It is true that we have tweaked the formation into a mixture of 442 and 451, the variable being Ayew who nominally plays beside Mateta but in reality plays deeper trying to defend from the front.
Olise and Schlupp have filled the wide midfield positions and we are definitely playing more directly on occasions without the painstakingly slow build up.
As others have pointed out though neither Edouard nor Mateta suit the the striker position for us.
They don’t link play , hold up the ball, run the channels or press defenders.
Neither does Haaland for that matter, but of course Man City create loads of chances,dominate the play and don’t require these other attributes of their striker.
We don’t have that luxury and if Mateta and Edouard are not scoring goals they then arguably contribute very little to the rest of our game.
With that in mind I can see a case for playing Ayew in the striker position when Zaha returns.
Yes, I know - Ayew doesn’t score either; but he will work hard, occupy defenders and win free kicks.
It would also potentially allow us to play an extra midfield player to break into the box and make runs ahead of the ball.

Mateta offers very little and should not be starting. Edouard has a goal in him but is a lazy fecker. So Ayew down the middle it is. I assume Wilf will be back soon so maybe he plays down the middle- although I much prefer him wide left.

As for relegation a while ago on here I said we would be fine if we can grind out a few points over the difficult run of fixtures. We have done that and maintained a 6 point buffer from relegation. I thought yesterday there wasn’t much between the teams. Brentford have outplayed better teams than us this season so although the late equaliser was painful to take the point we earned is still very important.

I think we will be ok and will finish roughly where we are now in the table.

Not that surprised. He’s actually scored less goals than Chamakh which is impressive

We are getting results without playing well at all! We normally have the run we are on maybe once or twice a season! When we click we usually string a few wins together and are okay!

One of these years we will go down! Maybe in the next 5! But when we do parish will have us in a good financial position that we don't go back into admin etc... we did the whole spend big bucks on palaces 30 mill for bentekes and the sakhos and bar their first seasons with us we got not a lot of return for that money! Likes of Everton have spent millions on players and managers and for a team who never been relegated from the prem...sure just look where they are. Same as west ham (they have been relegated) spent millions flirted with top 4 and Europe and now they are in the s***s!

I normally look at the table 7th to bottom as I feel there is two leagues in the prem! By my calculations we are 6th in the second league Any points against the top 6 is bonus points! And we are doing well!

A very skilful player who had great control and poise. It's a shame he became injury prone as we didn't see the best of him for very long.

Whoever did the scouting and signed off the deal needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Perhaps it was a favour owed to the agent. I note how many mediocre players make it through and wonder whether or not this is some kind of base line. I knew a careers advisor once who told me that many boys wanted to become footballers, despite not playing for any sort of team. It's the money and easy life style that attracts them.