ohmelads

It's remarkable how much faith some people here have in the FA's principles and competence. This is the same FA that handed the England job to Sam Allardyce. Have to wait and see what their report says, but I doubt it'll answer the important questions. Hopefully he can come back fresh after a mid-season rest.

Hope we keep him. Yes his lack of pace limits his potential, and his finishing has been suspect, but he also shows real potential in other areas of his game. I'm actually surprised he hasn't kicked up a fuss, because he's barely had a start this season and has performed whenever he's had the chance. He's been unlucky. If he's willing to accept a bit-part role next season, I'd definitely keep him and I have a feeling we could regret it if we let him go. You get the feeling though that Rafa doesn't fancy him, or doesn't feel he fits his system.

There's no way either could be deemed a frivolous appeal when nobody is defending the referee's decision in either case. Then again, this is the FA, so logic goes out of the window.

Shelvey's absence will surely force a tactical reshuffle, especially as he seems integral to our current system and there's no like for like replacement. The only way we could stick with the system would be to play Hayden or Perez in the Shelvey role. Perez seemed to play there after Shelvey got sent off, and we dominated and scored despite being a man down. There is a clear risk though that Perez is too lightweight for the position. Hayden is the other option - he can play a bit, but we would lose a lot in creativity. The obvious alternative to those two options is a tactical reshuffle and bring in Mitro alongside Gayle. If Hayden and Colback are in centre mid, with Gouffran and Ritchie working hard on the flanks, I think it'd be solid enough. It'll be interesting to see what Rafa does.

Lansbury getting banned doesn't do us any good per se, but it's more about sticking up for ourselves. Refs used to fear Ferguson because of that - this would never have happened to them because they knew he'd stir up a sh*t storm. We should appeal the Dummett decision and call on the FA to punish Lansbury. We have a very strong case in both incidents, and if nothing else it sends out the message that we won't stand for it. Given we've got Lazaar and possibly Haidara though, the club may decide to just leave it. The logic may be that the more often you appeal, the less seriously it's taken. In my view though, that was one of the worst ref performance I've ever seen - in fact it would take some doing to beat it - and we need to stand up for ourselves here and send out a message.

He's been poor and his mistake cost us dearly, but pinning the whole defeat on him isn't fair. The defending for the equaliser was atrocious, while Gayle had an unusual shocker up front. It's too early to give up on Sels, he's new to the country and young, but with Elliott returning to fitness, we should be looking to get him out on loan. Let him learn and make these mistakes at another club, and see how he gets on. No need for Darlow, Elliott and Sels.

The better side lost but we never gambled. We had the beating of them in midfield but didn't commit bodies forward. People are blaming Sels but Hull were absolutely awful and the game should never have gone to extra time.

Think he deserves his chance. Been unlucky with Gayle's form. In form for club and country and knows he must perform to keep Gayle out, he'll be fired up as he was on Tuesday.

Reckon this will be the team, based on who was rested the other night. Think it'll be a tight game, they'll be more cautious and try to nick it, and we'll probably do the same. With Brighton playing Norwich and one or both dropping points, a win here would be huge.

Scarcely deserve to be ahead to be honest. Great goal though

The failure to sign a proven striker was strange considering it was a major reason why we went down.

He's a much better option than Colback, if we can get him match fit and focused. One injury to Hayden and Colback will be a regular in the side. Hope Tiote stays.

If you wanna win the league these are the games you need to win, against title rivals at home. There will be teams up and around the top who are not necessarily better than us but are flat track bullies and perhaps more consistent. To eventually pull away we need to win the 6 pointers, because these teams aren't going to drop many points elsewhere.

I'm more concerned when performances are sh*te to be honest. It feels like a defeat but it was a good performance overall and we could - and should - have won comfortably away. If one of those chances had gone in, I felt Villa might have caved. The Yedlin injury was an unfortunate and we lost all shape as we had to pull Hayden out of position and threw on Tiote who hasn't played in months. People are talking about Mitrovic but the substitution made sense as Villa made it clear they were gonna launch high balls into the box and their set pieces were a threat. If anything is costing us, it's the lack of a proven striker. It's also one of the key reasons why we went down in the first place. So far we're getting goals from elsewhere, but it's something we need to sort out in January. Hopefully Armstrong can be the answer because I don't trust the club to address the striker situation otherwise. We should have buried these in the first half.

We really need him to be a success. Alternatives are basically Gouffran or a full back. Gouffran will do OK against sides like Brighton who have a go, but in most games we need someone who can beat his man.

Diame was never an answer to our width problem. We've needed two wingers particularly since Aarons got injured, but Benitez didn't know if he'd have to bring Sissoko back into the fold and couldn't act until he was gone. It's been clear to see we are much stronger on the right than the left. Hopefully Atsu will change that. Otherwise Gouffran looks the only alternative.

I'm all for ashley bashing with the many things he has done to us and the club. He has a long way to go to prove he will do what's best for this club and earn any type of long term respect. However, i am not sure why or how this is an ashley stunt or what he has to do with this transfer? We haven't sold our best player against the managers wishes, it's not a shock. Benitez has pretty much said all summer if the price is right we will sell. Unless you know otherwise ashley isn't involved in the day to day running of the club. I don't care which owner we could have this transfer was going to happen. The fact we got so much for Sissoko is great, so should we give ashley credit for that as well while we gaze into the crystal ball show ashley stealing into the night at some point in the future 30m in hand, refusing to let benitez spend any money ever again. There is good reason to be sceptical about us spending that money over the next two windows, although we have spent an incredible amount of the past two years to say otherwise with managers with far less respect by the fans and at boardroom level. I just feel there is a thin line between scepticism and scare mongering. By Ashley I basically meant the board or whoever is calling the shots. I figured most would get that, it's not a personal witch hunt. Rafa made it clear he didn't want a deadline day sale. The reasons for that are obvious because if he signs two quality wide players and Sissoko stays, he has a problem, so he had to wait until the Sissoko situation was resolved. I expect he'll be disappointed with the result because he said he didn't want this to happen. In the end we signed Atsu on loan and Sissoko went. I know nowt about Atsu to be honest, I hope he can offer the sort of quality Ritchie has on the right because we needed a first team quality signing. Either way, we could have done with another attacking player and it always looked like we were waiting to sort out Sissoko first. Don't get me wrong, it's a very decent window overall. The defence looks sorted but my one concern is our depth of creative players, which could be exposed by an injury to Ritchie or Diame. There are a lot of games in the Championship. We need Atsu to be a hit - if he is and we can avoid injuries to our creative players, we have enough depth elsewhere.

Mixed feelings. A massive fee for a decent (at best) player, but there's no saying where the money will go. As many of us feared (Rafa included), Ashley's pulled his classic deadline day stunt. I know Sissoko hasn't played this season and we're in decent form, so some will say it's all OK. It might be if players stay fit, but I still think we could do with better cover in terms of creative players to minimise our risk. One injury to Ritchie and/or Gayle/Diame could leave us looking flat like we did against Huddersfield and Fulham. Let's just hope Atsu, Ritchie, Gouffran (and Aarons whenever he returns) can see us through to January. As for Sissoko, I'm not sure he'll fit Spurs. He looks better bursting from deep into space, because it masks his poor ball control and awareness and few players can match him for his pace and power. France play counter so this suited him, and we were able to counter Spurs in that 5-1 win (he also did well against Norwich when we countered quickly), but Spurs press high up the pitch and it's often their full backs who bomb on. It looks a panic signing but they've sold Chadli and he's better than Son, so he may be a weapon off the bench if he can't hold down a first team place. Perhaps they simply feel he could be a big game player for them.

Clear question marks over his injury record and his willingness to stay, but he's easily better than Colback and was a key part of our unbeaten 6 game run at the end of last season. He's better than Anita in the DM role as well. Hayden looks good but if he's injured you're left with Colback or Anita. Colback gives away loads of free kicks every single game and that gives any team who plays us a chance, even the worst sides can be a danger from set pieces. Anita isn't built for that role either and you can see him getting bullied in midfield in this league. I'd be happy to see Tiote stay because if he goes, I don't see us signing another CM before the deadline. I don't understand why people are desperate to see him go.

I'm not convinced he's a better player than Wijnaldum and we happily took 25M for him. Both the club and Sissoko's agents tried to use the Euro hype to engineer a major sale to some unsuspecting buyer but no one has fallen for it. The 35M pricetag from the club and the namedropping of world class teams by his agent was all a high-balling tactic and I've thought all along we'll happily take similar money to what we got for Gini. The problem is I don't think anyone is convinced enough by Sissoko and his antics haven't helped. I think Gini is a better footballer but Sissoko is a better athlete. Long term I think Wijnaldum will have a more successful career and I think that's why he had firm interest much sooner. The thing with Sissoko is a lot of teams will be wondering what his best position is and where he will fit in. It could be that a team with money to burn like Spurs sign him as a luxury player who can cover several positions and be a weapon off the bench. There'll be a lot of movement tomorrow as clubs see their better players poached from under their noses and need a replacement with little time to think it over. I'll be disappointed if we lose him and fail to sign genuine quality because for all our depth in defence and attack, I still think that if Diame, Ritchie or Shelvey are crocked, we will struggle to open teams up (Diame will probably be off to the AFCON as well).

According to his stats, last time he was in the Championship (14/15 season) he only started 19 games plus 4 sub appearances. He managed 5 goals, which is a decent return. Does anyone know why he played only half of their games? Was he injured, suspended, or just dropped? Bit worrying that he has played little professional football in his career and that West Brom are so willing to get rid. Surely you'd rather go for someone who is either in-form, is on the way up, or has been there and done it.

Agree. These are the sorts of games we need to win at home against our rivals. They'd take a point now, as would we at their place. Mitro and Gayle are a massive miss, but if we can control the midfield then chances will come.

I agree. What I mean is, we're desperately short on the wings and may need people to fill in. This lad improves the LB position and could possibly move up to the wing if needs must. Going off his highlights he loves to get forward and take people on, even in his own half.

Looks like he could do a job on the left wing. Given our blatant lack of wingers and the fact we have two LBs who don't look like going anywhere, this signing could make plenty of sense. Has he ever played left wing before?

If Tiote goes we'll need another CM. I hope we keep him.