Varadi

Aye, if that sloppy ball he gave away in first half stoppage time had led to a goal this thread would be looking very different right now Looks a classy player though, him and Lascelles definitely our top pairing I reckon.

His type of game, a really solid full back - even 1 on 1 against players like Sanchez and Martial you're never too worried he's going to get rinsed.

How many would've predicted at the start of this season Shelvey and Diame would be bossing Man Utd's midfield at St James?! Fantastic performance.

gtf Imre, still doesn’t make it a good idea. Couldn't resist

That performance was why Rafa keeps picking him - he's disciplined as fuck and works his bollocks off. Hope he goes on a bit of a scoring run now.

Aye. Noticed him collaring Dummett for some feedback on the pitch at the end as well, never misses a chance to get his points across

Rafa: He can buy the lottery and win today. He was composed and that gave confidence to the team. All the players worked hard, so it is not fair to say just the goalkeeper played well

Disappointed he gave that interview saying we were going to put in more effort than Man Utd - really fired them up to beat us.

Wut It's simple math. He's only 80% but we're going into a game where 100% of our players need to give 110% for the full 90 just to hope of getting something from the game then given the 30% chance to aggravate it further it isn't worth it. Aye - if he started today and got injured you can guarantee the place would be full of people complaining about risking him in a game we were always likely to lose.

No real surprises there - he's seen Ashley for what he is now, there's no chance of him staying on under him.

This. His willingness to play through injury for the sake of the club meant that he was never able to fulfil his true potential. Even then, he was better than most will give him credit for, but that's another story. Shola's best form for us by an absolute mile was at the end of the 05/06 season under Roeder when he was playing through injury, so I'm not sure about the theory that injuries held him back. He was scoring at a goal a game in the Championship in 2009 as well before he got injured - was an absolute boss at that level, way better than anything we saw from Mitro.

Does he know about this?

Christ. I wonder what it's like living in opposites land

Harry Kane

I would fancy us to beat Chelsea in the last day if we needed to.

The stats are certainly impressive, but could've done without the moment of panic seeing this thread bumped

Yeah me too, just making it to the end of the season to see how it plays out. I'm in exactly the same spot, almost at the stage where I don't really mind which way it goes either.

Slimani is very important, as is keeping Lascelles fit - our 25 points from 26 games becomes 24 from 20 for the games he played in, such an important player for us.

On the other hand if we're safe by then and they're down it could be quite the party.

Brighton as well despite their win on Saturday. Aye, think Brighton have the toughest run in of everyone.

The future looks bleak as fuck in most scenarios tbh. Even if Rafa keeps us up I can't see him hanging around for another season under Ashley.

Absolutely spot on. Winds me up no end when people in the pub are howling at the telly in frustration because we're not dominating from start to finish. The best teams in the world have spells in games when they're not on top. And we're shite. I dread to think where this team would be under a manager like McClaren, Pardew or Carver - probably already down.

Still only 3 points between 11th and 19th, almost impossible to call at this stage. Probably about a 4 for me, think we've a slightly better than even chance of staying up.

Happy with the draw in the end. Need Kenedy to get his match fitness up as we need a good 90 minutes from him - no coincidence we tightened up after he went off, he was absolutely knackered. Hope Diame isn't too badly injured, been our best midfielder lately. Slimani needs to hit the ground running and I hope this new keeper is a dominant, vocal type as Darlow causes us a lot of uncertainty back there.

I think ultimately Murphy has better potential but don't think he's currently way better than Ritchie - he has different qualities but brings a lot to the team.