Reasons to be cheerful – Part Two
Despite the uninspiring results and League position on paper, the reality is that we have been competitive in every game so far. We haven’t been blown away by superior opposition and we led last season’s Champions League finalists at their place until the last ten minutes.
While we have been roundly punished by our mistakes, I can’t help feeling that we have been the victim of circumstance. For instance, leading Tottenham 1-0, John McGinn had a very, very strong claim for a penalty turned down.
Tom Heaton had a hugely uncharacteristic brain freeze in the opening moments of his home debut and we were two down minutes later with a mistake from Douglas Luiz which was punished by a huge deflection off Mings. Bournemouth should also have been reduced to ten men in the first half with the persistent fouling of already-carded Philip Billings, who lost his head to such an extent that he was substituted by Eddie Howe at the break, before he could be sent off.
Not to mention the farcical end to the game at Crystal Palace, where despite playing poorly and down to ten men, Henri Lansbury was denied a last-gasp equaliser by one of the worst refereeing decisions of all-time.
In every match, we have competed and we have continued to display the resilience which dragged us into the playoffs last season – we could (perhaps should) have got something from every game so far.
