Its a good time to play them, though. They've lost as many games as we have. Freddie needs to figure out how we are going to defend resolutely and get the ball to the front three pronto like United did.

I was hoping for another mid table team

No idea why Martinelli isn't used more in PL matches. He's up for it. Brings a lot of youthful energy and urgency. Has great movements, and doesn't seem over awed at all by it all.

Feels great to celebrate some goals and a Win!!!!
Thought it was game over at half time.
Didnt see us turning that around.
All good goals and you could see a bit of confidence coming back.
Looks like the players are behind Freddie judging by the hugs at the end.
Massive win.
Really really needed that.
Love that kid Martinelli.
And goal and assist by Pépé.
Brilliant finish.
Keep Luiz on the bench please. Chambers played well.

My tongue obviously wasn’t far enough in my cheek!
The wider point being how we seem to be a very fragile side who dwell on any low confidence, taking an age to snap out of it but can have confidence eroded away by a single goal

Was thinking that Peter Storey certainly could have used a shrink ...

Chambers and Torriera may not be the answer at CB and holding mid but at least it is putting round pegs in round holes and picking two players who have natural defensive attributes. No dribbling out of defence, no long range passing just defend and give it to someone responsible for the attack. Small steps

Both deserve to stay in the team in those positions

That was the first time since 2011 that we’ve been behind at half time away from home and come back to win the game. 8 years!

Not to mention Kiwi himself

' Mama Mia ' ..... hark at this geriatric old faggot trying to appear all modern and avant - garde .

Why not get rid of the bloody " snowflakes " instead of catering for their needs ....... ?

That soon?

What ..? ....... running a brothel , trying to mint counterfeit gold coins , married four times

........ sounds like a well rounded character to me .

Martinelli must have a role to play against City.

Is Özil in any of the goals celebration? Certainly didn't see him for the Aubameyang goal.

not bad Chris .

That's the ticket Gaz ...why on earth celebrate the fact we got a much needed win when you can see a possible gloomy event further on down the track .


We beat West Ham ... okay so they aren't up to much at the moment but I'll tell you something for nothing their fans would have been ecstatic if they'd beaten us .

I'm happy

What concerns me is the 60 minutes of dross. We do that against better teams then we will pay. When I see a committed and flowing team effort I will celebrate

Dash. I was hoping to fool you into thinking that I was hip and cool.

Not a single yellow card for us last night makes a change.
Xhaka, Guendouzi, Sokratis and chambers are all 1 card away from a suspension

Don’t think we can rest AMN, with Bellerin injured and chambers at CB AMN will have to play.

Venereal disease, old age, drink, etc. Possibly even all of the above. There are many reasons for fading recall.

I share your concerns. But hopefully both the players and especially management will be feeling confident and will actually believe they can get results against City, United, and Chelsea, etc at home. That first win was massive.

Liege, Everton and Bournmouth away .. could be a lot worse.

Provided the usual injury curse doesn't strike, we could get a little bit of momentum.

Replace Özil with Willock. Replace Xhaka with Guendozi. And we will have a more mobile fighting unit. It will also strengthen our defensive play when we lose the ball.

Absolutely not. Özil should be playing . The second half he was excellent. Finding space putting balls through. Willock is nowhere near good enough to replace him. I also thought Xhaka played quite well.

So that's what a win feels like. Rather nice.

Hope the injury to Tierney isn't serious.

Ok, I might not have noticed Özil as closely in the second half. But Xhaka was misplacing passes a lot in the second.

We are off to one of our worst starts in the league in years but it doesn't feel like it to me. Yes, its bad but we have been mediocre for several years now.

Paulo Sousa.....

Hi g7,

Xhaka has certainly perfected the art of the misplaced crossfield pass that not only goes straight to an opponent but sets them off on a dangerous counter-attack. I have literally lost count of the number of times he has done it since he's been here

Yeh, when he wasn't misplacing passes or ducking out of headers he was quite good.

I don't think we can afford to have Özil in our team, Gun. He's a stroller who no longer does enough offensively to offset the defensive issues he brings.

Don't agree at all. His vision to pick out a pass and his appreciation of where everyone is is second to none. He was never great defensively even on his best day.l

Be fair to the fella, Soc. It's perfectly understandable for him to duck out of headers. Look what happened to him last night when the ball hit him in the head. He was seeing double (although he didn't seem to see any West Ham players)

Unfortunately I agree. Özil was terrible in the first half yesterday but would Willock or Guendouzi have played those weighted passes in the final 3rd in the build up to the 2nd and 3rd goals ? I doubt it as they are more about energy. I just don’t think anyone else can offer us the ability to connect our midfield to attack.

It’s as frustrating as hell because he’s going through the motions most of the time but until we sign a more creative midfielder with more incisive passing he has to play because there’s nobody else.

One of the more bizarre decisions emery made (and Ljungberg for 2 games) was not to have Pépé as a permanent fixture in the starting 11. He needs time to get up to speed with the league, the tactics and team mates but he’s still miles better than anything else we have and a threat every time he plays.

He was basically in the team up to those two match winning gun free kicks, where you would have thought he’d gain his confidence and be rating to go - then dropped

Yes it’s the worst decision made this season.

He’s pretty much our only creative outlet outside of the strikers with the absence of decent midfielders

Maybe but his two goals against Stoke when we were two down in the 1970 FA Cup Semi Final were priceless. Keeping his cool taking a penalty against the best goalie in the world after Frank's header was handled on the line.....brilliant stuff. Kept the double alive. Nice one Snouty.

Like the look of Hwang Hee-Chan from Salzburg. Pace, tricky, direct, runs all day.
6 goals and 7 assists in 14 bundesliga games. Has the profile of versatile quick forward I like.

I'd be keen if it was the same bird who was checking Tony Soprano .

Lorraine Bracco

Arriving at club on the mobilty scooter clutching the "Rex Hartwig" wooden racquet , coughing up the false teeth on court ..... probably goes a long way to destroying that image