DuncanRG

Can I just say that Chelsea weren't clinical today - if they were it would have been four, maybe five, and they definitely should have scored from the Moses rebound. We didn't get the chance to prove whether we were clinical or not as Austin's header was our only good chance. Ho-hum. We don't usually let Chelsea defeats get us down so let's hope we're back at it on Thursday. Fair way of putting it, though we played into their hands with the early mistake.

Puel: We've done okay lately but we're still a bit **** Redmond: Don't fancy our chances, to be honest Martina: We don't do throw-ins in Curacao

You're absolutely right.

More than clinical - they're just better and almost always outsmart us. If we'd taken our chances ruthlessly we'd still be losing 2-1.

Definitely. Don't know who's going to play instead, will Rodriguez or Long be back? Olomola?!

Interesting Puel would rather rest Bertrand than Austin.

So surprised to get a break there we didn't really know what to do with it.

Nothing to panic about, it's our annual home defeat to Chelsea. But who knows, keep our heads and plug away and we might create something.

?! Not true at all

Clasie is well off it today.

Romeu is meeting his match in Kante.

Chelsea happy to sit and counter. Long as we don't have another moment like that from Davis, we'll get into this no problem.

Cut out the December/January slump and we could be in real business.

Because of the passage of time only Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain could come back without potential psychological impact on the squad, or at least the fans. Ignoring that, Bale would obviously be top of the list followed by Mane, Alderweireld, Shaw and Wanyama, in that order.

I'd go along with this. There isn't much in it, though.

For a guy with less than perfect English I'm impressed he can drop an idiom like "last of the mohicans" into a quote. Anyone who thinks he's boring needs to read this, by the way. Becomes clear that he's intentionally dull in post-match interviews (like most managers and almost every player) but that doesn't reflect his true character.

I favour Martina because it does justice to the word 'unbelievable', which is so overused it's practically meaningless. We see goals like Boufal's every few weeks from talented forwards, but watching your reserve right back blam that in really was difficult to comprehend on the night.

Disagree - didn't look like scoring at all so have to be grateful for that goal. Sunderland were more dangerous. Stephens and Isgrove were both poor, Reed did well and Olomola had a decent second half without looking like a striker. Got to be closer to a first XI in the next round because this is a winnable competition, but all's well that ends well.

Assume Hesketh is injured. Looking forward to watching some of these! Sunderland are playing a surprisingly strong team though, guess they're looking for a morale boost. Defoe's the only regular starter out and he's on the bench

A glimmer of hope! Keep at it.

It won't apply to Van Dijk but international media profile is a consideration at the top end of the scale - see Pogba and Ibrahimovic.

In which case, let's get ahead of ourselves.

The man's had 9 games, let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Surely not in January, the price would be even more obscene

I'm really impressed by our depth and ability to compete in every game.