People leave on 38 or you miss 6 minutes of the second half in the que. I thought GD was upset having missed that chance more than just being subbed.
I really underestimated Gracia didn’t I Up there with Decca rejecting the Beatles and Coca Cola turning down the chance to buy Pepsi. Though not as important or costly misjudgement obviously.
I have to pinch myself watching this team a lot of the time now. I think I said the same last week but I’m so used to watching Watford teams with such limited players, the way this team can pass the ball out of trouble with such control and ease just doesn’t seem real. Watching Watford over the years, so many times you could see what the players should’ve done but they didn’t had the skill or the footballing brain to do it. Watching this team now, they do stuff you can’t see coming. To some this may sound like such ridiculous hyperbole, but today on more than one occasion we were a couple of final balls away from moves that some of the classic Arsenal teams of the past 20 years would’ve been proud of. For me, watching this team at the moment really is such a surreal experience. One final note on Deeney, without him in the side crossing is redundant, there is litteraly no point in us crossing the ball into the box as there will be nobody there to get on the end of it. A few times today somebody got to a crossing position and crossed it into nobody and I thought to myself that is what Deeney would’ve been useful for, but we are far better off without him and just not crossing the ball full stop.
I see. Possibly. Good to see Troy take the Remembrance Day commemorations to heart and come dressed as a poppy! Nice touch shaking the players by the hand at the end by him.
Thought Huddersfield started well and had they taken their early chances could have been a very different game Quality goals from quality players Bit sloppy in possession second half Like Success .... got all the attributes to be a decent striker, good touch, quick and mobile, not great with his decision making but that will come
Thought it was a strange atmosphere on around 70 minutes, we seemed to be doing everything we could to help Huddersfield to score, we were defending too deeply as if it was the last few minutes and we were playing for time! Although Success had a few problems with his final passes, I am sure with confidence and more game time it will come!
Deeney's not actually very good at attacking crosses, it's one of the biggest misconceptions about him. But your wider point stands, we couldn't play the way we did today with Deeney in the side.
5live asked the question 'was it a great goal by Pereyra or just poor defending by Huddersfield?' If it was Salah they'd be creaming themselves over it.
I thought it was another good performance today, include in defence, despite Foster having to make some great saves. That is because all their efforts came from long distance (I think, I did miss s bit of the game). Good shooting from themt hem you can't blame the defence for that shots from 20 yards. I honestly can't remember them getting any chances from within the box. Cracking goals, but should have been five at least. Really pleased for Isaac as he tries so hard, is really involved, holds the ball up well, but his final ball just lets him down too often. Hopefully, he'll build in that. This season's good start is completely different from previous seasons. Our players and team performances are so much nearer to their potential. Gracia has done so well. In previous seasons, in my opinion, we rarely looked like maintaining the good start as we scraped through on mediocre performances. The movement in midfield and up front is just brilliant right now, and it takes the pressure off our defence that was always under the cosh in previous seasons. They now look organised and in control. We will get better, too. Edit: I now remember Fosters save from the blonde fella was from inside the box.
Interesting to hear Javi's interview on bbc. He seems less than impressed with the performance and expects more. Good to hear that they won't be resting on laurels.
How many times have we seen us compete throughout a game, only to lose because we did put our chances away - today was the complete opposite, we won because we were the side that put away our chances. A good but not a great performance topped off with two outstanding goals and a string of quality saves by Foster. Always good to get a convincing win when you don't play exceptionally well
I agree with your points. Foster played well but he’s a good keeper and the saves he made today are saves you’d expect any good keeper to make. They look spectacular but in reality for a good keeper they’re routine. They all from long range, whereas our goals were all as a result of us completely carving their defence open and leaving their keeper with no chance at all, Huddersfield didn’t do that once today. I agree with our good start too, I remember the Mazzari season results wise we started well but performance wise we were lucky to win the games we actually won. Likewise with Silva a lot of our results came after going behind and clawing our way back into games with wonder goals glossing over bad performances. This season we’ve had one bad game.
I thought it was a Messi type goal. Yep one could argue poor defending but the directness with which he ran at them and the quickness of feet was sublime. When the defence parted near the end, like the Red Sea, to let him straight through I reckon he still deserves the credit as they were so bamboozled by his skills they did not know what was going on. I’m in the great goal camp.
In the interview on the BBC Sport website he was asked about Success' goal. He said we tried that dead ball move at Wolves but Success didn't make the right movements so didn't get on the end of it. He spoke to him about after that game and today he executed it perfectly. I remember seeing that free kick last week and thinking it was well worked, that Kiko played a great volleyed ball across the box but it was a shame there was no-one on the end of it. It's definitely worth watching us when we're preparing free kicks and corners. There's a lot of misdirection going on, just like when Pereyra was doing his boot up just before sneaking into the box for the volley against Brighton. Today, Masina was gesticulating like a madman as though he was going to cross it into the box, and you could see other players getting ready for their part. Mariappa deliberately ran in the box too early, drawing a defender back which allowed Kiko to be onside when it was chipped over the top to him. The attacking set piece coaching is great, we'd also got Will Hughes completely free at the far post on the first half but he overhit the volley back across goal.
It was a strange game in many ways. The crowd were subdued for some reason, and I think it was a case of not getting that third goal, having chances galore to really chalk up our biggest ever Premier League victory. I was nervous at 2-0, knowing that Watford have a habit of c0cking things up. It reminded me a little of the Newcastle match last season. We were dominant, strolling at 2-0 with early goals, then missed a penalty and Newcastle pulled one back to turn a comfortable win into a nervy one. I was half expecting that to happen today. Thankfully that didn't happen and we got that killer third in the end. The first goals were amazing. This is what happens when you pit top quality players against an average defence. It was far too easy for them and a perfect day for Pereyra and Deulofeu to strut their stuff. Not for the first time, I left the ground thinking if only we had a clinical striker. I would say we are just this away from being a top 7 side. Imagine having Calum Wilson in our ranks for example. Still Rome wasn't built in a day, and the path we are on is firmly in the right direction. It just goes to show what a good coach can do. He's changed the attitudes of so many players and this is what has unlocked our potential. There are many things that needed ironing out though, and it's nice to be able to say this after a fantastic score line. For example, why play a short corner in the final minute? What are we protecting? Surely 3-0 up with 45 seconds to go, just play a normal corner, not one of those shield in the corner types. Our interplay at times were too much for Huddersfield, and this is something that's developing nicely, but we need to be intelligent when to play that killer pass. Huddersfield are poor, however, they did cause us plenty of problems, but mainly with long range shooting. That was a well earned clean sheet from Foster. He had to work hard for that today. We played better at Arsenal than today. The difference was we didn't take early chances. I'm please Gracia is seeing it the same way, and was not entirely happy with the performance. So, the bubble of good feeling is back again and full credit to the players and management for that. After that bad run, of no wins, it was easy to let things fade. Wolves was an outstanding 90 minute performance, today was more of a professional one. That's 6 wins from 10 games. Two winnable games up next, but I feel we would need to up our performance level in order to win those. But 19 points at this stage, our best ever start, and there are things we need to improve on. What a fantastic place to be.
Has there been a bigger contrast between two home games? Muff was a miserable day and a miserable performance. Today was not perfect but some of the interplay came close. May be Muff was a wake up call that has helped us put in two very good performances. Hopefully we can keep it going at the toon.
Verified account @GaryLineker The @BBCMOTD running order: Liv/Car, Ful/Bou, Bri/Wol, Lei/WHU, Sou/New & Hud match. 10.30 on @BBC one.
