Unfortunate that his one mistake led to a goal. That is Saka for you. Show him inside on to his left and you pay for it

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Unfortunate that his one mistake led to a goal. That is Saka for you. Show him inside on to his left and you pay for it

Not being able to prevent one cross coming in is not a mistake. Delap hopelessly overhittingba simple pass into Netos run is a mistake. Fofana missing the flight of the ball and not getting to the far post quicker is a mistake and having Gusto on the back post marking two aerially strong players was a mistake. But not Cucurella just because Saka was able to cross the ball.

Me being me of course, I would argue having Gusto on the pitch was a mistake. Acheampong in that position and I'd back him to win the header any way. I will conceded that Gusto had a solid game though and a recovering sliding tackle was pretty decent as well.

Think he largely dealt with Saka well, didn't really let him get into dangerous areas in our box but did struggle to press him high up the pitch.

Unfortunate for the cross as its a nothing cross really just box standard stuff that would be routinely dealt with by better CB positioning.

After the early yellow card I was worried he might make a mistake and get sent off. I think he did well for pretty much all of the game. The cross wasn't the most dangerous one of the game, but it just happened when there were two Arsenal players at the back post with only 1 Chelsea player. That's not really Cucu's fault, although he strikes me as the sort of person who would be blaming himself.

He's been immense this season and the only reason we're criticising him is because of the impossibly high standards he has set.

The problem for their goal was the fact Caicedo was missing, all through the game Cucu was showing him outside, and Caicedo was covering the cut in. With caicedo missing Saka was able to try the cut in. The other problem was Fofana wandering away from his man, towards the ball. Had Saka got past Cucu and Chalobah, he would have been ideally placed to intercept. Wiith Caicedo on the pitch Saka never really tried the cut back, with him missing, Fofanas anticipation was the wrong move, it left Moreno free.

Good game again our most consistent player this season and always available to play

Now this make more sense. I was surprised when I saw earlier this season that Cucu has signed a new contract.

Apparently felt some discomfort with his hamstring during the Villa game which is why he was subbed off.

3 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

Apparently felt some discomfort with his hamstring during the Villa game which is why he was subbed off.

If we lose him we are f**ked

4 minutes ago, El regreso said:

If we lose him we are f**ked

Well we bought a £40m Hato that was meant to provide competition in the summer. He needs to use him.

Knowing him he will probably play Gusto/James at LB.

1 hour ago, markpitts said:

Well we bought a £40m Hato that was meant to provide competition in the summer. He needs to use him.

Knowing him he will probably play Gusto/James at LB.

Quite likely, as Hato was apparently out injured yesterday as well !

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sexyfootball

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Quite likely, as Hato was apparently out injured yesterday as well !

Even if Hato wss 200000% fit he won't dare to play Hato

Just like he won’t play Santos and just like he won’t play Acheampong.

1 minute ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Just like he won’t play Santos and just like he won’t play Acheampong.

Plain bad luck for Santos that his place in the team is held by the incumbent club poster boy who the principal owner personally intervened to sign and hence who plays no mater what.

Josh I suspect is earmarked for a pure profit sale so they don't want to play him too much in case he builds a strong relationship with the fans. Easier to sell players that aren't firm fan favourites ... less PR backlash !

It goes without saying that both of them would be in my starting line up every week of course 😎

Red card aside, how often does he pass forward, break lines, progress play, turn out of pressure, carry the ball or take any sort of responsibility? The answer is hardly ever. He had probably the season of his career last year, but it was never sustainable. Had a purple patch at the beginning of the season, but has been awful ever since.

Give Hato a sustained run in the team. Cucu’s form has dropped, but the stupidity of the red card is hard to look past. Still, he’s in good company.

Not looking to spite face by biting nose, but ready to see Hato get a run.

Edited January 8Jan 8 by PhilH930

31 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

Give Hato a sustained run in the team. Cucu’s form has dropped, but the stupidity of the red card is hard to look past. Still, he’s in good company.

Not looking to spite face by biting nose, but ready to see Hato get a run.

Hato made a name for himself at A**x playing primarily as a CB. If Barco gets brought in I can see him more likely to provide competition to Cucurella.

2 hours ago, forbzy said:

Hato made a name for himself at A**x playing primarily as a CB. If Barco gets brought in I can see him more likely to provide competition to Cucurella.

Barco plays in the midfield for Strasbourg, and is being looked at due to our lack of control in the middle of the park. If we stopped with the inverted nonsense, Hato will be fine.

Really disappointed in him, especially with him being one of the very few senior players, he should be leading by example.

I agree with what a few others are saying, drop him and give Hato a run. I thought he played well last night.

I hope Rosenior uses that stupidity along with the others losing their heads last night and reinforces the need for discipline in this squad, its been severely lax under the last clown so drop this daft sod for the next game hes available, make an example of him to begin getting a grip on the squad.

He should have just let Wilson had his shot off and if he scored we are still 11 v 11 and we would definitely had scored and probably win.

But we have a wider problem with discipline in our team and Liam needs to stamp that out immediately.

17 minutes ago, El regreso said:

He should have just let Wilson had his shot off and if he scored we are still 11 v 11 and we would definitely had scored and probably win.

But we have a wider problem with discipline in our team and Liam needs to stamp that out immediately.

I saw a stat that say strabroug has the same red as we do. So yeah not going to happen

50 minutes ago, El regreso said:

He should have just let Wilson had his shot off and if he scored we are still 11 v 11 and we would definitely had scored and probably win.

But we have a wider problem with discipline in our team and Liam needs to stamp that out immediately.

He didn't even need to let him score, he had enough pace and time to actually get in front of him instead of wrestling him to the ground.

The easiest red card decision that ref will ever make and our players were still stupid enough to argue it and talk their way into 3 booking off the back of it. Cucurella staying on the pitch pleading his innocence was just embarrassing, completely avoidable situation that you’d expect a 27 year old to know better than to do.

Been poor for a while now, time to give Hato a run.