Football Focus

[Jah Lush]

Oh deep joy. Two-nil and you fucked it up, two-nil and you fucked it up! I do believe I've got some bragging rights. About time too. Harry Redknapp's blue and white army.

[Ladygooner]

Thanks to Birmingham for beating Chelsea otherwise it would have been a really bad saturday!

[Sandperson]

A good day all round. A WH win at Anfield Quids would be the cherry on the cake.

[????]

No danger of that. An embarrassment from a pretty average Liverpool team. Grant and the porn merchants are proving as tragi-comedic as the Icelandic buffoons. Relegation. For the what seems like zillionth time in my nearly 50 years.

[????]

dare I say it, Liverpool look a bit more adventorous without Gerrard...could be the quality of the opposition tho :(

[Mick Mac]

Was scott parker playing or missing? thought i heard on radio that he was missing - might have made a difference.

[????]

Nope he wasn't playing. 38% of possesion and one shot on target. Thank god Liverpool stopped trying at half time. Grant looks a disaster, was an odd appointment and he's had some money too so he can't fall back on that excuse. His signings have been bizzare and largely useless. Get him out now.

[Jah Lush]

Honestly, you didn't expect to win at Anfield did you QUIDS? Karen Brady has already intimated that he's there until the end of the season and they'll back him in the transfer market. I hope things improve. I wouldn't want a club like West Ham to go down.

[????]

He said Judge him after 15 games when we lost the first 3? That'll do. We've just got 3 points from the last 4 games including Wesrt Brom and Blackpool at home. His selection and tactics are bizzare with the exception of Piquonte his signings are all useless. The players don't look interested, Upson, our fooooking captain FFS today, and Cole want out and will go for peanuts, if anyone wants them. The fans have had it with them Jah, tonight was the last straw methinks, Wigan at home next week may just save Grant but I'm almost in that odd situation where I'd arther we lost and he went as I think we'll go down with him at the helm. His post match interviews are a sven/Capello like mastery in trying to say we were unlucky, played well, etc to keep his job. We're carp, so's he. F*ck him.

[SCSB79]

Great results for the Bears in the SPL today too!!

[Jah Lush]

Hmm...not looking good. I think you're fucked if you lose at home to Wigan and they're not a bad side, just a bit inconsistent.

Anyway.....can I just say - Harry Redknapp's blue and white army! :))

[murphy]

Hacked off. Palace go more than half the match with 10 men but go 2-1 up with a great goal and then 2 goals in the last 5 minutes to lose 3-2.

The bloody ref, Anthony Taylor (demoted from the Premiership), and I don't normally criticise refs as they have a really difficult job, but so many crucial decisions wrong today.

3 pens - 2 of them wrong - 1 of them against Palace unbelievably bad

Equalising goal for Sheff Utd a blatant offside

2 red cards - both wrong/bad refereeing

Even the Sheff Utd fans abusing the ref at the end of the match and they won! And even Gary Speed felt sorry for Palace.

Football bloody hell!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Jah said:

"I wouldn't want a club like West Ham to go down."

I would! Tee hee. Not that I'm a K.Brady fan.

Perhaps a mutual enemy could unite us?

[kpc]

Ladygooner Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks to Birmingham for beating Chelsea otherwise

> it would have been a really bad saturday!

Happy to oblige. Well taken goal by Lee Bowyer and a brilliant display by Ben Foster.

Wdited to say:

Birmingham 0 v Chelsea 0 (get some early Christmas shopping in) - glad I didn't take RD's advice.

[matthew123]

West Ham were poor, they looked like a team who should have their wages stopped till they put in a bit of effort.

[mockney piers]

I expected more schadenfruede after the arsenal result, curiously quiet.

And yep, this time we are definitely going down, and yep Simon, that is just too funny; surely not!!!!!!!

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm still too vexed to comment on the arsenal game

[Jah Lush]

Having watched MOTD last night and seen how poor West Ham were I'm now inclined to agree with ????'s summation. If Liverpool hadn't taken their foot off the pedal in the second half they would have been on the end of a severe thrashing. By the way, what mugs would buy Upson? How on earth he ever got near the England team is beyond me. Useless.

Yes, where are the Arsenal fans today? Arf!

I don't really think there is any need for me to rub in the Spurs result. On watching it again I think if Arsenal had taken one or two of the good chances they had in then second half the result could have been different. For once they didn't have the luck with them; but still, a very good performance by us second half and I'm obviously very happy about it but if we ever want to get anywhere in winning the league then we have to win those sort of matches on a regular basis.

[red devil]

Well it's debatable whether the Prem League is the best league but it'scertianly the most entertaining.

A great NLD, too early to say if the balance of power has shifted, will have to wait until the end of the season.

I could watch Van der Vaart play all day, once 'arry changed the formation and put Defoe on, VdV came into his own, but the real star of the show was Gallas. A great move by 'arry to make him captain too. I wonder if our resident Spurs fan will acknowledge his great contribution ;-) Watched the game on Sky and loved Ian Wright's face at the end, but not as funny as Wenger's bottle of water tantrum :)

So Utd still in second gear and now joint top, bodes well for our traditional new year surge.

I thought the mixed reception Rooney got was about right, let him know we haven't forgotten, but at the end of the day he's a Utd player...

[SCSB79]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/9214212.stm

[Jah Lush]

I'll hold my hands up and say that Gallas has been excellent the last few games. Great performance yesterday and against Inter. At first I didn't think his legs still had it in him but now he's fitter he has proved a very shrewd buy by 'arry considering how many centre halves we've got injured. Great to have Defoe back too. We've really missed his cutting edge and goals. Van de Vaart and Bale have filled in with the goals since he's been out and they both continue to entertain. Fabulous players to watch whether you are Spurs or not.

[matthew123]

New Year surge from United will probably depend on them making some major signings in January. I think Spurs, City, Chelsea, United and Arsenal are all in with a great shout. I'd probably just give the edge to Arsenal - on the basis that their major flaw, of home defeats, looks the easiest to rectify.

[Emerson Crane]

Emerson Crane Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> How best to describe Englands performance? Three

> words seem apt. Poor, Inadequate, Woeful. Yep that

> just about covers it.

Substitute Arsenal for England and that would sum up our second half performance perfectly. Fabregas's body language says it all, if he really wants to go to Barca lets cash in now. What he was complaining about when the pen was given god alone knows. Nasri looks like the perfect replacement anyway. The title is wide open, but only 3 maybe 4 teams in with a real shout. Let's see what happens when the Mancs play better opposition, lots of draws and unbeaten yes, but quality of opposition hasn't been great thus far.

Spurs can have their moment in the sun, after all its taken 17 years to beat us at our place. ;-)

[SeanMacGabhann]

It?s difficult to take a team as talented as Arsenal consistently giving up in games. Going 2-0 was the worst thing that could happen to us ? you could visibly see the body-language change in the players

What happened to Spurs at half-time (a bit of managerial bite, a bit of collective sock-rolling-up) is something I see too little of at Arsenal

If we had signed Viera a year ago, and never played him, just his leadership in the dressing room wouldn?t allow the lapses we see

Anyway ? hats off to Spurs. And it must have been a thrilling game for a neutral

[Emerson Crane]

Yet another case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Mr Wenger, you've given us some great years but we now need to either change our ways or you need to move upstairs.