Rafa wore a red tie. Fantastic stuff. And if he doesn't want to play Mata, can we have him?

Entertaining game at the Lane. Both sides had good and bad periods. All I can say is: it's great having Dembele back.

FAO Liverpool fans on here - you have a young lad called Jordan Rossiter in your youth set up. Watched him playing for England U16 tonight. He'll be a good player one day.

Hopefully. I don't think he he the answer to our Liverpool footballing prayers, but shouldn't Fabio Borini be a good deal down recovery road by now? I haven't heard anything from him since he broke his foot in late Sept early Oct.

You shouldn't expect him to be the answer. He's playing for the England under-16 team. He's a long way off the first team.

Good stuff English. I do like what liverpools doing on the academy level. Dalglish put emphasis on it and its paying off. Any other names?

Decent stuff by the reds today.. just enough. Bone headed hand ball by suarez and he's out for west ham.

Arsenal again struggle to put pieces together. Chelsea is a listless ship, soon to be scuttled.

I'm absolutely loving what's happening at Chelsea. All other teams in the hunt for 3rd/4th had better get some points in the bank, though, because I can see the likes of Cavani and Falcao up front for them from January.

After a bleak spell Spurs are winning without being great. The main difference from last year is that our new look midfield is much tougher than it has been with Modric. Not necessarily better, but tougher, which suitable Villas-Boas' willingness to sit back and absorb pressure to hold a lead. Midfield cover is desperately needed, specifically for Dembele. Parker can cover Sandro once he's back but it killed us losing Dembele.

I actually feared Swansea would steal this one, though I didn't expect it to happen the way it did with how the match unfolded. The Swans were a stubborn side last season and they did improve in the summer. The only good thing for me is that I have Michu on my EPL fantasy team but that doesn't make me really feel any better about the result of the match.

On a slightly related note, it seems Wenger is starting to consider stepping down after the season ends.

For you Gate... pretty good assessment of Wenger, and moreso a very fine critique of his current squad. I fear for an EPL without Wenger, to be honest, as much as I despise Arsenal

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8712871/arsenal-arsene-wenger-decline

Finally decided to brave this section again after three wins in a week.

The league really is so poor this year though, we're not particularly good yet joint third.

Also lets all laugh at Arsenal

It's not Arsenal's fault: they're tired.

Also, good to see 'Arry ban the Xmas party again. Worked well last time.

not Arsenal's fault? I'd like to blame global warming, testicular cancer, the Egyptian political unrest and everytime the tooth fairy "forgets" to put money under my kids pillow on Arsenal

btw Spur... because I know you're there. Friend of mine is in London and trying to get tickets to Arsenal's Saturday game at the Emirates. Any ideas? he's been scammed once already (or nearly)

Well, according to Wenger the Arsenal players are tired, hence the dip in form. Pretty embarrassing and pods poor excuse if you ask me.

As for Arsenal tickets - I'm not sure. I've only ever got tickets through the clubs. I have 2 friends with season tickets, but both are going and one has a wheelchair section ticket anyway. Spurs' ticket office has a ticket exchange where season ticket holders can sell their seats. Arsenal might have one on their website and after the last couple of games it might be a good time to have a look at that option. Otherwise stubhub would be worth a look. There are always loads of scalpers but I have no experience of dealing with them so don't know whether to recommend that option or not.

And I should hope you've never had the misfortune of buying tickets for 'them'

Arsenal got a somewhat deserved win today, though not quite the way they got it. I feel the Cazorla penalty is a big talking point, and while I do feel there was contact, after watching the replay like 50 times, I'm not quite sure if there was enough to take Santi down. The second penalty was clearer and a better called one. Podolski should have scored at the end, but I think his affinity for his left foot cost him as he had the entire right side of the goal wide open.

On a side note, who else is dumbfounded as to what's in Norwich's drinking water? Cause it's working.

Bad penalty set up the rest of the match... not the wba looked like doing anything prior to it. Maybe norwich is piping wbas water....

West Brom only had 1 shot on goal in the entire game and that came in the 86th minute, so that kinda shows who was playing better without having to look at the other stats.

http://ballsdot.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cazorladive.gif

But here's what your arsenal team resorted to take the game...

Disgraceful really. But arsenal players never dive. That's just Suarez.

Really, it could be argued the 2nd pen shouldn't have been awarded because of the foul that proceeded Oxs trip (which was a foul). And why not a pen on Mertesacker? Where exactly was the first foul?

WBA look like they're sinking fast... but not sure the Gunners were convincing at all. Still, three points right?

Arsenal were more convincing than West Brom, lets just agree on that. As for the penalties, I'm lost as to where this Mertesacker penalty is that your claiming? Ox's penalty, the only thing I can think of is that Ox had the ball and the West Brom player never took control of it before Alex pushed him over, not sure if that's a legit reason. As for Santi's penalty, we can't really say that was the main difference maker of the game as West Brom was never looking like they were gonna make a difference and there was that second pk goal that put the game to bed. Cazorla supposedly went up to Wenger after the match and explained that he did feel contact and it threw him off balance. And like I said that there may have been contact but I'm not quite sure it was enough to warrant a penalty. We can't totally blame Cazorla, as the ref is just as much at fault, he did see it happen but cause of where how the players were, with Cazorla closer to the ref, it may have made the ref feel there was a clip. In the end it was a judgement call and the ref made it in Arsenal's favor. Having it happen one time doesn't make anyone a diver.

Also Suarez has brought that reputation on himself with bonehead maneuvers like these:

And let's not forget this memorable one from this season:

Mertesacker handled the ball in the box...

And so Carzola dived but its the refs fault?

Jesus christ Gate... you truly are something
Muppet (as peaches would say)

DIRTY JAMMIE DISGUSTING UNITED BASTARDS!!!!!

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