S-Clarke

What are you getting at here? Not sure there was any calls for Rowett to be sacked back at the start of the season, but their owners wanted to make a bit of a statement and a change. I don't think getting rid of Zola would be classed as knee jerk! An absolute failure of a manger, 2 wins out of 20 odd! From flirting with the playoffs under Rowett, to hanging on to the league under Zola...!

No point counting that as it was a reserve/youth team from us.

He's done a great job at Everton, they were where Stoke/ourselves were last year, but he's taken them on. Be interesting to see how they manage EL football next year and how they improve their squad.

He's a class CB, i think he's on loan from Torino. Looks a little too good for that level.

Impossible to say really, but most of our goals were sold in the summer (Pelle/Mane), so it's no surprise what so ever to see us struggling to score goals. Not sure anyone else would have done amazingly better.

Well beaten, as we have been by the likes of Spurs and Chelsea at home this season. We can't seem to compete with this sides at home like we used to, which is a bit depressing. We were well organised in the first half, probably had the best chance, but we were still very tepid in our approach. City were also very tepid in the first half, but dominated the ball. 2nd half was a tactical horror show, especially after their first goal. Totally got that wrong, i know we were looking for goals, but I never want to see Bouful, Tadic and Redmond in the same side again - it doesn't work. Without Romeu and those 3 in attack, the game was done. I can understand why Gabba was brought off, the boos around me regarding that were a bit dim - he was clearly only good for 60-70mins after being out for 5 weeks, didn't expect anything different. But yeah, well beaten. Good side are City, but we couldn't get close to them in the 2nd half which was sad.

What talent? He had very little from what I saw, hot headed, average football player.

If he had an end product, then maybe. But he doesn't. He runs a lot, but then does nothing with it. One of the most frustrating players I've ever watched.

Holgate will probably become their first choice RB, so Cuco on a free for their backup. I wonder when they're going to start breaking this glass ceiling?

We won't finish any higher than 8th. Got a chance to jump above the baggies, but that's it.

This is the worst Arsenal team I have seen in a long, long time.

finished 2-2, last min pen.

Now that we're winning and playing well, I guess this is the area where we now bash the club?

The first half was excellent, we looked two or three levels above WBA. They couldn't get near us as we moved the ball quickly and incisive and at pace. The midfield two of Clasie and Hoj bossed that first half, great depth in there. Don't think the highlights gave a fair reflection of it, we had about 60% of that game easily. They threw everything at it in the last 20 mins as you'd expect, but it was a bit huff and puff and no real quality. We were the only side with genuine quality on show yesterday, coached well and with genuine technicians in all areas of the pitch. Football is a funny game. At about 8:20pm 3 days ago, we were 16th and 4pts above the bottom 3. Now we're 9th, 12 points clear of that lot. Things can change very quickly, which is why WBA need to keep looking over their shoulders.

He personally moved way, way, way too soon. I'm sure even he can see that now. But 100k p/w and £32m our way, there wasn't really a doubt.

Have you forgotten about Gabbiadini? I think Jay will be off, but we'll be left with Austin, Shane, Gabba and Gallagher. More than enough.

Your expectations are seriously skewed. You're supporting the wrong club if you think we should be doing what we did last year consistently. Most level headed fans realise that last season was amazing - more of a freak than not.....obviously, we can still fight for it every season, but it's wrong to believe that's where we need to be aiming every year as a 'minimum'. You're going to be seriously fed up if your expectations are that high.

What is it with Marco Silva and people on this forum? Is it because he looks hip and young? To be fair, he's had a great impact at Hull...but you're suggesting we ditch our manager, who is only starting to get his idea's into this team, in place of a manger who has done well for just 6 months. Knee-jerk in both ways.

I can hardly remember last week, let alone that far back! He was a bit in and out of the team that year though if I remember, but this seems to be the first time he's holding a position and actually seems like one of the fixed names on the team sheet for the first time ever.

I thought we generally played well last night, first half we started the game really well. Could have been a goal or two up before they scored theirs, but I think after the game went on and we hadn't got the goal, we sort of lost a bit of belief and retreated back a bit. We have a knack of scoring on HT though, which is a great moment to score. Allowed us to come out in the 2nd half and just carry on where we ended the half, it was turning into a bit of 'one of those night's, as we had several guilt edged chances that we should have put to bed before we did. We should have had at least one penalty, i don't understand anyone who doesn't think that was a pen. It was close to him, fair enough, but there was a genuine movement of his arm away from his body to flick the ball away - clear as day as a handball. We kept plugging away and Redmond had a great 2nd half, for the 2nd goal he did exactly what I've been crying out for him to do - run and commit players, he's a real, real threat when he does that. Then we cut them open again with what I thought was a great third goal, and JWP is thriving in this position. Onto JWP, I think Claude has found his best place. Not a proper central midfielder, but playing on the inside right of an attacking 3. Allows him to get involved in attacks, less reliance on him being physical in the middle, and it also means he can use his right peg to pop the ball in from the right channel. It's definitely a position which gets the best out of him and I much prefer him there than as a set central midfielder. He's definitely a player who has evolved over the season and credit to Claude for being the first manager who seems to have found his best role. Long will obviously get grief for missing the chances, but he still gets himself into those positions and still makes the runs. He has been a tad unlucky, but as long as he keeps making the moves he is then the goals will come. On to Saturday, let's finish the season as well as we can.

I don't see how anyone can be in any sort of 'out' camp. He's had months, not even a full season. I think it's fair for people to voice their opinions and concerns over things (not everything is rosy, and he could do things better), but for anyone to say he has to go it's just the sad way of thinking of the modern football fan. When Markus first came here, he said he believed we were a top 10 premier league club and he wanted to get us there. That seemed like a pipe dream then, but that's exactly where we are right now. We're a middle of the table/Top10 club and given the amount of games we've had to cope with this year, I think we're doing just about right in the league. I know it's a common excuse, but there is no doubt in my mind that Thursday EL games impacted our first half of the season, clubs of similar size have had the same problem (Even Liverpool struggled last year with EL football). Given the injuries we've had this year, the obscene amount of games and fixture pile ups, to have reached a Cup Final and be sitting in the Top 10 of the PL is actually a pretty good effort. I think we'll finish around 9th-10th on 48ish points, which will be a slight drop...but not as alarming as you'd think coming on here. Next season we can go again without the extra EL games and Sunday matches, I think we'll see a different picture.

Stephens has done fine, I see no reason to throw Caceres in unless there is an injury or suspension. Jack is the 'future', so we might as well blood him now as opposed to giving opportunities to someone who may not be here next year. We will sign some CB's in the summer, I'm sure, but Jack hasn't done himself any harm over the last couple of months.

They don't have a great deal of depth, but that front 3 Zaha, Townsend, Benteke will cause teams problems. They are packed full of pace and if we play like we did in the 2nd half of the 2nd half on Saturday, then they will have a field day. From our side, I want to see Redmond stretching the play and running at them - just like Bournemouth players did at the weekend. I love watching Gray at Leicester and he has so many similar attributes to Redmond, but Gray doesn't play with any fear or pre-defined roles - he just attacks teams, and it works. It's exactly how Mane played for us last year, I don't remember him having a set position week in week out, he would just run at teams and commit them in the final third from either side.

To be fair, the last two points were only possible because of last season. We didn't earn those based on this season.

Tomkins got injured yesterday, Dann came onto replace him and then got injured too (both bad injuries tbf) Delaney came on to replace Dann.