I thought the opposite, the front 4 were very static and none of them were moving about the defenders and coming back into midfield to make space so prowse and hoj had nowhere to pass to and could only go back when the forward attack broke down. They couldn't make forward runs as there was nobody in the middle to drop back cover the hole they would make. Prowse and Hoj did a good job breaking up the play first half. I can remember 5 or 6 times that prowse was in the right place to challenge and come out with the ball. The attacking play in that formation needed to come from the full backs wingers and strikers. It was Boufal's willingness to come back into midfield where the game really started to pick up imo. BBC has prowse as MotM which I agree with. He did make quite a few mistakes at the start of the second half though. Boufal I think was the only player as influential.
*Gets popcorn and waits for Fats to show up* I'd say it's never too late for an argument, but I expect someone will disagree
That’s just what I said about 15 minutes in. I like the ball played out from then back and patient build up, but not when the players aren’t good enough or confident enough to do it. In the first half, all that happens was McCarthy or Stephens ended up hoofing the ball high to their CBs. Mad.
Had we held on against Arsenal, we'd be only 3 points behind Man Utd. Don't want to get carried away, but... "I've paid my dues, time after time..."
We all know that one win doesn't solve the issues we're suffering with, but **** me it feels good. I don't care that it was ugly - I think any wins we pick up along the way probably will be - but it's valuable, valuable points. 3 more on Wednesday would be a very welcome early chrimbo pressie.
Good to see that we can follow up a good performance against a top* side with a result against a poor side....something we've struggled with in the past. It's these games we need to win if we have hopes of climbing to safety. *Top side may be an historical term when applied to Arsenal...but we can agree they have better players than us on paper.
Wasn’t clear and obvious Thanks for heading out though, I think you should go out again when we play Norwich.