This game showed the importance of having Rice and/or Merino playing. Some pretty suspect defending from us in the first half. Mostly because we weren't tracking back on counter stacks properly. And that was putting excess pressure on Saliba and Big Gabi. Saliba was unusually poor then.

Palace did a good job exploiting that blind spot. But holy shit Partey was really slack in defense. And I think Kai is too used to playing up front. Sloppy sloppy, and Raya kept us in this one during that period.

But very good turn around in the second half. And great finishing from us overall. Can't fault that at all. Martinelli looked very good on the right. Sad for Jesus that he couldn't get another hatrick. He deserved one.

Anyone know how bad Saka's injury is? If he'll miss some games (hopefully not!), I'd rather see Martinelli or Nwaneri on the right than Sterling.

[–] Astrealix 2 points 1 month ago

Hamstring thing, so might be a while with Saka....

I think this game really shows how much Partey is a liability at this point. Even if you ignore moral issues, he's just not a good player anymore. Especially when we have Rice and Jorginho.