saintant

Haven't read through the thread but for me there were a few positives - a clean sheet, a point, a rare penalty save from Fraser and we're now back above Bournemuff. That said I was completely bemused by Puel's team selection and tactics today. It was clear we were set up to defend from the start so why select Tadic and Boufal spearheaded by Gabbi up front on his own? This made absolutely no sense despite the fact we did get a point. Neither Tadic or Boufal help out their fullbacks to any degree and Gabbi as a lone front man is a total waste of his talents. Surely if we decided from the outset we have little or no intention of getting forward other than hopeful punts up field none of those three player should have started. We should have stuck Long up front on his own, Redmond left, JWP right and brought in Classie or Hojbjerg. It was a battling point from a performance devoid of courage due to the manager's team selection and tactics which meant we rarely troubled Mignolet. Boring!!!!

Happy with that performance and thought we fully played our part in a good game of football. Chelsea are very strong and have quality players all over the pitch but we gave them problems throughout. No disgrace to lose that and we never gave up. We do miss VVD at the heart of our defence though.

Great win against a Palace side who would have been brimming with confidence after their win at Chelsea. 4pts from the two home games is a very acceptable return. Get Gabbi back and we'll be even better. Shame Romeu will get a suspension now but it's up to someone else to step up to the plate - maybe Puel will consider trying Caceres in the holding midfield spot.

Assume you are conveniently ignoring the fact that we were playing away to 2nd in the table Spurs - that'll be the same Spurs who are unbeaten at home this season. Throw in the fact that they were granted a soft penalty and we were denied a stonewall one plus the fact that Gabbi got injured. Spurs were holding on for most of the second half but don't let that cloud your judgement.

No shame in that result and brave effort from the lads. Spurs given a soft penalty whereas we were denied a blatant one plus injury to Gabbi didn't help. Also lino gives the ball out when it is clearly not and Tadic should score. When you think where Spurs are in the table and how good their home record is it was great to see them resulting to hacking the ball towards the corners and trying to waste time. We made them look very poor particularly in the second half. Two wins out of three away games and a decent performance in defeat to Spurs is ok by me.

Absolute nonsense!

Yoshi having a mare

JWP for England!!!!

Not too bothered - 6 points from our last three away games is a good return - today was always just a free hit for us. Not having had the rub of the green has not helped.

Souness the only one talking any sense about the two penalty incidents whereas Quinn and Redknapp condone the cheating.

Spurs no way a penalty seeing it again. Alli cheating!

Stonewall penalty not given. Typical!

JWP running round like a headless chicken but never quite making a tackle.

Awful defending, penalty. Could get embarrassing this.

Gabbi injured, just what we need!

Ball not out and Tadic should score!

Great move, unlucky Gabbi.

Defence all over the place.

Good strike Romeu!

Marking is non-existent.

Defence parted like the Red Sea!

If JWP gets into the full England side other clubs fans will view him as the new Tom Cleverley.

Some people seem to have forgotten that when Puel arrived we changed from a 4231 that had been tried and trusted to a diamond which I think was his favoured system in France. You can claim what you want and I think CP stated that the reason for the diamond was because he felt it took less out of the players during a time when we had a fixture pile up. Personally I don't agree with him and think we should have stuck to 4231 because it is a system proven to work for us. I think our overall results this season would have been better had we not introduced the diamond. Just my opinion and appreciate that many will disagree and that's what having debates on these forums is all about. I do accept that the introduction of Gabbiadini has been the icing on the cake for the 4231 system.

Just wanted to pay credit to Gabbi for his goal which was as simple as it was brilliant. Simple because for him it was a routine tap in. Brilliant because if he's not on the pitch Gomes almost certainly gets away with spilling the ball. A striker who is smart enough and willing enough to gamble on goalkeeping errors is worth his weight in gold and I hope the likes of Redmond and Tadic etc will learn from Gabbi. It's a long time since we've had a striker with such touch, vision and movement and these attributes along with the fact that this guy is a ruthless predator mean we've got some player on our hands as 6 goals (should be 7) in his first four games testifies. He's still getting used to his team mates and vice versa so that is a phenomenal return for a player who, in reality, should still be bedding himself in.

Davis is far better than either the plodding Clasie or Hojberg. Davo drives the team forward and is far more creative than Clasie or PEH.