Sheaf Saint

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25074373 Were we well beaten at Arsenal? Well the scoreline suggests so, but the reality was somewhat different. I thought we did a very good job of containing them and they only scored thanks to a suicidal piece of goalkeeping and a penalty that 99 times out of 100 wouldn't have been given. Arsenal are the real deal this season. The table doesn't lie and the 7-point gap they have opened up at the top this weekend is no fluke. With our regular first eleven I firmly believe we would have got a better result against them, which is why I am confident that we can get a result at Chelsea today because they have been hit and miss so far this season (despite sitting 3rd currently) and are a lesser team than Arsenal IMO.

I haven't had much time for gaming this year so I bought very few new titles. My out and out favourite though has to be Far Cry 3. Ubisoft brought together all the very best elements of the first two games and made something spectacular out of it.

Ouch. I'm 38 and Some of those are painfully true!!

Oh don't get me wrong, I had the cravings for a few weeks after I quit as well. But I found it much easier to overcome them (they go away after a couple of weeks anyway) because I had reached the stage where I just didn't want to smoke any more, and didn't want to be identified as a smoker. Of course there is a physical side to the addiction, but the psychological aspect shouldn't be overlooked. People who want to quit and say things like "I'll just finish this packet and that's it" inevitably give in and start again, because they are essentially saying "I don't really want to quit, but I'm going to try". If you build it up in your head and convince yourself that quitting will be really hard then it will be. That's why tobacco companies are more then happy to go along with the whole 'get help to quit' thing because they can be seen to be doing something to help people stop, but they know full well that people with that mindset are more likely to start smoking again.

It's all about your mindset. If you are serious about not wanting to smoke any more then you won't need patches, gum, hypnosis or any of the aids that are available, as you will just stop and you won't find it hard. If, on the other hand, you don't really want to stop but feel as though you should then you are doomed to fail I'm afraid. Smoking is the most irrational thing that anybody can do, and it is incredible the lengths people will go to to try and justify their habit rather than face the obvious truth: that they are just hopelessly addicted. Once you can accept that, you will find quitting so much easier.

The strangest thing for me was the fact that in the wild only 1% of orcas suffer from the collapsed dorsal fin issue that manifests in just about all the animals that are kept in captivity. Whether that's to do with their diet or it's caused by psychological trauma appears to be unclear, but it is firm evidence that keeping them in captivity clearly has a physical effect on them that is not present in the wild.

Got it running today after I upgraded my OS. There have already been a couple of major update patches, one of which includes joystick support. Mine is working perfectly. It's very different from the previous versions so getting the hang of navigation and trading will take a while due to the sheer scope of it. I agree the graphics are a little disappointing, but if it means they have put more effort into the gameplay then ultimately that won't bother me. Could have done better though. As for the voice acting - yes it's crap but it was just as terrible on all the previous ones (due to the translation from German, I assume) so I had no expectations there. Looking forward to getting out and exploring the galaxy.

Indeed. Look at the Stoke v Sunderland game yesterday. Wes Brown got red-carded for what looked a very good tackle, and later Begovic wasn't penalised at all for a shocking studs-up tackle on one of the Sunderland players. You can see why Poyet was so furious. Really poor refereeing. Then there was the red card in the Hull v Palace game which looked completely innocuous to me as well. I really don't know how much longer the FA/FIFA can continue to resist the introduction of video replay technology.

I last took a foreign holiday in 2010 when I got the Eurostar to France. I do drive for work (my job necessitates it) but I have made sure I have been given the most economical vehicle possible that still allows me to do my job. I also avoid using my car wherever possible for private use, which I am able to do because I have a lot of facilities within walking distance of my home and have excellent public transport links I have been a fan of motor sport in the past (not so much any more) but the demands of competition mean that racing car manufacturers are always looking to make their engines as fuel-efficient as possible, and these technological advances help the motor industry on the whole, so I don't have much of a problem with that, although I accept the carbon footprint of, for example, an F1 team over a season must be pretty huge when you factor in flying their equipment all over the world. I have switched my electricity supplier to one that supplies 100% from renewables I recycle every bit of rubbish I possibly can, and I put what little food waste I generate into compost I drive my girlfriend mad with my constant nagging at her for putting the heating on when it's not necessary I have cold showers most of the time, to save electricity (and water, because I don't tend to stay in them too long!) I eat a lot of vegetarian food because my girlfriend is veggie Does this satisfy you?

That was my assumption. Lallana was clearly our best attacking player on the pitch but didn't seem at all surprised when he was subbed.

People will moan about strange substitutions, schoolboy errors and questionable refereeing, but the long and short of it is that we went away to a team that are top of the table for a very good reason, and despite the personnel changes we were forced to make we gave a very good account of ourselves, and I take heart from that. Yes it's obvious we lost our attacking momentum when Lallana went of, but there must have been a very good reason why he was substituted which only MP knows at the moment. Lambert was utter crap today. Not involved at all, offside far too often and made no contribution of any note. Of course we forgive him because he's Rickie Lambert, but if that was anybody else putting in such an ineffective display he would be getting ripped to shreds on here. J-Rod had a really good game I thought. Made some great runs when he was able to but just didn't get to see much of the ball in the 2nd half because of the switch in formation following Lallana's withdrawal. Wanyama had a great game and showed why we paid the fee we did for him. Put in some excellent tackles to break up the play and his passing was much improved on his performances earlier in the season. Boruc - oh dear. That will haunt him for the rest of his career, but aside from that and a couple of wayward clearances he did OK.

Yeah but imagine if it was the other way round and it wasn't given. We would be screaming blue murder at the ref.

He had a run at the defence that ended with a shot on target. That's more than Lambert has done today - he's been completely anonymous for the whole game.

Oh those Arsenal fans are so hilarious aren't they - jeering every time the ball gets passed back to Boruc. Oh my aching sides.

Giroud is actually a bit of a pr*ck isn't he.

Saints fans coming through loud and clear at the moment.

Not really. He played a large chunk of both England games last week so MP probably wants to keep him fresh.

Lovely move building up to Lallana's shot there. Deserved a better finish.

Strange re-shuffle from MP. Clyne goes to LB as expected, JWP moved to right back and Davis slots into midlfield.

In place of Shaw!?

What happened?

I thought the yellow card for Hooiveld was a little harsh. They both went in feet high and the fact Giroud went down and Jos didn't made it look worse than it was.

Agreed. Lambert not made any real contribution today and looks like a passenger so far.

Why was KO delayed? Was it due to that new searching system that Arsenal put in place for this game?