Saw a comment about how Son usually scores our first goal of the season, so felt the urge to test that theory with every season where SOn;s been with us on matchday 1 2024-5: Porro 2023-4: Romero 2022-3: Sessegnon 2021-2: Son 2020-1: Son 2019-20: Ndombele 2018-19: Vertonghen 2017-18: Dele 2016-17: Lamela
We need another to completely shut down the atmosphere...can see them making us pay for these misses...remember us doing this against West ham and villa.
Think you're being a bit unfair tbh. He's started well enough - and linking with new teammates is always going to take time.
Johnson does a good thing ... then gives ball away... a good run then can't trap a pass...very inconsistent
Possibly the most comfortable 46 minutes we are likely to get this season. We are ahead and have been playing quite well, but should have put this game to bed already.
We’ve completely bossed the game but have been very wasteful up top. Thankfully Porro eased some nerves but we’ve gotta do better in that final third. Solanke’s playing naturally like someone that hasn’t played with this team before, missed a couple half decent chances though, you need to be burying them. Johnson not justifying his start over Kulu. Maddison and Bentancur a cut above at the moment. If we get the latter back to his pre-injury form then we’re going to be sweet.
1-0 HT. Impressive first half performance, which we didn't see enough of last season. The scoreline doesn't reflect the dominance, though. Not enough clear chances and wasteful with the ones that were created. Solanke's lead the line pretty well, but it would be nice to see him getting a few shots off.
One thing that's stood out to me so far is Maddison playing on the left of a three, instead of being in the middle ahead of a two. He started the last campaign in that role and then we changed it for no apparent reason. I still don't think that any of them look 100%, but having Son, Maddison and Udogie combining is causing them lots of problems.