zakhov

Always a whirlwind of emotions with Costa. Emotion 1 (Frustration): Wtf, stop drifting out wide and stop overdribbling Diego! Emotion 2 (Worried): Shit, the ref's gonna send him off! Emotion 3 (Relief) : The ref let him off the hook! phew.. Emotion 4 (Amusement) : Hammers support reaction to above. Emotion 5 (Elated) : And he scores the winner! Insert Conte GIF here Don't ever change Diego.

Seems like the board has learned nothing from last season. Wait too long and the quality players on the market will go to other teams, and we'll end up with Papy type of signings.

ESPNFC's transfer talk columns are as credible as The Mirror and Goal.com

And more importantly a better replacement.

Grateful for his years of service, but his decline is obvious and glaring. I trust Conte enough to see even in pre-season that Ivanovic cannot play RB unless every outfield player is out injured. Heck I would even put Diego or Oscar there ahead of him in RB. He should only be an option at CB if we don't have better players there.

Yea, after so many name changes the novelty has worn off.

That's the only thing that bothers me in this whole situation. Ivanovic who is in the midst of his worse ever performing season, had his contract quickly renewed while the club are still assessing John's contract? This could be Lampard V2 all over again, although I don't see JT continuing in England he still could end up at a European club.

What the heck was Vorm's problem in the end? He looked like he was about to burst into tears.

How dare you forget one of our top talents?

Like Nike says, just do it.

He used to have a man-crush with Hazard, and constantly mentioned Azpi as "the best one-on-one defender in the league" last season. Few weeks ago he was swooning over Imbula in the Stoke game, not sure who's his flavour now. But he must be the most mundane commentator ever. If he spots anything obvious he wont' hesitate to pounce on it! I miss Tyler and Gray. At least the latter had personality and uniqueness to his commentary.

Mikel at CB and we improved immensely in defense!

These are what Carlo likes to refer to as "bad moment". But I agree with Kennedy at LB being his most effective position with us. Having Ake back and Baba as well will mean Azpi will and must play only RB unless emergency situations. Kennedy should be a utility player, he's young and he'll have time to develop to play further up the pitch. Him and Pedro do offer better width than Wilian or Oscar(who cut in too often when playing LM or RM). Ivanovic should never be a fullback ever again at his age, he's a much better player at CB these days.

The best part about the free-kick is Noble's reaction.

It's almost as if Matic lost his mojo (ala Austin Powers) somewhere and Kante picked it up.

For all the attempts to become FFP compliant, it's laughable how the other supposed rich teams like City and PSG didn't particularly give a toss and it never affected them in the end.

Well I thought he could've booked Barry a bit earlier for the challenges he made(some were cynical and intended). I'm not saying its a bad performance just thought he let the crowd get to him. There one instance where Wilian or Cesc was fouled clearly and he let play on which resulted in an Everton attack, then booked Mikel for a similar foul. I'm not blaming the ref for the defeat though, it's clear we lost the game because we were bad from start to finish(formations, defense and attack). I'm just a bit annoyed that we lose Costa for the next game. The were a few fouls that were committed on him that were bookable but the ref set the flow and Everton kept it at him.

We deserved to lose because the defense was shit. Ivanovic annoys the heck out of me when he commits a mistake that leads to the goal and then proceeds to react or shout at teammates. FFS, not Captain material at all. Our attack was non-existent because Guus for some reason thought Matic and Mikel could both cut it in midfield. Michael Oliver being such a young and naive(to quote Wenger) ref was always going to let the crowd get to him. English players can get away with being thugs(Barnes, Gerrard, Barry) but with the non-Brits, its condemnation till the cows come home.

Tony Gale was yapping on and on about him. The lad was terrific but our midfield was piss poor which made him look world class at the same time.

Wilian was the trigger for the Stoke goal. Lost the ball in transition and a dangerous area, Tibo should've done better to push the ball further away though. Disappointing.

Cahill and Ivanovic have already been proven as a decent partnership under Rafa. They're no JT/Gallas or JT/Carvalho but they're probably a better partnership than most other top teams in the league apart from Morgan/Huth.

I was absolutely fuming after he made that mistake. But expectedly mellowed down after Iva scored in the winner. Everyone does make mistakes, spot on. But if we didn't win or get a draw, I wonder if I would be feeling the same.

Emirates cup draws are rigged for Arsenal.

Why does he field such a cautious side from the get go? Why do we need two DMs when we're in desperate need of 3 points. Feels like he's more concerned keeping the team unbeaten than going for the points.

A bit of sour grapes in that statement. Joe Cole has struck me as not being the brightest fish in the pond but he did went on to have a great career (albeit underachieved for his potential).