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No idea how he can put Stephens in the team of the week, he was entirely at fault for their first goal. But of course, Crooks only watches match of the day and chooses defenders based on whether or not they scored a goal. Also he can f.uck right off after what he writes about Lemina.

Not feeling at all confident, and I'm not sure anybody who's seen many of our matches this season would be either. Play well first half, go 1-0 or 2-0 up, then play defensively for half a game for no good reason. Brighton must have one of the worst strike forces in the league (apart from maybe ours!) and yet even they will score if/when we keep inviting pressure.

Biggest difference for me is that he's now regularly getting into goal-scoring positions when we're attacking, always in and around the box. Good player and deserves a place in the starting XI (though realistically, who's the alternative on the right? Redmond?).

Forster in for me, see how he's taken the dropping. Hope he plays well and flog him to 'Pool for £50m? Rest our most important players, I'd rather lose with no casualties than win with Bertrand/Cedric getting injured or Romeu getting another yellow. It will be interesting to see how strong a side Watford play, I'd imagine their best team given it's Gracia's first game. Hope the fans are in good booing voice for the volleyball player.

Get in Shane!!

Hope Bertrand decides to put some effort in tonight, he's more than a match for any of their attackers when he's on song. Hopefully he'll want to fight for his England place.

Lose this and Pellegrino will go. But I think we'll win 2-1 - Bertrand and Tadic. Townsend will, of course, score a Townsend Goal because we seemingly have no concept of closing down players well known for 25-yarders when they're just outside the box.

Lol, Tadic trying to fool a defender into thinking he's going to go on his right foot...

Just tuned in to a stream after listening to 5 Live w*nk over United for most of the first half. How are McCarthy and Boufal doing?

3-4-3, interesting. Good to see VvD dropped and hope Gabbi takes his chance. Chelsea playing without a striker which should give us hope? Still, 3-0 to Chelsea. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I'm also in the "like him but could be better" camp. There was a period last season when he was starting consistently then got injured and we really missed him on the right of midfield. He's still got a lot to work on and could do with taking a few more risks but I feel that he's got a lot of the right tools that a coach can work with. One thing I have noticed recently is that when we're attacking he's been getting himself into more advanced positions - he was behind Austin for one (maybe both, can't remember) of his Everton goals ready to pounce.

Can we recall him in January or is he stuck there for the full season?

Do we know who the ref is yet? Arsenal's last minute dodgy game-winning penalty may depend on it being Bobby M...

Cedric's injury was to his arm right? Maybe he'll do a Vardy and play with a wrist cast (and bang in goals in 11 consecutive games?). Otherwise it would be good to see Yann Valery, he's been touted as The Next Big Thing for a while now.

Very proud of the team, against the best team in Europe and we held our own and had some good chances to score. Felt like watching the Saints of a couple of seasons ago. Only negative as many have said was Redmond looking uninterested. Where most players would be galvanised by a few games on the bench and want to prove to their manager that they deserve a spot, Nathan seems the opposite. Also I feel like we're maybe giving Forster too much credit - made some decent stops but palmed way too many back into the danger area when he could have caught or put out for a corner. Still, pleasantly surprised that he didn't let any bad goals in. Apart from that, the rest of the team was excellent; Long put in a great shift and should have stayed on, the midfield was calm and composed, didn't lose the ball much and was still looking to pass forward like we saw against Everton. Not sure what's happened with Bertrand, looks like he's had a massive change of attitude in the last couple of games - maybe Rose being back for Spurs has made him want to try harder? Cedric was outstanding though, I thought our best player. A great outlet going forward and handled Jesus/Sterling very well defensively which I was surprised by. I'd rather have him than Walker. Good effort, let's smash Bournemouth. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Redmond or Boufal have to play on the right, Delph is their weakest link. Though I'm pretty sure we could score 5 goals and lose against City as we have Forster in goal! Guarantee we will concede a goal from Coutinho/De Bruyne/Sigurdsson range because we forgot to close somebody down on the edge of the box, and Big Fraser Forster will do his statue impression. De Bruyne or Fernandinho.

After the CB fiasco last year where VvD got injured and Fonte buggered off, we'd be mental to sell a defender in January and land ourselves in the same situation.

Looked good yesterday, you have to think that having the whole new job + new country + new house + heavily pregnant wife may have affected his last year or so. I think with PEH, Romeu and Lemina we have a very good midfield that can be mixed and matched based on the opposition.

Three players in the whoscored.com team of the week - Bertrand, Tadic and Austin (player of the week!).

Comparing the team sheets is hilarious... our front 5: Livermore, Dier, Loftus-Cheek, Vardy, Rashford. Their front 5: Paulinho, Casemiro, Gabriel Jesus, Coutinho, Neymar... could be a cricket score with Hart in goal!

Who's the alternative though? We've been dire but not sure who we could realistically get in. Koeman? [emoji23] Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

0-2, a Forster error and a Forster 'could have done better'.

We're going to get boned by Burnley and this place will go into meltdown. 0-2.

Can't remember the last time we scored early in a game. Great dive, free kick and header. Just need one more now to cover the inevitable Forster mistake!

Any chance we'll see Hoj in place of Lemina? He had a very good game for the under 23s last week (okay it was only under 23s but still).