Tomo

But if he was the managers love child (or whatever go to phrase is being used this week) surely he wouldn't constantly get benched for these games, no? And it's not just United. He's started only 1 in 2 vs City, 3 in 5 vs Liverpool (and hauled off in one of said starts), 2 in 3 vs Arsenal, was also benched for the last two CL group games last year when qualification was at stake and not to mention hauled off at half time twice in quick succession after the restart.

He needs to be managed like Cesc was under Conte, it's utterly outrageous bordering unbearable that he always plays when fit. What's even more frustrating is that if we leave him out of games that don't suit him he'll be in better condition to impact games which do. He shouldn't sniff the starting in Russia or Burnley, bring him on late in both if we're winning to help us defend what we've got and then we'll get a fresh Kante vs Rennes.

So our five games against United since Mount became a full member of our squad he's only started in two. But he's an untouchable apparently.

I'm not convinced he'll be the answer at DM for a progressive based possession based side, whenever I saw him under Conte and Sarri he was much more convincing at CB, under the latter especially he looked all at sea playing that role with the on the ball demands.

I think the slow start to his career (which included a lengthy lay off due to his illness in Russia) is actually helping him now. I know he said (in his introduction press conference) that he had no interest in coming to the PL at this point but I can't help but imagine what might have been had we bagged him in 2012, would have probably been 2nd to JT in our all time list possibly even eclipsed him, not only that he'd have also given Luiz some much needed stability.

It would be a travesty if he joins the ridiculously short list of Roman era players who don't win one of the big two while here.

No love for James? Two sensational performances put in this week and his thread is untouched, lol! No doubt when he has a poor game next this thread will explode with more Lamptey love in!

I'll give Lampard the benefit of the doubt that this was a short term measure to get some confidence boosting clean sheets but holy hell, our attacking play yesterday and vs Sevilla was absolutely woeful, it's not in anyway sustainable so i really hope this isn't his natural approach now. I was defending a lot of our draws/loses last season because the underlying performance metrics pointed to sustainable progression, if we keep having XG rates of 0.4 and 0.2 we won't be scoring many goals and will turn into a genuine mid table side like Arsenal have done.

I said on the match thread that the next games will show how good these results were. Krasandor, Burnley and SHU there's no excuse for anything other than 9 points (unless we get denied by a keeper masterclass) and if we're still looking shaky attacking then questions will be asked and rightly so.

I fairness, we barely scored at OT even with Eden. That said, the next couple of weeks will tell us how good this result was, Krasandor, Burnley and SHU coming up, no excuse for anything less than 9 points.

I didn't think the first half was too bad but they was cowardly tactics in the second. Mendy and Silva deserve knighting after that.

It can work if we utilize the pace of Pulisic and Werner like what Liverpool did when they had Owen.

And the most hilarious thing of it all is they're probably the same people who refuse to show the slightest bit of patience to Mount, Tammy and even Reece all of whom are miles more proven at this level now let alone compared to Bamford circa 2015.

Lol the rewritting of history because he's having a purple patch 5 year's on is hilarious. He scored 1 goal in his first 32 PL games and that came on (i think) game 30.

Looks like we've found this year's Pukki/Zaki On another note, Bielsa teams are ridiculous at this stage of seasons, thankfully one of our games vs them come near the end (when they're known to burn out a bit).

Not with extra time but when it goes to penalty's the match is (rightly) classed as a draw. The shoot-out is a tie breaker.

As above

I actually started typing this after the first went it, they were obviously going to win this when Auba got subbed on (the fact they had to bring him on to save this one anyway is lol).

Calling it now, Arteta won't last the season!

Cech won't be put on the bench right now but If Mendy has another lay off and Frank deems him ready I honestly won't be surprised to see him in then (then on the bench from Mendy's return on). Like I said the other day Kepa has had far too many chances to avoid this situation so no sympathy with him while I would have a little bit more sympathy for Willy he is basically our present day Hilario, ala third choice standard.

Needs to be assessed on a case by case basis. Hazard may have been relatively ace from the get go but some players (who turn out great) take a bit more time. Lampard, CR7, Henry, Pires, De Gea to name an obvious few.

What I like the most is he hasn't let that mistake Vs West Brom get in his head, you'd be surprised how many players go into their shell for a while after a big mistake mainly to minimise the odds of something like that happening again. It can mentally effect even experienced players.

A point won't be the worst thing here even though we could do with a win. The two after that however fall into the must win category regardless of Sundays result.

If we're down to 1 senior keeper we'd be allowed to register a new one outside the window, we did with Hedman (2006) and also Amelia (2015). If that was allowed in normal times i can't for the life of me see why it wouldn't be now. Which makes me think Cech is genuinely being registered as a back up, if not now then next time Kepa/Willy fuck up.

Last time they won in Paris they followed it up with a tame defeat (against Arsenal). Lets hope similar happens again!