Baird of the land

Terrible reffing, capped by missing a blatant penalty.

Davis has looked good as has Tadic. Unfortunately for both their worst moments were when they got into good positions to shoot. Cedric has looked weak, so might not be a bad thing if Yoshida has to come in for him. Frustrating half really, as good as Stoke but need to step it up in 2nd half and get the goal back.

Shame, he's still a player i wouldn't mind us signing.

Sounds bizarre and very worrying.

We've got more depth. Decisions from them like sending Dyer away on loan confused me immensely too unless it was due to financial constraints. Also their striker is off form(Gomis) & they lack adequate back up(something we've suffered from to some degree in the past, like last season when Pelle was going through a drought) Also i think the gap between us is exagerrated currently, they will bounce back and finish in the top half as they have a good manager(barring knee jerk sacking) & a good first xi. After 5 games they had 11 points whereas we had 6. Better time to judge would be at the midway point of the season.

As much as I'm enjoying Chelsea's struggles, that remy decision annoys me. It was a clear penalty and all that does is benefit cheats by convincing players that they won't get decision if they try to stay on their feet.

Don't agree that he's an excellent keeper. he's a decent keeper but weighing up the overall balance of his strengths and weaknesses area wise, I'd prefer Forster.

Not surprised. Steklenberg strength is his kicking. Look forward to having Fraser back though.

JWP chance has got to be to eventually nab davis' spot in the team. Don't see him covering for Vic this weekend as Romeu is the defensive mid cover. For right now he's just got to be patient and try and make an impact when he's brought on.

Played ok both first halves against Liverpool and Bournemouth. Then played awfully in 2nd halves. Hoping its a fitness issue.

Jekyll and hyde performance. Worrying that we go can go from that good to that bad between halves. A better team would have made us pay. Clasie was exceptionally poor 2nd half, couldn't believe he lasted to 70 minutes. Hope his fitness improves quickly. Hope Fonte was just taken off as a pre-caution.

Targetted loan agreements with clubs who's approach matches ours are good. Think Stephens & Turnbull at Swindon last season. However the problem is that we've entered a period where the opportunity to break into the first team is heavily damaged/broken despite the PR that suggests the opposite. In general the abuse of the loan system by the big premier league clubs negatively affects players development. Unless we provide first team chances for these players when they do well in the youth system or on these loans they aren't going to come through. This season we've got our loans badly wrong. Gallagher's seemed good on paper but MK Dons lost patience and now he's getting little to no football. Stephens is at Middlesborough not playing, whilst we have forked out what is probably a large fee to loan Caulker to sit on our bench as 4th choice centre back. That's surely a position should have been up for considering he's had 2 highly successful loan spells in league 1, especially since he has the versatility to play in a number of roles. I wouldn't have issue with Reed getting a loan deal somewhere as long as if he does well he isn't cast in the role of perennial loanee. He did very well in his handful of premiership games last season and the refusal to use him early this season(barring extenuating circumstances) was bizarre.

Is Mcqueen injured again? Noticed he wasn't involved at all.

Stek Martina Fonte Van Dijk Targett Romeu Clasie JWP Gaston Tadic Pelle

1st half thought we were good. Van dijkstra had a good chance. 2nd half was very frustrating as we seemed poor with little ambition till after they scored. Got out of jail with mane goal. Sending off unfortunate but having mane rested for next league game might be handy. Gaston was excellent when he came on, hopefully he gets start against villa. Juanmi continues to look off the pace of the premiership.

Why aren't they reviewing Stephens loan at Middlesborough? He's barely played a minute.

My brain has for some reason blocked out that Jason Euell ever played for us.

Crazy to my mind but Hodgson does appear to be pandering to the big clubs & will force Ryan to play 2 games in a handful of days so soon after his return to fitness rather than play Gibbs.

Thank you Chelsea for breaking Davis' duck and giving him his confidence back in front of goal. Hopefully the floodgates will truly open now.

Yeah he seems the standard of a younger Davis to me. As a cheap short term fix i can accept that but as you say we could do with Forster back sooner rather than later.

I can see the logic behind that short term cover approach. That logic does seem to hinge on a high opinion of Gazzaniga developing into a real 2nd choice though. Personally i prefer palace's approach where they signed a good young english keeper in Mccarthy to compete with Hennessy and the experienced Speroni.

Personally hope we steer clear of Austin. If we looking for like for like competition for pelle on the cheap I'd suggest lafferty on loan from Norwich. Obviously if soares carries on struggling right back might be a priority. Redmond is certainly someone I'd like to see at saints. Disappointed all the previous linkage to him when they were in the championship came to nothing. Would cost a fortune in January though. Best wait till the summer when hopefully they will have been relegated.

Strange game, didn't really feel Swansea turned up till late. Didn't understand their ht changes either. Soares was much improved. It was great to see Bertrand back. Davis. & wanyama worked well together.thought steklenberg was worrying in net at times, Romeu was poor when he came on after being good midweek. Overall a very good 3 points. Now got to push on &I get something from Chelsea.

I'd be Surprised if Cedric played against Swansea, considering he was very ropey against a weak MK Dons. Expect it'll probably be Yoshida.

A very satisfactory game to have gone to. Stek: One dodgy moment coming for the ball Cedric: Very poor. Little going forward & looked suspect against very weak opposition. On this evidence you can see why we're playing a makeshift right back instead. Worrying that we've brought in 2 right backs and look like we'll need to buy another one come January to address the obvious weakness in the team. Targett: Decent display by him. Still needs to work on his delivery. Fonte: Grew in confidence as the game went on. Van Dijk: Excellent on ball, excellent reading of the game. Only time he looked troubled was via one route one ball. Romeu: Another one who as the game went on grew in confidence. Nice to see after a very mediocre display against united. Davis: Very good display by davis with the obvious exception of his shooting. Juanmi: Poor display. Explains why he hasn't had a sniff of premiership football so far. Jrod; Absolutely delightful first goal. Mane: Class above everyone else on the pitch. It was criminal he was even playing to be honest. Long: Typical industrious long display, kept working till he got his goals. Subs: Bertrand: Looked good, hopefully back in starting xi at the weekend. Gaston: Great to see him back, some sublime balls through. Would be great if we could keep him fit and get him involved. Yoshida: Tidy but with little to do.