Brighton had to be stopped from the slim chance getting that final C/L spot.I'm not one for CONspiracy theories, but the refereeing & VAR decisions in the Spurs v Brighton game just beggar belief!
No one watching that could possibly draw any other conclusion than something went MASSIVELY wrong & there needs to be an urgent independent inquiry into that match!
I've NEVER seen such a string of bullshit decisions strung together in my natural?? :-/
Personally I didn't think it was good defending, he gave him way much space and time, if he hadn't missed controlled it he was free on goal...Just wanted to say I don’t think Nathan Ake will get appropriate recognition for the brilliant work he did today, especially in the first half when we weren’t really clicking yet.
I posted this in his performance thread but I think it is worth reposting here:
Ake had a few he sniffed out but that 1v1 situation resulting from the poor back pass and fluff from Kev was one that stood out to me.
Soton score there and the game is very different. Perhaps we still win—as poking the beast hasn’t exactly worked with us most of the time this season—but he made sure we didn’t have to come from behind by keeping his head and playing what looked a very tentative attacker in to making a mistake that Eddie could pounce on.
He didn’t go to ground rashly, he didn’t give up running; he coolly slowed and shepherded the Soton forward and made him think about his next move. He saw the entire chess board in an instant and the opposition could only see the pawns closing in.
As someone may or may not have said once, battle is won or lost in the six inches between your ears, and right now I wouldn’t trade the bits between his for any other defender’s in the league.
We've got to give that kid some credit. It was a great piece of dribbling skill then he found the pass when others would have blindly smashed it.Much more enjoyable than the other visit of the season to St Mary's - what a contrast, definitely a case of miserable gray wet skies to sunshine and smiles.
Tricky game to begin with. The accepted way to play City seems to have moved to man marking and pressing high. Saints have the pace to make that a pain to play against. Didn't pay it a lot of attention but I think they were also having one CB drop off a bit to make it less attractive for Eddie to drop one over their largely high line.
What impressed in the early stages was how City stayed patient and didn't take unnecessary risks (one stupid moment aside), then just as the first half is coming to a close, one bit of space exploited to the full.
Second half, excellent, apart from letting one of their players do the waltz in our box.
Just keep it up City.
Good goal it was though.Much better second half. Another 1 shot on target 1 goal for our opponents
We've got to give that kid some credit. It was a great piece of dribbling skill then he found the pass when others would have blindly smashed it.
For Erling, that is a tap in!It‘s a tap in!
Thing with that is first goal before half time changes game if go in 0.0 then delaying tactics time outs and subs makes second half disjointed and even more frustratingMost of the first half was frustrating but second half we went up a couple of gears. Well happy.
I thought our fans were magnificent today, loud and proud.