Bimpy474

How the hell is Sissoko still on

That Sissoko shot

77% now

For those who can't see it. http://i.imgur.com/USIu3VP.jpg

To be honest i think the lad (Lascelles) might just turn out to be very very good. Especially with Rafa guiding him and Rafa thinking highly enough of him, and maybe seeing the respect the other players may have for him to make him Skipper. Added to the fact he's just 22. Also, Rafa will bomb him out if he proves not to be good enough. Rafa has zero sentiment when it comes to winning, ruthless as they come as i'm sure we'll soon see after promotion (if that happens)

Slow on the turn, poor passing and to top it all off he's thick. Rafa must be blind not to see that lot.

Matt Ritchie...

Honestly, is this the fate of every football fan? Me in 2045: "The last decent left back we signed was Pistone followed by Didier Domi!" Of course it is

'Trevor Brooking and Steve Bull are 2 that come instantly to mind.' When you have Alzheimers.

Stekelenburg failed a fitness test on a foot injury, and would have played had he passed it so he should be straight back in.

Best sell him then if he's that bad.

But none of the players we play in that gap do much in midfield (or up front fwiw) so we'd be as likely to control the midfiled as we are anyway. Is it a coincidence that the only time that "10" has had a good game this season is with more of a target man up front (Perez v QPR and Diame v PNE). I'm with you on this but just giving you Rafa's reasoning. Prefer Mitro plus one myself.

Debatable. Go on ...

Rafa has said why several times in interviews, he wants to control the midfield and in his view you do that with a number 10 sitting deep. We're top 6 points clear of 3rd, i reckon he's getting right like. The thing is you notice when it doesn't work (which isn't often to be fair) more is because of the one striker. The lone frontman looks isolated and we end up being too direct. Still better than cuntchops or island heed.

Mike Jones.

I would add impede to that. If clearly stops a player getting to the ball.

Warnock's spot on there.

Very true but if they aren't allocated a premier game, it seems a waste not to use them somewhere else. If it's completely above board and not because the EFL don't trust their own refs to ref game like this.

Bruce's diet didn't last long.

Premier League referees often drop down, Roger East did our game at Rotherham. Stuart Atwell did a Leeds game the other day, Stuart Pawson did Brighton v Preston. None of them with the experience of Mike Dean yet, but it's not unusual. And what Greg said , they do still ref games lower down when no premier game is allocated to them.

It's not fair imo to the 2nd level of refs, how else will they get better if the games like Birmingham v Villa are deemed too big for them. Also when premier league refs have a bad game they are stood down from the premier games for a week and ref in the lower divisions as a kind of punishment, not sure that's the reason in this case here mind. Or it might be Mike Dean is replacing an injured ref who's had to pull out.

Gameweek 10 Sunderland 1-3 Arsenal Man Utd 2-0 Burnley Middlesbrough 1-1 Bournemouth Spurs 3-1 Leicester Watford 2-0 Hull West Brom 1-2 Man City Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool Everton 2-1 West Ham Southampton 1-2 Chelsea Stoke 2-1 Swansea Preston 0-2 Newcastle

Well that was a nice scoreline to come home to.

Hahaha 1-0 West Ham.