Saka seems to have lost a gear since that tackle by Mings. Might want to consider bringing on Pepe after he’s better assessed at HT
45' Xhaka gets his latest stupid yellow. Beglin thiniks he was close to a quick 2nd yellow for dissent and goes on to say "he needs to think a little bit" Oh don't we know!
Maybe. I haven't been watching so closely since then, but I can tell the game went down a notch. I wasn't sure if that was intentional by us, trying to "manage it", or what. But Saka was so instrumental to everything we had been doing in the first chunk of the match, that you might just be right.
48' Leno with a brave take, with no respect for his own body. Let's just pray that he's not injured. Since Okonkwu is our back up today. Yikes. HT 0-1 to the good guys. Now we just need to score that vital second. Easy, right?
Villa haven't presented any offensive threat at all, I'm not sure a 2nd goal is necessary. I'd take it though. ESR seems rusty. Lacazette seems off his game - could be 3 matches in 7 days catching up to him. Partey continues to be brilliant.
don't know who the announcers are since i'm trying to catch bits and pieces on stream - peacock doesn't feel like showing it until tomorrow, apparently - but it was comical how long the announcing crew spent on partey's tussling with mings on a corner. like, dude literally went on and on about it after, i think, 3 change of possessions before showing it with replay. cash leaving his feet with studs up on tierney's ankle, though? "wasn't much in that".
No, slapping his opponent after he didn't accept Xhaka's hand. That's what I assumed the yellow was for.
Coming up on 2/3 of the game played and Villa's shots are 0(0). I disagree that maybe we don't need a second goal. This one feels like the kind of match you dominate, then the other team takes it's one and only chance and...
60' Villa gets their first shot, on a dangerous looking foray. Mcguin was 1-2 yards wide... just not enough curl. 62' we completely waste a corner... guess how, by taking it short, then looking like keystone kops. Sensing a tidal shift by Villa. We must resist. And score!! Edit: 64' Saka with a longish shot that goes 1 yard wide. Better.
68' Watkins hits the post, off a deflection. As Beglin says "getting closer". Sub: Pepe on for Saka. Clap-clap... our MVP of the match so far.
it's a fun thing what 'assume' does. referee literally pointed out to xhaka (and lacazette) that it was for cumulation of fouls and pointing out 1, 2, and 3. it's also fun because referee literally ignored buendia two-hand push on xhaka on the same play.
I've only been watching since halftime, and I'm not exactly feeling confident in this one. Pretty poor performance.
it's cute how easy it feels to card us. now partey picks up a card for repeated fouls. meanwhile, cash has lunged in on our players to no problem.
OK, I missed that. My bad. So what was Xhaka's #3 of his persistent fouling then? I also didn't see that at the time... did he actually foul the guy?
he was wrestling with buendia and ended up with buendia taking the ball off him and when they continued to wrestle as they tried to follow the ball when the referee whistled for a foul on xhaka. i couldn't see closely watching on a phone but announcers were saying they could read xhaka's lips going, "where's the 3rd? where's the 3rd?!?"
both lacazette and gabriel were just now bitching to referee because both xhaka and partey have been carded for persisten fouling meanwhile cash just got a stern talking to.
It's been a while since I've seem him play, but I never thought Leno was great in the air, but he's done well in that area today. Great punch out on a long cross in 83'