Jayson

That first goal by them! Talk about standing off them and letting them waltz in, nuts man. Surprised the guy who put the cross in didn't go into semi shock from being left that alone by a premier league side in their own area. Was Mooy all over again. Proper dodgy watching that.

Sounds like the singular positive tonight, much like Merino was a bit the other day. Hopefully we can start adding a few of these together.

Yeah, that's not gone as well as I'd hoped. Thought he could dislodge Elliot, not gone great.

Sounds like wasted chances in general, need to sort ourselves out

Ah well, not a great start like

well, bit of a mess that

I think runs are one of Gayle's strengths really. Can think of pre season recently when De Jong turned to put him through as an example of him already predicting a through ball before it had happened. If he finds his form again & we build decent attacks I think he'll show hes a good finisher.

Murphy will get on the scoresheet imo, got an eye for goal

If he has a genuinely decent game again, I'm gonna be baffled by the whole situation. Lazaar is realllly unfancied on that basis of that team sheet. Expect Aarons & Murphy to be pushing for a place in the side. Darlow aswell will get back in soon enough imo. Mitrovic needs to basically be mint from here on out to get noticed again, time to put the big boy pants on & sort it out.

What you're not appreciating is that Rafa has gambled on public utterances will unite the fans behind him and apply pressure on Ashley to loosen the purse strings. It is something Rafa has done at virtually every club he's been at. However, he's not had to deal with someone quite so retarded as Ashley before, and the gamble failed. Instead of Ashley bowing to pressure, the fat c*** has doubled down and refused to budge from his position which is, apparently, that we need to sell before we buy to ease the wage budget. <b>To say Rafa is responsible for low morale is shooting the messenger because the news is bad. Morale is low because Ashley hasn't permitted our squad to be improved, not because Rafa is telling the media the squad hasn't been improved.</b> I get where you're coming from, but think it's more fluid than that. You could easily argue that if Rafa had appeared more positive throughout the summer, regardless of his battles behind the scenes, morale would be a lot higher than it is now. You can't polish a turd, and I think Rafa's frustration is that he's being forced to assemble a squad of turds. All the feelgood spin or hoopla in the world isn't going to help when you put them out on the pitch. So I think he's right to put the pressure on publicly if there's any chance Ashley will budge from his potentially disastrous position. Depends on the outcome doesn't it. If Rafa making people aware he wasn't happy results (or has already resulted) in that extra player that somehow makes the difference over the course of the entire season then he'll have been right to do it. The entire season is bigger than the effect it has on the first few games. The narrative of Rafaisnothappy is definitely all over the media though & probably hasn't helped us at the start. But then losing someone like Lejeune & Shelveys red card probably have an equal or bigger effect to the following game in terms of morale. Difficult when you take out your brand new higher level defensive signing & your main playmaker.

Nah doesn't really make sense. Comparing a situation where a manager didn't perform well consistently & then had a stand out year, only to perform poorly again & point out that the singular season doesn't represent the overall general standard. With a player who has performed consistently for several seasons in a row, has only had one previous season at this level, was one of the higher achievers in a side that has stayed up for several seasons now & who outperformed several players who have gone on to do well at this level.

The posts on this page Ritchie joined us from Bournemouth as one of their better players, he did far better for them at Championship level than us & was their highest scorer/assister their first season in the prem. The manager didn't want to let him go? In his last 3 seasons with them or us, only the leading strikers at either clubs have managed a higher total of goals & assists combined. Yet he's "part of the problem of there being a lack of creativity in the team", doesn't have "the ability to create chances through skill" & Bournemouth "were happy to offload him" Could we be spouting a higher level of bollocks honestly. What an absolutely miraculous coincidence that our singular best chance at scoring in our previous game, came from Matt Ritchie. Where's Sherlock Holmes to work that mystery out.

Dunno if it was just me but he looked like he was really having to work to run if that makes sense. One moment first half where he was chasing down the keeper first & it looked a proper effort but he really wasn't moving quickly. Maybe just fitness?

I don't think the psychology of it is that complicated. He's likely grown up having the p*ss taken out of him & he's learnt to fight back/stand his ground. He clearly has insecurities though so personalises situations like that as someone trying to "put him in his place" in a similar way & thinks he's being walked over if he lets it go. Another player wouldn't personalise it in the same way & would just see Alli throwing the ball away as him being petulant rather than a lack of respect for whoever wants it. He probably wouldn't respect anyone in that moment. Shelvey took it personally.

He's one of the few players we have of prem league quality. He's not a beat a man & cross it type of winger, he's more about intelligent play & quick one two's into space. Through balls & shots etc Was held back having Mbemba behind him today & you cant really judge our 10 men v Spurs. Be mental to drop him tbh.

I'm frustrated by today, but it's always reassuring when you have a manager who clearly knows the issue. As he said, Mooy was simply given too much space. That single error & we don't lose today. Was the only time he got that much space the entire game aswell. Would never have been a fun game, but as has been said that's how we ground out away wins last season. 1 error and missed our chances is the summation of the game really.

I feel like Darlow keeps getting dropped, then coming in to do a decent job. Think he'll find his way into the side again soon enough tbh.

Just been unlucky so far, 2 games, 2 shots off the inside of the post.

Lossl looks a good signing for them, that was a top level save. Those little moments make the difference. He saves that, Perez misses a 5 yard volley. Manquillo messes up a pull back when in behind. Its just little moments. They haven't actually changed their side much. Lossl, Jorgensen, Ince & Mounie the main difference v the side we beat 3-1. We had Merino instead of Colback & Gayle instead of Murphy. I think if it had been last seasons Gayle, we'd have looked a lot better. Without his quality, we looked toothless.

You can tell he has quality, his touch & passing ability. He was a bit slow on the ball at times & needs to speed up mentally to match the league. Was probably our best player & really he did OK for this standard. Says more about how bad the rest of the players were tbh.

Ritchie was held back as he had mbemba behind him, so they just marked him out of the game as Mbemba couldn't really overlap & Ritchie ended up deep.

Manquillos poor lay across when put behind the defence on that freekick is an example of the moment of quality you need from a prem standard defender btw. If he gets any decent connection on that we score & he was one of our better players at times.

It was a fucking awful game like, they were woeful also. Their goal was the single moment of quality that happened & Ritchies effort first half. The amount of scrappy play in the middle & lack of ability to bring the ball down and find a man stood out a lot. They pressed us very well tbf, so we had no time on the ball atall. We basically half tried to do the same, so neither side did anything bar a few shite crosses into the box to nowt.

That was one of our worst displays in ages. Seriously. Beyond Pardew levels. Not a single decent attacking move against Huddersfield. Literally did well if we put together 4 passes in a row. Nuts.

Lol