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An initially nervy, back and forth game that ran out of control in the second half as our wingers combined to score at will and to seal a vital three points, while negating some of the goal difference deficit left from the drubbing against Man City.

For the TFI, we ask our forum members to rate each player’s performance in the concerned game out of 10, which we then average out to get a rating representative of the fans’ views, we also collect a few user comments to summarise how the player did and show a few different viewpoints from the board. The top scoring player is man of the match; the lowest is mug of the match.

Unsurprisingly, man of the match goes to the man with four goals and a goal line clearance. Georginio Wijnaldum earns a 9.67 for his incredible performance, the only blemish being a lack of tracking back for the second Norwich goal.

Cheick Tioté acquires the mug of the match on his apparently premature return to the starting eleven, his lack of fitness somewhat hindering his ability the dominate the middle and earning him our only sub-baseline rating with a 4.97, along with a silly yellow early on.

The team, of course, reached it’s season so far record average rating in this one, all in earning a 6.63, dragged down slightly by the back four and the central midfielders. Steve McClaren also hit a high in this one, his 7.88 beating out the 7.67 from the Northampton game in the League Cup. Criticism was aimed at our defensive frailty and playing Tioté over Anita.

Elliot – 6.06 (Ratings ranged between 5.5 and 6.5)

“6 – No glaring errors and no hideous plays. Solid.”

“6 – Couldn’t do anything for their goals really. Came for a few dangerous crosses well. Kicked decently too.”

“6.5 – Faultless for both the goals, seemed confident at times coming out collecting balls.”

Janmaat – 5.67 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 7)

“5 – Right wing seemed weak and lots of crosses came in from that side, probably could have done more here and there.”

“6 – Poor defensive positioning. Grabbed a good assist.”

“5.5 – An uncharacteristically shaky performance from wor Daryl, didn’t prevent crosses coming in which led to some chaos first half. It was nice to see him crack a smile though.”

Mbemba – 5.97 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 7)

“5.5 – Our CBs always seem to visibly s*** themselves when put under any kind of pressure, hopefully this will improve now we’ve got a result under our belt.”

“6 – Mostly assured, I love watching him play. Maybe could have done better on the first goal?”

“7 – Good to have some strength at the back, he does make a difference in general play but our problems with set pieces as crosses remain.”

Coloccini – 5.86 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 6.5)

“6 – Was a bit more composed than Mbemba but not amazingly so.”

“6 – Decent enough but can’t help but think he is the weak link in this team these days.”

“6 – Not quite as good as Mbemba, but looked solid apart from dealing with crosses.. which is a weakness of our whole defence.”

Dummett – 5.83 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 7)

“7 – Hardly gave Redmond a sniff (apart from his goal for which he was hopelessly exposed) and put in some good crosses. Better option than Haidara in my opinion.”

“6 – Did better than expected, a bit slow in some tackles but nothing bad, defence as a whole need to improve at corners and not s***ting themselves when crosses come in.”

“5 – Given the run around by Redmond, left back looks the weak area of the team, though I think Redmond will cause plenty of full backs problems this year.”

Sissoko – 8.78 (Ratings ranged between 7.5 and 10)

“9 – Assist machine. Shame he couldn’t be arsed to track back for their goals.”

“8.5 – Four assists is amazing, but it’s a shame his lack of effort defensively is taking away a perfect performance from him.. He’s only interested when he’s got the ball going forward.”

“8.5 – I still don’t like him, but this is the sort of performance that he needs to be giving week in week out if he’s going to continue strutting around like an arrogant f***er telling everyone that he should be playing for a better team. He definitely doesn’t deserve a 10 mind, both of their goals were at least partially down to him.”

Tioté – 4.97 (Ratings ranged between 3.5 and 6.5)

“6 – The strongest we’ve looked through the centre of the midfield in months, I don’t think that’s any coincidence.”

“5 – Had this horrible moment that sticks in the mind where we were passing round the defence, he kept the ball for too long and nearly let Norwich through on goal. Needs some time to regain form.”

“6 – I think there have some very harsh reviews on here – there were lot of counters he cut out in the first half, I counted 5 or 6 important headers.”

Colback – 5.69 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 6)

“6 – Good work effort & attitude as always, limited vision/ability/reading of the game as always.”

“6 – Looked a little off the pace, seemed reluctant to get stuck in, maybe because he was a yellow away from missing the derby.”

“6 – He wasn’t terrible, but he’s still overrated. 1999 wants Gareth Barry back.”

Wijnaldum – 9.67 (Ratings ranged between 9 and 10)

“10 – So clinical. If I’m being honest he isn’t that good on the ball but his movement, positioning and attacking instinct are top notch. He’s the first midfielder we’ve had who likes to run into the box since Nolan.”

“10 – A godlike performance, would probably have gotten his 5th goal too if he didn’t have Cisse to work with at the end.”

“10 – Four goals, never seen a player so small have such an ability to head a ball, also cleared one off the line at 3-2.”

Ayoze – 8.17 (Ratings ranged between 7.5 and 9)

“8 – Links up well with Mitrovic, gave Bassong nightmares all day long.”

“9 – Unbelievably good. Worried someone will come in for him in January, he’s way too good for us! Ever the pessimist…”

“8.5 – I know TJR is a bit mental sometimes but Ayoze does genuinely have the potential to be a special, special player. Honestly, if his name was Harry Kane or he played for Arsenal or Man Utd, he’d get ten times the recognition and praise he gets for us.”

Mitrović – 8.03 (Ratings ranged between 7 and 9)

“7.5 – Glad he got on the scoresheet today, when Cisse came on it became clear just how much better it is to have a striker who contributes to play and can hold the ball off.”

“8 – Ran himself into the ground, amazing finish. Great to have a big buggar up front again, takes me back to the halcyon days of Shola Ameobi.”

“8 – He’s gonna be a fan favourite for sure. Quick as a snail, strong as a bull, unbelievable passion and one hell of a finish for his goal.”

Anita – 6.00 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 7)

“7 – Solid. Tightened us up, though he didn’t offer Tiote’s aerial presence which we noticed in the first 15 of the second half.”

“5.5 – Kept things tight, but nothing overly impressive.”

“7 – A great sub and definitely helped with counter attacks and protecting the defence, miles better than Tiote.”

Haïdara – 5.56 (Ratings ranged between 5 and 6)

“5 – Quietly played out the few minutes remaining, nothing of note to remember from his cameo.”

“6 – Fine. Lots of fouls which shouldn’t have been given.”

“5.5 – Neither he nor Dummett are the future of LB for us.”

Cissé – N/A

McClaren – 7.88 (Ratings ranged between 7 and 9)

“8 – Selection spot on apart from Tiote over Anita. Seemed to have the lads fired up and we were excellent going forward, defensive issues need to be addressed but overall you can’t not be pleased with today.”

“8 – Got the big calls right, would’ve liked to have seen Thauvin get on as the openness of the game would have suited him perfectly but can’t knock points off for that.”

“7 – Can’t really argue with the selection. Pre-game I maybe slagged his selection of Sissoko but look how that turned out. This is a platform now, we need to build from this. Edit: Also, what a refreshing surprise actually continuing to attack after scoring a goal. So many years under Pardew where we’d take the lead and defend for our lives, it’s really refreshing just to f***ing thrash a team.”

“7.5 – Got the team looking threatening going forward, however the defensive frailties are still a concern. Not sure why he continues to start Colback as Anita would be the better option. All in all a good day at the office for him and hopefully we’ll go to Sunderland looking a bit more solid at the back.”

Do you feel these ratings are fair, or do you have anything to say about this match in general? If so, do so in our discussion thread here.

