Jayson

Darlow did really well for their closest chance

Get in Diame!

Got a good feeling about Gayle for this game

It's gutting conceding so late, but there's a lot of positives. Burnley have only lost to a side outside the top 7 once since the second week of the season. They haven't even conceded against most. The fact we should have won this game with ease says a lot really. Get a good striker on some of those chances, thats really good signs imo.

Southampton have equalised against Brighton also

Captain material my lad !!!

Very good Perez

I think we can be fairly certain with Rafa Benitez that we had a decent list of options on the go for basically every single position. Clearly nothing is acted on & as mentioned in the other thread this has been purposeful from the start of the window.

What is the actual plan then? Just put us in a continual cycle of lower prem, top of championship? Suppose you're exposing your brand to differing groups of people. I mean in the past they atleast tried in January. This couldn't be a clearer signal of their intent really. The singular thing that saves them is that they also come across as incomprehensibly moronic with any form of decision making or forward planning. So part of you always sways towards that being the case.

The two things are fine. You can question a player's potential quality and question why the club that presumably believes in his quality isn't willing to pay the asking price. Maybe they believe he is a 15m player not the 20m asked by Feyenoord? Maybe they lost the chance to haggle when they left negotiations until this point of the window & had few alternatives to use as leverage. Basically at this point if they think the striker is good enough to save off relegation, you take the punt. Negotiating several millions, in a very weak position, so you dont strengthen and potentially lose far more via relegation isn't massively logical to be fair.

Well it feels like this has been well planned again. You do have to wonder how this guy: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1926636/Newcastle-boss-Mike-Ashley-wins-1.3m-on-roulette-spin.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-4668698/Controversial-Mike-Ashley-defends-gambling-competition.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350044/Football-tycoon-Mike-Ashley-loses-1m-2-hours-gambling-casino.html Suddenly becomes incredibly concerned about not wasting money on transfers

To be fair that goes nicely against the whole top sides get the decisions narrative

He's played 60+ mins in: 5 of our 6 wins this season 4 of our 5 draws

You know we'll get a defensive performance trying to nick a 1-0, which is exactly what we need to be fair. Would be over the moon with that as well ? If we even manage to score that would be unexpected tbh. Burnleys record against sides outside the top 7 is very good. Basically haven't conceded against the majority. 0-0 would be a good result sadly.

And Chelsea breathe a sigh of relief

Whats he given a freekick for before their move then Atsu pressuring Cahill, who's flicks it up clearly ready to raise his boot for a volley. Atsu gets there first and freekick to them? Bigger sides get such pointless innocuous decisions.

To be fair, Chelsea haven't conceded in 6 of the last 7 prem games they've played. Regardless of how we'd set up, scoring wasn't that likely. I do think Rafa's on the conservative side though.

Murphy hattrick coming

Why wouldn't you just put Murphy and Atsu on now like.

Nice how we let them have 3 lads in the wall unchallenged, just ready to duck

poo

Probs worth getting Murphy on

Arsenal are making gradual progress in standard of signings imo. People have been saying Arsenal needed a top level keeper, strikers & defenders for years. They got Cech from Chelsea. In Lacazette & Aubameyang they could pull off the best strikeforce in the league. If either of those two continues form close to previous standard they will have one of the best in the league let alone if both could step it up in the prem.

Ashley's valuation of us currently will also be based on the potential for relegation though you'd expect. The price will go up if we stay up.

Again that looks like a scarcity tactic. There's no reason to put that information out into the public domain, they are trying to create a time constraint. They could just wait & then quietly move on if Benitez leaves. Its the same reason sales have a time that counts down on their site, Ebay have the "only a few remaining" sign lit up etc You have to give a time constraint to add perceived value to the offer.