DeAndre Yedlin is said to be receiving a Latvian passport shortly courtesy of his maternal lineage, which makes it look very likely that he will be coming to the UK in January to join the squad.

Saw that as well, which is good news. I think it would be a bad move to immediately offload Kyle Naughton though because we'd need to see if Kyle Walker was back to full fitness and form and also if Yedlin can actually handle the pace and physicality of the Premier League.

Continually playing Eric Dier in the right back position isn't really the answer.

Interesting... the official account for the club has tweeted that Kane starts up front before the actual team is announced - acknowledging the press interest ?

Anyway, the team is now in ..

Lloris, Naughton, Fazio, Kaboul (c), Rose; Capoue, Mason; Chadli, Eriksen, Townsend; Kane

I suspect Fazio and Kaboul have been paired up to counteract stoke's physical approach.

Unfortunately will miss the game today as it's the Mother in Law's birthday so my presence is required at a family lunch.

Will follow the game the best I can on Twitter but not really expecting a sudden upsurge in our fortunes. Think it'll be a 2-2 draw.

Fingers crossed though.

Good luck at the party Knarf. Must keep the Mother in Law happy .. heh!

Stoke are one of those 'sod's law' teams that will end up nicking a win with a last minute penalty after we've spent the entire game battering their goal and not getting any luck so here's hoping for a win.

I think Kane and Townsend will work well together. They appeared to have some good chemistry going on in the week. Hopefully their spirit will permeate through the team and we will have a positive match.

Eriksen is surely due a good match. He is letting down my fantasy team so need him to step up.

Here we go again! No one closed the Stoke player down.

0-2 now. Do we have a defence?

Meh .. hardly surprising. None of our lot seem to actually want to put a tackle in.

At this rate, Levy won't have to sack Poch because he'll walk ..

Never nice to see your team booed off at half time at home, but it's been thoroughly deserved as we were awful.

We're back to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole again with a system that's just getting overly confused and the players don't seem to know who's doing what and when.

I suppose it can only get better in the second half because god forbid it gets worse ..

We have a system?

Yes, it's called running about a bit and hoping the ball goes in to their net once in a while

Our displays get worse and worse. We need to be more compact as a team. Stoke are finding too much space and our defence are not being afforded any protection. Stoke have had two shots on target and scored two goals.

Ade about to come on - wonder if we'll finally go 4-4-2 ?

Weyhey, getting naked for charity has not put Chadli off. Nice to see a bit of form.

We are collecting more red cards than goals.

Very disappointing

We were just so very poor today. Our home form is rapidly becoming a crisis.

When Levy sacked AVB, I'm sure his statement said something like the football being played was "not in the traditions that the club and fans have come to expect".

If he can sack AVB for that then I'd like to know what he thinks of the football we're currently playing.

Obviously I don't want him to sack another manager because we certainly need to give someone the chance to rebuild the side but something has to change. We might be only 4 points off 5th place but we're probably closer to the bottom 3 in terms of form and team mentality.

Sorry to say, but two more months of this shite and we won't have anyone willing to screw up their career and join. It's is showing us the limitations of the saviour appointed once more by Fleet street rather than any knowledge by Levy.

We are like a beaten up heavyweight than just puts up with a continued pounding, with little or nothing to respond. Ffs play Soldado and Kane together for the next run of games and get someone to work on defensive patterns. Otherwise Zippo and co will send us to depths we dare to imagine.

The contrast between Pardew and Big Sam, and Poch ... I guess it's what makes this competition what it is: extraordinary, seemingly inexplicable.

Actually managed to see the second half thanks to a restaurant owner who follows the EPL.

Anyway, found it difficult to feel anything whilst watching as we were crap all over the pitch. We actually made Stoke look like a decent team and they certainly showed more desire to fight for the result. Defensively we are too naive, 2 donkeys at CB and two FBs who constantly get caught too far up, midfielders and forwards who struggle to do simple things right, making themselves far too easy to defend against.

Is the answer to sack Pochettino? He seems unable to make any discernable difference to this set of players as most of them seem uncoachable or have such limited skillsets that they are unable to adapt to what he wants them to do. I said previously that he is the third coach now that has struggled to get this group of players playing consistently well so you really do need to look at the players and think we'd be better off getting rid of most of them. Drastic yes and may well set us back yet again but they are proving week after week that they don't have what it takes to play at the level we need them too.

So, will Levy stick with him or will he already be looking for his replacement? Tony Pulis anyone?

How is Franco Baldini still at the club none of his seven signings have turned out any good daniel levy should have sacked him by now

Didnt see the match and not been around much this week - was Lamela not match fit? Why did Townsend start ahead of him?

I really hope not, but Levy has sacked managers for a lot less. I think the fans could ultimately hold the key though because if they turn on Poch and the team then he may well feel he has to act.

I suppose we have to wonder what Frank De Boer would have done with this squad had we appointed him instead.


I personally think it's more of a case of managing Lamela's fitness than anything. We seem to be relying on him in every game to inject a bit of life in to the team and I suppose Poch recognises he needs to keep his fitness levels consistent so he can use him more often.