CaptainXabi

Everton supporters cheer a Stevie hollywood ball gone wrong. You're one nil down geniuses.

Carra clears a Cahill header from about 7 yards out. That was close.

Long kick from Pepe, Cisswe taps it to Stevie, and it bounces off Stubbs back to Momo who heads it through fro Crouch. Crouch rounds the keeper and slots it in. Glorious finish from Crouchinho.

Crouchy scores!!!1

Neville hits a 25 yarder which Pepe spills. Pepe scrambles to recover and his presence forces Beattie to blaze it over the bar. But there were 3 Everton players offside anyway and the linesman called it late.

Yobo goes down injured temporarily trying to stop Crouch in the box. Stevie G takes out Neville (and wins the ball) in teh resulting scramble. Stevie's up fore it .

Cisse hits it wide off a Gerrard free kick.

Alright, I've been waiting all day for this. Haven't been able to concentrate on anything else. LET'S t*** THE BITTERS

Yup. I just read the initial reports somewhere else, but then i chcecked a Chav forum. You are indeed correct. But it appears he did go out for warmups before it was decided he wouldn't play.

No joke. Might just be a virus though instead of an injury. He is definitely not playing today, not even on the bench. He's not in the lineup on Soccernet, and I even checked a Chelsea forum forum to make sure.

Soooopa Frank has been injured in the warmup for the Chavs. Don't know the extent yet, but is this a window of opportunity?

Soooopa Frank has been injured in the warmup for the Chavs. Don't know the extent yet.

I take it you meant to type LM?

Absolutely brilliant anti-mockers there.

My point exactly. He's fantastic, but he's not some superhuman goal keeper that the press (and many Chav supporters) make/made him out to be.

take a look Edit: He seems to wear 6 a lot too. You'll just have to pick.

Basing this off of 3 whole games, it's 4 when he starts, 14 when he doesn't.

Yes, he's very good, but he's not that good.

It's 7m Euro. I'd equate the total package to 20m Euro or approximately, 13-14m Pounds. I dunno, for that price I think Joaquin is worth a shout even if he blows hot and cold, etc, etc.

21st apparently. Yay for CONCACAF. Edit: Nevermind, I was beaten to it.

I think the silent treatment would have been best. Probably would have made the point to him in an even more painful way as well.

If I was Rafa, I know what my tactical instructions to Momo would be. I'd just write a big "17" on Momo's hand and point. And if Momo is still on the pitch after that tackle on Josemi, he can take out Cahill too . Thank you, I'll be here all week.

I'm sorry, but that angle is just not on as far as I'm concerned. If anyone truly believes that Owen didn't run down his contract on purpose they're being naive. Running down his contract was designed to allow the option for a cut-price moves to one of the top European clubs. I'm not saying Michael planned to take the option all along, but he certainly wanted the options available and planned accordingly. In the end, the plan worked to perfection - Real Madrid came in, and he decided to make the move. He and his agent were very much misleading to the fans, and presumably to Parry regarding the signing of the new contract. To me that much is clear. Now one argument that I think is far more valid than the "Owen didn't do anything wrong" angle, is that Owen did more good with his 7 years of goal than harm with his contract and transfer shannanigans. I'm undecided on that. The loss of the (potential) money was bad, but one could easily argue as many do that he cost us nothing and his goals were well worth the loss in transfer fee. But keep in mind we also did pay him truckloads of money during that time, so it's not like it was for charity. However, that view is fair enough. He was a fantastic striker for us, no dispute there. What I dislike about the move is that it was made at a time when the club was vulnerable. Stevie had just given us all a massive scare, there was a new manager, and certainly a great deal of uncertainty. And then our star striker, and arguably our best player (certainly top 2) manufactures a move such as he did. That hit hard and I was a diehard Owen fan - he was my favorite player, not Gerrard, not Fowler, not Carra. It all turned out ok for us, but we could have really fallen down a slippery slope. After all, we were left with a squad that was designed to play counterattacking football in a scheme designed around Owen (rightly or wrongly), and now the centerpiece was gone. Take away the CL victory and we finish 5th, we're low on money, confidence, and Stevie probably leaves. It's not looking so rosy is it? That's what irks me about the Owen move. Not that he left necessarily, but when the going got tough, he jumped ship. And if we weren't on the up, he probably wouldn't be thinking about rejoining now.

Looking at FloPo today, it dawned on me that he's almost exactly in the same position Joe Cole was 3 years ago. Just like Sinama presently, Cole had great touch, great skill, and was generally dazzling on the ball, but there was no end product. I hope Rafa makes it a special mission to help Flo direct his skills, much like Cole has at Chelsea. If he can add some end product, he'll be some player.

He did indeed. But he almost always does that. For me the best part was the timing of his runs. He was careful not to leave Xabi stranded. That's what we like to see Stevie.