ErwinK1961

I thought Pelle would come out with mustard up his ar*e and a point to prove after the last couple of weeks, but he was pants. Maybe he's not fully fit still, but unfortunately for him we've seen what a dynamic front two looks like in the last few weeks and with Austin to come in, cannot see where he fits. Also enjoyed Long clapping the Austin substitution! Clattenburg ****e. Atmosphere superb after the red card. West Ham and in particular Mark Noble are nothing other than a bunch of C*ckwombles.

If true, fair play to Ed Rooney earlier on in the thread for calling it

Well this would be a welcome development...

Of course! How could I forget that fountain of knowledge!

Where has this £50k p/w / high wage that Shane Long is on come from? Apologies if I've missed something along the way

Andros Townsend to Newcastle for £12m allegedly

Are you Mike Riley??

Agreed with this, I'd like to see VVD right side more often but think he was only there to accommodate Bertrand on the left. Was nice to have a natural left and right footed "CB", distribution was a lot better

Chances of avoiding relegation have just increased 97.1%

I don't like this season, I'm going back to 14/15 for this one. Forster Clyne, Toby, Fonte, Bertrand Wanyama, Morgan Davis Tadic, Pelle, Mane 2-0 - Pelle x2 Toby M.O.M

Hope the team don't share your attitude.

Mental fragility. Players seem like they think it's inevitable. I'd also flip it around, does anyone ever think we'll get ourselves back into a game when we go behind? I don't see anyone grabbing a game by the scruff of the neck, no leadership. We're fantastic when comfortable, but when the going gets tough we melt.

Same team as Arsenal, with Cedric in for Martina if fit. Draw.

Surely you don't mean Harrison Reed, the saviour to all our problems?

I think a key difference to last year is the defence (and by that, I don't just mean the back 4/5, I mean defensively as a team). During our pre Xmas slump last year we hardly scored any goals, but we were pretty solid at the back. This year, we are nowhere near as solid, which I guess you won't be when you lose Morgan, Toby and Clyne and have Wanyama t*ssing it off.

Villa got to the final last year. Admittedly, they got trashed in the final, but they still got their.

Maybe we should sell him in January too? A Long / JWP double deal?

Biggest gripe is that he always seems to be on his heels and arrives to things just too late, whether that be tackles, shots, interceptions. When you have 0% pace, you need to be on your toes and anticipate things. He also looks very short on confidence, which isn't surprising given how much 'support' he gets.

Maybe he was there to discuss a deal for Juan Quintero....

Ok.

From the fact Pelle was fouled, in the box, directly in front of the referee. Not giving the penalty was a mistake. I know you're heading up the 'back the ref' campaign on here, and of course it's a difficult job, but it is ok sometimes to admit that a ref has made an error.

Surely the nature of the beast with 'creative' players is they are inconsistent. If they were consistent, then they would be playing for the best teams and way out of our price range. Arguably even our most dangerous player (Mane) is seriously inconsistent and he's being touted around for close to £40m. Really not sure what your fixation is with Tadic, though I agree we need more creativity in the team in general. What we could do with is a creative number 10 that isn't totally useless defensively (to step in instead of S Davis), but again I would suggest these types of players aren't easily available.

Not giving us a stonewall penalty.