West hammered

Put your hands up for Dirk Kuyt, he loves this city. Great goals last night and an important three points in our push for second. We played much better in the second half and Kuyt scored within 10 seconds of the kick off. 9 league goals now for Kuyt. Crouch scored on his birthday with a superb goal. The passing and movement for it were reminisent of Rafa's Valencia team. I like the looks of this 3-4-3 formation against the lower teams. This was practicaly the same team that played v Watford recently. Riise improved on his recent form in a slightly more forward position on the left of the midfield four. We're now only 2 points behind Chelsea with them playing tonight. I think that we've a good chance of catching them but I still can't see us catching Utd.

It's the visit of the bluenoses on Sat morning. Rumour is that Momo should be back for at least the bench and Bolo was an unused sub last night. Some talk that AJ might be on the bench for the toffees and if so I can see him coming on for a big finale if they're behind. He gave us lots of problems earlier in the season when we lost 3-0 at Woodison. I think that we'll have revenge on our minds and should be able to win this. After that we have the Toon away, Sheffield Utd at home and then Man Ure at home.

There has been a good bit of transfer activity recently with the window about to close. Alvaro Arbeloa has come in for around £2.6m from Deportivo. He's a Spanish right back and centre back who used to play for Real Madrid. Can't say that I know much about him but the deportivo fans are annoyed that he's leaving on the cheap as he's been very good for them this year. Francis Duran has joined on loan from Malaga. He's 18 and a cnetral midfielder. The long and drawn out Javier Mascherano laon deal looks like it will be completed at some stage today. FIFA have given us the all clear and West Ham don't want him. The involvement of MSI will make it less straightforward. At first I wasn't that pushed but I now think that he'll be used as an alternative to Xabi and will mean Bolo will leave which is a good thing. Here's a goal that he scored for River Plate and here he is playing a central role in one of the greatest goals ever.