pratty

And yet everyone obsesses over Nintendo, and their supposed iminent demise. It's like some people just can't wait until Nintendo go under or go 3rd party, so they can play Mario without the expense, inconvenience and apparently shame of actually buying a Nintendo console, and like the second coming of Jesus they hope that constantly talking about it will make it happen sooner. Last time I checked Playstation and X-Box divisions were still overall in the red, i.e. since they began they have lost more money than they have made, so while they may have made some yearly profits, overall both brands have yet to actually make any money! Yet when gamers and developers alike hold up these two brands and their hardware as shining examples to Nintendo, nobody thinks to mention the fact that unlike Nintendo they have had the luxury of having their losses absorbed by larger corporations.

In fairness to Welbeck, he can also play on the left, maybe even the right too. I think Rooney and Sturridge are clearly the standout forwards, there really isn't too many obvious must pick strikers after them. Carroll would obviously ofer a specific threat, but he's hardly banged them in this season either. And his fitness is questionable. I think Lambert is our traditional number 9 target man, he's not great but people do want to see fresh fairly faces in the squad and he is that. And ideally whoever else we take after rooney and Sturridge hopefully won't be needed. Centreback does look a bit weak, but I'm not sure there's a great selection to pick from. Other than that it looks like a fairly solid squad. As much as I dislike him, Ashely Cole would be my third choice. Well actually it would be Flanagan, but if I was being truly objective it would really be Cole. Gibbs is good, but so is Flanno and he can play right back if needed, you could probably flip a coin, maybe the fact that Flanno has made more of an impact this year tipped the balance. I'm just glad we seem so rich in that position.

Yes. Nintendo just need to a strategic rethink is all, I don't think Sony or Microsoft are doing anything technially that Nintendo couldn't. And it's not like the X-box and Playstation are perfect sytems, as popular as they are with gamers there's still many aspects that their users complain about that Nintnedo could improve upon.

I noticed us slipping around the pitch today, especially Suarez, we were watering the pitch at half time too and Suarez was sliding all over the place. Maybe we're over-greasing our pitch. Congrats to City, better a gent like Pellegrini win the league than Mourinho.

One of the world's greatest fullbacks.... and Cafu. This is it lads, go get yourself a Premiership title. Agent Allardyce, you have your orders.

Probably, although all it takes is an early goal from West Ham, or a random sending off for City or something to make it exciting again. I'd expect Big Sam to send out West Ham fairly defensively and hard to break down. If Chelsea and Liverpool are winning then City will be feeling pretty nervous if they're only drawing. If City were to lose a player it could be an exciting backs to the wall defensive performance to win the title rather than comfortable steamrolling.

Well that didn't go so well, 4-0 to City, lol. Over to you West Ham.

It did, to be fair. Because you and me, and most normal, none race obscessed, none white-guilt ridden people couldn't give a toss about his ethnicity. I noticed the guy has olive skin but didn't think about it any more than that, could just be a tan, could be his ethnicity, I didn't know and didn't care to find out, I had no idea he was half hispanic or whatever. That's how none racist and none race-obscessed I am. In fact I'm so unconcerned with a person's race, I don't even know what racial representation is supposed to achieve. If black skin is a good as white skin, and vice-versa, how does that make football better? Clearly the irony of positive descrimination seems lost on some people. I'm praying too, and my god's better than your god, haha. Actually maybe if we just join forces and just pray for City to lose tonight it might actually happen. Seriously I'm not even going to torture myslef by following the game tonight, just gonna checkout the BBC website for the result at 9:50 or whenever. I'm strangely hopeful though, it's what we do, "walk on, with hope in your heart..." and all that. The good thing is if even if City win tonight there's still one more game left to believe in miracles. Maybe Big Sam's the man to frustrate City, Andy Carroll to score a late winner to pay back the £35mil.

It was a draw lol. Oh please God let City lose tomorrow, I would love us to win the league by the point we're being mocked over.

I like the sound of what you're saying but I guess they feel they have to use the draw of the big name characters to get people watching in the first place, kind of like Nick Fury's early cameo in Agents of Sheild.

I'm not sure what the fine is supposd to achieve. Essentially it just puts the up the price of buying the top players, which the rich clubs can afford, what's another £50 mil to team like City that have already spent several hundreds of millions on players in the last few years. It's a bit like fining a business for breaking regulations, if you fine them less than they can make by breaking the regulations then it would be bad business not to break the rules.

Sure, like I said it depends on the person (their specific circumstances and goals), and the gym (price, equipment, facilities, policies etc). While I prefer to train at home I would be more interested in going to a gym if I had one near me that was an independent old-school 'underground' strength gym (kind of like the place Eilliiot Hulse on youtube runs).

I train at home too, and prefer it that way. It's not ideal as I don't have a bench or squat rack, or even a pull up bar (something I'd really like), but you take the rough with the smooth. I have a decent barbell, adjustable dumbells and a pretty good amount of weight. (I've been playing around with farmer walks recently, only 25KG each hand though. ) I think gyms can be good but it all depends on the gym and the individual. I'm wary of some gyms dubious business tactics but for some people the gym is worth it, especially hardcore people training consistantly 4-6 days a week, I'm sure they get their monies worth and have no intention of trying to cancel their membership, so gyms work for their needs. Though I think unless you just have to use a specific piece of equipment for some reason, most people with fat-loss and general health goals could easily do the job at home, and with virtually no equipment, or even sportswear.

If City do win win it maybe tonight is just as well, it would probably be more frustrating to lose the league on goal difference. And Stevie G won't have to shoulder as much blame for his mistake against Chelsea if that was perceived to be what cost us the league. Still not going to give up hope though, just gonna have to pray for a freak result against City now.

Mabybe not a huge difference but your face looks leaner and your guns look fuller, good job!

I could be, but would Jose change his system to consistantly start with 2 strikers? Wouldn't Lukaku find himself on the bench again more often than not, and better off elsewhere? If he's so good why don't Chelsea make him their first choice striker instead of trying to buy a big name like Costa? I think as good as Lukaku is he's just not the world class forward Chelsea are looking for. He's a more than adequate backup but i'm not sure he'd be content in that role, nor woud his supporters. It's the same old problem, everybody says a team needs strength in depth, but then everybody says so and so is too good to sit on the bench. I think Costa is as good a buy as anyone else, I mean there's no guarantee any player will settle in, it's always a risk whoever you buy. Soldado was a goal machine for Valencia, I don't think anybody could have expected him to flop at Spurs the way he has. I think it's harsh to write off Costa on a couple of games, while he's been banging them in all season. Kind of how many British pundits didn't rate Ibra based on the few games they saw, turns out he's probably in the top 5 players in the world. I would also guess Chelsea will offer Torres back to his old club to sweeten the deal, so maybe it makes sense they go after Costa. This is all assuming Costa wants to leave and Madrid want to sell, do we even know that is the case? Madrid have a good chance to win La Liga and the Champions League so would it even be a step up at this point to leave Madrid for Chelsea, or anywhere else for that matter? I guess all Chelsea could offer him is more wages. I've heard £30-35 mil mentioned as a transfer fee, but I'm not sure that would even be enough. If they're not despperate to sell I could see Madrid holding out for more, especially if he has a good World Cup. Speaking of which, I wonder how many overrated players English clubs will overpay for after this year's world cup?

And still nobody can retain the Champions League. It's probably fair to say we weren't at our absolute best, but also to be fair to Chelsea they are a very good side and genuinely well organised, who weren't just going to let us have their way with them. As far as stopping our game Chelsea did the best job yet, not that surprising considering who they are. But we played right into their hands too, with Gerrard's mistake. It's why I can't give Jose full credit for the win, he was worth their clean sheet for sure, but as far as winning the game goes we did all the hard work for him there. It's hard enough when a team like Chelsea set up not to lose, that's why it's so important that we score first, to lure them out. When Gerrard let them in for the first goal, it gave Chelsea every reason to sit back even more, they had nothing futher to gain by venturing forward as we already gifted them the lead. Even worse was doing it just before half time, where Jose could give fresh instructions about how to deal with our oncoming attacks in the second half. Just to be clear though, I'm not blaming Jose for setting up the way he did, it was probably the best thing to do against us the way we've been lately, and luckily for him fortune favoured them that day. The league feels like a 3-way coin toss at the moment, could go any way. The Everton Vs City game looks absolutely key, it's Everton's last home game of the season, will that be enough to motivate them to win? Either way I hope we still have our game-faces on against Palace, we can't give up now, even if City beat Everton they still have two opportunities to drop points, we have to believe anything can still happen.

If. As though whatever happens = tactical decision. The bottom line is I don't feel beaten by Jose's tactics, I feel we beat ourselves today. I'm happy to agree to disagree. Jose had the tactics to hold onto the lead, and even score again as we chased the game, I always gave him that. But we handed him the 3 points today. And I'm not just bitter about today's result, it's just reminded me of something I've felt for a long time. For exaplme I've seen several Utd games this season where Utd have peppered the opposition goal, hitting the post, forcing the keeper to make incredible saves, missing open goals etc. And they either drew or lost by the odd goal, and it's all apparently down to Moye's poor tactics, afterall his tactics didn't yeild a result, so by definition they must be bad, right? But if the players put all those chances away and they win, are those very same tactics still bad?

Yes I realise that, you scored a second goal in injury time because we were desperately chasing the game, and we were only chasing the game because we gifted you a goal which had nothing to do Jose's tactics. I'm not even picking on Jose. It happens all the time, two teams will play out a 0-0 for 89 minutes, neither manager's tactics produce a goal/win. Then a goalkeeper will clear the ball against his own defender into his own net and they lose 1-0. And then the pundits go on and on about how the winning manager "got his tactics spot on", when in fact his tactics were no more productive than the other managers, who apparently got his tactics all wrong despite only losing to a fluke goal. That's exactly what I'm saying, it's not as cut and dry as people say, a lot is beyond the managers control. Though at least with a deflected shot you can say you created your own luck, that goal can still come as a result of Rodgers's attacking tactics. Can't people see the difference between something like that and an unforced error such as gerrard's slip which today's game evidently hinged on. That's all I'm saying, for god's sake.

It was very good tactically for not conceding. He was sensibly cautious, I've no problem with that. Jose can take credit for not conceding. But how did Chelsea's tactics contribute to the first goal? It was a totally unforced error. As if Jose saw Gerrard's random slip in his crystal ball before the game. No doubt they rode their luck, not saying that's bad, everyone does it, but riding your luck is hardly a tactic. If it is it's not something you deserve any credit for. That's all I'm saying.

I can take the loss, but I'm not having that. At best Chelsea deserved the 0-0 they played for, Mourinho deserves no credit for Gerrard handing him the win. Gerrard slips and everyone says Jose is a genius . The only credit for the goal anyone could possibly give him is that he had the foresight to pick Ba instead of Torres who would have fluffed it. People can think this is sour grapes all they want, it isn't. I've always thought it bollocks that managers get the credit/blame for entirely random incidents that had nothing to do with them and their tactics. Sometimes the ball just rolls your way.