I can't believe I've seen some people on here criticizing our team celebrating the equalizer so passionately. It was a huge goal for a number of reasons and got us a valuable deserved point in a game many thought we'd get demolished in. Looking at all the positives from those 90 minutes, I'm starting to feel hugely optimistic for the first time in quite a while.
1. Chelsea are unbeaten. Only City have managed to pick up points from them in the league so far, and we arguably put in the best performance any opposition has this season against Mourinho's side. We had more chances, possession, and genuinely looked like we could go toe to toe with them.
2. We were missing key players. Rooney, our captain and one of our most influential players, was a huge loss. Not to mention we were missing Jones, Herrera, and Falcao, who, on form, are our best CB, CM and ST.
3. There were some encouraging individual performances. Di Maria didn't have a very good game, but Januzaj, Smalling, Shaw, and Fellaini all probably put in their best performances of the season so far. Even Van Persie was looking much more lively than he has in previous games, where he's tended to disappear.
4. We scored an injury time goal. I really can't remember the last time we did this. For almost a year now we've looked hopeless when we went behind, but our past 2 games have shown signs of the Fergie days, where we keep going til the last minute and never settle for the defeat.
5. No new injuries or suspensions. This is just a bonus given how things have gone this season.
6. We can actually raise our game against top 6 teams. Because of our shaky start and last season's roll overs in the big games, everyone seems to think we'd get tonked by any of the title challengers. We've now faced Everton and Chelsea though and put in much more encouraging performances than we saw in our opening 4 games.
7. We've now averaged 2.33 goals per game since the transfer window closed, and are unbeaten since the Leicester collapse
We might have a tougher set of fixtures ahead, but the team are starting to gel and we're seeing very noticeable signs of improvement. There's definitely way more potential in this team than there was 12 months ago
Plenty of encouragement from yesterday
posted on 27/10/14
the philosophy is working
posted on 27/10/14
Lucky costa was injured
posted on 27/10/14
Unlucky Rooney was banned.
posted on 27/10/14
comment by Mario The Scapegoat - #STOPISIS (U18764)
posted 23 seconds ago
Lucky costa was injured
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Err we also had injuries
I was encouraged with the first half however 2nd was very poor. Still a lot of improving to do IMO.
posted on 27/10/14
We are looking very good in the first half of most matches.... Keep that level up over 90 minutes and we will win most games.
Not 100% sure why it isn't happening, as we are not playing an incredibly tough pressing game. No doubt we are working on this behind the scenes though.
posted on 27/10/14
It was a miracle we got a point.!
posted on 27/10/14
comment by Mario The Scapegoat - #STOPISIS (U18764)
posted 51 minutes ago
Lucky costa was injured
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Rooney, Falcao, Carrick, Herrera, Jones, Evans missing>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ramires, Remy and Costa missing
posted on 27/10/14
You forgot Valencia and Young PVP. Unless that was on purpose
posted on 27/10/14
posted on 27/10/14
comment by The Equaliser (U20101)
posted 2 hours, 43 minutes ago
Think of the ease in which Drogba scored and then think that Chelsea had ten more corners in the game.
It was a miracle we got a point.!
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For the other corners Drogna was marked by Feilleni and they didn't really look like scoring. They scored in the one corner where people lost there concentration and let Rafael mark drogba. Had anyone of rojo, smelling, feilleni or blind mark drogba that wouldn't have been a goal.