After a tough few weeks of the campaign, boss Slaven Bilic appears to have identified the key problem areas, and the Mirror claim that he is set to raid his former club Besiktas for winger Kerim Frei to help resolve some of those issues. The 22-year-old left winger is highly rated having come through the ranks at Fulham, where he made 23 Premier League appearances, before returning to his native Turkey in 2013.
Fans may fear that he could replicate the likes of Gokhan Tore who has disappointed since joining from the same club in the summer, but Frei has much more potential to improve than Tore has ever had. Available for around £3 million, Frei could be a bargain, though his quality may not transfer well to the Premier League.
One man going nowhere is iconic captain Mark Noble, and the midfield stalwart has been discussing the victory over Crystal Palace with the media, saying:
“I thought we were tremendous. They’ve got big players like Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke up front, but I thought our defence did a magnificent job, they dealt with them incredibly, it’s a top, top win for us. I said in an interview the other day that everyone here really does care, and I think we showed that. We looked at how Palace play and everything goes through Benteke so we knew we had to deal with that threat. Cheik is great in the air, then alongside Reidy and Angelo, obviously Cress back in the side, we played like a proper team.”
The midfield stalwart has picked up his own form after a slow start to the season with him struggling to replicate his influential displays of last season. Now he is improving his displays he seems to be inspiring the rest of his teammates who also lived up to expectations on Saturday in victory at Selhurst Park.
However, not all is rosey at the London Stadium as the Sun claim that the club is struggling to sell tickets for the EFL Cup clash against Chelsea in their London rivals debut at their new home. With a capacity of 60,000 to fill, Chelsea were given a reduced allocation due to police concerns over fan behaviour, but the club have been forced to send out messages offering cut price tickets to fans.
The Irons have struggled to inspire fans of late, despite victory at the weekend, and are unlikely to take much from a tough tie up against Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. With tough restrictions in place to prevent violence, only fans who have purchased tickets in the last five years are able to attend the fixture and that is clearly limiting the number of tickets sold.
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