Its Monday once more and as the weekend hangover subsides I have a very odd feeling; we won again!? That is three league wins in a row…
The last time we won three league games in a row Son Heung-min was our captain, we had not won a trophy in 17 years, Harry Kane had not won ANY major trophy let alone the Ballon d’Or … I could go on but lets just say its been a minute.
We started the game well, which is pleasing and then our cause was helped by a reckless challenge leading to Crystal Palace being reduced to ten men. In normal time, watching on TV, looked late but a yellow for sure however the reaction of Van Hecke did suggest maybe it was worse than first appears and replays confirmed that, studs were up and so a red was shown.
Palace were playing on the break anyway but us having the extra man did allow us to tire them out and eventually, from a set piece, one of the MANY corners we had, young Archie Gray scored a great header to give us the lead and settle some home nerves.
Seeing the young player run to Madders, who was warming up on the side of the pitch, was great to see and showed a togetherness in the squad we have lacked for some time.
Gray was having a good game covering at right back again however a booking led to De Zerbi making the call to make a change at half time and probably a sensible one, this is a ref who is known for wanting to ‘balance it’ once he has sent someone off.
Our Spanish World Cup winning full back came on for the second half and looked like he had not missed a beat. He really is a machine, even when injured he seems to come back ahead of schedule and always at a level. I was very impressed with his return.
The game itself did make me nervous. We were great, dominating but then one break led to them having a chance and all of a sudden you could feel it in the stadium. Anxiety seemed to spread from the stands to the players BUT still they kept the ball well and then the release of the second goal and WHAT A GOAL ha ha.
Van Hecke got our second goal and created Premier League history in doing so. He is the first ever player to score a header from a seated position in Premier League history. What a man!
We won the game 2-0 securing us another 3pts, another clean sheet and moving us to the top half of the table. Scary… might get nose bleeds up here.
I think its is going to take a while before anxiety of it all going wrong badly again or ten players being injured in training etc but right now I am just delighted we are finally getting the results our performances have deserved.
Leeds Utd away next, being away I do think we often play with a bit more freedom as home teams do not tend to sit deep. So, fingers crossed our run can continue. COYS!
-Admin SJ
