New Year's Day Fixtures

Tony Montana

Yes i'm aware we've still got fixtures on wednesday 29th but why not?

Saturday, 1 January 2011
West Brom v Man Utd, 12:45
Liverpool v Bolton, 15:00
Man City v Blackpool, 15:00
Stoke v Everton, 15:00
Sunderland v Blackburn, 15:00
Tottenham v Fulham, 15:00
West Ham v Wolverhampton, 15:00
Birmingham v Arsenal, 17:30

Sunday, 2 January 2011
Chelsea v Aston Villa, 13:30
Wigan v Newcastle, 16:00

Claudius

Looking forward to these, Montana

My hope is that West Brom can resurrect their season with at least a draw against United.

I'm expecting Spurs to brush aside Fulham, so that should keep the pressure on the leaders.

Blackpool vs City has the potential to be the game of the weekend (other than our own of course). They'll be showing it on Fox right before ours in the USA. Only problem is i will probably be just waking up with an enormous headache. The Man City game is at 7am for me.

Tony Montana

Come on Blackpool. Show us what you got.

United will beat WBA.

Chelsea and Spurs will win their games.

We must now throw the kitchen sink at Brum to set us up for beating City next wednesday.

Sigh.

Claudius

I'm quietly penciling them in as favorites for the title. They have nailed down the hard part - getting a solid defense, which (unbeknown to Wenger) is the foundation for a title-winning team as it at least assures you the 0-0 draw going in. Plus they have a healthy, deep team with new additions going into the 2nd half of the season.*

I think that Mancini does not get enough credit. He is at the top of the league with a squad that has many new faces, and has had a multitude of psycopaths such as Adebayor, Tevez, Balotelli and Johnson stirring up trouble.

*(sigh - I remember the days when we could go add a potential star such as Reyes to an already stocked football team. Now we'll be lucky to get one of our kids recalled from loan).

Captain

WBA punching above their weight again at the moment. Please push on.

Don Pacifico

Odemwingie 🙁

How come he scores against us but misses a penalty against United?

Klaus

Yeah, it was a terrible penalty miss from Odemwingie. Deserves a proper beating for not even getting it on target.

Klaus

... and naturally United scores a few minutes after that. Fuck this shit.

Kel Varnsen

ahahaha, terry crying. love it!

IBL

glad to chelsea struggling, hope they drop out of the top 6

Ricky1985

There's a stream for Ipswich Vs Forest this afternon. Ramsey should be starting in his last game before he returns home.

http://www.quiroz-solutions.com/

Edit - Ramsey starts in centre midfield. Wickham also starts for Ipswich.

Pepe LeFrits

Nice one ricks. Missed the first half, how'd our boy do?

Ricky1985

Looks rusty, but he's got better and better as the game has gone on. Still yet to get back his real power, but impressed with his running, he hasn't stopped.

Ricky1985

We're now in the 83rd minute, so looks like Aaron might complete the full 90!

Pepe LeFrits

Good stuff.

est

God the Championship football is awful.

Good to see Ramsey play a full 90. I watched it from the 75th minute and he barely got a touch of the ball.

A ridiculous tackle in the added time got Leadbitter sent off for Ipswitch. Studs up, high over the ball, flying in with two feet off the ground. Ramsey was right by the incident. The Forest player was really lucky to escape a broken leg there.

Ricky1985

That's a good 90 minutes under Aaron's belt.

He played as a Number 10 for most of it, spending chunks of the game as a proper centre midfielder. His fitness was pretty good, in that he could run and keep running - and was even in the 97th minute of the match, but he hasn't quite got his power back yet, there's no explosiveness in his acceleration or his turning one way and then the other. Although he did sprint hard for a ball late on and you could see the speed he has, but in a duel, he struggled a little.

His touch and passing got better as the game wore, and towards the end his touch was nearly always spot on and he played some lovely little passes - but we know all about that side of Aaron's game. Think the FA cup game against Leeds could be good for him next weekend, maybe a few more after that before he starts playing in the League for us properly again.

Claudius

Do you think he's ready to play for us? Or would he be better off getting his strength and confidence back in the Championship?

Ricky1985

He didn't quite look first team ready, I must admit.

He's back now though, so I guess Wenger feels he's close. Hopefully he'll get the full 90 at home against Leeds, and maybe the two legs of the Carling Cup semi, and that'll be the 3 or 4 full games he needs to find his feet - without it having to come at the expense of Premier League minutes.

Like I said above, it's just that power in the duel, acceleration off the mark, and being able to twist and turn quickly, that he's missing. Wenger mentioned the end of the month before he's really fully back, and I'd go wit that after watching him today.

Claudius

What about confidence? Did he seem hesitant in anyway to take on players or to tackle? Is he mentally scarred?