Where we lost it....

So....

It appears that we're now out of the title race that we hadn't even hoped or expected to be in, yet put up a much better fist of it than those who were supposed to be the prime contenders.

We've spent the majority of the season playing catch-up with various teams by way of a pretty impressive run of form since around December, but ultimately we left ourselves too much to do. Here are the games that I feel have cost us this season:


AUGUST:
Stoke (H) - Whilst it might sound daft to say that a result in August helped cost us the title, with all due respect to Stoke, there's no legislating for blowing a 2-0 lead at home to a team you'd back yourselves to beat. We had enough chances to have won comfortably, yet seemed to either ease off the gas or were unable to react correctly to the opponent, resulting in a 2-2 draw. A sign of things to come...

NOVEMBER:
Arsenal (A) - Thoroughly dominant at the Emirates against our arch-rivals for the best part of about 65 mins or so, yet didn't have the craft or the guile to carve them open and capitalise on it. I know 2 or 3 of their fans who were at the game who still say now we were the best team they've faced there all season domestically. Arsenal eventually got back into it and made it 1-1 late on.

DECEMBER:
Newcastle (H) - The Geordies had won on their last 2 visits to WHL and due to our form at the time combined with theirs, I doubt anyone saw anything other than a Spurs win - how wrong were we? Dominated the first half and there looked to be only one winner after we took the lead, but somehow we seemed to switch off or failed to remain calm and composed and somehow succumbed to a painful 2-1 loss.

JANUARY:
Leicester (H) - We had all of the possession and all of the chances on a day where a win would have taken us to within a point of them (I think), only to somehow leave one of their only 2 aerial threats unmarked from a late corner. 1-0 to anti-football.

MARCH:
Arsenal (H) - In what was billed as the biggest NLD in premier league history, we took it to an Arsenal side who were seemingly there for the taking after their shambolic defeat at Old Trafford, yet somehow found ourselves trailing at half-time. Goals from Alderweireld and Kane combined with Coquelin's red card meant that just about everyone was writing the obituaries for Arsenal's title bid whilst solidifying Spurs as genuine contenders and likely favourites for the title.... Yet what can only be classed as a huge error in judgement by Poch tactically as well as a lack of composure from the players seemed to galvanise Arsenal, who duly struck back to make it 2-2. Some say that was the day we lost the league....


Whilst it can't be denied that we've drawn too many games this season, especially when you consider we've rarely if ever been outplayed this season, these were the crucial fack ups in my opinion. The Arsenal game at WHL was a sickening blow though.



We went close, pretty close, but close isn't enough unfortunately. It seems as though our season and our fans have incited a lot of emotion on some other boards considering most of their articles for the last 3 days have been about us. It's good to be relevant rather than being stuck in mid-table with nothing to play for though

There are still things to play for this season, such as our highest-ever points tally and position in PL history. Both are well within our grasp and would enable us to finish the season on a high.

COYS