S-Clarke

This is an annihilation. Villa will be on the floor after this, no doubts about it. They look pathetically bad.

You seem to be on a bit of a delay St Chalet!

maybe Villa are getting what we would have got...!! Who knows, that postponement may work in our favor!

Well, the Villa performance is giving our GD advantage down there a hell of a boost.

That was such a major part of our game last season, and the crosses from full back must have contributed to what, 30 odd goals? We were so good at that over lapping role, and Lambert at the back post. Obviously this league was never going to be a place to produce the same sort of gun-ho full back approach, but I do agree that we do miss their consistent deliveries - they delivered 90% of the time. Lallana's and Puncheons deliveries have always been erratic.

Oh there have been, for the past few weeks - this isn't from here, but the general mood of people around me. A few weeks ago it was Jay Rod is rubbish, waste of money, we need Mayuka up there, he will fix all. If only football was that easy. Personally, when we bought Mayuka I believed it was on the understanding he could also play as a RW....but he doesn't look like a winger to me in the games I've seen him. He's clearly taking some time to adapt, and he's off for a few weeks shortly anyway, so we do need to look at our wide attacking options in January as a priority.

Why would we want to do that though? Suicide. and no, we wouldn't. We'd have 2/3 weeks of limbo land, thus rendering the window useless and relegating us in the process.

Ah, the world of a football fan. The same Jay Rod who we should have played yesterday, is the same Jay Rod from a few weeks back who shouldn't be in the side and we need the pace of Mayuka. Go figure.

Can't see us going for another GK, that can wait until the summer. The other ones I agree with. I think we need a modern day Jaidi type CB to play alongside Fonte, and a Mulumbu/Diame type CM. I just feel in certain games we lack that physical presence against physical teams, as talented as Morgan is, he can be brushed off the ball pretty easily it has to be said. All of our midfielders are the same really. We do need another dimension to our attack, I'd be reluctant to say we specifically need a ''right winger'' or a ''left winger'' - we just need an attack who can play across the front line, either side, or in behind. Pace, strength and an eye for goal. Matt Phillips does tick those boxes. I don't think we're far away as a team, and it won't take major surgery to make us really competitive at this level.

You possibly need to look at the supply he's being given, and the position he was in? The service to both forwards yesterday was non-existent, even from set pieces. He didn't have a great game yesterday, I'm not denying that, but over the course of this season he's shown that he's got what it takes to cause problems at this level. He's still our top scorer which probably tells you all you need to know. If he was sold, we'd become a rudderless ship.

We didn't play good football yesterday, or score any goals. I'm slightly more nervous after that.

Wow, wtf.

Would be an excellent addition, like him a lot.

Great sum up right there. Mayuka's runs weren't great, and the balls to feed him were non-existent. O'Shea did have the game of the season though, he won every single ball in the air. To credit Sunderland, the reason they're down where they are is because they don't score enough. Defensively they're amongst the best in this league, and it showed today.

Lambert, obviously. Killer, Neimi - created a real barrier at the back for us, made us a decent outfit. they were both a snip as well.

Now that you've made your prediction, I'm all of a sudden even more confident.

Players that have been playing well were well off their levels today. Clyne was poor, Morgan was awful and so was Lambert. Not much wrong tactically, just a very weird, lethargic performance which seemed to have NA as bemused as most of us. One thing you can say about us this year is we always create chances, we always cause problems - no matter who we play, but that just didn't happen today. Not once. Weird day, pretty forgettable. Will be quickly forgotten if we beat Fulham though. With Wigan away at Everton we could cut them adrift a bit. Please..

Most of the blame for that goal comes from Clyne in my eyes, beaten way too easily.

In your eyes, what were the best sub options? What would have been the best 11 based on what we had available? To my eyes, that was pretty strong. People have been clamoring for Mayuka to start for weeks, and when he does, it seen as some sort of ''weak'' team selection.

Not sure what to expect from this one. Fulham aren't a bad side, and at home they are strong 90% of the time - so this is a tricky one for us. A draw would be a decent result from our next 2 away games if i'm honest, then we can look to spring a suprise in the Arsenal home game.....we need a win out of 1 of the 3 xmas games though, that's for sure. Luckily for us Wigan have, possibly, harder fixtures looking at it. They're away at Everton on Boxing day...will be interesting. I just have bad feelings from this game, as I remember back in 2004 (i think) I went up there on boxing day, after riding high in 4th position, we lost after a **** performance. Think Saha got the goals iirc. I always saw that result as the ''beginning of the end'' - everything went to the ****ter after that result.

You can't compare him to Bale or Theo, they're totally different players in different positions. He's a very talented left back, who puts defending first at the top of his game.

They were bought as potential, in a few years time we will probably look back and say it's the best £20m we've ever spent. As fans we expect too much, too soon. All 3 have obvious quality, and all 3 have demonstrated that. It's a struggle to make much of an impact when you're in and out of the side as a couple of them have been. I think the £20m will prove to be a sound investment in time.

CB, RW, LB. Done.

He's not been awful, but plays in fits and starts. He had a completely disgusting performance today, but in other games he always wants to do a little too much himself, and 99% of the time loses the ball. He's got obvious quality, more than anyone else in the team, but you do feel that at times we're not quite on the same wave length as a team.

To give him credit, he's consistent.