S-Clarke

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.

But he still did nothing, never does anything, and never will do anything. A non-player.

Awful, awful, awful. Gaston and Mayuka both had an aberration of a performance, abysmal. Wouldn't complain if either were dropped after that one. Puncheon was back to his frustrating, blind ally self, but still gave us more spark than anyone else on the pitch. There wasn't anything to get excited about, cheer about, or shout about. The most forgettable game in the history of football. Abject.

Sunderland have Danny Rose back in the side, massive boost for them. One of their better players. Fletcher is there too.

He was in goal for the last game, HTH. That front 3 looks very exciting.

Our pitch has always been very good, it would need to have been torrential rain for 24 hours non-stop for it to be under threat. It's not really been too heavy here, just the depressing light drizzle...!

I don't think it's a big deal that they keep it close to their chest, as fans we kind of know he's out for a while - so if he's back any sooner than that it's a bonus to all. So let's just treat it as the fact he's out for a few months, and be surprised at anything less.

Already done, by 2.

Let's not...!

I should really start betting more You could kind of tell though, Reading just stood off them from the start and allowed Arsenal to just move it around with ease. Was only a matter of time before the goals flowed.

This is pathetic. We competed better in our 6-1 defeat. They're just awful, no where near good enough to compete at this level. They're gone, I think that's safe to say.

Reading can't get anywhere near them. Only one winner here as it stands, and it will be by a big margin.