Ashley17

I think if he's banned we might see Gayle and Mitro together, at home at least. That fella from Sky was saying Rafa wanted to give it a go, with 2 holding midfielders he might.

Bearing in mind they couldn't overturn Anita's red card due to the lack of alternative angles, I have no idea how they will prove this

It was a strange game, in that an awful lot of time elapsed where literally nothing of note happened. We basically play when we need to. We weren't great today but we missed Ritchie a lot, I know that's a strange thing to say when his direct replacement scored but I'll come on to that. I guess the biggest miss was Gayle, as the lack of threat in behind meant Cardiff could squeeze us up quite a bit and Mitrovic was up against two giants. I don't recall Perez doing anything at all. The officiating was absolute bollocks as well, particularly the linesman who didn't seem to know the offside rule when Cardiff were attacking in the first half, and some pathetic refereeing which has become part and parcel of this division. Atsu was in and out of the game, whereas Ritchie is prominently involved in most of our attacks. Don't get me wrong, Atsu is a useful player but Ritchie is noticeably a class above, as he is compared with most players in the Championship. Shelvey was a bit quieter today but he and Hayden still controlled the game for the most part. Darlow didn't look as assured as he has in some games in dealing with corners but it didn't cost us, whilst Clark has been excellent since getting into the side. He's better on the ball than Lascelles and is doing a bit of an underrated job in there. Dummett also had a very good game, though he probably should have squared that chance he had. I'd be astonished if we didn't go up but it'll be a tough match at Leeds in a few weeks. They're in great form and there's going to be a full house, though it has to be said that doesn't seem to bother us and we'll find a way to get the job done.

On the last few days of the window they went mad and got Ryan Mason, David Marshall, Mbokani...probably others who are less noticeable. They also had a boat load of injuries which are starting to clear up, Dawson just came back...who is shite but obviously better than playing Jake Livermore at centre back.

Although they are a shit Premier League side they look like they should be akin to a pretty decent Championship side. Won't be easy but on current form we'd have to be favourites I think

It recently came to light that for almost all games since the 2001/02 season I can recall where I was and how I followed the game. So today in 2001 we beat Bolton 4-0, where Jaaskelainen got sent off and Bo Hansen went in goal. I listened to the game on Metro radio as was usually the case back then, and in the phone in after the show somebody rang up taking the piss and said Carl Cort was lovely, so Justin Lockwood cut them off. More pointless stories tomorrow.

Weird playing a team twice in 4 days. At least on Tuesday the Zenga boys are back in town

How can you complain about scoring from set pieces?? Literally been waiting for this for years Not complaining at all, just want more goals in open play in case we play teams who can actually defend set pieces

Every story ends the same. A friend of a friend used to know mag protagonist A (in this story Brendan Foster) and he is a cunt. I am shocked.

I like the clinical approach we have taken but it worries me how many of our goals are from set plays. Hardly any have come in open play. League goals so far: Pen rebound Freekick knockdown Pen Direct free kick Open play tap in Good counter attack goal Header from free kick Direct free kick Volley from corner Short corner goal

What's their obsession with Look North all about? Particularly Dawn. She seems to be a hate figure for some reason

Wow

If Aguero gets banned it might be wildcard time for a lot of people. Too much money to have sat dormant for 3 game weeks. Only problem is I hate using it the week after Internationals, there's usually fucking carnage in the team selections.

Murphy absolutely bullied Klose in the East Anglian derby last Sunday. I still don't want him particularly though

He kept us ticking over, don't think you could say he was rotten. Compared to Colback he was like Gerrard in his prime. Gouffran was pretty good, which pains me to say but we were shite until he came on, coincidentally or not.

Sels looks ropey as fuck on those highlights

Gayle hits the post

Have Haidara's legs fallen off completely now?

There's not many players who had great fixtures for week 1 and 2, usually one or the other. Don't panic if you've had a shit week

Fortunately our bank balance hasn't

Nice logic. We've lost two and are meant to be "clear" favourites. What's your point? They lost to fucking Luton 3 days ago.

Desperate for a left back who can get forward. Team is pretty easy to play against, I think when Mitrovic is back we'll better and I wouldn't be surprised if Gayle plays from the left. We're quite one paced though, nobody can carry the ball in the way Jonas did last time we were down. We were very complacent today, as shown on their winner but also numerous passages of play where there were simple miscontrols or careless passes. Ritchie helped a lot but all the play went through him, another winger is a desperate need. Perez was crap when he came on and Diame was off the pace. Shelvey's passing mixes from sublime to ridiculous, I'd probably stick with him but he tries the hollywood ball far too often, but that's partly down to a lack of movement around him. You've got to get behind Rafa, if this doesn't work out, where do we go from here? That doesn't make him immune from criticism, I don't know how Anita has played 180 minutes but we've bought into Rafa and he will get it right. At some point.

Home to somebody who is absolutely shite please. Will be Mitrovic's first game of the season so we'll probably get Milwall away. He'll start a riot and get sent off. Then start rioting.

He was in the bar at Aintree a few nights before we got done at Southampton

Bearing in mind at Liverpool he played 2 and put Gerrard out on the right for a season, I'm not confident he'll change his ways after 1 game.