[HRK]

Not sure whether it's worse when we concede early in these games and the plan goes out of the window, or when we nearly come away with the point and instead get done at the death.  For all that we've made improvements on last season, we still don't have quite enough about us to cause the big boys any significant problems after they've taken the lead.

Hope we can make at least one or two quality additions in the window just to give us a few different options when we're on the ball.

...but when we concede so late on it'd be difficult to cause any trouble no matter WHO we had in our ranks!

But it's generally the same story even when we concede early.  We need one or two players who are just that bit more comfortable on the ball or have that extra pace/skill so that there's some kind of plan B, and the capacity to turn a game on its head if need be.

Obviously even that probably wouldn't have changed things today, but it's a general observation.

Whilst I can agree with this I think the fact we're lamenting that we've not got more from both yesterday's game and also Chelsea away recently, it's a sign of progress being made.

We were only minutes away from a really hard fought point and would have taken it apart from one moment of brilliant centre forward play from Giroud. It also took one moment of brilliance from Costa to decide the game last time we were in London, and this is the fine margin between us and the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea who have spent millions upon millions whereas we have closed the gap on them on a shoestring budget in comparison.

Far more concerning for me at the moment is the form of Dawson. Going into this window I'd be looking to sign a replacement LB to move Nyom to his preferred position at RB and give Dawson some competition as he is nowhere near achieving the performance levels needed at the moment. Far too many wayward passes and not offering enough going forward. Still a fan of Dawson though, just think he needs time out to refocus, isn't naturally a full back and has worked hard at making that position his own.

With the right signings I can still see this season being a great one for us.