The Skipper

Very strong line ups from both sides.

You need to get over the notion that Hazard is purely a goal scorer. He is first and foremost a creator - goals come second. Sounds like you purely use goals to measure a player and that is frankly retarded I think.

Maybe you need to stop comparing (or stop wanting him to be) Hazard to Bale. They're completely different types of players, why the hell would Hazard aspire to be like Bale when they're already pretty much on the same level? It's pathetic how you merely measure how good someone is by goals scored... Hazard isn't that sort of player. The best always have good stats to back themselves up? So Hazard's stats aren't any good at all? What are you smoking? Are you going to tell me Bale is better than legends like Zidane because he scores way more? Get over it.

Guys, totally forgot about the City match preview and don't have time to do it right now l, got training. Anyone willing to help out? So sorry.

As if Salah wouldn't impress at Stoke either...

I don't care about that tbh. I want my striker in the box scoring goals, don't want him to speculatively hit long range shots hoping one goes in. Most strikers take most of their shots in the penalty box anyway, nothing wrong with it.

I love Bale, but he's nowhere near as good technically or creative as Hazard is. Thing about Bale is is that he has that killer instinct, a great shooting technique and physique, but he isn't anything like Hazard at all. It's like comparing apples and oranges.And in case you missed it, Hazard has in both seasons here had over 20 goals/assists....

Hahaha. This is hilarious.

This is so cringe

That is also a fair assessment. Didn't watch Italian football much last year but from what I heard Buffon had one of his best years, so yeah, I guess the elite group of goalkeepers out there would include those that you've listed.

No, it's definitely not unanimous. To me Cech and Thibaut are on the same level. Neuer is ahead of both though. They do together make up the top 3 goalkeepers in the world however IMO.

I think any keeper would struggle to keep a clean sheet in our current system...

Absolute genius Zola was, what a player. His dribble against Liverpool where he puts Carragher flat on his arse about 10 times is just brilliant.

For me, Azpi - Iva - JT - Luis Matic - Ramires Cesc Willian - Costa - Hazard

Costa's PL shot accuracy (shots on target) is at 91% at the moment. Talk about clinical.

But we didn't park the bus against City last season so your "if this was last season" remark is completely off.

Tadic is really good, was by far the best player in the Eredivisie last year IMO... Southampton is a very nice club for him where he won't have the scrutiny of a top club but still has some sort of responsibility on his shoulder. It was a great signing by Southampton, he's as good as Lallana already so they haven't lost quality at all. Pretty evident to the good start they've had this season as well. As I said before, Southampton will definitely not struggle this year.

When Oscar came on he was pretty much playing out wide.

If that's it then burning Union flags, road blockages etc. is massively falsified. Doubt people would get intimidated by a bit of graffiti.

Doubt this is actually true. I would imagine there are police officers around you know...

We won there last season. Did the double over them in the PL. We lost there in the cup however.

Incredible how you 1. Think current Didier is better than Remy 2. Absolve Didier from any blame whatsoever, as if Didier never had some of the greatest chances of the game created for him. No point in discussing it with you is there really.

I'm not disputing your latter point, I'm just saying that saying that we parked the bus against City is completely wrong. Setting up to counter attack and being a bit more cautious doesn't automatically mean you're parking the bus...

You should watch the game again then. There's a massive difference between parking the bus (I.e. like we did against Atletico away last season) and setting up to counter attack. The 1-0 flattered City, we could've scored 2 more in that game had we been more clinical. It was one of our best performances last season.