Made up with this. Not because it was brilliant or anything, but it was what we needed and it keeps the improved run of results going. 10 points from 12 has taken us from the depths of 9th to the dizzy heights of 6th. We’re on the coat-tails of Spurs in fourth now, and if you speak to their fans they’ve got absolutely no confidence in their team at all. It’s there for us, we just need to go out and take it now.
Performances like this will be enough to win most games but it won’t be enough for Sunday. We need to be better than this, but this was a good tune up and gave us plenty of positive things to take into the weekend. First and foremost it’s the points, but performance wise there was a lot to like. Nobody played badly, which isn’t something we’ve been able to say often this season.
It wasn’t perfect by any means. The first half was largely frustrating because we didn’t score and a lot of it was a bit one paced and easy to defend. In flashes though it was really good. Any time we upped the tempo we caused them problems and we were just a little bit off with the final ball or shot.
We did have some really good situations though. Off the top of my head I can remember several:
Kostas got in around the back but couldn’t pick anyone out in the middle. Bajcetic shot straight at the keeper after a nice, direct move involving Harvey and Mo. That right side put together some lovely combinations. It didn’t always lead to anything but it was good seeing the fluidity and confidence in how they linked up.
Fabinho almost created a goal for Darwin after brilliantly winning the ball in the Wolves box but just slightly under-hitting the pass and allowing a defender to intercept. That was vintage Fabinho that though, and he took another significant step forward in this game. He’s been good these last few games (not so much his cameo at Palace, but when he’s started) and this was probably his best performance of the season.
Jota tried and failed to emulate the Nunez goal from last week when he attempted the Usher finish from a Salah cross and Harvey had two decent chances he didn’t take.
The first was a header he put wide and he really has to do better there. However, there was a lot to like about that situation. Firstly, it starts with Fabinho sliding in with his Inspector Gadget legs to win the ball and set us on the attack. We’ve not had that all season, so that’s encouraging.
Then Jota drives forward and releases Darwin on his outside. I think he overhits the pass but Darwin is so fast it didn’t matter and he was able to dig out the cross. I also love that Elliott was in there though, and he did that all night. His energy to get box to box was really eye catching and he deserved a goal.
The second chance he had he brought a good low save from the keeper. He said afterwards he should have done better with it, but that was a decent effort. He struck it into the ground so maybe he feels he could have hit it more cleanly. I like that the standards he sets for himself are high though.
That was another good move that started with us winning it in midfield (from the Wolves Nunes, who once again massively underwhelmed and lost the ball a lot) and the chest lay off from Darwin to Harvey was fucking ace. Would have been a lovely goal, but you can file it away with another chance created by Nunez. Massively under-rated part of his game that, he creates a shitload of opportunities for others.
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