afar

Every cross that came in this after, had me in fits of nerves personally, maybe that's just me. At this level he needs to be saving some of these long distance shots that have gone in, the Stoke one and the one today, are ones you would expect a PL keeper to save.

Funny how we've got the three glaring holes at GK, number 10 and Striker, yet the rest of the team is pulling us through. The rest of the team is very good tbh, we've a lot of quality in those other positions.

I thought outside the goal, he was the same as he's been all season, the weak link. Like I said though, his goal was excellent play and if he can do that every game, willing to live with the rest of his mediocre play.

He did have a really solid game today outside of the brain fart but I would be shocked if Clark wasn't back versus Palace.

Those are prime example of taking the chance. Lets face it without the rigidity we have under Rafa's structure, we are in a pretty good place to take a chance on him, he's going to get a chance to shine but not be expected to keep us in games.

Fair point, but I'm not being negative about us here, I think we are doing great right now, my comment is based more on how well Palace played against Chelsea and how last season we struggled in these types of games. Like I said not trying to be negative about us more of a warning that Palace are better than their placing would appear.

Absolutely, geez this place, we should be targeting a win of course, just don't think a draw is really a bad result here. That's all, as usual, nothing to see here, but the drama ensues.

I disagree, would have been better for us if they had kept up their pathetic return this weekend. They would have been more on edge and anxious as the minutes without a goal and a point continued. I watched most of their game against Chelsea and they were very good, Zaha and Townsend were extremely dangerous, better than anything I've seen from Southampton today. Not looking forward to this at all, Hodgson seems to be getting his message over and he's good with this size of club, we struggled last season against the weaker sides in the champ, feels like that kind of game to me when most people will expect us to win. Would take a draw right now, just keep ahead of where we need to be. Didn't you say we can just write off like 14 games this season because we're playing against better teams? And now you're saying you'd take a draw playing at home against the team bottom of the table? Howay man Still would we are ahead of schedule right now, a draw keeps us that way, obviously would be much happier with a win, but Palace are really a kin to Stoke, they are a middle to lower end team (on paper at least) who are on the back of a very good win. They are not the worst team in the division, even though they are bottom. We have dropped too many points though against the bad teams, so maybe it is a must win game, don't think so right now and a draw wouldn't be the worst result in the world.

I disagree, would have been better for us if they had kept up their pathetic return this weekend. They would have been more on edge and anxious as the minutes without a goal and a point continued. I watched most of their game against Chelsea and they were very good, Zaha and Townsend were extremely dangerous, better than anything I've seen from Southampton today. Not looking forward to this at all, Hodgson seems to be getting his message over and he's good with this size of club, we struggled last season against the weaker sides in the champ, feels like that kind of game to me when most people will expect us to win. Would take a draw right now, just keep ahead of where we need to be.

A lot of people say this, but it's hard to find an example of that happening to another promising keeper, can you give me one ?

I honestly would roll with Woodman at this point, Darlow's really not much better than Blobby and we need to see what we have in him before someone comes in a steals him away. Really couldn't be much worse than Blobby, even at such a young age for a GK.

What, really? I've thought Atsu is an automatic starter and rightly so, he has his moments but mostly he has been one of the most improved players for me this year. He's capable of so much better, his final ball and decision making has be terrible on the whole this season. Having said that he is an automatic starter because he works hard up and down, does what Rafa wants him to do and has been put under zero pressure from Murphy, with Aarons seemingly out of the picture.

Not willing to give up on him just yet, he's really on had bits of games, outside of the start against Swansea, which admittedly was poor. Think he needs to learn what Rafa requires of his wide men first before he gains his trust. Been a little disappointed in Atsu, so far, that position is up for grabs if Murphy can step it up, but right now he's a long way off Atsu.

Yeah, he seemed to favour us a bit, which was a nice change, Yedlin really should have gone.

Blobby frightened the pants off me everytime they got the ball in an attacking area, it's closing in on our number one priority now for an upgrade in January.

Question marks now on who is his first choice CB pairing, before the pen I don't think Clark would get off the bench much for the remainder of the season however Rafa doesn't suffer fools, we've seen that, might be back to Clark and Lascelles next week now.

Would have taken a point at the start, but really stupid decision by Lejuene cost us big time.

23 mins into this game, not sure if Joselu has touched the ball yet ?

It was Lascelles like, excellent

21% possession today, could you imagine when we play Man City, we could be in single digits

Add that to their record last season and it's 7 wins and 32 defeats in 14 months that's horrendous.

It is when you spend 50 million, marra

The relegation zone?.... oh wait. That's the scary part, he's litterally their only hope.

Not looking likely at all, Palace been easily the better team from the parts of the game I've seen. Zaha just gone off which will hurt them a little, since he's been outstanding. Wow Paddy Van just missed a sitter. Chelsea have been terrible. Thougt they took Zaha off, guess not, he's running the show, we are going to have to keep him and Townsend quiet, if we want to get anything out of that game.

How does Fabregas miss that, goes out for a throw in.