Just back from the game and I applaud all involved for a gutsy, determined and thoroughly professional away performance. I was gutted when they equalised as to be honest, I thought we were going to see it out. Dele Alli is a real talent and Kyle Walker was outstanding and what a take from Harry Kane for our goal. A great day out and at long long last, we are seeing a Tottenham team showing some balls when under pressure.
I'll take winning ugly. The irony is that the defence was considered to be the Achilles heel, yet Smalling has emerged into a top class defender, de Gea is always excellent and van Gaal has addressed the lack of a strong defensive midfielder. But if Utd win it, it will be because the rest are flawed. City look favourites, but there are a number of realistic candidates, including Spurs. Abnd how long can Leicester hang in there for? 1 defeat in 12 and 25 goals so far, having ended last season in similar form. That's more than half a season at better than 2 points per game!!
Exactly! If nothing else, you can put up a fight, not just roll over as we've done so often. But, there's more to this team, if we can keep them all together..
True. A few years ago and a 77th minute equaliser away from home would've meant instant and tragic meltdown.
Agree with CK about Alli. For me he's a fantastic talent, who still - understandably - needs more experience to be reliable against the top sides. I just can't believe how much running we did ! Arsenal looked shocked by our tempo and hard work, and couldn't live with it for long periods of the game. I said at the final whistle that's the best we've ever played at the Emirates. Such exciting things to come from this team, and what a job Poch is doing.
My wife also thought Allis decision making let him down at times. I'm very pleased with our progress. What says it all is that our best player after five games may not be able to crack the current lineup. I would have been very pleased with a point before the game, and I'm not going to add that to a surprisingly good performance and get disappointed at not winning.
On the way home from their hovel, good performance and I've left there feeling we dropped 2 points. Alli was outstanding today, walker was very good, lamella put in a cracking shift. I've made every game at their place for the last 12-13 seasons, never known them be as quiet as they were today, shocking support from them. Also, good to see Poch come over at the end to applaud us and good to see the applause he got in response from us.
At the risk of being a cheap shot...not only did our fans show theirs how to support a team for 90 minutes, they also showed them how to behave once the final whistle has been blown. It's not even worth mentioning for the next two PL games, given the opponents...
We gave them a good seeing to, even if the scoreline didn't show it. Credit to everyone on the pitch. Lloris ****ed up at the near post(his one weakness!) for their goal but pulled a cracker out earlier. Everyone else was excellent. I'll join others in crediting Walker though, he kept Sanchez quiet as a church mouse, no mean feat.
Oh, and (tw)Atkinson is still a joke of a ref. Not sure if this has been mentioned but his second half was appalling.
Sanchez always looks to cut inside from the left onto his right foot. Walker, sometimes with help, made sure that just about every time he tried to do that he was smothered Show him the outside and keep him there!...
Still a tad disappointed. Still proud of yesterday. Had a bit of a bash at Walker yesterday. Think that's more to do with my opinion of him over the last few years. However yesterday for me,on reflection of the match and comments here, he's back on his game and long may it continue. Well done Kyle.
Fair play Dona. I've also been one of Walker's harshest critics on here, but yesterday he was simply superb both defensively and in attack. His concentration levels were better than I've seen from him in years and as a result he read the game incredibly well. We shouldn't forget that despite all of the moaning about their injury list, he was still up against players of the calibre of Ozil and Sanchez, and kept both - especially the latter - extremely quiet throughout the game. A number of people have criticised him for the Gibbs goal and whilst I agree that he could've done a bit more, it was a wicked cross from Ozil and Hugo really has to be stronger at his near post as he concedes far too many goals from those situations. It should be mentioned that Eriksen was also superb yesterday. Watching him work I can see why he covers more ground than almost every other player in the PL. He made an absolute mockery of them on more than one occasion, and the thought of him teaming up with an in-form Kane and fully-fit Son is mouth watering.
I think if we decided that...we are better than the opposition and that we are going to hand them an arse beating...we would do. That is the only thing I felt that we were lacking yesterday. That total belief in ourselves. That I'm hoping is just due to inexperience. Keep these boys together and we can add that to our team personality and we would move up another notch.
Our first eleven, who for me played yesterday, are as good on their day as anybody. We tonked City, should have beaten Arsenal, unlucky to lose to Utd on the first day of the season. So who's left to be afraid of? If, by some miracle, that side can all stay fit and healthy, I think the belief is there and we can run close. But any key injuries sees us ****ed, I'm afraid. And as of now I'd be including Alli & Dembele in those key players.
There are no teams to be afraid of. None at all. City are probably the most likely to get results consistently - and seemed to have improved their team with the signings of Sterling, de Bruyne and Otamendi - but there's not much to choose between the rest. Utd are grinding out results with possession football, Arsenal are the typical Arsenal of the last 10 years and Chelsea are in disarray and not playing for Mourinho. You wouldn't think any other teams would bear comparison, but top 4 places must be wide open this season. Who can rule out Leicester given their form over the last 25 games (at the end of last season and start of this) or Southampton?Or West Ham? Or Everton? Will Liverpool improve and/or make signings in January?
Yes, there's a lot of intangibles. I can't see Leicester maintaining throughout the season. They're good, if all fully fit, but not that good. Southampton, West Ham, not good enough. Everton can maybe put a run together. Pool are our obvious main rival for a top four spot. A lot will depend on how, or if Klopp settles in.
