Danny Williams in the XI for the first (?) time this season. Choppy game so far, through the 17th minute.
Still pretty choppy. Arsenal has had two good chances in the last couple of minutes, but it's hard to single out anything that Williams is doing well or poorly. It's a very unified performance from Huddersfield so far.
37': Williams goes in with a pretty bad tackle from behind on Lucas Torreira. He gets a yellow (obvious choice) and then gets in a shoving match with Stephan Lichsteiner.
First half summary: 3/8 completed passes (ouch), 2 fouls, a yellow, lost possession in the tackle once, and lost all 4 50-50 challenges he was involved in. Not a great half for him, or anyone on either side, really. He has quadrupled his Premier League minutes total for the season today though.
Off for Erik Durm in the 70th minute. Can't say he really did anything particularly noteworthy. But he played, which is better than the alternative!
Good on Danny "Bulldog" Williams for finding the field against an Arsenal. Not many footballers can make that claim at the end of their careers. Can we now stop the Williams is what we need in the Nats midfield noise?
Man, Wagner has this team playing hard. They are not letting arsenal have a second to breath. If he could find a striker with a good touch, he might have a midtable team.
For a DMid the only stat I ever look at is the score. He went out at 0-0. That's a victory for any DM.
Geoff Cameron started at dmid against Arsenal as well. Another guy the SUMNT didn't need in the midfield.
If Arsenal had any finishing ability today, it would have been 2 or 3-0 when he came off. They had good chances while Williams was in.
Hudd is in their heads man. They are playing them toe-to-toe despite having $300mm less on the roster. Still, 0-0.
I really enjoyed this match. End to end, flying challenges, and in the end Arsenal probably with the deserved match winner, but Wags has done brilliantly making this team competitive.
By that ill-logic, every MLS scrub who played against Arsenal in a throwaway summer run-out should be in automatic contention for the Nats...
hmm, Geoff played arsenal (while at Stoke) when Prince Podolski and Cazorla and Giroud and Ramsey were doing quite well. But I'll grant you they were no San Jose Earthquakes in August!