Can't believe my ears. Hansen just talking about Arsenal's next fixtures said they had a tough game against Southampton. Have to go and sit down
Jol was talking himself out of this game before it was even played. Kept talking about our quality and our defence...there's respecting the opposition and there is being so depressed that you drag your team down with you.
Well, after seeing the brief MOTD highlights and, admittedly some half-decent analysis, finally Hansen says something better than we're a force to be reckoned with. Still reckon they're waiting for the bubble to burst, but at least Hansen also admitted Saints passed the ball very nicely. I reckon we haven't even got going yet.
Felt sorry for him. He desperately wanted to celebrate his goal as the pain kicked in. That was a fair old smack with the woodwork, and goalposts are notoriously harder than humans. They'll have to recheck the Hawk-Eye after that.
I just loved the replay showing Parker telling Berbatov to mark Rickie only for Rickie to get the freedom of the 6 yard box 5 seconds later.
He played alright. I guess if you're satisfied with a defensive midfielder who all he does is win aerial challenges, make tackles, intercept passes, mix in some fouls, and pass sideways balls to better attacking players. He's just lucky we didn't need him to score or save a penalty shot because he sucks at that. But you have to wonder how long the rest of the team is going to keep bailing him out.
The most impressive stat for me was that JWP, whilst putting in what I think is scientifically termed 'a metric ****-tonne' of crosses had a 91% pass completion on 75 passes. He also had 6 key passes (3 more than anyone else), and only gave the ball away once, with the only players not to give it away at all the centre-backs, Boruc and Vic. Jay and Adam provided the flair and incision, Rickie the clinical edge, but I thought JWP was just as good. Not to mention also ran himself into the ground, he ran the length of the pitch from defending his own box from a Fulham corner to press their keeper as it was nearing 80 minutes, and I was watching him late and you could really see he was feeling the pain with every stride but still kept running through it whilst as a team we shrunk back a bit more and took a deserved rest.
Oh, forgot to mention that I enjoyed the fact that we sang so much today that we ran out of songs and went for some historic tunes. The Pahars song getting an airing brought back some memories! Atmosphere was incredible today absolute carnival.
It's his job to do what he does. He's the shield to the back 4. He allows Schneiderlin to get forward. Last season, Cork and Morgan shared the job. This season, it's Wanyama's. It's a simpler arrangement because he's better suited to breaking up the play and Schneiderlin is doing every else he can't cope with. I've also no doubt that if Schneiderlin or Wanyama become injured, then Cork can come in and do a pretty damn good job in either position. Plus, Cork's a half decent fullback, on the quiet. Strength, and also in depth.
In that first half fulham weren't just terrible, to a man they were pathetically lazy and selfish in their efforts. i'm not sure a premier league team has applied less pressure or exerted less effort in a half of football. I don't think we played any better than the last couple of weeks, the difference being there was far more space to exploit. Some of the attacks were more polished but the effort and commitment from the whole team was at the same level. Thank **** we have players, a manager, and indeed a whole club with such marvellous work ethic. Not sure of the statistics but it was clear to see that our major threat was from crosses which were effective when they found unmarked men. At other times, particularly from the deep crosses, we didn't penetrate the defence. JWP has a great cross but crosses from deep are bread and butter for proper defences, even the ****house fulham team today with a bit more organisation would have kept out the 1st goal if not the 2nd as well which were both the result of poor marking. We exploited fulham's weaknesses very well at other times too but it needs to be pointed out that fulhams defending was beyond ordinary and we can't rely on lax marking and defenders standing off rodriguez and lambert when they are in good shooting positions.
Sadly, we will almost certainly drop to fifth later, as Chelsea only need to draw to go above us and Man City will if that game is an away win. Plus Spurs will almost certainly thrash Hull. Edit: Sorry! Another edit: Looking on the bright side, if Swansea beat West Ham 8-0, the spammers will be in the relegation zone!
On Talksport during the commentary last night, Sam Materface queried why Wanyama didn`t get picked up by a top four club. Excuse me !
