On the game however, I know many of us were expecting a win but a lot results on the 1st day of the season can be backwards. I'm confident we will be well prepared for the Emirates.
^ this more than anything ^ Title winners' first games which weren't won: 08-09 Utd draw 07-08 Utd draw 99-00 Utd draw 98-99 Utd draw 97-98 Arsenal draw 95-96 Utd loss 94-65 Blackburn draw 92-93 Utd loss
I'm sure there'll be a game later in the season that we'll win when we shouldn't have, and it'll even itself out.
Always disappointing to drop points on the first day of the season - still a long way to go and i'm sure kk can see where improvement is needed - keep the faith
I'm not being panicky, knee jerk or negative, but Flanagan was absolutely awful and cost us two points and lots of possession. I still back him, especially after some great performances last season, but I back him to get over today's nightmare, not to pretend it didn't happen.
Like you say a disappointment but still a little surprised that given our now far stronger squad, kk didn't seem to give himself too many decent options off the bench for when the team got a little lost after half time. Aqua and maxi could have come on and helped change the shape and unsettle a Sunderland who seemed to be winning against Carroll / Suarez partnership...
On reflection I think Kenny put Kelly on the bench so that he had cover for both Flanno and Enrique should something go wrong.
But with Kelly on the pitch he could've switched to left back and just brought Flanagan on but to be fair I didn't think he played as badly as some are making out. Every player makes mistakes but I didn't think he looked any worse at the back than Johnson often does Plus he whipped in a couple of tasty balls first half. At the end of the day the only worry I really have from today is that we seemed to deflate a bit once Luis tired and the options we have in the squad to replace him weren't on the bench today. It meant the service into Carroll disappeared and Downing got pulled inside too much. Anyway if the first half can become the standard we set more often than not then we'll have a decent season. I was really impressed by half time at the way we were playing especially considering 4 debuts and first game out. Had we got a second I think we'd have got a couple more but while it was 1-0 Sunderland always looked capable of getting something.
If Downing had scored a goal like that on his debut he would of been an instant hero. He must be gutted!
It's 4 for the goal he got and 2 points for playing over 60 minutes but -2 for the pen miss....he's in my team as well mate so trust me I ain't gloating about it
Whilst I am dissapointed, I am far from being dispondant. We showed enough in the first half to confirm that we can be more than a handfull for any team. If we had gone into the break 2 or even 3-0 up we wouldn't be having this conversation. It ws the first game of the season and I am confident that we will improve upon our performance. As the match unfolded some things did come to mind. Firstly, as they changed both their formation and tactics, we really needed a playmaker further forward to change our attacking play. The obvious choice would have been Aqua. However, we are still without Gerrard and even for 30 minutes he could have changed the flow back in our direction. We also have to applaud Sunderland. They were certainly no mugs and if they can keep that standard going they will win more than they lose. I hadn't looked but apparently they had one of the best away records last season even with their injury problems. So we move on to Arsenal. From their performance tonight my opinion is that they have far more problems to resolve than we do.
