gojo_ed

The depressing thing is you look at the West Ham squad and think, yep, they've bought well there. Payet cost £10m and looks absolutely class. They brought on Ogbonna, who won the title at Juventus last season. We signed two bang average defenders in Hector and Djilobodji.

I actually think we played better with 10 men. Not sure what that says about our team, but there are some serious issues at the moment. Willian has been superb this season, the rest of them have been worse than poor. Stoke and Liverpool away now, it might get even worse at this rate...

Think it's time to go for 3 at the back, Zouma isn't a right back anyway so not as if we're losing anything there. Dave is having a poor game by his standards, and on a yellow, so I would (reluctantly) bench him for Mikel. Begovic Zouma-Cahill- JT Ramires Willian Mikel Fabregas Hazard Costa If Hazard doesn't wake up in 15 minutes, put on Oscar, likewise with RLC for Fabregas. Come on you blues.

Ignore the result, that was much better than anything else we've played this season. Looked like we had a purpose and cohesive strategy. On another note, whoever thought Robbie Savage could add valuable insight to European football can piss off.

A much needed clean sheet, 3 points will do. Willian MOTM for me.

Those hoping for Baba....don't hold your breath. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/13/jose-mourinho-zouma-ivanovic-chelsea-right-back

Probably a question for someone who knows more about the youth/reserve teams- but who are our back up right and left backs at youth level? I've seen the name Aina bandied around, as well as Jay daSilva. If José doesn't seem to trust Baba, do any of these have the quality to make it in the next year?? On another note, hindsight is always 20/20, but selling Bertrand looks like a bit of an error now. Decent left back and would allow Dave to play in his natural position.

Playing him is just a bit cruel now. Dave at Right back and Baba at left back, please!

Logical solution to this surely is to have Ramires as the 'runner' beside Matic? Could almost have a 2005 style 4-3-3 with Oscar in the Lampard role, Pedro and Hazard as wingers supporting Costa.

We can, if 5/6 of our players simultaneously magically regain the form of the first few months of last season. It would take something like an 8/9 game winning streak to get back into contention. But to be brutally realistic, this is pretty unlikely to happen. We're almost a 1/4 of the way into the season now and look so vulnerable.

Strong words. Hopefully some of the under-performers will be benched.

Point gained, but still not a great feeling after that. Things still aren't right. Ramires probably has earned a start, Ivanovic again unconvincing. Not going to be any easier, Southampton are a good team

Where the f**k did that come from!?

Never mind top 4, top half will be a struggle at this rate

Not sure what's worst 1. The same gutless performance we always serve up at St James Park 2. Alan Smith's smug commentary 3. The fact that Newcastle will inevitably scrape into 17th, while losing to Sunderland 3-0 at home

Good stuff!Just need to put a run together now...José did say this season the Champions would need fewer points than previous seasons, and looks as if his prediction may be accurate.

It's been far too long since we won at SJP. We owe them a battering.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/sep/17/premier-league-clubs-champions-league-places-europa-coefficient Could get interesting! 2005-2009 was a definite Premier League era...since 2012 however it is basically us keeping the coefficient up there. A Champions League, a Europa League, and a CL Semi-Final. In comparison, the best that Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, and Liverpool could manage in the CL were 2 United Quarter Final appearances. In the EL it's a similar story- a Quarter Final appearance for Spurs and Newcastle, both in the year we won it. To be honest, with a record like that Italy probably will deserve to have the extra 4th spot over England.

Very promising. Gives us options as well, can sit there and keep it simple, but can also push on where necessary. Surely should start to edge in front of Ramires/Mikel as the season progresses?

Tis indeed. Probably works the other way though, it's an annoying cliché but there are no easy games in the Premier League. Contrast that with La Liga where Real/Barca can win 80% of matches on auto-pilot, and concentrate resources on European matches. As we've seen this season, if you drop off 10-20% in the Premier League, pretty much every other team will beat you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jhIqRX7Da0 Sorry if it's a repost, but interesting analysis from Neville

Was one of our brightest players in pre-season...sigh.

Hoping Remy/Baba/RLC get a chance vs Maccabi. New competition, fresh start...

I can't remember exactly when he said it, but José made a good point recently. When he first left, Roman's experience of managers was Ranieri and Mourinho. Since then we've had: Grant, Scolari, Hiddink, Carlo, AVB, Robbie, Benitez. Honestly, out of all of those, who would you trust, and more pertinently, who would Roman trust ahead of José? Ancelotti is the only one close to him, and despite how much I loved his time and felt his sacking was outrageous, his record is a level below in terms of consistency. Just reading excerpts of Gerrard's autobiography ( ), and as a player who we don't like at all to be honest, the amount of respect and outright admiration he has for Mourinho is striking. How many managers in the world would be capable of evoking such a response from someone they'd never coached?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3229945/Chelsea-woes-worsen-Thibaut-Courtois-expected-TWO-MONTHS.html#comments If this is to be believed he'll miss a fair few matches. Any rival fans still willing to call Begovic a money grabber who'll sit on the bench all season? Hopefully he'll continue where he left of at the Etihad...although it would be nice if our defence could provide a little protection