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There's no way Arteta is going to let a minor detail like that get in the way of his commitment to time-wasting

I think we got slated moreso for losing every week and never scoring

If (and it's a big if because it's coming from Pete O'Rourke) £26m is the fee then that's really not very good I don't think. He's definitely going to need replacing - fine you can take the piss out of his numbers last season but none of our other midfielders have ever bettered two goals or three assists in their careers which is bleak stuff. In an ideal world I'd probably rather have seen him stay and knuckle down but if we don't believe that's going to happen then I suppose we take what we can get and hope there's time to reinvest it.

If they have indeed made it clear that it'll take a "seriously large offer" then hopefully we take the hint and look elsewhere rather than obliging

He did have quite a long time ago, yeah. 23/24 he put up less impressive numbers than everyone's favourite punching bag Daka and last season he didn't start a single league game through a combination of injuries and not being very good anymore

He was OK, some poor touches but some good ones as well including an assist on his second ever senior start - you can nitpick if you really want by saying the pass itself wasn't perfect but it was his positivity and work rate that created the opportunity. Got through a lot of running too as Ayew being the striker meant he was having to lead the press a lot of the time. Just as it's not going to be helpful to constantly compare any current or future striker to Vardy, I think we need to be careful not to judge all our young players by Monga's standard.

I thought it was noticeable against Charlton and again tonight that he's very often the one dishing out encouragement/praise/bollockings as needed. At the same time he gets put into some really unenviable positions because of how scared of the ball a lot of his teammates are but he never seems to be waving his arms about at them or getting visibly frustrated, just cracks on with it.

The only way this would make any sense to me is if we've been really unpleasantly surprised by the state of Begovic to the extent that we don't trust him as backup

Personally I think he's got a long way to go before we can start calling him Ollie. Still very much an Oliver in my book

I'd be interested to hear from people booing Gray all game about what the thought process was there exactly. Happy to be corrected if I've missed something but as far as I can tell, the worst you can really say about him is that he wasn't a particularly great or consistent player for us. I'm not sure the default treatment for former players should be booing but even if it is, he played a (small) part in our greatest ever achievement and did come up with some moments for us, most obviously away at Cardiff. Cheering him going down injured and singing about him being ****ing shit seemed a bit weird to me. Again, if there's a good reason for it (i.e. not "thinks he's better than he is", "looks moody") then do tell.

I am on board and more importantly it looks like a lot of the players are too

Good again, credit where it's due. One silly tackle but otherwise very few complaints about him thus far

We not doing a deep dive into his reaction to the goal this time then?

Didn't think much of the overall performance again but these wins must, gradually, build confidence and fluency. I've almost entirely given up hope of any signings but fingers crossed when the window closes that certainty will at least bring some sort of focus and closure. Vestergaard was excellent, much better from Soumare and even Skipp started to resemble a footballer. If we do end up relying on individual quality at times then there won't be many better individuals at this level than Fatawu and Monga. Lovely for Ricardo to score. Other than the almost team-wide reluctance to be positive and take responsibility for getting the ball up the pitch, the biggest negatives for me were Mavididi was completely anonymous and not for the first time, Okoli is truly horrific on the ball and Thomas really doesn't look up to much. Yet again we look so much better with an actual striker on the pitch - ideally that's a new signing but for the moment it's Daka, so play Daka. The chances of him scoring a goal seem more remote than ever but his movement, link play and work off the ball make a huge difference. I'm not sure there's much point trying to understand this team on any level but from the body language, players being vocal in supporting their teammates but also bollocking them when necessary, the work rate, the celebrations for the goals and at full-time: Marti seems to have the majority onside. Please just give him some new signings and if there are players who aren't buying in then do whatever we can do **** them off.

**** me that's an awful tackle

Vestergaard is having a great game and it's just as well because those two empty vessels in front of him won't stop giving him the ball even when they've got about 50 yards of space to turn and move into

Fair enough he's skied it but I'm not sure it will quite have made it to heaven

What a weird football team. Whether it's technique, confidence, focus, can't really be arsed or a mixture, so few of our players are willing/able to receive the ball under any kind of pressure or move it up the pitch.

Skipp and Soumare are so ****ing negative. Please take some responsibility on the ball lads

Probably needs hitting first time that but nice to see Page getting forward and providing a threat

I wasn't expecting anything different but I'm still disappointed that this is the reality of our team and situation

Not ideal

At the risk of spoiling the joke, Jack Lester did score against us in 2002

Sounds like the sort of thing a HAPPY CLAPPER would say if you ask me

It does sort of make sense for Chelsea. Aside from potentially being another young asset for their portfolio, they seem set on getting two distinct players for every position and if they're selling Nkunku and can't get Simons then I guess that means they want a Palmer backup. From the player's perspective he's just had a grim relegation slog and might not fancy another with Leeds when he could instead spend a year working with Enzo and some elite players.