Sunbury Fox

Agree he'll stick with the same 3 in CM but don't think he'll make either of those other changes, sadly. It will be an unchanged team.

Agree that was very poor from Kimber. At least go out there and try to hang around, even if you're injured. If I was Wood or Currie I would be furious that my efforts to at least make a game of it were thrown away like this.

The Ricardo thing is genuinely baffling. On Saturday VK stayed back more, whilst Justin played higher with Ayew tucking inside (the average position map confirms this). So the argument that Justin has been preferred because he can tuck in as a 3rd centre back doesn't even apply as surely Ricardo would offer more than Justin in this more attacking role? On the face of it, it also seems unlikely that Ricardo would have fallen out with Cooper personally, given that Cooper seems to be a good man manager and Ricardo seems to be the archetypal professional. But Ricardo is a highly technical player and loved playing under Maresca, so is it possible that he may have voiced concerns about the less sophisticated playing style that we now seem to be deploying, upsetting Cooper in the process? Either way, Cooper is clearly cutting off his nose to spite his face in not using Ricardo even as a sub. Will be fascinating to see how things play out moving forward; would be a real shame if Ricardo's time at the club ended in the way that Cags' time did.

Another defeat incoming then.

Jeez, that's even worse than I thought.

I know you're joking but, seriously, I would not be surprised to see Cooper fielding this team at Arsenal in a couple of weeks.

Been trying to buy tickets for the Southampton game but the website is not allowing me to select individual seats after I select an available block. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Looks like the season is going to peter out miserably, which is a shame, as in many ways we've had another decent, competitive season until the last week or so.

Has Rahane baled out now that our promotion chances have gone? He's not starting today anyway.

I think it would be fully in character for Cooper to retain the same starting XI as at Palace. He’ll probably stick with Ndidi in the 10 because his pressing there worked so well at Selhurst Park. The problem is that, unlike Palace, Everton will be launching it long at every opportunity so having Ndidi in this role is unlikely to be anywhere near as effective as it was against Palace. Also expect we will see Ayew instead of Fatawu; Cooper just won’t be brave enough to play both Fatawu and Mavididi in the same team. Let’s face it, this game is going to be a crime against football, given the 2 managers in the dugout.

Agree. Would take Moyes in a heartbeat in our current situation. Not exciting at all but knows how to get results in the PL with limited teams.

I would not be surprised to see him back with us on loan in January. In fact, I'd love to see that. Feel really sorry for the lad as he was forced out to (hopefully) ensure we didn't fail PSR again.

Not sure that's true. Let's see which team he picks v Everton at home. I reckon he'll start with the same XI who started today, with Winks, Skipp and Ndidi in CM. If he does, given how Everton generally set up, I reckon both teams will retreat into their defensive third for 90 minutes and leave the ball on its own in the centre circle.

How did you think Ndidi did, out of interest?

That's totally on Cooper for several reasons: Allowed them to throw everyone forward because he took off so much of our attacking threat, they knew there was no risk. Just invited more and more pressure needlessly. Put on 2 subs who have had no football in months in Hamza and Coady and both looked totally off the pace, as shown by that stupid tackle by Coady. Replaced Ndidi with Hamza as a 10, WTAF when he has several far better options on the bench.

Get him gone. Clueless.

I want him gone, end of. This is ridiculous now. I seriously think we'll start games v Liverpool and Man City with no attacking players on the pitch.

I’m surprised that the kind of players at Chelsea would want to sign these deals, though. Such players would surely back themselves to get a couple of 5 year contracts on huge wages, as available at other clubs, rather than plump for the security of a v long contract on lower wages? Maybe not Nicholas Jackson but the likes of Palmer, Fernandez, etc.

Cooper must be gutted about that. No doubt he'll be the first sub on to the pitch, though, after landing at Heathrow on Saturday morning. Can't beat that PL experience, you know....

Going down with barely a whimper in this game. Really need to strengthen the bowling for next season to have any chance of winning many games.

Weren’t they given a special allowance that enabled them to stay within PSR thresholds last year, or did I dream that?!

Marked improvement compared to the late Southgate era. Utilising Trent properly, playing an actual winger on the left wing, and looking to be positive and move the ball quickly. Very promising signs.

I wonder if his goal output at Palace has been stunted by having played mainly under a defensive, ultra-cautious manager like Hodgson, who set up first and foremost not to lose. So coming to play under Steve Cooper should really be a boost for him. Oh....

Well, that's half a day of rain stopped play. Just need another 2 days now!

This surely can't be right. The "world famous" Notts Forest having fewer social media followers than Fulham?