HarvSFC

I was only counting those who had signed in the first month of the Liebherr/Cortese/Pardew era, drawing comparisons with Newcastle are acting slowly given they've had new owners for a near month now, which seems a bit wasted and is a lot of time in a football season. Hammond was the nearest to just miss out, Jaidi signed in early September and Fonte was of course a January signing.

It does seem a bit odd that the owners had been looking to buy Newcastle for over a year, knew Ashley wanted to sell to them, yet almost a month and three league matches later, they're still managerless. It does seem a bit like it all came as a surprise and only after Bruce lost to Tottenham did they start looking at potential new managers. They're currently six points from safety and haven't won a game yet this season, so it's not like they can afford to throw games either. Comparatively, Wotte was sacked a day after Liebherr took over and Pardew appointed nine days later. We then signed Lambert, Harding, Murty and Mellis within the first month of the new ownership. I know that there isn't an active transfer window, but we were moving a lot faster in 2009.

Targett was serviceable when he had Grealish in front of him, as his only job was to defend, rarely getting beyond the halfway line and giving the ball to Grealish and letting him run with it. Now, he's expected to contribute something up the field, which we know is a weakness, as he has no pace and used to just turn back with us and he also doesn't have any defensive protection from Bailly, etc, again leaving him exposed and we know him to be a limited defender. Last season when we beat them 4-3 we had a lot of joy down their left. Our first goal being from a free-kick that Targett gave away and our third coming from a new Poland international Cash handball (that was actually given), otherwise we'd have been through, as he was the only Aston Villa defender in the area, as both Mings and Konsa were dragged out wide, as Targett was caught up the field. Hopefully more of the same on Friday. We did well to get £15m and Adams for him. Then they tried going cheap for JWP!

The Athletic have also reported that if Tottenham do not finish in the top six this season, they can sack him without paying compensation: https://theathletic.com/news/spurs-can-sack-nuno-without-paying-compensation-if-they-finish-out-of-top-six/NwFfHH15zGIr/ Although, it now doesn't look like he's going to get that far even. Was always a strange appointment on the whole. Sacked Mourinho because of poor results/boring football and then replaced him with a less successful version of Mourinho, who had just been given the boot at Wolves. But, I guess they were turned down by about 20 other managers prior.

Konsa getting a red is a positive for us.

I must be reading the table wrong, as we’re above Aston Villa and Ings went to play in the Champions League.

Imagine what we’ll be like when the camp’s healthy!

We'll take that! Should have been a lot more comfortable given the chances missed, but at least it's not another match added to the points lost from winning positions table. McCarthy MotM for me, closely followed by Salisu. McCarthy was faultless throughout the game, collecting crosses, good handling and making a vital save close to 90 minutes. What we've lost in attack from last season, we've seemingly got a solid defence again and hopefully this continues.

Need to get his contract sorted, as I believe he can be the player who can get us back to where we were and following a similar model to Leicester’s. We wasted the VvD money on unsaleable dross after high hopes of who we could bring in. Harry Maguire has since went for more money in £80m and Salisu will probably progress to be better than him.

Yes, but as you said, it wasn’t a success. He only scored one goal, got relegated and is now still without a club almost three months into the new season. Serie A is also a much slower league than the Premier League. He got his money, set himself up for life, but in football terms, he wouldn’t be good enough for us now and his career would have taken a downturn when he went to China.

He retired from this level when he went to China.

He’s been working in the UAE for some time now. Don’t think Koeman had any of the coaching team that he had here at Barca.

Broja out injured. 😔

Koeman sacked from Barca.

No complaints here, you just can't expect Chelsea's first five shooters to miss twice in a shootout. Forster, what an improvement he's made. He's now far from the goalkeeper who used to let in routine shots from outside the box and have any saves he did make ironically cheered. Kept us in the game tonight with some top drawer saves and it's a shame after years of the famous contract, that it's expiring just as he's able to offer us something and that he's reportedly looking to leave at the end of the season. Lyanco. Could we have found another bargain gem? Give him a start against Watford and see how he gets on. Deserves it after tonight. The scouting/recruitment seems a lot more solid now, than the Wilson/Reed era, so I'm positive about this one. Funny that some wrote him off after watching goal highlights against Sheffield United, as there weren't any streams for the live match. Last year, if we had made 9 changes to our eleven from a league game we'd have been playing a load of dummies. Now, tonight's proven that we've finally got squad depth again. They went up against a Chelsea side with no amateurs, containing a £70m Kepa, £40m Kovacic, £40m Ziyech and £70m Havertz. Just four players who together likely cost more than our entire 25 man team. That's the difference in resources, but this squad has got something and from our performances has enough to stay up. Now back onto the league we go and hopefully get a result Saturday.

We've got Lancashire.

The poorest part of his game is his defending. The strongest part, and what made him stand out in his youth days is his attacking and skill set on the ball. Please not a CB. More suited to number 10 if RB isn’t working out for him.

He's doubled down...

Or Solskjaer.

Jol at Tottenham.

It’s an all competitions three match ban, so he won’t be back until Watford next weekend.

Good header Elyounoussi, shame it wasn't on target. Walcott off at half time again please, Adams or A. Armstrong on, need another striker up there.

Poor defending from Livramento, keeping him onside and giving him an unchallenged header there after Bednarek rightly moved to Wood. Suppose we came back from 2-0 down last season, but then Ings and Armstrong got goals from nothing. Going to be a long slog now, unfortunately.

Targett’s not a fan favourite at Villa after this first half.

Remember the footballer "tweet" that we were involved in: