Morning all!
The Fulham games seems like a liftetime ago! I am sure I am not the only one sitting here on Tuesday morning following a heavy Bank holiday weekend thinking “I need a couple of weeks of the booze”.
The fall out from our draw to Fulham continues, with the usual suspects coming out from under their rocas to try and take advantage of the new, monitised Twitter.
After the game, one of my mates summed it up perfectly: “That’s football”.
Anyone who has followed their club for more than 5 minutes will know results like Fulham happen during a season.
Over a 38 game period, we will have games we had no right to win, that we win, And we have games that we should have won and do not.
Those that have done their miles tend to understand this sort of thing happens, and therefore do not overreact with either over excitiment or deranged dissapointment.
Much of the overreaction is not coming from those that go to games, but those who see football as a TV show, and live their lives through social media.
Yes, we can all point to Mikel Aerteta’s formation. I have blogged a couple of times this season that I am not a fan of Thomas Partey at right back and that we are looking unbalanced. But Arteta’s tactics was not why we drew the game. It was just one of those freak results.
Whatever statistic you look it shows a game in which we dominated.
There will be very few times a team has a 3.26 xG against 0.56 and does not come away with all 3 points.
With 71% possession, we had 19 shots, with 11 on target. Fulham had just 3.
It was just one of those days where we had too many misplaced passes in the final third, and a couple of misaktes that led to their goals.
Conceding in the first minute had nothing to do with the formation or tactics and everything to do with Bukayo Saka playing a blind, sloppy, lazy pass straight to a Fulham player. That caught Aaron Ramsdale out of position and Andreas Pereira finished smartly.
We got back into the game and went 2-1 up. Then Fulham went down to 10 men.
99 times out of 100, we see that game out and get all 3 points. Maybe even snatch a 3rd. This was the 1 game in 100.
Poor marking from the corner (I think Saka was caught flat footed?) and Fulham got the equaliser. We then huffed and puffed but could not blow the door down.
We dominated the game, had some great chances, and conceded two sloppy goals. Nothing to do with Arteta’s tactics.
I remember a game in 2003 against Fulham. We had 12 shots on target, Fulham 0. The game finished 0-0. The first time we failed to score in 47 games. We went on to win the league. Unbeaten.
Last season, Manchester City travelled to Aston Villa. They had 72.3% of the possession. Had a xG of 1.92 v Villa’s 0.28. They drew 1-1. In December they hosted Everton. 73.7% of the possession and 16 shots. xG of 2.36 against Everton’s 0.08. They drew 1-1 again.
The point is, over the course of a season, you get results like we did against Fulham, like what Man City did against Villa and Everton. It is just football…
If you are looking for something else to read this morning, I would suggest checking out this blog by LeGrove: Accepting the pain of progress.
It is a really good read and attempts to explain why Arteta is trying to change things this season, moving away from last seasons tried and test formula.
Final thought is on Kai Havertz.
Some fans were criticising him before he had even played a minute for us. It is the same people that spent all of last season digging out Fabio Vieira. Now all of a sudden after a good cameo performance from Vieira, they are all calling for the Portugal man to start. How short their memories are…
Enjoy your Tuesday. Plenty of water for me today as I try to detox the system!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 