Jonty

I think once he comes back we'll have to seriously consider a Zouma - Luiz partnership, or the inclusion of JT and going to a back 3.

Funny that Arsenal Mania seem to be even more pessimistic than us, neither set of fans really fancies their team for this one. If Alonso starts and puts in a decent performance, I think we'll win.

Glad to hear you could be in with a chance, will be rooting for you.

I haven't watched much of United this season so can't comment on much of what you've asked, but your final question is something we all can certainly relate with, from the Torres saga that saw him become undroppable for 4 years despite being hot garbage, and Ivanovic inheriting that mantle when he left. The feeling is pure frustration. Particularly if you have very able deputies (Sturridge and Lukaku wasting away behind Torres, Bertrand and Felipe Luis behind Ivanovic). The situation I suppose is slightly different for you lot because Rooney is a club legend. In Lampard's final season, his influence was clearly waning, but he was used more sparingly accordingly.

Any chance of Bristol going up? Would be great if that were to happen and they could take Tammy back next season for some Prem experience. I worry that we may target a PL loan for him next year, only to end up wasting a year on the bench as Bamford did after winning the Championship Player of the Year at Boro.

Have to agree with Ernie Blue, I don't understand why we need to worry about playing 3 midfielders whose primary responsibility is to run around and make tackles (Oscar/Matic/Kante) when there are teams outperforming us playing with just 1 (Liverpool started at the Bridge with a midfield of Henderson/Coutinho/Wijnaldum??).

Three very tasty games there, if we get past West Ham and one of the Manchester teams and one of spurs/scousers are out too, it's starting to look pretty good for us.

I'm sure this has to be a troll but i'm not sure where it's going.

It's about 3 years too late that he is getting a shot in the squad ahead of Mikel, but hopefully not too late.

Anyone else think he plays far better as a second striker than alone? I wonder if we'll start any games with both he and Costa up front this season.

Couldn't agree more, not sure how anyone who watched the game today could come in here and complain about Luiz's defending when the other 3 members of the back line made even more detrimental mistakes. I think once JT is back and Cahill is off to the bench, Luiz will sharpen up a bit further. But it is already clear that Luiz is a league above the defender in Just's avatar, which ironic given his obsessive level of scorn for the Brazilian.

I think Oscar may have gotten his ticket punched by Fabregas' performance tonight.

Made a few errors but also made quite a few tackles that I don't see Ivanovic being capable of making these days, I hope Conte saw enough to warrant giving him a go at Arsenal.

I'm assuming that what he really meant was somehow lost in translation, and that he isn't really saying he's thinking about leaving in 3 years (what an absurd thing to say anyway), but if he did want to go and we got a good enough offer I wouldn't really be distraught.

Luiz on free kick duty is a lot like Drogba, he's either going to smack a shot that goes in or nearly goes in, or knock it into row z, unlike a Lampard or a Fabregas who may get a larger percentage of their shots on target, but a keeper is also more likely to save them. Wasn't as solid today as on the weekend but still had a better game defensively than Cahill.

As you all said, didn't really have a great game, although I'd say he probably had a better game than Matic or Oscar did on the weekend. But it wasn't the sort of performance that if you saw him playing for another club, you'd be wishing we signed him.

The man in the magic hat.

Obligatory highlights video

WAGNH reports that our buy back clause on the second oldest Hazard brother expires at the end of this calendar year. Thorgan has scored six goals in his first seven games for Borussia Monchengladbach this season, including a hattrick in the Champions League against BSC Young Boys, and can be gotten back for the (relatively) paltry sum of €15m, which is currently just under £13m. So, do we splurge the cash and get him back?

I still can't believe we sold Felipe Luis back to Atletico when he'd barely ever gotten a chance, what a joke that was.

Really looks like he could do with a long vacation, as Pep had after leaving Barca. I mean the man will have barely had a break for the last 15 years, and the way his personality and management style is, I can imagine that being extremely draining. I doubt even in the off-season he ever really switches off. Then maybe come back to a team under slightly less pressure, as Pep did with Bayern, or a PSG for example. Not that I expect he'd ever consider that.

The longer this goes on the more and more it starts to resemble the Torres saga.

Have to agree, while he may not be the best player in the world in his position there are certainly a lot of other areas we need to strengthen before considering dropping Willian, who could easily be a prominent part of another title winning team. Ivanovic, Oscar and to a lesser extent Matic for example are players who should be far closer to the door, I find the vitriol being directed at our reigning player of the year very confusing.

Voted for Luiz. Dave and Hazard the only others to really come away with any credit, Costa probably did the best with what what little he had too.

Well he's our first chance to see if Conte is going to stick with the likes of Ivanovic and Oscar when they don't show up, our last few managers' biggest downfall may have been sticking with out of form players, from Torres onwards.