Saint_Tony

Staying on topic with Greece, Kostas Mitroglou would be an amazing signing. Not sure how realistic it is though as Olympiakos are through to the last 16 of the Champions League

Lallana looks a certainty now, but we all know Roy likes to overload the squad with central midfielders. Losing Walcott isn't much of a blow, he's in the same mould as Townsend, and has really failed to deliver for the national side since that hat trick on Croatia, which was years ago. Rooney aside, any player is replaceable which says a lot about the quality we have right now

Don't rate him at all, but who could we bring in to replace him? Need to be looking at a player of the same quality as Lovren

It looks like, as sad as it is to say, that our league position won't alter much for the rest of the season, so we should really go for the cup

The thing is, 9th would have been acceptable, but following our good start I think many people's expectations changed. I don't mean Champions League qualification but at least a push for a 6th/7th place finish, which now looks as likely as relegation. However, we have half the season still to go and there's time to turn things around. For me, another centre back is an absolute must. We've given ourselves a chance in the cup and have a favourable draw, but we look a bit lost in mid table, need to get the confidence back and at the very least make a push for 7th, even though it looks unlikely. Rumours have been very quiet though, we certainly need to keep Lambert, and good cbs are hard to come by but it can be done

Yeah I was in the queue online for about 45 minutes. Doesn't look like there's a lot left, managed to find 2 seats together at the back of block 10.

Difficult to judge when Ings and Vokes they were up against Hooiveld and Yoshida, who are both Championship level defenders.

Decent enough draw, should be a victory, they won't be as testing as Burnley

It's an attractive proposition. Watching their game now reminds me of our time under Poortvliet and Wotte

Plymouth/Port Vale at home. Doesn't seem so long ago that we were all so ecstatic to draw Man Utd

It will feel strange if he leaves, he has been the focal point of our team for the last 4 1/2 years. Who can replace him?

So is this actually happening? He's still playing and scoring goals here, although he might fit in better at West Ham

The goal at home to West Ham, that was the day we showed we were promotion contenders. Also yesterday, when he slipped playing a cross field ball to Clyne, that ended up being a great pass! He's still a top guy though despite some of his shortcomings. Like I said on the match thread, he is no worse than Yoshida, who seems to be one of these players lots of fans rate for some unbeknown reason (similarly to Lee, coincidentally)

I thought he played well. Some misplaced passes, but some moments of brilliance, especially the chip he tried shortly before he went off. He certainly looked to be putting some effort in, more than on other occasions I've seen him play

Strange game, but an entertaining one that could easily have gone the other way. After a poor first 10 minutes we took control, scored 2 great goals and it looked all over. Worrying to see Rickie go off, he pulled up after 10 mins and never looked right after. Burnley came back into it 2nd half and had us rattled Hooiveld and Yoshida are nowhere near good enough. Yoshida is the worse of the two IMO, doesn't ever look comfortable in any situation, as least Jos can win a few headers. Davis made a great save when it was 2-2, and again at 3-2. If Gazza was in goal we would have certainly lost. Scrappy third goal, but when Lallana came on he ran the game, a cut above every player on the pitch. Another thing, JWP should not be playing out on the right, he was very poor, including his crossing. I think we should stop pretending hes in the same class bracket as some of our other players. He's not good enough for the first team. Anyway, an interesting game and most importantly we go into the hat for the next round

It's exciting. If we don't go for cup glory this season, then there won't be a lot to look forward too

We spent several seasons in the Championship and League 1 playing an extra 8 league games as well as league cup, FA cup and JPT. Most of our players should be used to a busy fixture schedule. They should be wanting to play, not worrying about having a rest. Looks like Osvaldo/Oswaldo is back in training, is that confirmation that he has been injured for the last few games as opposed to being frozen out?

He's 20/1 next to leave. Looking at the bigger picture we are still 9th, it's hardly a disaster. One of the problems is that the way the fixtures have come, expectations rose as a result of some good form against some of the weaker sides in the league. I think we've seen we are better than most of the bottom half sides, but still a long way off of the top 6/7. Very much still a work in progress. I hope Cortese isn't thinking about giving MP the sack, but it's probably best we get a decent result in the cup on Saturday

We were beaten by a superior side. WhenChelsea have the likes of Willian and Oscar on the bench then it's hard to compete. We gave it a go and weren't up to it, but we've played worse this season. It's been a tricky run of fixtures, but we're still comfortable in 9th and we should be looking to stay there and maybe push for 7th or 8th

Really? Looks very strong to me, going to be very tough

Interesting line up. J-Rod as the central striker I assume?

Going to have to go for a 2-1 Chelsea win. They haven't been overly impressive despite their league position, but Mourinho knows how to grind out results

In all fairness I think he could score a few goals at West Ham. For me he's the biggest club legend we have had since MLT and I wouldn't begrudge him a move. However, I feel that if we give him a rest until the West Brom game, he will come back firing on all cylinders. It's stupid to suggest he's suddenly lost his quality in the last couple of months. He's still a top player and will have his sights set on Brazil

It's disappointing, but realistically we were never going to maintain the form we showed over the first 10 games. I'm not worried by it, I'm confident we will pick up another 7-8 wins

You can't say he hasn't been given chances before though. If he starts on Wednesday and gets taken off after 70 mins, the majority on here will be slating him again. However, he hasn't really had a proper run of games so I'd start him in the next couple. Who knows, maybe he's playing for a move in January? FWIW I'd drop JWP, he's gone off the boil a bit, personally not good enough for me for where we want to get to.