JoeFirstly, apologies for not posting in a while, as always life gets in the way of certain things and finding the time to write amongst everything else has proved tricky. It feels like a long time since our trip to Old Trafford and I said in my accompanying post that our reaction would tell you more than the result. Since then, we’ve played 3 and won them all. A shaky Zurich were beaten 2-1 to kick our European adventure off with a win. Brentford were swept aside in West London in some sweet revenge for last seasons opening defeat.
Then we came to 12:30 on Saturday. The derby is a game that truth be told I hate. The build up is horrible and as kick of draws near PMT becomes very real. You could feel the nerves in the Emirates on Saturday. IF you’d have offered me a point then I probably would’ve taken it. However from the first whistle we were sensational. That lot played a predictably boring game, sitting deep to deploy a counter (which undid us at OT). It took just over 20 minutes for us to find a breakthrough and what a breakthrough it was. In what was apparently a move straight off the training ground we worked the ball along the edge of their box and Thomas Partey (who usually struggles to keep it below the upper tier) bent it beautifully around Lloris. Bedlam, jostle, limbs whatever you want to call it ensued.
Incredibly, despite our dominance we went in level. Failure to clear our lines and a silly mistake gave Kane his annual penalty against us. But in truth we were all over them. Four minutes into the second half the Emirates exploded again. Jesus’ desire and hunger to follow the ball in was rewarded as Lloris fumbled it (Ooops!) and it prodded it in. From that point onwards Middlesex FC all but gave up. Less than 20 minutes later following Emerson Royal’s red card, Granit Xhaka, a man reborn, put daylight between us. A brilliantly worked move was rifled into the corner beyond the keeper and there was carnage in the stands. Mad Mario made 5 defensive substitutions to prevent it becoming a thumping and that was that.
It is of course only 3 points but against that lot it always means more. There is no time to dwell though as we welcome Bodo to the Emirates on Thursday. Hopefully we make it 2 wins from 2 in the Europa and carry some momentum into a tough looking game against Liverpool on Sunday. Till then.
COYG!
-Joe