One of these problems could be a lack of a regular defence- Ikeme or Hennessey? Ward to continue at left back, and who should play in the centre when we’ve got Craddock, Stearman, Collins, Shackell AND Mancienne fit? Look at the top team in England last season, Manchester United. They had a solid, settled defence. In the games that counted, you knew you could rely on a back 5 of Van Der Sarr, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic & Evra to be there, and put in a top rate performance. Each knew their individual roles, and the collective value was higher than the value of the individual parts. Compare this to Chelsea’s defence- they didn’t have a settled right-back. This season, they have splashed the cash on Boswinga and, Tuesday night apart, they have looked a far better back-four.

The worry with this is that at the moment, we are winning games by 1 goal. Many commentators claim that it’s the scrappy 1-0’s that win titles, but I disagree. 1-0’s don’t win titles. 1-0’s are risky, look at Man Utd last week, in complete control against Everton, but despite this, Everton got an equaliser, and could even have gone on to win the game. The same happened to Liverpool on Saturday- comfortable against Spurs and but all it takes is a mistake from a defender, and a long range strike, and Liverpool’s best ever Premiership start has been vanquished against bottom of the League.

At the moment, we are winning by one goal. This has been brilliant so far, just take a look at the League table to see this, but we have been riding our luck so far. Either of the games against Swansea or Cardiff could have resulted in draws, or even worse. There’s a saying in football that what goes against you now, will go for you later, and vice versa. At the moment, we have the luck, but we can’t expect our luck to go on forever- sooner or later, the goals will dry up for Ebanks-Blake and Iwelumo, and at the moment, I don’t think we can rely on our defence to carry us through when this happens. I hope that people don’t think I am being too negative and defeatist; I am as thrilled by our position as everyone else, just a warning that we cannot rest on our laurels, we still need to evolve the team, for the better. If Mick and the rest of the coaching staff can do this, then we should be in for a long and prosperous season.

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