Samdwich

I think the trouble here is that it's impossible to dig into the police officers' brains and ascertain their reasons for stopping him. Our biases are often subconscious and are difficult to acknowledge. This is an interesting paper on the topic of implicit and subconscious biases I recently read. When you look at the broader statistics - eg. black people are something like 40 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people - the inference that Brutos's ethnicity had a part to play seems a sensible one. None of my white friends have ever been stopped and searched by police. Many of them frequently carry things they shouldn't - as do many "respectable" professionals in the City. If they were stopped, searched and charged for possession, there would be serious ramifications for their personal and professional lives. On the other hand, black friends and colleagues have told me that being stopped and searched by police is routine to them. If that's not a systemic issue then I don't know what is. Back to CHO: Glad that his legal troubles are behind him, and I'm glad that he kept a dignified silence until charges were dropped. Hope he gets his head down and performs now. Was looking off the pace before the break, but he was coming back from a pretty nasty injury so it's understandable. He's going to have some tough competition for his place in the team.

I love the way he never gives the ball away, and his leadership on the pitch. With us losing more and more of our older players, I think it's really important to keep Jorginho to provide the experience and level-headedness needed to help the youngsters.

For a 17 year old, very very good. Looked a bit nervy on the ball at first and only passed sideways. Became a bit more positive as the game wore on, but there were still a few occasions on which the ball was passed back to him and a Luiz/Christensen would have sent it forward rather than passing it back to the keeper. Defensively was outstanding, early nerves showed with the yellow card challenge but settled well thereafter apart from one rash moment where he charged in and completely missed the ball, but Rudiger covered well. Looking very good for the future!

I love this man. We could go on to lose all of our remaining games this season and I'd still love him, what a great guy.

I think what Azpilicueta offers going foward is good for a CB in this system, but not enough for a WB. He can put a great cross in, but doesn't have the ability to drive into the box and provide a goal threat as Alonso does. He's undoubtedly better defensively but considering our setup, I think Alonso's attributes give us a better balance between attack and defence as a whole. Because we have a pretty defensive midfield and two forwards, the wingbacks need to get close to them and support them and that just isn't Cesar's game.

Such a shame to lose him yesterday; I genuinely think we would have won had he not been injured. He was holding the ball up superbly before coming off, once we lost him nothing would stick up top and we couldn't get out of our half. At one point he expertly controlled a long ball with his chest and sprung us on the attack. On another occasion he turned Stones inside and out. What a player, I'm so glad we got him rather than Lukaku.

awfully defensive here pal

Despite us conceding the initiative to City, I felt our defence was very assured and dealt very well with almost everything thrown at them. Christensen was absolutely fantastic and so was Rudiger. Not sure I'd get rid of Luiz for him yet, but I think he should start alongside Luiz. Which of Rudiger/Azpi gets left out though? Tough decisions!

Is this really necessary?

Question: how do you know that it's Marina's job to negotiate, not someone else? I'm always bamboozled by people talking about what happens inside the club when everything seems very opaque to me

Burn

Obviously there's no need to call Cahill names and be childish, but the video is a clear illustration of his limitations. If we're able to bring the ball out via all 3 CBs it makes us less predictable and more difficult to set up against. Needless to say, these things should be secondary to defensive ability but we're fortunate that Rudiger and Christensen have that too.

It's not about mis-controlling a ball. He starts relatively pressure-free, in a situation where a more accomplished passer like Rudiger would be able to move the ball forward quickly and get us on the attack. Cahill faffs around, gets into a mess and we concede a throw-in near our area rather than being on the attack. It's poor decision making and shows his limitations on the ball. I mean, no need to call him a dick or anything as he's a thoroughly decent bloke and a good defender, but I think we need a CB that is more comfortable on the ball to help take the team to the next level and Cahill should no longer be an automatic starter.

We could just not pay him. No doubt the scope of his employment includes attending training, if he doesn't fulfil his duties we don't have to pay him.