Socrates

Well that was a horror show. Sarri picks the same eleven that isn’t working, throws them on the pitch, regardless of the opposition, watches them implode from the first minute. Then makes the same predictable changes, which make absolutely no difference. Then blames the players for not being motivated! WTF is he talking about? I have no idea what he’s doing. I doubt the players do either. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. If I was his employer I’d think I’d employed a fraud. That wasn’t football management out there. It was like what you’d expect from a precocious 10 year old shuffling random players into a formation, then thinking he’s a genius. And then blaming everybody else for the disastrous result. Christ, that was utterly disjointed, pointless rubbish, masquerading as team tactics. We’re in serious trouble.

Not optimistic about this at all. He’s been laboured and ineffective the last couple of seasons and that’s in the much slower Italian league where he gets more time and space than he’ll get in England. Given that he’s presumably going to spearhead our forward line for the rest of the season, this is a terrible gamble by the club. This deal is surely at Sarri’s request, so if this turns into a disaster he’ll have nowhere to hide.

This doesn’t look good. Pity because I thought Hudson-Odoi was one of our best performers in pre-season. He looked like a star in the making. It’s inexplicable that he had to wait for so long to get a start under Sarri. If Sarri had given him more opportunities earlier, he might have been more willing to stay. Sarri managed the situation badly in my opinion. Now we look like losing a very very promising player.

What did Sarri mean by Jorginho was in trouble? Was he injured? And why can’t Kante play there if needed?

Thought we controlled the game but without a recognised striker we weren’t very convincing upfront. Relied mainly on long range efforts. Christensen probably had the best chance but made a real mess of it. Don’t know where Morata was but we really needed a focal point. Hazard did his best and CHO was bright but Hazard desperately needs more help. He didn’t get it from Barkley and Willian who were really disappointing. Defence was solid though.

That was hard to watch. Players were predictably tired thanks to Sarri’s incomprehensible lack of rotation. We really didn’t threaten until Fabregas came on. But it was all just a bit desperate by then. Meantime we had to endure the spectacle of Azpi and Alonso doing a poor impression of attacking full backs while Zappacosta and Emerson sit on the bench. God knows what Fabregas is thinking from the bench while we pass ourselves sideways and into oblivion. Even Ross Barkley has been infected by the pass sideways or backwards bug. Poor Kante looks anything but a world-beater these days. What a bloody mess Sarri is making of things.

Desperate, if true. But I guess we’re desperate enough. Why buy Higuain at his age and not Aubemeyang when he was available but deemed too old? It’s just nonsense. Giroud was supposed to be a short term fix. Now this. A short term fix for a short term fix. Our Board stumble around in the dark, no plan, no vision, just making it up as they go along. Incompetence doesn’t come close.

Shocking result. This false nine experiment got us a freak win against Man City, now Sarri thinks he's re-invented the wheel. Saying that, we had lots of possession, three clear chances for Willian, Alonso and Hazard. All wasted. They score from one incisive break. Vardy doing his job. Meantime we faff about passing it to nowhere, with full backs who can't cross – and who are they going to cross to anyway? Hazard? Kante? Poor Kante just looks lost. Pedro and Willian are running into dead ends while two deadweight strikers can't get a start. Bizarre how Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi don't get a look in with all the chaos on the pitch. Sarri is in danger of screwing up if he's not careful. If he's not going to use his squad and the players he trusts aren't performing, then we're in trouble unless the Board comes to his rescue in January. I'm not holding my breath.

Awful first half. But I didn't think we'd blow it so spectacularly after the break. We're in worse shape than I thought Willian had a terrible game. Blew our best chances. Screwed up for the first goal. Morata is looking like a lost cause. Giroud not much better. Kante looked hopelessly lost. Azpi and Alonso were all over the shop. We really screwed up being lumbered with a pair of mediocre strikers and an ageing pair of wingers. Christensen's confidence looks shot. Cahill is off. Luiz is an accident waiting to happen. The team is broken. Sarri has got a huge job on his hands just to stop us sliding down the table. Never mind trying to mould this lot into an attractive footballing side. What a mess.

We'd have been better off keeping Tammy Abraham and Batshuayi. Problem is we blew so much money on Morata that the Board and manager feel obliged to stick with him. Feel we need to bite the bullet in January and cut our losses on Morata. But we won't.

Despite our first half lead we’d created little of note. Morata was reaching a new level of awful and Willian was playing like he’d left his brain at home. Two bad calls from Sarri. Giroud and Pedro start and we win that game comfortably. Credit to Barkley for being in the right place at the death and Luiz for the header, somewhat making up for going AWOL for their first goal. Good point in the end but Sarri needs to bite the bullet in future. Not sure he can just keep starting Morata and hoping he’s turned a corner. He hasn’t and he won’t. I’d start Pedro and Hudson- Odoi over Willian too.

Thought we were very good. Strong defensively. And slick in midfield. And we have Hazard who’s a sublime talent. Just imagine where we’d be with a decent striker. If we fall short this season, which I think we will, it’s because neither Giroud or Morata are capable of scoring enough goals. I seriously hope we’re in for a striker in January. Such a bloody shame we couldn’t find a way to have kept Diego Costa. Would have made such a difference to this team.

2-0 and a majority of the possession looks comfortable. But they had the best chances before we took the lead and we looked vulnerable when they attacked. Luckily their finishing was wayward and Sarri’s substitutions turned the game in our favour. Giroud gave us a presence upfront and Pedro’s directness gave us an edge, albeit with a deflected shot. Still a work in progress. Our central defence lacks solidity and Azpi’s crossing was pretty awful. Alonso was terrific going forward though. Hazard, Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic is a pretty classy midfield. If Sarri can just sort out the defensive lapses and find a way to turn Morata into Diego Costa we’d be a formidable team.

Warning signs were there even when we were 2 up. Some shocking defending, no one attacking the ball, players standing off. Really amateur stuff. On the plus side, Hazard was magnificent, Kovacic looked class and Morata scored. Sarri just needs to sort out our awful defending.

7/10 Not too shabby, with a new midfield, a new keeper, we kept Hazard, Kante and Willian, and integrated Loftus-Cheek, Barkley and Hudson-Odoi into the first team. Centre forward position looks our weak point unless Morata manages to come good. Not overly convinced by our back four. But hopefully our midfield will offer us more protection than we’ve been used to lately.

This is what happens with Marina in charge. She failed to seal the Allison deal, the only realistic high quality keeper available, and now she's scrabbling about with three days to go for Butland. Really, how she's still in a job is beyond me.

It's not a surprise that City are way ahead of us. But what's really worrying is that we look like we've made no progress since last season. And that we're going to struggle just to improve on fifth place. We don't look like we've got enough goalscorers in the team. We need a CF and a winger and an attacking midfielder. It's unlikely now, but without some additions it's going to be a really difficult season.

Man City toying with us really. We look desperately average. So much wrong with us it's hard to know where to start. Just a few days to get this transfer window right or we're in for a really difficult season.

"could cost in excess of 100m". Don't know where they get these figures from. I assume they estimate wages, guess a fee and then double it.

And a free pizza.

Conte couldn’t have screwed up the end of the season any better. Get on a winning streak and then rotate with two games to go. The man’s a genius. Utterly hopeless and clueless performance today. Don’t know who was more bewildered: the players or the manager. A suitable epitaph for Conte’s disastrous second year. A crashing defeat to bookend our entire season. Good luck to the new boss. Glad Bruce Buck was forced to travel north to watch the whole unedifying spectacle. Hope he learned something more than we need a new manager as soon as possible.

Goodbye Conte. Great first season followed by an utter shambles of a second season. From the sublime to the ridiculous in just three days. Story of our season in a nutshell. Don’t tamper with a winning side with two games to go and a CL spot on the line. Pretty fuc**ng simple stuff. Nagging feeling is that if Conte wasn’t going he wouldn’t dare have put out that side. Abramovich should have sacked him months ago.

Just when the team finds a formation and form, Conte chooses the wrong game to rotate. Criminally irresponsible team selection tonight. Sums up his really poor judgement at times this season. Will not be sorry to see the back of him.

We don’t really deserve to be top four. Manager had no faith in the squad and they’ve paid him back in kind. Board really needs to be restructured and some proper football people brought in. It’s scary to think the kind of discussions that are going on behind the scenes before we buy the likes of Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Berkeley, Giroud. We’re really run by a bunch of incompetents. Meanwhile it’s the manager who’ll get the sack and he’ll no doubt go on to do really well at PSG or Madrid. He’s well out of it.

Thought he was going to be a good signing. Board clearly thought we were signing the next Yaya Toure. Have no idea what's happened to him. Looks devoid of confidence that it's painful to watch. Honestly didn't think he was going to struggle like this. Don't know if he's just been shoved in too early as we don't have too many options. It might've been better for him to be eased into the side. I think that was Conte's preferred plan: to keep Matic and use Bakayoko as an occasional understudy. Our transfer business and Drinkwater's injury forced Conte's hand. Either way, it's not a good situation for the team or player.