Top 4 is feeling like it is slipping through our fingers. We need to win 2 here to put Gooners in their place and put pressure on Liverpool. As much talent as we have.... COYS!!!
Who decides this scheduling? More than a week since Southampton and then 2 games in 3 days. Or 3 in 6 if you count the cup game at the weekend. Still, these are 6 get-able points and any less than 4 would be a disaster. Wanyama is back in contention.
I believe the West Ham game was switched from New Year's Eve to Thursday for policing concerns. This has always been a problem in the PL, the league doesn't give a flying about the teams or the supporters, the only consideration is TV ratings. Look at Brighton, they and their supporters had their longest away trip on Saturday to Newcastle and then had a home game less than 48 hours later! Don't know what changed, but up until recently, the holiday fixtures were planned so that teams would not have extra long trips for their away games, but I guess that has gone out the window and now they are talking about the 39th game again... At least we have full rest for the game tonight, the Swans played on Saturday and stole 3 points from Watford with a late smash and grab. We have 18 games left, 9 home and 9 away. We have 8 games left against the current top half of the table, with 6 of them at home and 10 against the bottom half, with 7 away. Right now, Liverpool is on pace to reach 76 pts for 4th, so we would need 40 pts from our remaining games to beat that.
awful 2nd half, spurs kept trying to pass on the ground in that muck and gave the ball away in some bad spots too many times Kane's assist was sublime, and Alli nearly messed it up by putting his shot right at the keeper. luckily the rebound came back to him and somehow he put it in
Last night was about survival and getting the 3 points on a pitch that commentator Jon Champion described as a quagmire. It looked like Swansea was going to repeat their smash and grab at Watford, but fortunately for us Jordan Ayew couldn't pull the trigger in front of goal and a ball off Vertonghen's back hit the post and stayed out. Once again, it took the class of Harry Kane to bring serenity to a chaotic game with a magnificent pass out of nothing to set up Dele for our second. Credit to the Swansea ground staff for keeping the pitch in a relatively playable condition and to both teams for trying to play football despite the awful conditions. Great to see Wanyama back, he will be a huge boost for us down the stretch. Davinson Sanchez had another poor outing. His general play is good, but he has to learn the subtleties of the PL game (when to go in hard, when to back off). This is a league where the forwards are very clever at gaining body position and drawing fouls.
Businesslike 3 points, I'm not going to gripe about the performance in those conditions. Beautiful pass from Kane, I thought he only did tap-ins. Great to see Wanyama back in the shirt. But Lamela in a start did not impress. Rose hurt his knee again, so we will be seeing Davies much more in the coming weeks. Now on to the Canning Town Bingo Club, who also played last night and eked out a late win over West Brom. West Ham fans being West Ham fans, one of them decided to taunt Jake Livermore as he was substituted about the death of his infant son.
halfway through the first half and west ham sitting back us looking more or less toothless. we've been here before.
Who the hell was that guy who scored? He may as well retire now, never topping that. Always seems to be some nobody scores a worldie against us.
cracking last 20 minutes, but a very unsatisfying result. I'd love to blast Moyes and West Ham for refusing to play, but they were actually coming out a bit before their goal. it's not entirely playing for a draw to shorten the game like that, and it damn near got them what they came for. i mean, obviously, they'll happily take the draw. and it was shit to watch for over an hour ... but they're better than the last two seasons under Bilic.
WTF is up with Sanchez? does he just completely switch off at random points in the match? he made that one pass at midfield stripe, not even under any pressure at all, and passed it right to Hernandez. it was only because Hernandez was having an awful match as well that west ham didn't score right there
He's a left footer playing right centre back. There's nothing actually wrong with him skill wise...he's just out of position. Tbf, it's either him there or Dier - take your pick - because it's not going to be Vertonghen. Would be nice if Foyth could get in there but Poch doesn't think he's ready apparently.
22 games in and we are 7 points worse off than at the same point last season. Four home draws against Burnley, Swansea, West Brom and Canning Town London have been the difference, with just 3 goals scored: these were 4 teams we beat last season at WHL and outscored 14-3 in the process. Of those teams, only Burnley have improved from last season. Once again, Poch got his team selection wrong against a side that was never going to come out and play. Why did we go to all the trouble to sign Llorente if we are never going to play him? This was a game that was calling out for 2 up top. Why wait for the last 5 minutes to bring him on? The continual inclusion of Sissoko remains a mystery to me, and it was his failure to close down Obiang that led to the Spammers goal. Surely there is at least one player in our squad who is better than him. On the positive side, at least we didn't suffer the complete humiliation of defeat, thanks to Sonny's wonder strike and we did take one more point off them than we did last season. Remember, the Arse and Chelski were shut out by this lot recently. I still think we are crying out for a winger with pace: the few chances we had to counter, the ball fell to Dele who, as good as he is, has no pace, and the moves quickly broke down.