I wouldn't put money on Spurs beating anyone, but Bournemouth are definitely running out of time, much more worried about Villa than them
Enjoyed Cleverley taking a yellow near the end by hauling a guy to the floor. Ended the game for Norwich.
My thoughts... - Buendia was their best player by far. Granted we gave him way too much space, but he was a class act tonight and I wouldn't mind seeing him in our starting XI next season should we survive relegation. - Norwich, for all their efforts, look down and out. Likeable side though. Would like to see them in the PL again sometime soon. - Excellent reaction to going 1-0 down. When was the last time we came from a losing position to win the game? - So nice to see us pinging the ball around on the ground instead of hoofing! What do you know? Shock horror we actually looked more dangerous when passing it. - Bar one knockdown, Deeney was totally anonymous this eve I'm afraid to say. - We need to work hard to get Sarr in the game, but when we do he creates chances. We persevered and he got a (gammy) assist for Welbeck's wonderful overhead kick. - Welbeck had some really great movement and touches this evening. I'd happily start him upfront against Newcastle with Joao Pedro and Sarr either side of him. - Shoutout to Hughes, he was very good this eve. Comfortable on the ball, pressing their midfield and making sensible passes forward. Deserves real credit for his performance. - Massive, massive three points this evening. Huge psychological boost. Dare I say it, if we can get something from the Newcastle and/or West Ham games, we will have one foot in this division for next year IMO.
Deeney is beyond ******* useless Jesus Christ why bother. Cannot wait for him to talk about how he "bullied" Norwich in the media tomorrow for the next 4 weeks.
I think the performance was better than many have made out, but that's down to nerves and completely understandable. It's hard to be objective where your team is concerned even at the best of times, and right now most of us are bricking it.
I think with the pressure on the team tonight, that is an excellent result after being 1-0 down. Don't care about the performance, we won. This from Jonathan in Liew in the Guardian made me chuckle: 'This was Welbeck’s first Premier League goal in almost two years and the hope must be that his injury traumas are finally behind him. You even wonder if might not be a better proposition up front rather than on the left wing. Certainly he looks more of a threat at present than the leaden Troy Deeney: Watford’s main point of attack here who seemed simply to hover without doing very much, like a silent consonant, the “g” in “phlegm”.'
Dr Freud-Pob thinks you won’t allow yourself to be happy because you have been hurt so many times by WFC that you can’t allow yourself to hope for fear of being let down yet again which would be devastating. Dr Freud-Pob understands. Tell me about your mother Moog.......
Buendia was class, expect to see him at a big club, or at least an upwardly mobile mid-table club next season. Norwich are down, as they've been for a while truth be told, but they're a decent footballing side (especially at Championship level), I think they'll be well-placed to bounce back next season. Slightly improved, if still not great, performance from us but a welcome three points, and great spirit to come back from a goal down. First time we've come from behind to win since Palace away last season? Deeney did nothing as usual, although I do fear he'll keep his place as I don't see Welbeck starting two games in quick succession (is it too much to ask for Pedro lol). Sarr is like gold dust to a team like us, give the ball to him, and he'll do something (whether we'll take advantage is another thing, we got a bit lucky with the deflection into Welbeck's path, but what a finish). Hughes has been our undisputed best player since the restart, was a bit heart in mouths time seeing him go off, but he was on a yellow, and giving him a little breather ahead of the weekend turned out to be a good thing. Good opportunity to stay up in our own right now, whether Villa and Bournemouth pick up points or not (though of course for the old heart rate we'd much prefer them to lose every game!)
Was it just the two changes today? Chalobah of course came on late too, so that change didn't really have much of an effect. Wouldn't surprise me if we see a few changes for the weekend now
I think 34 may be enough to stay up so I reckon 3 more points might be enough. I think so much depends on sports psychology and I hope future performances benefit from today.
Would Deeney ever score an underhead kick is more the question. Crystal Palace away in 2019. Cleverley with that fantastic volley.
More passion, more fight and more work rate. They are the basic ingredients to win football matches. Couldn't care less about the performance and whether it was fluid or not (don't get me wrong, it's nice to win and play sexy football), today was all about the result and 3 precious points! Capoue was much better tonight than he has been, but not quite at his highest level yet. Credit it to him though, he answered some of his critics tonight (myself included). Deeney worked a bit harder and laid a couple of decent headers into oncoming players. He did his bit for the team but there is no way on earth he's the answer next season, no matter which league we are in. It was always going to take a moment of magic to win it and Welbz didn't disappoint. What a finish! Hopefully he can hit a purple patch in front of goal. Sarr had their left back on toast, but I think as a team we missed a trick by not involving him more. Wouldn't mind seeing him play centrally running in behind the centre-backs and stretching teams. He can go missing playing out-wide. I thought our 'game management' was much better. We played for time and broke the game up by winning free-kicks and general time-wasting. What a miss by Idah though, damn, thought that was in!! Hopefully Man Utd and Spurs can do the Business on Thursday. If they do, we have another chance with the early kick-off to put real day light between us and the bottom 3, which could very well be enough!? Four more points please, that'll do nicely.
The thing is with that is his best position is the one we already have Sarr in, so it wouldn't make much sense for us to splash a lot of money out on him.
Marina went to ground for to easily. But made up for it massively covering Pukki as he drifted in past Dawson.
Do you remember when a lot of people on here were saying that Hughes shouldn't be anywhere near the team? It wasn't that long ago.
He's obviously talented but still shocked how easily he looses the ball in dangerous areas. Hughes made him look paperweight first half.
That's also very true. In fairness, Delboy sometimes has games like that as well for us, but it would def be an issue if a player practically costs you a goal with something like that for every one they score or assist.
Norwich are a bit like the Hull team that went down. A few very good players let down by the sum of all parts. Champions League and Premier League winner Robertson and Captain of Man Utd Maguire in that side.
And it was fair enough because he was near enough our worst starter until Pearson arrived. Every second touch of his used to be throwing himself to the ground to try and get a foul because he was about to be tackled. He's somehow been completely transformed since then.
Not that I'm advocating we take our foot off the accelerator, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have enough points already. I can easily see Villa and Muff getting 0 points between them for the rest of the season. Villa have barely managed any points since the restart, and one of those was due to the jaw dropping nonsense that exposed Hawkeye and VAR. Muff have been even worse. Goes without saying that anyone can fluke a result, but I don't see both clubs completely blanking for the rest of their games as remotely unlikely. If we picked the team based solely on staff who haven't been written off on here, we'd have no first eleven, an empty bench, and the head coach would be Gladys the Tea Lady.
Oh they're better than Hull tbf, they started the season with very few players, and it was essentially Maguire, Robertson and 8/9 dyed in the wool Championship players. I wouldn't say many, if any, of the Norwich side are massively out of their depth in the PL, just together they're not good enough, but I'd imagine they'd keep a hold of most of that lot and make a good push for promotion next season. This season will probably stand them in good stead tbf, they're a young bunch
I've always liked Hughes, though up until fairly recently I'd have had Chalobah ahead of him in the pecking order, for numerous reasons that's not the case anymore lol
If “we stay up easily” with 5 points, then presumably we could get away with fewer. Which is just as well.
A win was all that mattered BUT had they scored with that chance and let’s face it they should have, we would be fuming. I think it was a very dangerous game Nigel was playing today. We sat very deep and let them have possession. Time wasting for over half an hour is painful to watch but we got away with it thanks to that miss. Thought the ref was excellent today so unusual to say that. Cmon spurs and Utd Thursday as it’s a free hit for muff and Villa.
