CHOULO19

Tbf, I'll never forgive Michael for not knocking him out... Surrounding is annoying but everyone does it. Waving imaginary cards on the other hand.....not pretty.

Completely agree with that. Especially annoying since the ref, if anything, got more 50-50 calls in our favor than in Palace's. Cesc and Oscar seem to do it the most.

Yes, I know. I didn't say we haven't. Just think it's very important to do so now.

For goodness sake, let's string two wins together.

He's done great, imo. I think this is the thing to do when the team is in a crisis: first steady the defense and solidify the midfield, then allow attacking players to express themselves. Obviously easier said than implemented but we seem on our way towards that.

I wonder if the posters who were blaming Matic's bad performances on Cesc will now say that Fabregas' bad performances were actually because of Matic since he had a different partner today in Mikel and was excellent. To clarify, I don't believe either of those statements to be true, but surely that logic has to go both ways?

Not only was that a good performance, but 3-0 away at Palace really is a great result, and it easily have been 4 or 5. Willian was brilliant in the second half, Costa had a good game, but for me Mikel was MOTM. Controlled the midfield brilliantly under a lot of pressure and managed to always play the right pass. We REALLY needed that performance and that scoreline for the confidence to start to flow again. So well done to the players and manager and hopefully we can take the momentum into the next few matches.

Yes, this @Jim. I have to reload the page everytime.

Come on you BLIUES!

Looks brilliant. Love the latest posts on the right of the main page. You've outdone yourself @Jim!

Oh absolutely. They obviously have similar pace, mental strength, ability and desire to get involved (especially when the team is down)...etc. They're basically footballing twins! What are you even talking about, mate?!

Really? I feel more sorry for us because Jose and his agent left us stuck with this guy instead of a third striker who can actually help when he clearly all along was never going to offer anything for us. And what's worse is that people actually tried to justify this loan at the start because "El Tigre"

Not really the points you originally made and I tried to refute, but anyway... Yes, Ramires(technical ability) and Mikel(dynamism) are deeply flawed and so are Matic(consistency) and Fabregas(physical abilities). For me, Fabregas should not be starting for any top team, while Matic is certainly good enough to start and Mikel and Ramires good enough to be backups, though you can definitely have better options than all three of them. I just don't think that that is a pressing priority considering all the other more critical deficiencies we have in team at the moment (including replacing Fabregas himself).

People call him a loyal servant not because he's stayed a long period, they call him loyal because throughout his time here he always did his best for the team and always acted professionally, helping when asked to and never complaining or acting in a selfish manner. And even when that term is used as one of the reasons to keep him, it's not meant that the club owes him anything, at least not to me; it is used in a sense that we know the level of professionalism and dedication we can expect from him. Also, Mikel and Ramires are NOT the reasons why Matic and Fabregas were never rested. They were rarely rested because because Jose Mourinho does not believe in rotation. In fact, Ramires and Mikel were still our most used squad players along with Zouma despite all the minutes that Matic and Fabregas still played.

Yes, but obviously Arsenal have spent many more millions. I honestly still think that City will end up winning it despite their awful away form.

Wait, when did this already turn into the plural? He's literally played two matches, we pretty much dominated the first but let in stupid goals and still should have won had it not been for our inability to finish, and the second was a terrible performance and undeserved draw. Generally speaking, you need more than two examples to deduce a pattern, especially when the two examples are so different.

If you look at this team and this season and think that the first player that we should get rid of is Mikel then that is quite clearly not a rational opinion but one based on personal bias. For me, he's an experienced player who's been a loyal servant to the club and who can come in at any time despite lack of minutes and provide adequate cover in central midfield and even CB as we saw a couple of seasons ago against Atletico. A good squad player and literally our least expensive player outside of the youth. That's not at all to say that he is irreplaceable or even very important. For me, if he decides to leave, then god bless, and I thank him and wish him all the best in the world, and if he wants to stay and help the team more, then all the merrier.

I really like this Leicester team. They're tactically good and very well assembled. But they're not actually going to win the league, are they? My prediction for them is that Maherez and Vardy will go on some sort of goal drought and score 5-6 goals collectively in the second half of the season which will see Leicester slump and finish just outside of the top 4.

Costa would have taken the a heavy touch, lost the ball to De Gea, then went down without contact appealing for a red card then randomly elbowed someone a minute later because he rightly did not get the call he wanted.

Yeah, I'd sell him, and if he wants to go to Arsenal all the better just to watch the hilarious back tracking of Arsenal fans after calling him a snake I think it's been clear, even from last season in the 'bigger' matches, that Cesc can't be here long term. A top team just can't afford to have him in the starting XI and I can't imagine he'd be happy to rot on the bench...

There's no way we deserved to win this last match at Old Traford. We were outplayed throughout. If you want to look at the Matic miss then you have to also look at the two times they hit the wood work and the Willian handball and the Thibaut save that was brilliant but also a bad miss from Herrera who should have placed it better and with more power.

Team stats, especially generic ones like goals scored/conceded or points won....etc. simply CANNOT be attributed or even directly correlated to the presence/absence of a single player or factor as there are endless variables that cannot be accounted for from one game to the next that affect the outcome. I swear, it should be mandatory that that statement be displayed as a warning/disclaimer on every single football stats site.

Which would explain why suicide rates are up...

Not sure what everyone is so upset about. Just looked at the table and this was our 20th point from 19 matches, which means, if we manage to maintain our form in the second half of the season, we are on track to finish with 40 points, the 'magic' number that usually means safety from relegation

Still, it's a bit of a stretch if you're saying that the club is forcing him out of matchday squads and making up fake injuries when Costa is unavailable because......they want revenge because he wanted to leave? Or are you saying he's refusing to play because they made him stay? Either, it seems very far fetched, tbh...