Hammo

That wonder goal has obviously filled him with confidence because he had his best game in ages against Huddersfield. It would be fantastic if he could go on and recover the magnificent form that he showed in the middle of the 2020/21 season before he got injured.

It would be nice to win, but equally it will be no big deal if we go out. Therefore I don’t mind whether we rest a few or go near enough full strength. I trust Maresca to make the right calls as he assesses the bigger picture. He is the one who knows his players’ fitness and recovery, and his rotation over the festive period was just about spot on.

Spot on. There is no 'hate' - it's just a trendy, overused word some people lazily substitute for 'criticism' because they want to sound indignant and righteous.

We needed him to step up this month. It took him one day. Arguably the best performance by any of our strikers this season. Just a shame he didn’t get the hat trick he deserved.

He was terrible - as per usual - in the first half. Improved considerably in the second (when it would have been practically impossible not to have done) and people are now deluding themselves by saying he had a really good game. There is a difference between wanting a player to succeed and them actually doing it. He has had one positive performance for us - against Sunderland - and scored a couple of goals. And that’s it.

Happy New Year, Abdul. Your passion for and commitment to this club is remarkable and puts others (notably from last season) to shame. Thank you.

I love that Maresca has made only one or two changes to the team for each game over the festive period and expect that to continue v Huddersfield. The wholesale changes can come in the FA Cup

Is that for us or the opposition? You didn’t say.

Easy. Two great goals. Dominant. As Matt Elliott said, their only threat was Daka setting up their attacks with his pinball table touch. Love the passion of Fatawu and Choudhury.

These are the sorts of sides we should be wiping the floor with as we have much better players But if we continue to do the same thing with the walking football at the back they will realise that by increasing the press we will make mistakes. That’s what makes us vulnerable. We need to up the tempo, vary the tactics and put their defence to work. Otherwise we run the risk of letting this slip like we have done before. And for those who have been heaping praise on Daka of late, maybe you might want to reconsider…

A ‘pressing machine’ is precisely what I mean by excessive praise. Yes, he has been an improvement on the other two strikers in terms of movement and general involvement, but in your appraisal you forgot to mention the countless misplaced passes, poor touches, missed chances and losses of possession. If he keeps up the scoring run and we keep winning, then all power to him. But I remain unconvinced on the evidence so far that he is the ‘answer’ up front.

Maresca has had a dream first half of the season and has put us in a position of extraordinary strength for a return to the Premier League, so he deserves all the praise going for what he has done so far, both tactically and in terms of man management. Yesterday, however, he got his substitutions horribly wrong, which ultimately cost us two points, and worryingly said afterwards that he was “very happy” with the performance. We have had a few brilliant first halves of the season in the recent past. The second half will determine whether he is a Ranieri or a Rodgers.

You are right in that the praise of Daka has been excessive - based mainly on the goals he has scored, all of which any half decent striker would have buried. His general play has been poor since he came in, but unfortunately he looks like the best of a bad bunch right now. Iheanacho has an attitude problem, Vardy is past it, and Cannon is untried.

Worst players were the two lazy substitutes

Useless. Use less. Preferably not at all.

Got what we deserved. In fact we were lucky to get a point after a shambles of a second half. Thoroughly in control until Ndidi got booked and the manager decided to put that useless waste of space in the No 7 shirt on. Casadei cost us two vital points because he is slow, lazy and doesn’t do his job. Send him back to Chelsea pronto.

Did they all hand in their real shoes before like you do at ten pin bowling?

We are so obviously the better side but cockiness and complacency at both ends could let Ipswich in.

Chelsea are just the kind of club this ghastly idea is targeted at. Boehly will be doing cartwheels.

He shows willing, scored the winner v Cardiff, had that one good game v Sunderland and is decent in the air… but given what he did for Italy U20s during the summer and the expectation that came with him, you can’t deny that Casadei has been utterly underwhelming (and that is being generous). If he hadn’t been, Maresca would have played him more frequently.

He is clearly not comfortable in this formation and often gets caught out of position. Apart from up front our weakest link.

Rooney just won’t make it as a manager, will he?

Fair

KDH’s performance was arguably the best by any City player this season.

Even after scoring on his first two starts, you have to wonder whether Maresca sees Daka as our first-choice striker moving forward. After all, he barely got a look in until both Vardy and Iheanacho were unavailable - even with each of those players having a generally substandard season, to the extent that neither has been able to nail down the position as their own. If Daka does go on to prove himself as our best bet up front, which I hope he does, it will have been by accident rather than design.