1-1. McClean. Shoddy defending around the box, got drawn out, failed to win tackles and block the cross. We started well but our passing's gone to **** in the last ten minutes. We're getting involved with their crappy physical game.
I'm sure there was a tackle from behind in the leadup to their goal. Ref doesn't seem to be giving many decisions against them.
Poor first half from us, lots of sloppy errors and silly fouls in dangerous areas. Fortunately West Brom's setpieces have been really poor so far. Entertaining game though, good pace to it. Dembele seems to be having one of those games where you wonder what he's actually contributing, hopefully he and the rest of the team will sharpen up in the second half.
1-1 HT. All a bit flat, really. Played well enough before we scored, passing it well but without really creating anything. Then we seemed to lose our way a bit and started getting involved in silly tussles. West Brom are very Stoke-esque. Happiest when fighting in the midfield. We need to use our quality and stop battling with them. Gerry Francis said that they were going to target our fullbacks in the week. Both were poor for their goal.
Should Alli have had a pen when he was complaining about his ripped shirt? Same ref as against United I think, and I remember he wasn't always stellar in that game. Regardless of factors out of our control, we've slackened off and let the game slow down and get scrappy after the goal. If we up the intensity and sharpen up after half time then we can win this though.
