor setup in such a defensive setup. To me it looked like Coloccini was marking giroud, but it looked like it was zonal aswell. Colos gesture after the goal made it look like he was not to blame about it but I don't really know, think he was the closest one, and it made sense that it was him. Mostly because, who else was he marking?

Think it was a game that could've went either way really. None of the teams made any real threats, bar that one Giroud/Walcott chance. They had a few longshots, but we had chances, or half-chances aswell to make it even. When they figured to sit back with 10 men we couldn't find a way through and that was that really. Think it was good how we stood up to them, they are top of the league and there is a reason to it.

Isn't he pretty much Sissoko mk2?

The fact that manu still are 2nd with -16 points is kind of scary tbf.

When he comes on in theese games he often get that movement around him that he needs. But he is greedy on the ball and the other players know that. Where this post is leading to is, playing Ben Arfa from start too often contributes to less movement and teamplay? This is surely a coaching matter and should be discussed. But we can see Ben Arfa flourish often when comming on the pitch after a "team effort" so to speak.

Think he might have fell through in the middle. Once he has found his feet in this league he will take the step to the center of the pitch. Be it by drop in form with others or through injury. Think this playing out wide thing is just about blooding him in.

Like the way he looks around after one of his long punts, and has that "I'm sorry guys"-look on his face. Like he know he isn't supposed to do that. And wether some people like it or not I think we'll have to give some credit to Pardew for that.

Seems to thrive under the freedom to cut inside, does it very often and to good effect.

For all his plusses I think he lacks that final little touch in the dribbling department. Don't really know why, because he seems fast enough and agile enough to slip past players, but seldom takes the dribble on. If he would add that to his game he would be a 12-15 million striker though.

should really try a front 6 of anita sissoko gouf hba remy sisse

One upside of still having Pardew in the chair is how other younger managers with a more modern type of football will look at the club. We're no longer the club that sacks the manager after 6 months of bad results.