Cheik Tiote loses red card appeal.

Well it didn't take long for the news that Cheik Tiote's appeal against the red card he received at Stevenage has been overturned.

I must say that I'm not surprised that The FA have decided not to rescind the red card, but I am surprised that they didn't increase the length of the ban to four games.

This now means that Tiote will be missing for the weekend trip to Sunderland as well as the matches against Tottenham and Fulham. He will return to the first-team against Arsenal when they visit St James' Park on February 5th.

It's a huge blow to lose Tiote, but it was bound to happen at some point, in fact it already did earlier on the season after he clocked up five yellow cards. Obviously now he is going to miss another three games, and if, or when is perhaps more appropriate, he recieves two more yellow cards he will be missing for another two games.

The merits of the red card can be debated until our faces turn blue. Yes he got the ball, but he left the geround in the process which means he has no control over his body. I suspect this is what The FA will have considered. Like it or not, but I think it was probably the right call.

The problem now is how do we replace him? Tiote has been outstanding for us so far this season, and replacing him with the limited resources at our disposal won't be easy. Alan Smith could slot back into the team, although the thought of that fills me with dread to be honest.

I guess one way around it is to play Joey Barton in the centre of mdfield and play Wayne Routledge out wide, although Routledge has hardly pulled up any trees this season.

It would be too much of a risk, in my opinion, to play Dan Gosling. The severity of his injury means that he will have to be 100% before he gets anywhere near the first team, and although he is scheduled to play in a behind closed doors friendly this week, I would say that this Sunday will come far too early for him to be considered.

The real issue has to be ironing out this streak that Tiote has in his game. He isn't a dirty player by any stretch of the imagination, but he does need to be a bit more intelligent with his tackles which will hopefully hep him to avoid buidling up as many yellow cards and suspensions in the future.

That aspect of his game is something that can be worked on, and it needs to be if he is to be available for as many games as possible. Some of his bookings have been undeserved, but at other times he has been lucky to stay on the pitch. A cracking player, and a bargain to boot, but it still doesn't mean that he can't improve.