Ben Arfa

Everyone needs to be patient with regards to Benni. That includes management, supporters and the player himself. he has shown glimpses of his talent but he is still finding his feet. next year will be the one that decides his future with us. The option to go 433 with attacking full backs in Santon right, Ferguson left is now an option with Demba back and Cisse.

I think Pardew is looking further ahead to next season with Benni. he wants him to learn and improve the aspects of his game which are not up to scratch ready for his return to his best in the attacking sense. I think he likes him but at present times his levels are still not right up there. Plus with Cheik away, the midfielders we put in like Cabaye/Perch/Guthrie do not really do the leg work and destructive work Cheik does so its harder to carry him.

I do worry he'll leave and it would be a great shame but Pardew must always put the team first.

 

Pardew will be patient and lord knows the fans will be. Question is, how much of a hurry is HBA in ?

 

Spot on

 

People seem to be saying that Pardew is right in dropping Ben Arfa because of his performance against Brighton and Blackburn...

Do you really believe that? Every single player was awful in those games. Yet ONE gets dropped.

We're just a defensive team without Ben Arfa and a more attacking team with him in.

I agree with dropping him for someone like Obertan or Raylor when you're coming up against teams who have a VERY strong attacking threat down the wings as you want to play more defensively and chase them back in those situations, but theres plenty of games where we should be attacking and not solely thinking about playing defensive out wide...

 

As much as I love Ben Arfa, it does seem every time we play him we don't take control of the game and end up on the back foot.

Play a more balanced team and it just clicks for us. Whilst Ben Arfa may be able to win us a game in a split of a second, I'd rather win a game by taking control of the whole game and deserving the win.