To quote our own erstwhile manager, I did not see it. And by that, I mean either one of these matches, although it was for different reasons. Either way, I'm not sure that four points out of this is going to be enough to get us over the line for the Fourth Place Trophy, given the mini-resurgence going on in Manchester these days.
The Thursday match, if nothing else, was a dress rehearsal for our boys in case everything does go pear-shaped in the end. I can normally keep an eye on these games when I'm at work (the beauty of a two-monitor setup), but it was a crazy week last week and I couldn't spare a moment. The way I read it, it was a perfectly functional and drama-free match won by some moments of brilliance for Alexis Sanchez.
So, of course that was the one I had no opportunity to see, right? Today's game was on my DVR. But, right as I woke up, I checked my e-mail and a pop-up notification from Facebook Messenger came up. It said, and I quote: "This club is taking years off my life." So, OK, great! At that point it wasn't n any doubt that I was going to spare myself the 90 minutes of frustration - in fact, seeing 0-0 when I logged on to the Guardian was kind of a relief after that sort of introduction.
I only saw the highlights that NBC showed before the Leicester City match started, but it did look like a decent game. Petr Cech saved our ass on several occasions, but then again, so did Vito Mannone for them. At some point, I'd love to know what the overall record of our former goalkeepers is against us - poor old David Seaman had a howler against us for Manchester City (cheers, Spunky), but Lukasz Fabianski and now Vito Mannone have gotten the better of us on a few occasions now.
Then again, Pat Jennings worked out OK for us back in the day, right?
I'm digressing, but really, what else is there to say at this point? The Norwich and Villa matches do loom large, now. Both are at home. Both would be absolutely inexcusable to lose. Neither is a sure thing at this point. Given that the Manchester City away match is probably a guaranteed loss, it becomes more and more vital to get the three points against the sorts of teams where it shouldn't be a problem.
Men of the Match: Alexis for the West Brom game, Petr Cech for the Sunderland match.
The Thursday match, if nothing else, was a dress rehearsal for our boys in case everything does go pear-shaped in the end. I can normally keep an eye on these games when I'm at work (the beauty of a two-monitor setup), but it was a crazy week last week and I couldn't spare a moment. The way I read it, it was a perfectly functional and drama-free match won by some moments of brilliance for Alexis Sanchez.
So, of course that was the one I had no opportunity to see, right? Today's game was on my DVR. But, right as I woke up, I checked my e-mail and a pop-up notification from Facebook Messenger came up. It said, and I quote: "This club is taking years off my life." So, OK, great! At that point it wasn't n any doubt that I was going to spare myself the 90 minutes of frustration - in fact, seeing 0-0 when I logged on to the Guardian was kind of a relief after that sort of introduction.
I only saw the highlights that NBC showed before the Leicester City match started, but it did look like a decent game. Petr Cech saved our ass on several occasions, but then again, so did Vito Mannone for them. At some point, I'd love to know what the overall record of our former goalkeepers is against us - poor old David Seaman had a howler against us for Manchester City (cheers, Spunky), but Lukasz Fabianski and now Vito Mannone have gotten the better of us on a few occasions now.
Then again, Pat Jennings worked out OK for us back in the day, right?
I'm digressing, but really, what else is there to say at this point? The Norwich and Villa matches do loom large, now. Both are at home. Both would be absolutely inexcusable to lose. Neither is a sure thing at this point. Given that the Manchester City away match is probably a guaranteed loss, it becomes more and more vital to get the three points against the sorts of teams where it shouldn't be a problem.
Men of the Match: Alexis for the West Brom game, Petr Cech for the Sunderland match.
