Hi all,
A hammer here in peace. Always had a soft spot for your lot, and glad to see you kicking off well as i couldn't stand another Chelsea season.
I have to say i'm slightly surprised by the vitriol for the ref, i can see the time-wasting complaints, but maybe not to the extent being stated on here. At least compared to what we see by a lot of big teams week in week out. That said, i suppose how you view a ref will always go with what you're wanting to happen.
As for the actual game play it seemed very much like a game of two halves. I thought we were outstanding first half, incredibly composed, and bar a few half-chances looked pretty solid at the back but more adventurous moving forward. Then with De Bruyne's goal we retreated into ourselves (on that note, what a player he looks like he's going to be, for me your MotM). Second half i think was more to do with your pressing than us trying to be negative, from what i've seen under Bilic it's not the way we like to play, we want to drop deep with the pace to counter. A combination of some great defending by Reid, Tonks, Noble, and Adrian kept us alive and then a few misses that another day would have gone in. You definitely missed Silva, as a few passes from him could have unlocked us i think and at the very least saved the point if not more. But for a team of our resource against yours, we need some luck and need to be a bit negative. I'm over the moon with the result, but sincerely hope you can carry on your fine form from before the International break. Sterling looked lively today, and when you have Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero all starting and in-form that will be absolutely terrifying to come up against.
All that said, it's a testament to the team you are now that this win means more than the Arsenal away result, and is very similar to the liverpool result, except for the history of that. Best of luck for the rest of the season, except for your trip down to us ;)
