Securing victory over Slovenia was nice. And scoring three goals was even better, but until World Cup Qualification begins, the results still do not matter. Rather, it is the performance of individuals and how they help to shape the team's formation and tactics that are most important to evaluate as the pieces come together for Jurgen Klinsmann's US National Team.

Gervinho rumours persist but what do Newcastle United in terms of strikers anyway? The French press are announcing the 'imminent' arrival of Gervinho at Newcastle, which sounded promising until I noticed they got their information from Sky Sports. Allegedly we've made a €16m bid for the player (£14.

Last night wasn't pretty to watch. We were systematically taken apart and not only had no plan B but looked at times like we had no plan A. With Chelsea losing and the Arsenal/City game ending in a draw we had one of those moments in a season where a team can really make a statement.

Just a short preview today because there's no need to fanny about with formations and tactics. Keep it simple.

Ok, so we're missing some very influential players for tonights game, especially Modric who we lost this morning to an appendix operation but I'm feeling positive.

What a difference one result makes and more importantly a change in formation. Don't we all feel a lot better today? It wasn't just the three points won at a very tough place to go to and it's not like we were at our fluent best but the sight of seeing two strikers on the pitch, albeit one of them being Crouch and the other Defoe, who I thought enjoyed one of his worse performances in a Spurs shirt, gave us all renewed enthusiasm for the remainder of the season.

"We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad."

~ Winston Churchill (1945)

It's been a slightly frantic, stressful and relieving week all rolled into one.

New season. New faces. New roles. New tactics. As we move ever loser to the start of the 2011 season, the PSP takes a look possible tactical formations the Union might employ. Today, Adam argues that last season's 4-2-2-2 ought to become a 4-1-3-2 formation to take advantage of the team's wealth of defensive minded midfielders.

It's been a manic day so far. First I wrote a fantastic piece on Jermaine Jenas, then West Ham won the preferred bidder status for the Olympic Stadium (or did we lose it?) and now Harry Redknapp's appeal against tax evasion charges has been turned down and he'll face trial later this year.

The big games just keep rolling in and tonight's is no different. Our rearranged fixture at Blackpool could see us propel ourselves into the top 3 and pile the pressure on Manchester City and especially Chelsea who would find themselves 5 points behind us with a game in hand which I believe is against United so it's no gimme.

Arsenal's wins against Everton and Aston Villa were hard-fought and while the points were all taken, there surely has to be some questions raised over the 4-3-3 formation's productivity in those matches. Let us not be mistaken in both matches Arsenal pulled out hard-fought wins, but chances were fashioned far and few between and [.

Sir Alex has traditionally utilized a 4-5-1 formation in games of this magnitude, but this season he has increasingly opted to stick with his standard 4-4-2, even in some of the biggest games of the campaign. Look at what Chicharito was able to do against Chelsea! So, I hope (PRAY) that he continues with this trend and goes with a more attack minded formation.