roonst83

He was the player I was most excited we signed. After a rocky start to his tenure here he quickly stated showing his quality. Hoping to see a few more screamers which he used to do regularly for Leicester, but he is clearly absolutely class. Great vision, passing and has the perfect weight of a pass. Integral for us. Keen to see more of him next season.

I was so excited when we signed Youri and games like last night show his absolute class and ability. Needs a run of games without injuries to find some rhythm and momentum as that’s where he’s struggled. But as others have said, his vision, sense of space and weight of passing is fantastic. Think Watkins could really thrive off having him in the side.

No VAR is bad for us. Our whole defensive set up through the high line requires VAR to confirm the offside traps we play for.

“Basically full strength”

Starting to show his quality. Was our best player overall tonight and continually drove us forward. I gave MOTM to Luiz as he made a huge difference but Tielemans is such a good asset for us.

He has a great knack of timing his tracked back last ditch challenges absolutely spot on. Love to see it.

Doesn’t score. Doesn’t assist. Gives the ball away far too much.

100% and it shows so much. We miss him dropping to collect the ball and dragging opposition players out in the process, then finding Watkins or the wide forwards with a pass through the lines. His strength and aggression and overall combativeness and competitiveness is missing. I imagine a player like Diaby would benefit from Beundia.

Which channel? Looks like Sky are showing Palace v Wolves?

Was he signed in time to play tomorrow?

omeletting you off for that one

Think this is indicative of how he’s perceived by some. A lot of his good work goes unnoticed, as people only look at goals and assists. He creates plenty of chances that aren’t converted. It’s much more worrying to have a play making midfielder who doesn’t create, Emi does. I think he is guilty of having his weak spots are more easily seen than his strengths. The throwing up of his hands in the air when he doesn’t get a foul, him giving the ball away when trying too hard etc. but we’ll miss him a lot. He finds gaps, always moving, always hungry for the ball and has a lovely touch and great vision and can score. He’s also good defensively for us through his tenacity. All traits not easy to replace especially with the likes of Bailey who is woeful. Critically, we’ve lost quality squad depth losing Buendia and subsequently lost a strong option for Unai to use across the front line. His injury, along with Mings, is a huge dampener to not only the optimism within the club, but the momentum and cohesion built since Emery arrived. Could take a fair while to get us all gelling again.

Happens all the time mate. Keep your pecker up.

It's naughty and I like it.

Really love our Winnie the Boo. Such a player.

Poor performance overall but win is huge and that’s what counts as we know we have much better in us. We looked sound defensively throughout and Fulham rarely threatened. We were sloppy in possession which isn’t like us under Emery and our energy levels were also low but that’s perhaps understandable given we’re having to field pretty much the same team every week due to injuries to potential starters. Really tough games coming up so to take 7 points from the last three is a great return. We know we can play better and I’m hoping our press and energy is lifted against better teams who will expect to be on the front foot. Buendia’s worst game for a while for us, he gave the ball away too much and couldn't influence enough in forward areas. He wasn’t alone with the latter as, besides the defence, the rest were below par and we couldn’t find Watkins atall and only once (from memory) did we play the ball behind the defence for him. Win is massive and a bit of a much needed rest before Sunday. UTV!

That’s the best home performance in years. Against a team flying all season we controlled it all. And every player to a man was absolutely excellent. Watkins will get MOTM and no arguments from me atall. He’s absolutely lethal now. Such a threat and his whole game is immense for us. But Moreno was my pick. But McGinn, Mings, Konsa, Buendia and Luiz were all excellent. Dendonker was great too. Should’ve had more but so good how much of a threat we were all game and so good we weren’t made to pay for missing those chances. Defended solidly throughout against some talent. This game showed me exactly what Emery wants from us. We’re much better in open games and such a threat. Absolutely HUGE win there and Unai is the best thing that could’ve happened to us. Huge win. UTV!

Agree, he can be both unpredictably brilliant (Baggies away) or unpredictably poor (Sheff Utd away) but he's certainly not one dimensional.

Pretty underwhelming and meh. Game we should’ve won but lacking quality. Soft pen for them and not sure why the same wasn’t applied by VAR for ours. Cash and Ramsey poor and Bailey atrocious as always. Point away looks better if we beat Bournemouth. Otherwise it feels like the season will finish with a limp to potentially 10th. Emery will know there’s plenty of work to progress us. Today made it clear.

Historically, this has no positive effect for us. We can never seem to take advantage against teams that have played midweek/in Europe. That may be due to those teams usually being better than us (hence playing in Europe) but it's frustrating. I worry about our midfield here. Kamara keeps the momentum and fluidity on the ball so well, and Dougie is much better freed up further ahead. I don't trust Chambers as he's not mobile enough. SJM is probably the most suited and perhaps he drops Dougie back into Boo Boo's position. But then we lose having McGann further up field where he's been shining. Tough call. I expect Unai to play Chambers there but as someone pointed out it's a mismatch against Rice and Soucek. Chambers can't carry the ball anywhere near as well as Kamara can, and that is integral to our build up play.

Andrew Robertson x11

What a beautiful place Luang Prabang is. One of my fave places in SE Asia.

Credit to him, his finishing has improved of late. I still have him in the same bracket of the likes of Mings, Konsa, Cash etc in that if we want to break into those European spots then we need to upgrade in these areas.

New manager. Full of confidence. What can go wrong? Horrible time to play them and their fans will be massively up for it. We'll need to be much better from set pieces and keep that trappy cretin Maupay quiet. I'd be very surprised to see us win here. Important we don't roll over for another team in need, as we know that's the Villa way. I'd keep the starting XI that started against Arsenal and see if Coutinho and Buendia can have any joy with Ollie up top. Need to control the middle too if we can. Easier said than done. Concede first and I really fear for us.

Wasn't meant as a dig to Defoe at all. Just a comparison for finishing styles.