I was sat in the plat club on the row right besides the corporate seats, and I was only about 15 feet away from Mandy, who looked Milfy as ****. I'm glad she and her husband were that today, as the owners would have surely seen that despite a spirited performance, we are still clearly lacking quality in certain areas, and although we deserved to be where we are, we are strongly over achieving. The difference in quality between the two sides at times was laughable. That being said we were probably unlucky not to score, but at the same time Pope was the only reason it wasn't game over at half time. I don't think we did badly and you may think I'm rating players two highly, but we could have easily have had goals we just lacked the final bit of quality and Arsenal are just better than us. Ratings - Pope - 8 - A couple of shakey moments on the ball, but some great saves to keep us in the game. Gonna give him MOTM for us. Trippier - 7.5 - Thought he had a good game. He seems to shine in big games. His composure and cleverness to win fouls in deadly areas and to take a cute touch is sensational. He's maybe the only player in our side that would get into Arsenal's starting 11 easily. Schar - 6 - Unlucky not to score, quite a bit of good defending at times, some mistakes. Can't be too critical. Could do nothing about the OG. Botman - 5 - Some good last ditch defending, but is shakey on the ball at times. Burn - 7 - I thought he did very well. He is a cracking defender, was very aggressive in a very calm way. Willock - 5.5 - I thought he'd come alive in this game, and he did at times, but the quality in the final third isn't there. He may be able to run rings around lesser teams, but he just doesn't have that final ball quality. Can't fault his effort though. He does make a lot of good runs, and still a great asset. Bruno - 2 - Worst game I've seen him in. He's a great player, but has been off the pace. Maybe CDM is not where he should play in this league, and we should get a deep lying DM to let him drift forward. Joelinton - 5 - I appreciate his effort, and he did show moments of brilliance, and his energy helped, but he gave away a lot of stupid fouls and lost his head. He shows why his top class but not world class sometimes. Isak - 7.5 - A bit anonymous early on, but came alive in the second half, and was sensational on the ball. We potentially have an all time great on our hands here, and if we don't finish and maintain a top 4 spot, he'll be gone pronto. Hit the post, some beautiful dribbling and passing. Never seen a player this good at St James Park since the last time we were in the CL. Wilson - 6 - Got no service, but some good hold up play at times. Murphy - 6 ASM - 7 - Good impact off the bench. Gordon - 5 Anderson/Targett - N/A.
Murphy also dinked a great cross that should then have been scored. Murphy when with the ball was fine. Though I thought he disappeared a lot.
For me it seems like Murphy needs an extra 2 to 3 seconds to think about what he is going to do next with the ball He doesnt have that instinct needed to be a top top player If you combine Murphy with Max we may get half a descent player
Agree with most. But especially Bruno: he was shocking and missed longstaff. And yesterday highlights that. Bruno needs legs around him so he can dictate the game and pull the strings.
Very unlucky not to get at least a goal tbh. Punished by a very good Arsenal team, but they didn't outplay us in any way. Bit of a reality check after the form we were in....perhaps it was needed. 3rd still in our grasp, got until Saturday to regroup for Leeds, so let's get properly prepared for this one.
I thought they wasted a lot of time. Says something when the team expected to finish second in the league has to waste time to get a result at your ground.
After the first 10 minutes, I thought we were going to blow them away. If Murphy scored that chance he had in the 2nd minute we would have done to them what we did to Spurs. Onwards and upwards. I thought they were going to come here and play us off the park. They didn't and that is a huge positive. Play like this in the final four games and we secure top 4
Good summary, think the penalty shout completely threw our players - could have been but wasn't but need to get on with it after that. Still thought we were the better team in the second half and they pretty much played on the counter because they could and used the dark arts to see the game out. In terms of ratings, you can't mark Schar higher than Botman or Willock higher than Joelinton but if you'd given Bruno a "1" I wouldn't have argued with that.
Problem with Bruno is when his head drops he get's worse and worse. He also sticks his foot into idiotic tackles. Classic South American passionate player;
