So if all out games with City are going to feature six goals, are we hoping to keep improving by losing 4-2 then drawing 3-3 next season?
Chin up lads. No point in moaning about the referee and linesman now. We don't want to sound like Toledo whatever his name is on the Arsenal board. City deserved to win no one can argue with that. A win on Saturday and things will look a whole lot better.
"City deserved to win no one can argue with that." The sending off deprived us of the chance to make it a contest, lose or not.
Ahh you're alive HBIC. I thought you'd had a heart attack after seeing that capoue actually got some game time!
That's what pissed me off the most. We were getting battered by city, but we were still in it, in terms of the scoreline. But we had no chance after the shocking officiating.
Just back from the game. I make it an honest 3-3 draw and would probably have been happy with it. City were good however we should have been level at 1-1, and there was no way Rose should have been penalised let alone sent off. We were denied a goal and a penalty. We were however on the back foot for too much of the game and we do need a HM - perhaps had Sandro been available things might have been different - but we need to man, and bulk, up. We need to own WHL and stop the likes of City taking it from us. On a different note - WTF happened at the fridge? Upset or what?
I watched it several times on BT Sport. Dawson is clearly onside. Adebayor was offside, but did not appear to interfere with play.
Adebayor touched it. He should've been flagged for offside, but the linesman called it against Dawson, who wasn't. Right decision, but wrong process.
The reality - decisions of the officials aside - is that City had the freedom of the pitch again. They have those class players who make the difference. Without Bale or Modric or VdV, Spurs don't. I'm not pretending Utd would do any better at present because our defence would be chasing shadows too - although with a fit and firing RvP, Rooney and Mata we might give them a game in March. They play us, Arsenal and Liverpool away between 25th March and 12th April. On this form, no problem; but if they drop their level a little, there could still be a title race.
There is more than one truth, and which one or ones are relevant or important is subjective. There were two salient truths today IMO. 1. City demonstrated they're a much better team, again. 2. The officials stepped in and robbed Spurs of a decent chance to get a result, and the fans of a good game, through a decision which was looked bad and now is clearly abysmal: an egregious dive after a clean tackle. The failure to give Toure a second yellow after appearing to reach for the pocket looked bad as well. (No complaints about the offside call, though.)
It is ridiculous to think we might have won the way we did last year in the game between the same two teams in the same place with most of the same players involved after falling behind by the same score.
On the BT coverage they said they asked the linesman as he was on his way off the pitch and he said that he gave it for Dawson being offside.
On the BT coverage they said they asked the linesman as he was on his way off the pitch and he said that he gave it for Dawson being offside.
It's a good job I was pissed before entering the Lane last night. Bad decisions, poor performance and a City side that like taking the piss with goals against us. Bad day.
Not read anything so far, can imagine loadsa blame on Marriner and the lino, fair moans tbf, but we'll never know if Daws disallowed goal would have affected the outcome. Probably not, even though we looked like we had weathered the initial storm, lets be honest, should've been 3/4 down before that happened, Hart till that point a mere spectator. What surprised me was how slow, lethargic, and generally off the pace for having the supposed benefit of 10 days off, while City played twice in that period, you really would think watching it was the other way round. We never pressed them at all, Bentaleb and Dembele were shown on MOTD to have been jogging around MF watching the game really, Eriksen aswell for me. The teamsheet left me wondering where goals would come from, forget the back4, the front 6 posed little threat, but when you field too many non-scoring or infrequent scoring players its no surprise. Dembele, perennial low scorer, as is Lennon, Bentaleb no, Sig infrequent, Eriksen, should we be relying on a newly signed 21yr old just yet for regular goals, which left Ade, which is too much burden for one player. Our opponents certainly exposed that. Our bench players were unlikely to have fared any better, Chadli, Holtby infrequent aswell. Getting fed up of the high scoring drubbings, one result a season you can say bad day at the office, thats 3 or 4 totally unacceptable scorelines this season and we're only 2/3rds through it. Every time we go down to 10 we get hammered, heads drop etc, in other games where other teams get one sent off they rally for a draw, hell I've seen teams win with 10, not saying it should have happened against last night with City in that form, but its a familiar pattern for us it seems, the game disappears down the plughole.
Good summing up, especially "What surprised me was how slow, lethargic, and generally off the pace for having the supposed benefit of 10 days off, while City played twice in that period, you really would think watching it was the other way round." Almost like our players had been gallivanting around Europe getting ****-faced drunk instead of training. I can only hope, and actually tend to believe, that the lack of hustle was dictated by Sherwood, as part of a playing possum counterattacking plan. We did have our chances. We came close on both corners and got players into open space a couple of times in good positions. But while playing possum worked against weaker teams, it was not only a bad plan against Arsenal and City, but infuriated fans who wanted to see effort at least, if not success. You can't just let Arsenal, let alone City, control the game early. Their chances of scoring are excellent. As for the drubbings...I agree the team has shown a lack of fight back this year when well down. But we have come back a number of times from being a goal down. To me, the drubbings are a lesser evil than playing too cautiously (not that AVB's cautious style avoided the drubbings.) I would also argue that this was a drubbing with a difference. It began when Rose was sent off for an excellent, clean tackle followed by an egregious dive. Professionals ought to react better than we did, but that is discouraging, especially when it follows what arguably should have been a sending off of Toure. See my sig for what I think of Marriner. As for lack of goals--I don't get you there. It's the same team that's been playing, and leading the PL (I think) since Sherwood took over (before today, of course.). Besides, who else is going to score? Lamela, who's scored none, Soldado? Chadli? If anything, I would have played Chadli to provide more defensive help.
