poitier

He seems to be able to impose himself on games a bit more now than he used to. If he can maintain his progress he will be a good player.

 

 

 

Once again very poor defending, the second goal annoyed me in particular because it was both lucky and poor defending and changed the game.

 

How was the second one lucky?

 

Vlaar should have stopped Kagawa's pass but didn't quite stretch far enough.

 

Eh? That's nothing to do with luck. It's either poor defending and/or a great pass.

 

Either the pass wasn't meant for Mata or it was a poor pass because Vlaar should have cut it out.

Hugely flattering scoreline for Manu.

Once again very poor defending, the second goal annoyed me in particular because it was both lucky and poor defending and changed the game.

Good game from Westwood again and Albrighton had some good moments.

I have felt worse after a 4-1 defeat.

Don't take gabby off.

As long as Bacuna tackles Young into row Z it won't be a completely bad day.

I am happy for him to stay.

Comprehensively outplayed by Stoke. I don't want to talk about it.

Comedy defending.

He has a lot still to learn as a RB, but if he commits to that position I really think he can become a champions league quality player.

"It was a great finish if he meant it."

High praise indeed from the MOTD commentator.

Delph was brilliant in the second half, he has an incredible engine. First half he gave a lot of protection to Bennett, who himself had a good game.

I was very impressed by the way we fought our way back into it in the second half, even before the sending off, after being pinned back for the first 15 minutes.

Chelsea never really looked like scoring, apart from the handball goal obviously.

Ref and linesman did very well - ok, all of the big calls were the right ones, but how often do those go against us.

We're getting a really, really, fair bit of luck here. Bennett should be off there.

 

I think there he rightly got the benefit of the doubt.

He was going away from the centre of goal with Vlaar covering.

No doubting Chelsea have a good team, but if Wigan can beat Man City we can get something here.

No, I don't believe that either.

I think we need to flood central midfield, I would perhaps go with 4-3-1-2.

El Hammadi.

We played well for 25 minutes, and that was largely when we were playing it on the floor as opposed to the first 15 minutes when we were hoofing it up for Benteke to head on to nobody.

Bacuna showed that he can still be a goal threat even from full back, I think he needs to specialise in that position rather than midfield.

Great win, but I'm not convinced that it is a turning point.

That Villa team looks familiar - oh yeah, it's the same one that has been doing so well for us lately.

Glad Fer isn't playing.

He is very limited in footballing ability but plays with a level of commitment and aggression that puts most of our squad to shame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that's an ambitious figure. He can't rely on getting those tap ins on a regular basis, he's not good enough to create his own chances and we're an awful football team.

 

We don't create much, but I can think of several chances that have fallen to Benteke and Gabby lately that Kozak would probably have put away. Sure, Kozak isn't an exciting player, but I think he will prove to be a regular goalscorer.

Why don't we just make him player manager. Surely that's got to save some money.

He isn't big, strong, fast, skilful, creative or clinical.

Whatever qualities he does have, you have to say that his chances of being a top class forward are pretty slim if he lacks all of the above qualities.

I dont think there is much evidence that he plays better in a two up front, the only times he has been effective is when Benteke and gabby have created the space for him to exploit.

I'm not sure that he is an out and out striker, but he isn't a wide forward or a deep lying forward either. That is the problem.

I can't remember exactly, but I am pretty sure his form started tailing off towards the end of last season and he has been consistently poor this season. Unfortunately, his performances this season would probably be a better overall representation of his form for us than the purple patch he hit briefly last season.

I really don't think we are any better than under McLeish. I just think under McLeish you knew what you were going to get and we knew not to expect any better from him, but there is still the memory of how we played at the end of last season that still gives the forlorn hope that we might play well under Lambert.

Although, generally, he was poor today, he did win a lot of headers. It almost seems like the plan of hoofing the ball up for him to head on isn't working...