Matt1892

Kelly isn’t a poor footballer and is an upgrade on Targett and Burn in the left back position.

Howe definitely prefers players with Premier League experience, not that there is anything wrong with that in the main other than you pay a premium on that.

He trained with England this season as he was seen as an exceptional talent if I remember right.

Ramsdale is an upgrade on Pope though, as despite Pope being a better shot stopper that isn’t the sole function of a modern day goalkeeper, unless you are a club near the bottom of the league that is going to be battered for 90 minutes every week.

It was a compilation of about 60 goals conceded by him at Arsenal, including double figures of penalties. If people don’t rate Ramsdale then that’s fine, but when you have a compilation of goals conceded that are not even keeper errors, or are complaining about him being praised for saving a free kick, it suggests criticism isn’t exactly balanced.

I’m not sure how many of those are genuine mistakes, unless we are counting every goal conceded as a goal keeper mistake.

He clearly seen it late though, possibly due to a mix of the wall being so close and the sun which obscured his view.

They don’t need shot stopping as the main attribute for a keeper due to how good they are, they want someone who is good with the ball at his feet and quality distribution.

Raya is borderline elite with the ball at his feet, that is why they changed. He is perfect for the style of football they want to play.

The free kick is about six yards further out, meaning the wall is on the edge of the box instead of the penalty spot so you have that extra split second to react. Ramsdale’s reaction to seeing it late was to pull off a quality save. I don’t see why that would be talked down.

That was a great save.

I agree we have suffered badly at times this season but at the same time it can’t be blamed for all of our performance issues, especially when our results are generally good at home.

We haven’t all season though and need to accept that we are going to have injuries, like all clubs do. Tripper, Schar and Botman have played the majority of Premier League games and on top of that as a club we decided to commit a lot of money to 2 more fullbacks as priority signings last summer. So we can’t use that as an excuse for our poor away form that has gone on pretty much all season.

Somebody posted yesterday evening how we don’t seem to control games any more and to me it feels like we have moved from a team that could score and hold on to a 1-0 comfortably to getting pulled in to games of end to end football on a constant basis. We have suffered badly with injuries but it is our away form that has hurt us and will continue to hurt us unless we can dictate the play and tempo better.

We have the 15th best away form in the league this season, picking up 3 points more than Burnley on the road. 4th best home form.

Stream died and missed the goal!?

That was a terrible goal to give away.

I expect him to be our first choice left back once he settles in.

I don’t think the hotel sale has been signed off by the league yet and even if they do, UEFA are unlikely to accept it so Chelsea could be banned from European competitions.

He was picked up by Chelsea before he signed a professional contract so technically he is classed as an academy player, although it is a credit to their scouting rather than the development they put in to him.

Billy Gilmour was excellent for them. Another Chelsea academy player.

I thought we played quite well yesterday apart from the final ball which let us down, it is noticeable how we were working positions down the right but the final ball from Murphy was played in to the area rather than trying to pick out any individual. It is also noticeable in games like this how we lack a midfielder who can make intelligent late runs in to the box like Willock did last season, even if he did snatch at a lot of his chances. I didn’t agree with the decision to take Isak off, he might have been ill in the week but you have a conversation with him at half time about if he feels well enough to play the full game, judging from his face when subbed he was clearly surprised at being brought off when we needed a goal and with no striker on the bench. I have seen people say about the gap Brighton were finding in midfield that their keeper was picking out but that was because we played a more pressing game and tried to pin them in their own half rather than letting them play out, this was something that we were successful with last season when we played them at home. I don’t think Howe could have done much different and let’s be honest, if Almiron wasn’t offside for the Gordon goal then we would be talking about how it was a master stroke taking Isak off, such is the fine margins at this level. Brighton were decent too by the way.

Reya is borderline elite with the ball at his feet and distribution, compared to Ramsdale who is borderline very good. When you are at that level it is about fine tweaks to the system and play. As for our goalkeeper situation, we need to bring someone in as Dubs does not suit the style of play we want and there has to be some concern around Pope and his shoulder.

£60 million would make Ramsdale the third most expensive goalkeeper of all time! He will leave for around the £30 million mark.

Did Chelsea pay Potter off completely or is he still being paid by them?