Redmen v Bluenoses

[Tes]

....and to the poster who reckoned Kuyt would get the goal.

 

He's really stood up and been counted in Torres' absence. Whatever perceived faults he may have his recent goalscoring record is superb.

Best result possible for us in the Spurs/Villa game and with City losing, overall this has to be one of the best weekends of the season.

[the dude abides]

Best result possible for us in the Spurs/Villa game and with City losing, overall this has to be one of the best weekends of the season.

yes, without doubt, it's been the best weekend of this nightmarish season.

it's amazing, we have been abysmal up until this past month or so, and yet we sit up in 4th spot.

if we go on a good run, the competition will be eating dust.

[Tes]

Jekyll and Hyde F.C - the Alonso blues are no more.

Now we need Aquilani to teach Fabregas, Arshavin, Nasri and co a footballing lesson.

[Tes]

with another win under our belts today, I suspect centenaryjohnny will still stay missing from the forum. 

I was just thinking I've never seen him and Chris Bascombe in the same room at the same time.

[Redman]

with another win under our belts today, I suspect centenaryjohnny will still stay missing from the forum. 

well done to those who called the result correctly....and to the poster who reckoned Kuyt would get the goal.

Kuyt, as I have always said, would be one of the first names on my teamsheet each week.  The lad is an example to one and all.

The whole team was superb.

A coupleof litle points....only saw it in flashback, but the sending off looked ridiculous.  And when Rafa took Ngog off and put Babe on, I was ranting.  I knew that the ball would no longer stick at the front and would keep coming back at us from then on.........and that is exactly what happened.  Maybe Ngog was injured.....otherwsie a very poor substition (and made so early in the second half) I thought.

The sending off was a joke, if he sends the Greek off then Felliani had to go as well, it was a nasty challenge and that Pienaar one on Masch was absolutely shocking, straight red but the ref bottled it, I hope the FA have a look as that was a potential leg breaker. I really had to laugh at the commentators yesterday after the Pienaar challenge when they tried to use Masch and some of his previous challenges (outside this match) as an excuse for Pienaars.

[wittsy]

This was just the result(s) we need heading into an important and difficult few games. If we're still smiling this time next week 4th is ours.

Jas

[Redman]

Why settle for 4th, if we beat Arsenal and Man C then 3rd is a possibility, we'll be 2 points behind Arsenal with a level playing field

[barticus]

Watched the game in Spain with a bunch of Spaniards who were horrified by some of the tackles...funny stuff...'es un derbi' i explained...
Passion, commitment, every tackle fought for, every ball strived, a complete turn around to what has been happening a lot of times this season, the CL losses spring to mind...is it spring or something??? Great stuff....keep the same mindset though....and let's not get giddy...

[Juan]

Great result, great heart shown by all. Credit to the likes of Lucas who i have criticized in the past, he got in some vital challenges.

I didnt see the after game interviews but from what I read hats off to Moyes. I like to see an honest assessment and it was refreshing to see that he admitted both Pienaar and Fellani could both have been sent off.

Everton manager David Moyes:
"I think there have been lots of derbies very similar; quite feisty and that's why fans like them because they sometimes have a little bit extra in them.

"The first sending-off (Kyrgiakos) was a two-footed tackle, both feet off the ground. I guess Fellaini could have gone too. I've no complaints about Steven's sending-off as there was a tackle earlier in the game where he might have been fortunate to stay on.

[the dude abides]

yes, Lucas was superb.

Given the way things are panning out, it's the usual two horse race for the title.

And I think Arsenal are back in the mix for 3rd and 4th spots.  If we were to beat them (admittedly a tall order) in London on Wednesday night, then the whole race for those final two spots is blown wide open.  Five teams, after only two CL spots - Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Spurs and Villa.

I think Villa will fall away.  So it's down to 2 from 4.

I want to say, Arsenal and Liverpool.

But my head, these past months has been saying Arsenal and City.

But if City don't turn things around, then we are gonna nick a CL place.

[Tes]

It's a shame there aren't more of us actually competing for the title rather than the consolation positions. We really to stop talking about fourth place. As a club we need to be aiming for third, no less, especially with our current financial situation, as it still wouldn't mean we're actually in the Champions League proper when the group stages kick off, if we finish fourth.

And I wish our players would just do their talking on the pitch and leave the media stuff to the manager to deal with, with a straight bat preferably.
We don't need to hear how confidence is returning, we just need to witness it.

[the dude abides]

yes, a 4th place finish this season won't be the same as other seasons. 

The fourth placed team will face a much tougher task in making the group stage as they will have to play a qualifying round against another side from the leading leagues in Europe. Previously, the fourth-placed teams from England, Spain and Italy were seeded against a side from a weaker European country in the final qualifying round.And that scenario will fuk up what we can do in the summer transfer window (should we finish 4th).....because we won't know how much we have to spend.

I really think UEFA should make things clearer.  When the season ends at the beginning of May, teams should know the outcome of their season's efforts.

[Kopite999]

I agree with you to a point but i actually like to see new teams in the champions league. The seeded system obviously favoured the bigger teams but the new one allows the smaller ones to get a chance of making the group stage. For a while it seemed liked the same old teams were making it every year. Its been good to see the likes of Rubin kazan,Unirea and Debreceni mixing it with the big boys.


But if we made 4th this year and faced AC Milan or Sevilla to make the group stage i might not have the same opinion

[the dude abides]

totally agree with you, Kopite.  I hate seeing the same teams in the quarters, semis and final each year.  My preference is the old european cup format, of knockout from the start.  And i think 4 teams from the top countries is probably too many.....one or two max, would be my preference.

But one of the problems with the present format we have, is that clubs who finish outside the automatic qualifying spots, in leagues all across europe, are unsure of their european competition status for the following season...and thus cannot easily plan their summer transfer budget.

[Kopite999]

If we only had 2 teams from each country, Istanbul would have never happened.We finished 03/04 in 4th. I think the current format is probably the best all round.