Fulham at home Saturday 14th Dec 3pm

[danperkins]

Not even sure what one is anymore. The level of officiating is so poor it’s unreal.

[labourRed]

Erm, I'm pretty sure you said that Chelsea are favourites for the league, when every single other metric in the world suggested otherwise. Bit of a different spin.

But fair play if you expected us to get screwed by the ref today to let them close the gap.

They still won't win the league though.

No, I said I'd put them as favourites. Still do. It's reductive to look at the league and say we're 7points clear and obviously we're favourites (we were last season with 10 to go as well remember).

Clearly Chelsea first team off in between games is a massive advantage.

Hopefully we do win the league but we'll absolutely need to sacrifice something, like the cup games or we'll falter in the run in, again. You can take that to the bank.

People who have Arsenal as our main competition aren't watching either teams.

[chadrtc]

No, I said I'd put them as favourites. Still do. It's reductive to look at the league and say we're 7points clear and obviously we're favourites (we were last season with 10 to go as well remember).

Clearly Chelsea first team off in between games is a massive advantage.

Hopefully we do win the league but we'll absolutely need to sacrifice something, like the cup games or we'll falter in the run in, again. You can take that to the bank.

People who have Arsenal as our main competition aren't watching either teams.

With all due respect, I disagree massively. And we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

[SB]

A great point after the red card. The last thing we needed was to lose another defender

[Scratch]

The stats I saw said we missed one 'big' chance. I had a bit of a stop-start stream, so missed that. Unless the meant the Diaz header on the six yard line, but to me that was a tough header to make?

[chadrtc]

Opta give Chelsea only 4.4%, Arsenal at 10%

https://theanalyst.com/2024/08/opta-football-predictions

[Norbs]

Lineker thinks the red card was ridiculous

[SB]

Lineker thinks the red card was ridiculous

Not often he sides with us

[Scratch]

Lineker thinks the red card was ridiculous

I agree tho. Wilson's touch was heavy, and he was never getting the ball even if Robbo hadn't had a brain fart. Therefore, no denial of a goal scoring opportunity. I said as much at the time.

[peterbread]

Really like the fact Slot didn’t do the usual take an attacker off for a defender after the red. Put Gravy, who was great again, back and changed the system a few times until they found the balance and it payed off.

The team look super fit this season. Down to 10 and Fulham are the ones struggling to finish the game. Still think the difference to previous season will be the fitness levels at the end of the season because of the less hectic style. Don’t think they’ll run out of legs this time.

Great effort from everyone. But there’s a noticeable difference defensively without Ibou, no knock on Gomez but Ibou has been immense this season. Plus Mac in midfield would have been handy today but at least he’ll be well rested.

[BigChief]

I would classify this as Slot's first real big test. An unfair early red card and a goal down. My memories went back to Klopp's masterclass against Newcastle when he changed to a box style as reviewed by that Football 442 guy.

Initially I didn't hold much hope from Slot but was very pleasantly surprised at how well we coped. He tried different positions with Trent and Grav to get us some control and it worked. I'm now convinced we have Klopp MkII and unless Pep's City is challenging then the PL title is Slot's.

[Harv]

That referee deserves the Coote treatment.

Someone needs to dig out the dirt on this prick and end his career. He had it out for us from kickoff. Gave us nothing all game, ignored 3 red cards for them, a clear penalty for us, killed several attacks making us retake free kicks from a metre away, let their keeper waste time all game without booking him and then blows bang on stoppage time when they wasted 3 minutes of it because some prick got a blow to his nuts. Infuriating.

[Harv]

Trent and Salah (great ball for the assist aside) were absolutely awful. Nunez misses those chances Salah had and people would have the pitchforks out. Trent was lazy as ****, there was times he was walking around and then just goes into hollywood pass mode. He looks like he's gone tbh.

Thought Elliott and Jota looked great when they came on. Brought a good energy. Jota looked hungry for goals and it was the type of finish we've come to expect from him. Just please stay fit ffs! Eliott was busy and seemed to be popping up everywhere. Think he can really offer us a lot in that 10 role.

Robbo is done. His legs are gone. That touch was so bad, that was sunday pub league type stuff. If he had a right foot that doesn't happen, he just knocks it ahead and clears easily, but he tries to cushion it with his left (and lets face it, he doesn't have the best technical ability at his best) and completely ****s it. He's been a champion over the years, he's a great guy, but his time has come. He's been flogged the past 6 years and he just cant play 2 games a week anymore.

[DerKrampus]

Who?

Darw... Egsactleh!

*wipes milk from mouth*

[Exiled_red]

Lineker thinks the red card was ridiculous

Only saw the game on MOTD yesterday but I agree with Lineker. It was definitely a foul, but the way Wilson played the ball he wasn't getting on the end of it even if Robertson didn't foul him. The goalscoring opportunity with or without the foul was for the Fulham player (can't remember who) that had the chance anyway, so difficult to see how the foul denied a goalscoring opportunity.

I think it was given because it was a last man tackle and quite close to goal the ref felt it had to be rather than looking at whether it was denial of a goalscoring opportunity.