I agree. His close control, dribbling and ability to drive with the ball is very good, certainly up there with the best in the team. Unfortunately his decision making is very poor, as you say head down far too often and runs into blind allies. If he just released the ball earlier he’d be so much more effective. Some would refer to him as a hogger! He is a hard worker though and credit to him for that and why he was such a favourite of Roy but now with Olise and Eze his game time will be a challenge for him.

Eze and Olise are the obvious replacements for Ayew but can we afford to play with two wingers who do not protect our full backs? Mitchell seems to be ok with no cover from Wilf but I'm not sure Ward would fair as well without Ayew in front of him. Townsend did this job last year and PV has passed this role onto Ayew.

If/When Olise replaces Ayew, we will require a lot of ground to be covered from our three CMs.

He will score tonight.

he's not in the form of two seasons ago, I don't see a return to that form, along with macca and Luka he is one of several tired parts of our squad that needs to be phased out

Zaha also had an excellent opportunity to bed the game before his miss, Ayew got himself into that chance by being in the right place at the right time and he is going to hate his miss more then us, he is a class individual and yet again was constantly dealt with by a boot, Ayew helped us make a team looking to go top tonight appear utter crap.

Agreed to a point. logical replacement at this time will be Schlupp for Ayew in the next game. Offers better defensive and attacking quality in my opinion. Ayew is a hard worker and clearly wants to do well, but he has had a run of games and never really looked like causing any threat. I think Schlupp will offer much more. Olise needs time to bed in and will get his chance I am sure but too soon to be chucked in this early.

Some people are like Slinkies … not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.