On a different note, I have to say I thought Andre Marinner had a decent game yesterday - all the ref's so far have been fairly decent.
Yes both at home have been good and surprisingly keen to let the game flow and not give a succession of freekicks for minor infringements. My only confusion yesterday was how he found so little time to add on to the first half given the three times the Soton physios were on the pitch treating players.
We're 3rd for crosses attempted. Arsenal: 5% completed out of 29 per game Aston Villa: 4% completed from 17 per game Bournemouth: 4% completed from 21 per game. Chelsea: 3% completed from 16 per game. Crystal Palace: 7% from 25 per game. Everton: 5% from 23 per game. Leicester: 7% from 20 per game. Liverpool: 2% from 12 per game (wow) Manchester City: 4% from 22 per game Manchester United: 3% from 19 per game Newcastle United: 5% from 21 per game Norwich: 5% from 21 per game Southampton: 6% from 25 per game Stoke: 4% from 17 per game Sunderland: 4% from 17 per game Swansea: 4% from 20 per game Tottenham: 3% from 15 per game Watford: 6% from 25 per game West Bromwich Albion: 6% from 21 per game West Ham: 5% from 22 per game Despite our crossing looking terrible, it's not actually bad in comparison to everyone else.
Sideways swipe at our forwards? Deeney will be the next victim of this cull you see. ps: 'much better than maybe I have' Are you sure you have got that right?
I missed the West Brom game but I thought it was quite a good game yesterday and Watford could have won it with better finishing. No reason to be concerned on the basis of results so far, it's a long season and the team don't look out of place - sure they will improve. I do think getting rid of Vydra would be a big mistake, him and Forestieri should be given a chance, both have potential to change and win games.
Those shots weren't particularly threatening though. My memory of them is that they were generally medium-paced efforts from outside the box.
I went to bed last night totally fed up that we'd failed to beat Southampton. I woke up this morning feeling happier, because I remembered how fed up I'd felt the night before. Point being, it made me appreciate how far we've come as a club over the past year or so, in that NOT beating Southampton was seen as such a disappointment. This season is surely the first of our 3 in the PL where we're not adopting the jolly 'oh we will probably lose this match anyway but let's just enjoy being here' type approach. We mean business and failure to beat Everton, Brom, Southampton..3 well established PL clubs...has been seen by most of us as a bit of a failure and missed opportunity. I'm not even going to the Etihad expecting a mauling. I hope and expect this team to fight and scrap and I'll be disappointed should we lose. To me, our mentality and approach seems different this time round. We're not just shrugging our shoulders if we don't win..we're annoyed, angry, new threads get started on the topic etc. That's the crucial thing is it not? And that's why there should always be hope and not despair.
Not quite true - lost their main defensive midfielder and right back but the attack was the same I guess.
Interesting stat on Sky tonight that of the 29 PL matches so far, only 6 have been won by the home side! We're not alone!
Is crosses attempted really a stat? What about NOT attempting a cross and getting a goal by dribbling and passing. Does that count against our "3rd best in the league" at attempting cross. I'm a'tempting fate but I think it'll be a while until we score from an attempted cross.
We're third for attempted crosses but if you look, we've actually had one of the highest completed as well.
There seems to be a trend now of teams shoring up at the back judging by the start of the season - its not just us. Man Utd and Liverpool seem to have made it their first priority not to concede a goal - and havn't done so yet. Man City havn't conceded. Newcastle look much better defensively this season. West Brom and Southampton made it their priority not to concede or lose the game after 3-0 beatings when they played us
We actually play very similarly to Man Utd tactically hence why Rooney hasn't scored yet. We are looking solid at the back but this will be put to the test on Saturday.
But those games are probably 2 of the 10 to 12 games we needed to win, so it has been a bad start from that point of view IMO!
I'd say 1 of the 10-12 games. WBA yes. This has been regurgitated a few times, but I'll add it again - Inter-forum prem prediction table at the start of the season: 26 WFC Forums Watford • 1 Chelsea • 2 Arsenal • 3 Man City • 4 Man Utd • 5 Liverpool • 6 Tottenham • 7 Southampton • 8 Everton • 9 Swansea • 10 Stoke • 11 Crystal Palace • 12 West Ham • 13 Watford • 14 Newcastle • 15 West Brom • 16 Aston Villa • 17 Sunderland • 18 Bournemouth • 19 Norwich City • 20 Leicester City Draws away to Everton and home to Saints are good results based on this. Yes Southampton got off to a bad start, but they are still a decent outfit and should be approached with a little caution as they can score goals.
I don't really understand the significance of that table in this or any other debate. It's meaningless guesswork, made prior to the season starting, and can't be used as a bible by which we decide whether an opponent was actually good or not. I'll make my judgements based on what I actually see during matches and I think WBA and Southampton were both beatable.
That table means bugger all. Leicester - predicted to be 20th for example have bucked the trend and are already on 7 points.
