Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
Be interesting to see Moyes team selection & tactics, we have come away with 4 points from a possible 9, I was expecting 0. He set us up not to concede and packed the middle of the park, and got our players committed and organised. Stoke, total new ball game, he has to keep us solid, yet give us more options on going forward, be an interesting game purely on team selection and tactics.
We win this, only way is up from what I have seen, we lose this, I'm not sure what we have going forward to play the teams around us. Big game for Moyes in my eyes.
I predict a draw, we win though, Hughes may get the dreaded vote of confidence....
Due to our recent surprise points this is no longer a must-win game, but if we want to get away from the relegation dogfight sooner rather than later, a win is what's needed. It's a totally different challenge to the last 3 games. I wouldn't be surprised to see crouch start, Collins would be needed there. Shaquiri is always a danger and unpredictable. I don't see the point in going gung-ho and risk boosting their confidence by conceding early goals. Try and frustrate them and gradually push forward seems like more of a plan. We'll need to make a few changes I think, but nothing too radical. Noble's proving a better proposition playing further forward (where he used to play) now playing 90 mins with no problem, but Antonio might need a rest.
With regards to the goals thing , I still think we need to stop shipping them .Two conceded against City, Arsenal and Chelsea is a great start but we are still at -18 this term , having conceded 32 against sides other than those three .Only Stoke have conceded more .
I reckon we need around a dozen clean sheets from this point on to get our GD respectable by season end, but in truth we will do well to get it to anything better than -10 by the end of the season .
We simply won't go from hardly scoring and shipping goals to hardly shipping goals and scoring loads .
We're solidly in the 1-0 to the cockney boys territory for the rest of the season in the matches we could win .The trick is to scrape some 0-0's and 0-1's along the way against the better side .
We're simply too far behind already to do otherwise .
Mid table on points, say 43-46 and a GD of -9 , from where we are now would be a great recovery .
Burnley in 6th have scored just 2 more goals than us , but conceded 20 fewer .
None of us would want to watch that sort of game forever but we need to be fair to the new Manager - his starting point wasn't great , and two thirds of a season of medicine is the price we probably need to pay .
Excluding our most recent pair of clean sheets we have been shipping 2 goals per game .
Only Man City are scoring at 3 per game , the moral being if you really want to win, shut the back door .
Same formation and ideally same line up if they are all fit and well. We will need to use the squad to get through the xmas fixtures but they have some decent momentum as it stands so we have to stick with them.
Third clean sheet on the spin and every confidence we can nab a goal or two against them.
Need Arnautovic to keep his head, something tells me he is a walking red card in this one.
In this, and the upcoming games we just need to keep up the defensive work but cherish the ball more when we have it.
Average possession figures for the last three fantastic performances were 28%.
We gave the ball back to Arsenal far too cheaply yesterday.
More possession equals more attempts on goal, and in the first eleven and from the bench we have the players who can put the ball in the net.
I'm with Pinky on this: a clean sheet is a must. If we can defend from the front and convert something at their end, that's a nice bonus.
This season we can forget about catching the likes of Leicester, Watford and Everton: that ship has sailed. We need to avoid any more three or four goal tonkings and gradually get the goal difference down to something reasonable because that could be worth two or three places come the end of the season.
I think that 40 points might be a stretch this season. Fortunately, I think a couple of teams are going to struggle to get anything over thirty and, as long as we get a point more than the third worst, I don't care.
We all expect a win after our last 3 showings of effort and determination but this is a whole new game where we could be the hunters whilst trying to stop them hitting us on the break and shutting up shop.
An interesting one to see Mr Moyes plan A + B.
We may be Triple H's team but I like John Cena's prediction this week. Sure it might be based on his love of pig meat but I'll take it.
Cena's prediction: Who doesn't love a good ham? It provides you with nourishment, happiness and a sense of community. It is always served at a big family function gathering. I like West Ham. 0-1