Segun Oluwaniyi

Santon could play at any position on the pitch outside of striker and keeper and look fine, because he is a good footballer and a good athlete. I thought he looked fine today. The problem will still be a certain intelligence, aggression, and confidence lacking from his game. I don't know what has happened, but he has become very passive imo, and this trait has become more and more pervasive since his drop in form around the turn of the new year last season. He is around the age where he should becoming more and more sure of himself as a top level player, but is instead playing scared and in danger of losing his position. As with many of our players, I hate what has happened to him from his arrival until now.

In typical Pardew fashion, it was his first ever match in that position (that I know of as a professional) and he was being made to track the likes of Hazard, Willian, and Oscar. It was not exactly a League Cup match against Gillingham when you try new things.

Not that I disagree about, but NUFC have finished higher than 8th exactly twice since Sir Robson was sacked and five times since 1996. This would represent a decent season, if their was any hope to build on it.

Honestly, Chelsea are very impressive right now. I'm not unhappy with the result too much. They have a full squad now, strong XI, strong bench, strong philosophy. Without doubt favourites for the title, and a striker away from being fairly dominant. Hazard is turning into the player I thought he would become after leaving Lille. Strong/fast, intelligent passer/mover, incredibly skillful, and a good finisher. So, I am not necessarily in agreement with the vast negativity. If Newcastle approached the first half last Sunday, the way they did the first half here, things definitely go differently and they don't get embarrassed. The players selected today didn't fit the plan at all, imo. We were trying to sit back and absorb pressure, but the personnel was wrong. Sammy Ameobi and Ben Arfa just are not wide players that are going to provide very much from deep. Neither of them have any idea of how to defend, and neither has the lungs and physical attributes to make themselves a dangerous weapon when they receive the ball 15 yards into their own half. HBA was atrocious in our own half, but alright in Chelsea's. I thought he would score when Azpilicueta let him cut inside that one time. On form, he probably does. Sammy is very talented in terms of running at defenders with his languid style and skills, but not much else at this point. Hopefully, it comes because he is a prospect. Tiote and Cabaye's physicality was definitely missing in midfield as well. I understand that Anita played as a holding player in Holland and is comfortable there, but he is a different species compared to what Chelsea have in front of their defence with Matic, Mikel, Luiz, Lampard, and even Ramires, all physically strong and competitive players. He can't compete in the air, and is brushed aside too easily. Like most of Pardew's players, he is better when the team is on the front foot, which they rarely are under Pardew. So it goes. Santon in midfield was actually very interesting, and I was quite impressed when he had the ball at his feet. Composed, fairly intelligent, and I don't recall him losing it once. Easily our most progressive player in the centre, and played a perfect ball to Sissoko that should have resulted in an equaliser if the Frenchman had any guile about him. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to defend as a central player, and this was not an occasion to learn. Caught too many times following a man and vacating dangerous spaces, committed himself too much, and didn't recognise danger quick enough (especially for the goal, which stemmed from him committing too early on Hazard and then losing him). Still, he was decent, imo. I like De Jong. He's not at all physically explosive, which is a problem, but has enough about him to be dangerous. The first two matches have been the wrong ones for a new player. Look forward to seeing him in different ones. Back five was fine I suppose, except for Yanga's idiocy and Krul's slip. Nothing remarkable.

I don't think Ba is clearly any better than Bent or Yakubu in their primes (Johnson only did it once). Both of them were genuinely great goalscorers. I really don't think Ba's all around game is that much superior to those payers, either, especially with Yakubu's hold up play and work until he took up biscuit diet. I really don't think Ba is the striker Chelsea needed and I don't think his movement and workrate would be good enough for Wenger. Giroud is a better player.

I don't care what any says. The top placed team for the whole season to this point and theoretically one of the best attacking forces in Europe should not be limited to THAT because the other team is negative. Really disappointing from them.

Hazard has easily been the best attacking player on the pitch and he's off. Determined to make the game dull.

Arsenal haven't even had a shot at goal. They've been by far the worse team, tbh.

This is another match where you question for the thousandth time why Lukaku isn't at Chelsea. They've been very disciplined and shut out Arsenal pretty well, but Lampard and Mikel keep knocking these diagonals when they win it toward Torres like he going to do something.

Sheyi has a strange vocal tic with his shoulders. Maybe it is just his attempt to stop and breathe as words fly out of his mouth with uninterrupted rapidity.

Looking at this Premiership season, I think the bottom 5-6 teams are much weaker than usual, and the "upper midtable" sides (5-10 or so) are slightly stronger than usual. I believe the league will be more stratified than usual this season, and the teams at the bottom will all have very low sums. A vicious dog fight between poor, diseased dogs. Also, once Malkay goes, all of the bottom six teams will have replaced their manager, with the exception of West Ham. Sam's ridiculous wage may keep him employed, but you would think Hughton and Lambert are very vulnerable if they continue to languish just above the bottom group or fall into it.

No players played particularly poorly. A few were top class. Crystal Palace were not a challenge at all. They couldn't compete.

I honestly cannot imagine Palace putting enough pressure on us for this to happen. They seem inept.

Palace are horrendous. They have offered nothing other than a few periods of decent pressing and effort. They aren't even particularly physical.

He was booked, then kicked the ball at someone.

Really harsh, ffs. It is just a quick template for a superior kit.

Like Yorkie says, clean is good. It is not hard to make a good kit. I took ten minutes of my life and made a kit far better than the abomination the highly paid and highly educated workers at Addidas have done: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7372/11468046876_739ef937b5_o.png I know, it is fairly rubbish, but the general idea is quite simple. Have the right colours, the correct emblems, a few nationality identifying things and the job is done. How have Addidas and Nike actually gotten the colour wrong twice in our last three appearances?

Ghana has worn white and black as its main kit for much of its history. Look at them in the last two World Cups and when they were winning the ACN in the 70's/80's. Always wearing white. I like these Puma kits, fwiw (Cameroon is questionable, but I think it will look fine on the pitch). I would rather have a nice, clean kit with one or two African features, then a disgustingly ugly one.

No ore mental than Southampton, Newcastle, or West Brom doing the same in similar circumstances. He isn't wanted, so there's no reason for him to be around. Fwiw, the forty million or so pounds they have spent net in the past two season will have more to do with the rise of the club than Mackay. If he resigned, the man would still win compensation case. It was a serious error to put such a threat in savable electronic form.

Think about how much time these players had to move as well. The ball fell to Tiote, Santon feigned going wide, and dribbled to the middle of the pitch. It is just laziness because several seconds passed. This actually makes the pass worse though, as everyone he was chipping the ball to would have been offside. It is mixture of both things. It is inexcusable to have that many players simply out of the play, especially given the situation in the game, but it is a terrible decision and Santon loses the ball far too easily.

Ben Arfa cannot play in the centre unless he is given no defensive role whatsoever. The best parts of his game have always been cutting inside from out wide and dribbling at/past people.

I certainly don't think we can come to the conclusion that Haidara's a better defender yet, but one terrible game doesn't mean much either way at this point. My own view on these two is that Haidara looks promising (does show some very good promise defensively) but is as yet still an unknown quantity overall. Santon on the other hand has played plenty and IMO he just isn't a good defender, he can still improve since he's only 22, but right now he's weak defensively. I'd love an explanation as to how he's poor defensively, as opposed to the oft-used argument of "he just isn't a good defender but I'm not really going to back that up with anything of substance". He stops almost nothing coming in from the left. If an opposing player has possession there with Santon to beat, it's almost guaranteed he'll be able to play a ball into the box largely unopposed. I don't know how people miss this. I don't think this is true at all. Santon gets caught too far forward and lets people get in behind him too easily at times, but he is generally a pretty capable one v. one defender.

Di Matteo was, but this was because he was unwanted, the same with Grant. Chelsea are still on course to do well in the three competitions that "matter" and will likely go top if they can manage a win next Monday.

Chelsea is like a better version of a Pardew team. When was the last time they really rubbished a team? It is always mild dominance at best. Need to be more lethal.

Hazard was bought for essentially the same amount less than two years ago. I think it would require much more than that.