Cabrone

Great point and 1 more than most teams will get up there this season. Boufal showing signs of being a very good player, looking forward to him really getting used to the team and the league. Great defending as usual, credit to the players and manager.

Put Charlie on for Long and I think we can take the 3 points. Inter really are not up to much - can't believe I've just said that.

That banner says 'You are not a man, you are not a captain, you are a ****ty villain'. Typical Italians sitting on the fence. If any Milan fans are looking at this forum: buana fortuna....ma vinceremo noi!!! e Saint continueranno a marciare per la vittoria

Last 7 games - 5 wins, 2 draws, scored 12 conceded 1. That's some run of form. This team looks full of winners and is playing with some real fluidity and purpose. Fair do's to Puel - I wasn't sure about his style and how it would affect the team but it seems to have been adopted quickly. Next 5 games are really going to test our metal, Citeh(a), Chelsea(h), Inter (h +a) and S'lund but the way we are playing we should fear no one. We've also got Boufal to come in, happy days.

Martina getting a few negative comments, I thought he was fine and put some decent balls in. It wasn't his fault that the centre forwards weren't on the end of them - he did his job. We never looked overrun at a ground where plenty have come away with their tails between their legs. 2nd half we were the better team without really cutting through them. Draw away and win at home will see us comfortably through - I'm happy with that.

Defending was adequate, passing was OK but toothless up front. That said I can't believe Virgil's miss, one of the worst misses I've seen in a while, other than that he's utter class. Romeu was good. Martina put a few decent crosses in but where were the forwards? Long doesn't look like he wants to score. IMO Charlie would have won that for us. Forget the performance, it was a decent point at a tricky place and we're on top without conceding a goal. Pretty pleased TBH.

Corruption in football? Well I never. Good journalism for a change. Don't worry - we'll be back to Kim Kardashian's boobs in a day or two.

Yes but like fans expectations it's all relative. When we were league 1 our expectations were much lower, spending £1M on Lambert was a buzz, now we're prem we expect a lot more. Some fans turned their noses up at a £9M player like Pelle. It's the same with earning more money. Initially it's a buzz but then you get the big house, the flash car, the wife wants more clothes, jewellery etc and before you know it you're sucked into that lifestyle and you want more money. Plus you start mixing with people who earn similar amounts and what you earn doesn't seem so much anymore. Some people are more greedy than others but most of us are relative creatures to some degree.

After 5 goals in 4 games I think Charlie has made his case to the manager now. Just glad that we have one of the prem's best finishers in our team, what did he cost - £4M??? That could turn out to be a ridiculously good piece of business. Rest of the team were great too, vvd is some player. He won't be here next season so enjoy him while you can. Onwards we go.

No coincidence that as soon as Puel starts playing a known goal scorer up front the team has an attacking focal point, the goals start going in and confidence rises as momentum gains. We should play either Long or Redmond along Austin, both look like they could have a productive relationship with him - they tee it up and Charlie knocks it in. Starting to look a half decent team now.

Let's hope Charlie Austin is finally starting to force himself into Puel's plans. 2 games, 3 goals and it looks like he's on a bit of a roll. He does seem to have some odd critics on here, do they want us to score goals or not? If you don't pick Austin then who else is going to step up to the plate? JRod? Maybe. Redmond? Long? I don't think so. Also so what if he's only lasting 40 mins? If he sticks one or two in the net in that time and blows out then sub him for someone who runs a lot. We've got lots of then but only 1 natural finisher. Also if you pick Austin regularly his fitness and sharpness should improve. I'd build around him, feed his strengths and the goals will flow.

Austin up front with Long for me, they compliment each other so play them. Goals please.

If you don't play Austin who else is going to score the goals? I haven't seen any evidence from any other player except maybe JRod but I still think he has a way to go yet and even then I still don't see him as a 15-20 goal a season striker. Pick Austin and work to his strengths, I don't care if he's 'blowing' after 45 minutes if by that time he's stuck the ball in the back of the net a couple of times. Sub him and close the gate. Goals win games, not endless running with no end product.

Best thing about this game is that it should show Puel to select Austin up top. If he'd done that from day 1 we'd be doing a lot better in the prem. Also good to see him taking the penalty, that's what I want to see from he centre forward. Surprised at the Sparta performance, didn't really turn up but 3 points will do nicely.

Well deserved - brilliant striker, for me the best English no 9 of all time. Still, we've got one or two legends of our own.....personally I'd love to see a statue of this bloke outside SMS. An absolute legend.

I think there's a good chance that a fully 'bedded in' Austin would have put away at least 1 of those missed chances and would have won us at least a point yesterday. Difference between him and Long is that Austin is your man striker, Long is a support striker. If you are going to play one then play Austin as Long is a bit lost without a main striker to play alongside. My personal preference would be both as I think they'd work well together but if Puel is going to stick with one then let it be Austin and give the guy a real run out to let him find his feet. I'd say at least 6 games. Also don't agree that Austin can't play Puel's system. Whilst he's not the fastest or the tallest he is intelligent and street wise and has a real assassin's instincts (look how he ghosted in to get his goal at Man U last season - completely lost the Man U defence and delivered the payload) and is smart enough to figure out how to play he diamond and get the goals. We'll never know though whilst Puel refuses to give him a chance.

The good news is that maybe Puel's diamond is starting to take shape, the bad news is we are toothless where it matters. Yes Long is a pest and causes problems but if he doesn't put it away it counts for nought. We have a goal scorer in Charlie Austin - start playing him and giving him time to get used to the setup and maybe we'll start scoring some goals......

The diamond will hurt us

Gut feeling so far is that this guy is not the right fit. Can see him going quite quickly unless he learns and learns fast, he doesn't look in sync with the team for me. Need to see more up front, we don't have bad players but it's not firing at the moment.

Play Austin and play him properly i.e. in the box receiving service. If Puel isn't going to do this then I'd like to know where he thinks the goals are going to come from? Maybe a signing up his sleeve? On the plus side we're always a bit sluggish at the start of the season so I suppose at least we got ManU (a) off our fixture list during our slumber phase rather than losing to a more beatable team.

Charlie Austin is a centre forward penalty box specialist so play him there. He'll score lots is played correctly. Also Redmond is a winger so play him there. The manager needs to learn quickly because the premier league is a very unforgiving place. It's not rocket science.

Austin is by a quite a margin our major goal threat. For me it's imperative that we keep him and if we don't then we have a suitable replacement in place before we do. If the formation needs changing to incorporate him then do it, he'll get you 15-20 goals a season which is a big enough reason to change style to suit him - especially when I can't see any other player getting close to this. I don't think the club will let him go anyway.

He's potentially a very good player but he's a winger so play him there. It's not rocket science. As for the central striker it has to be Austin for me, the only truly recognised goal scorer we have. Long may have his admirers on here (and I think he does a good job at what he does) but he is not going to give you the goal haul Austin will so it should be a priority that Austin is given as much game time as possible to get him up an running (assuming he's fit). Crazily early to cast doubts on Redmond though.

It's a shame we can't be given our toughest game on opening day as we have a really poor record on the first Saturday regardless of who we play. We've won only 3 times on opening day in the last 27 seasons, 2013/14, 2011/12 (champ season) and 1999/2000. Even in our league 1 days we only managed to draw and lose on opening day. We must have one of the worst opening day records out there, I wonder why?