Ketsbaia

On the one hand, it feels like there's tougher competition this time. We only really had West Brom, Forest and (briefly) Boro but now there'll be Villa, Norwich, Derby, Hull, Sheff Wed etc. But you see some of the players aceing this division - Dave Nugent, Barry Bannan, Grant Leadbitter, Jonathan Kodjia etc - and think the quality of player is quite low.

Sunderland losing to Everton and drawing at Watford is actually fairly conceivable but I think it's best we just stop thinking about it. It's over.

It's hard to play Mitro up front on his own when he's lacking pace, but playing 2 up front doesn't really happen. Not sure what we should do because I do think the talent and passion is there.

Honestly, if it's not Rafa I'm happy to just give up. Might not make me a 'real' fan but I'll admit that Ashley has finally ground me down. Maybe I was spoiled with 2 great teams during childhood but Newcastle - and football in general - is now a constant state of misery. Just lost the will to give any more shits.

I don't. I think if he was going to he would have announced it by now. Managing Real Madrid a few months ago then to the championship. He'll run a mile. He wouldn't have. He's (rightly) only discussed staying up.

I think there's a chance he'll stay, we're just all in a catastrophic mood tonight. It's not like he suddenly hates this place or a job has opened up.

At half time it wasn't too bad, either. Then it completely flipped in 3 or 4 minutes.

Big question is - with a full summer and full season there, can Allardyce take them to mid-table? I can see it.

He had 3 big chances and didn't even work the 'keeper man. How can you stick up for that? What were the other two - that header that dropped wide?

Would happily get back into driving just to drive him elsewhere.

That miss wasn't too bad - after that bounce, where do you put it? Certainly not his fault for today.

Poor tactics today but he was almost our saviour. Begging him to stay, could go either way.

Well it's obviously a 10. I just can't believe they gave us hope, man. But to play as badly as they did today was embarrassing.

Chelsea FC ‏@ChelseaFC 4m4 minutes ago Chelsea team: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry ©, Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Hazard; Diego Costa. #CFC Strong Chelsea team, Sunderland stick with 3 DMs.

We have 69% possession. They had a header at De Gea. Relax. That line doesn't help, like. So they're the ones who nearly scored?

Your never confident going by most of your posts. And most of that is with good reason. We're a poor team.

Yeah, not feeling confident in Man Utd at all. Would take a draw right now.

Even if we win this, I still feel we'll have to beat Spurs and that's not good. The nerves won't end today.

Pep seems like such a crybaby/wet blanket. Good manager though.

Class stuff from Hiddink. Good bloke

I'm bricking it. Been pretty much solely thinking about this since Tuesday I can't see any reason to be bricking it. We have a manager who will have done everything possible to have us ready for the game and we have players who are listening and responding to him. Even if the game doesn't go to plan we'll see something done about it in time to make a difference, relax and enjoy the game. Hope you're right I think it's the combination of this and the Sunderland/Norwich games. We need an exact combination to happen.

Van Aanholt and either Lanzini or Hazard in this week. Dunno whether to triple captain Payet or Defoe.

I'm bricking it. Been pretty much solely thinking about this since Tuesday

Ah bollocks

Rooney shinned that goal against Man City too. No more than a solid 5/7.