Odear

Atsu wouldn’t get into the Sunderland team on this evidence. Longstaff looks decent. Ki, again is totally shite. Fernandez and Schär growing into it but miles off what Lascelles and Lejeune had going.

Hopefully Longstaff can show what he can do tonight. Ki may well have been a better player at some point in time, but not the version we just signed..

I can’t help but think this non story is something KBA is more than happy to see as it diverts from the real agenda. If they had a bust up in training it’s likely that Ritchie left a late foot in and Lascelles lost his cool and was about to pull his head off before Shelvey stepped in as peace maker (again)

Another factor is that just like Shelvey, the moment he did anything when playing for us, he either gets sent off on the spot or Alan Shearer would open his gob on MOTD and then retrospective action would take place the next day. Kane, Rooney and Sissoko’s challenges would have had the book thrown if it happened in black and white..

Keith Bishop mischief making? Or are we getting into conspiracy territory now? Someone knew a few hours before kickoff on Sunday that he and Shelvey wouldn’t be in the team because of an “alleged bust up” Who would have prior knowledge of undisclosed injuries?

Allardyce makes perfect sense to Ashley now. Won’t get relegated, won’t ask for more. Won’t raise hope. Perfect. The writing was on the wall as soon as he publicly apologised to him in that Sky Sports interview. If the players are in on this (as has been rumoured) then they’re a bunch of shite hawks and I’m not sure I could bring myself to support them. If this worst case scenario comes to pass, there will never be an easier time to cast this club aside and get on with life.

Rafa chooses to marginalise players who don’t fit a system of containing, which at my current estimate only works for a portion of games as we always seem to lose them before 90 minutes are done. They say the definition of madness is trying something and failing only to try the same thing again and expect a different result.

It’s a bullshit argument. It’s worked for him pretty much at every other club other than Newcastle. Possibly due to working with two clowns before finally working with a proper coach, who unfortunately was prepared to sacrifice an obvious way to score goals in order to contain decent teams for 70% of matches.

Mike Scratchies

The level of refereeing is shocking. VAR works 99% of the time so it will be a welcome addition whenever the PL finally implement it. We do get some decisions our way but mostly down to incompetence. In 50/50 situations or incidents where opposing teams do things that should be punished, we rarely get the rub of the green. It’s slightly getting off point though.. I think today Rafa showed that we could get by without our most important player. Lascelles isn’t thick, he'll have seen this too. He’ll have to raise his game to get back in favour.

No player is bigger than the club. If the rumours are true it’s very disappointing carry on. Fernandez and Schär looked good, especially the latters distribution from the back. We should be more worried about who’s going to be refereeing our games.. we rarely get any decisions our way and it’s deciding games for us.

3 goals in 3 games. Shite player at PL level..

Some positives from the game, Fernández and Schär looked good. Rondon looked closer to being fit. Murphy got a decent amount of time and looked better in spells. Negatives. Ki was anonymous the whole game, including his half arsed challenge which led to Chelsea’s winner. Our tactics. A continuation of referees being blatantly biased against us.

Cracking shot

Will see what Rafa has to say before/after the match. If he simply left Lascelles out he’ll say it. Very unprofessional of the captain. There’s only ever going to be one winner there, which is Chelsea I guess.

Nah, Premier League exposed his flaws. His body wasn’t able for it and he just sort of accepted it and never tried to toughen up. It’s happened to a lot of our gambles. At his best he’s a silky player with a decent finish and can pick the right pass in the box. Terrible leader though. How could he lead a team to success when he can’t even motivate himself to get strong and healthy..

Decent bloke but no real fight in him. Had high hopes for him when he first signed..

The Sheilas out of the woodwork today it seems! We were crap today but have to ask, what instructions did Rafa give the team? Did he tell Kenedy to play like that? If not, why keep him on? The supposed togetherness with the squad is nowhere to be seen this season. Seeming as it’s mostly the squad from last season, some of that blame has to go Rafas way.

I mentioned it before but i suspect it’s something far darker than that. Ongoing hijinks that resulted in him being buggered perhaps! He looks triggered every time he has to talk about the club

Bellamy has an axe to grind with the club, just like Lawrenson (no idea what that was about though..) Carragher has no affiliation with the club, nor will he ever be a manager so he has no reason to suck up to MA like all the others do.

Schär should be fitter and has spent more time training with the squad than Fernandez, going by Rafa’s MO, he should be in the squad unless Rafa has seen enough already.. Or does he have an injury?

Rafa will always err on the side of caution so the team sheet should be of no surprise.

I see Catts move is highly in doubt now. Poyet suspended by his club for “acting like he owned the place”

Good idea. Should get all the away fans thinking of going blockade his HQ. A takeover like the Nakatomi building in Die Hard would be better. Charnley, in an attempt to impress his owner by stopping it, could remove his shirt and crawl around the air conditioning aimlessly like a fat greased up speccy eyed Bruce Willis for a few hours while we make demands and transfer Ashleys wallpaper to a secret vault. Dave can be Hans Gruber. You’re giving Charnley too much credit. Charnley would certainly be the guy who grasses people up. ?

Good idea. Should get all the away fans thinking of going blockade his HQ. A takeover like the Nakatomi building in Die Hard would be better. Charnley, in an attempt to impress his owner by stopping it, could remove his shirt and crawl around the air conditioning aimlessly like a fat greased up speccy eyed Bruce Willis for a few hours while we make demands and transfer Ashleys wallpaper to a secret vault. Dave can be Hans Gruber.