Thought we were well worth the win today. 9 wins from 11 and could have won all 11. That was a better performance than at Old Trafford and Etihad. WBA home and Sunderland away are very winnable games before we face Tottenham at home which the players should be motivated for. No reason why we can't take at least 7 from 9 from those.
Agreed Thought we we magnificent today after a few rocky performances, Liverpool started better and after their fortunate deflected goal they probably would have gone on to dominate most other teams on the day. The way we brushed ourselves off and raised our tempo to get the leveller was quality which we took into the second half. Matic was a rock in front of the back which enabled the whole team to get forward as per Dave's run to set up Costa's winner, pure quality! Looking awesome now and very much looking forward to the next three.
We should be beating all three of WBA, Sunderland & Tottenham. Think Mourinho is stamping the complacency out the team which cost us last season.
This and no strikers cost us last season. Manny was very lucky. It is not about the finishing for Eden. He tries to do little too much of EVERY 'FECKING' THING!! @53 mins He pulled away from halfway line twisting couple of pool players and ran with the ball all the way into their box. Rather than squaring for Rambo who was wide open, he shoots when the shooting lane was closed by 2 defenders AND Simon!! That is selfishness. He shouldn't be doing that!
Hard to criticise anyone after that display. A tough game away, a bad start but a decisive victory. First man I will praise today is JT. He showed some really classy touches with small decisive passes, as well as defending the speed of Liverpool with aplomb. Very well done. Ditto for Cahill. Matic was immense and for once overshadowed Fab going forward. This bloke is just a great player now.Hazard is not quite in tune with the attack just yet, but he will get there and then watch out. He is just a pain in the arse for every defender he plays against. His link play will improve for sure, and he will soon realise there are others who can score from his work. Just now he's getting 2 men on him every time so he's a tad off in the scoring department. That won't last. Brilliant professional display from a great team.
Very happy with that. I'd say our 3 hardest fixtures (OT, Ethiad and Anfield) are out the way without a loss. Obviously we will probably come unstuck at Villa Park or St James but still, the campaign is looking very strong. And cheers to our boys at QPR as well. It is becoming Aguero vs Chelsea atm.
because a case could be made for Sterling to have been sent off, and once a ref gets the first decision wrong everything else belongs in a what if parallel universe. BT Sport checked with the officials at HT about the first ball that hit Cahill and they said clearly that when a ball hits above or on the seem of a shirt on the shoulder it is not handball. Seems Cahill did not know this though. Nor did Phil Neville on MOTD. As for the second, I would of given handball and a penalty, but that is just me. I can see why the ref may have thought it accidental, because Cahill was obviously keeping his arm close to his body and not moving it away to block the ball, his whole body was travelling to the ball. As for Stirling not getting a second yellow, well I have no idea, apart from the ref may of had some regret about giving him the first one. The BBC 5 live team thought though his yellow card was deserved as they believe he just blocked Ramires intentionally, and even though Ramires got him in the face with his arm you have to ask well why was Sterling standing there. It wasn't as if Ramires threw the elbow at him, he was almost trying to climb pass Sterling who clearly wasn't going to move. After saying all that what ifs are still in a parallel dimension. We can add up all the bad decisions and then score the game on points based on that so we make our team win when actually they lost. It's like saying we were the better team but we lost because they scored more goals. Style is for entertainment purposes only it doesn't entitle the team to win. I do get angry when I feel the ref is against us so I do look for when I think a ref has favoured us and then I make a call as to whether I think something fishy was going on. I am not one of those who believe match fixing doesn't take place in England and that somehow we have some special immunity from it all or that English refs are somehow incorruptible. I think a lot of bad decisions come down to either a ref loses his bottle and gives into player and/or crowd pressure, the ref make a bad call then tries to correct it later by blowing up something innocuous later on to even things up (as bad as deliberately fixing a game in my opinion), or through an inflated sense of importance refuses to question their instincts and check something as it'll makes them seem weak or not in control when really it just make them look stupid and pompous. Two last things, refs are humans and to err is human and players are professional cheats, so when they are being honest (on occasion) it is hard to believe them.
So if you're wearing a long-sleeved shirt you can smash the ball with your forearm? was Ramirez wearing a long-sleeved shirt when he smashed Sterling in the face and they called it a shoulder-charge?
Liverpool should have had a penalty no question but disagree re: Ramires. Either way can't say I have too much sympathy given the decisions that have gone against us at Anfield down the years.