[Rightnr]

Very stressful to say the least.

How on earth are Fulham so low down the table!

Honestly, I think they've had some horrendous fixtures recently which is when they've picked up form. If they continue playing like this, they'll stay up easily.

 

[Shane88]

My balls still haven't dropped from that Bailly deflection at the end.

 

[lysglimt]

feck me we make every game a nail biter

The weird thing is - the least nervous I have been all season was against Liverpool

 

[Bilbo]

Nice 3 points. We didn't play particularly well, and I know we want to see some easy wins at times but these points are priceless come the end of the season. Fulham are a tough nut to crack.

Performance wise it wasn't the best. Tight pitch, lot of wind, but thats no excuse. We dominated, but didn't get a lot of end product from Martial and Greenwood. Mason is playing a little too wide, and he needs to adapt because he's been figured out a little bit. He needs to find a way to make sure he receives the ball closer the edge of the penalty area. Out wide he doesn't offer much. That 5 or 10 yards is crucial to him scoring goals.

Cavani was great. Pogba again was great.

On we go. This team consistently find ways to win matches, and that has to give us some hope in this title race

 

[Josep Dowling]

Bailly is a decent option, but isn't good enough to be our first choice CB. This game proved that again.

Cavani, Shaw and Pogba good. Fred put in a shift, Maguire solid.

I'm looking forward to Martial, Rashford and Greenwood hitting the same form as the did last year. We'd be one hell of a tough team to play.

His win % when he starts games would say otherwise.

 

[cyberman]

I think the best way to prevent a meltdown when we don't win the league is to point out how exceedingly unlikely we are to win the league, for a number of reasons. One of those being that we basically never have confident wins; all of them are nail-biting, heart-stopping affairs.

We have 40 points at the halfway stage. Mirror that in the second half of the season and we'll finish with 80, a very very good total after our recent struggles. We should be pleased with that even if it's only enough for third. We should forget about winning the league, it's not happening.

I dunno. We are monsters at beating non top 4/5 teams at the minute. Why cant we keep it going?

 

[Skåre Willoch]

Good win. Could’ve and should’ve scored more. Clear pen not given. Areola with a great game. Cavani good. Shaw good (again). Pogba class! Bruno very good. Fred good.
Martial and Greenwood passengers, and AWB has to step it up big time.

 

[Riz]

Liverpool dominated the league last year by winning by 1 goal margins. That was how majority of their wins went

Not quite, less than half of their wins were by a 1 goal margin. Right now it’s 8/12 for us I believe.

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

Another professional performance. Can't grumble.

 

[GazTheLegend]

I thought some of the players showed some unbelievable skill at times, some of our players control is getting to a really REALLY high standard. That said, Aaron Wan Bissaka started so slow and personally cost us the initiative and the goal, even. But we shit ourselves in the last 15 minutes and almost bottled it at a time we needed to relax and believe in ourselves. Not going to be easy to keep this going for another 17 games. Impossible, in fact.

 

[OrcaFat]

Despite a few ragged spells I thought we played well against a determined, in-form opponent. Perfectly acceptable. And, to me, very entertaining. Stressful last ten but what’s new?

 

[Jonno]

I think you need to know your audience before you reply with a comment like this, check my post history and see if I've ever made that comment after a game before

I wasn't specifically talking about you, more the fact there is a daily undertone for Ole, even moments after a victory sending us top of the league.

 

[The Man Himself]

This wasnt a put the game to bed game though, it was a come from behind win against a very tricky opponent

Yes wasn't a game where there were 7-8 clear cut chances but I felt we again didn't do enough in final 3rd and there were quite a few nearly moments+good saves by their GK. Both of our goals were nearly followed by other immediately. If we start to get goals from such opportunities, we can breathe easy later in the game.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Crap game, Fred probably the best player across the 90 minutes. Should have had a penalty too. Pogba was poor in the first half but great in the second. Lovely to see he's getting his shooting boots back on.

Oh well. Points in the bag, Rashford gets a bit of a rest, now hopefully Fernandes can get one in the next league game.

 

[RedPed]

Loved Fred's tenacity tonight. Thought he had a cracking game. Pogba was the star man tonight and Cavani did really well. Am baffled by the Van de Beek conundrum and Martial needs a reset. 3 points and we move.

 

[Tomuś]

'Shocking', 'horrible performance'. I mean what games are some watching? For a team that's been praised no end recently we made them look a pub team. How many times I've seen them hoof the ball hopelessly was shocking for a respectable Premier League team. We just had a poor start and a poor last ten minutes, apart from that we played them off the park and really should've put the game to bed earlier. Clear pen not given too.

I'm not saying it was a brilliant performance but it was a perfectly good one away from home against a team on the up.

 

[mazhar13]

We had many similar performances during that 98/99 season, too.

 

[Feed Me]

We can if a goal like that goes in. If teams start pumping it long you have to drop deep or you lose out in the numbers...right? We would be fecked with the second balls. Anyway, it didnt go in, we are top of the league and are on a ridiculous run of form.

Amen!

 

[Bilbo]

Despite a few ragged spells I thought we played well against a determined, in-form opponent. Perfectly acceptable. And, to me, very entertaining. Stressful last ten but what’s new?

This is the gist of it really. We did, again, play very well and dominated against a team that are in good form and would have fancied this one. The fact that we arent putting teams away is a small concern, but shouldn't detract from another strong performance

 

[atkar83]

I have never played goalie before, but on that Bailey deflection, was there nothing De Gea could have done? It was a relatively slow ball but he froze just hoping it would go wide. Is there any chance he could have dove and got fingers on it had it been more on net?

I love De Gea and whats he's done for this club, but the last few seaons hes starting to 'hope for a miss' rather than react. I could be way off base.

 

[zizou81]

Three lung Fred.

 

[SuperiorXI]

'Shocking', 'horrible performance'. I mean what games are some watching? For a team that's been praised no end recently we made them look a pub team. How many times I've seen them hoof the ball hopelessly was shocking for a respectable Premier League team. We just had a poor start and a poor last ten minutes, apart from that we played them off the park and really should've put the game to bed earlier. Clear pen not given too.

I'm not saying it was a brilliant performance but it was a perfectly good one away from home against a team on the up.

Yep, spot on. Great win away from home.

Smashing teams isn't a given against anyone in the prem... not even at home never mind away!

 

[Mr Smith]

Look it's good that the team is showing the resilience to win these kinds of games; this is another one we would have drawn or lost a year ago. But we need to kill teams off. Sitting on 1 goal leads every game will catch up to us eventually.

Our forwards need to improve.

 

[Berbasbullet]

'Shocking', 'horrible performance'. I mean what games are some watching? For a team that's been praised no end recently we made them look a pub team. How many times I've seen them hoof the ball hopelessly was shocking for a respectable Premier League team. We just had a poor start and a poor last ten minutes, apart from that we played them off the park and really should've put the game to bed earlier. Clear pen not given too.

I'm not saying it was a brilliant performance but it was a perfectly good one away from home against a team on the up.

Well said, especially after such a big game at Anfield, all that mattered is the result today.

 

[Tincanalley]

'Shocking', 'horrible performance'. I mean what games are some watching? For a team that's been praised no end recently we made them look a pub team. How many times I've seen them hoof the ball hopelessly was shocking for a respectable Premier League team. We just had a poor start and a poor last ten minutes, apart from that we played them off the park and really should've put the game to bed earlier. Clear pen not given too.

I'm not saying it was a brilliant performance but it was a perfectly good one away from home against a team on the up.

You are right - tough game - team did well

 

[GifLord]

 

[Siorac]

I dunno. We are monsters at beating non top 4/5 teams at the minute. Why cant we keep it going?

I expect that every game being a battle to the very last second is going to catch up with the team eventually, both mentally and physically. But that's OK. No one expected us to win the league. If we start telling ourselves that it's a possibility, we'll be disappointed in the end even if otherwise we'd have every reason to be happy with how much we improved compared to last season. We have 40 at the halfway stage; getting 80 and finishing third should be considered great, not disappointing.

 

[Robertd0803]

Massive sigh of relief at the end there. Had a feeling it wasnt going to be straightforward based on the game Fulham gave Chelsea recently but thankfully we are not Chelsea.

Big win.

 

[cyberman]

Not quite, less than half of their wins were by a 1 goal margin. Right now it’s 8/12 for us I believe.

yeah but they had a ridiculous amount of wins. 14 wins were by 1 goal apparently.
Im not too fussed, its this bad habit of falling behind that warps the stat. we arent going to score 3 every game to widen that margin.
Its not as if we are scoring and sitting back ala Jose. We are usually the team chasing and getting that late goal. We cant be chasing a 3rd to make it comfortable if we are still looking for the winner itself!
Us falling behind to early goals so often lessens the value of that stat

 

[Tomuś]

Yep, spot on. Great win away from home.

Smashing teams isn't a given against anyone in the prem... not even at home never mind away!

Precisely. It's baffling especially given people had expected it to be an extremely tough game beforehand. It wasn't even one of those scrappy wins we get sometimes, just the result made it worse than it was. It may have been scrappy in terms of result as Bailly had to make us brick it at the end but the performance itself wasn't scrappy.

 

[mazhar13]

I have never played goalie before, but on that Bailey deflection, was there nothing De Gea could have done? It was a relatively slow ball but he froze just hoping it would go wide. Is there any chance he could have dove and got fingers on it had it been more on net?

I love De Gea and whats he's done for this club, but the last few seaons hes starting to 'hope for a miss' rather than react. I could be way off base.

That deflection took it way further away than its expected path. Just after that header, de Gea hopped slightly to his left, and by the time the ball was deflected off of Bailly, he had all of his weight on the left, making it difficult to shift his weight to the other side.

This is normal with keepers. Goalkeepers that are able to react quickly to deflections like that typically plant their feet later on, which is a big risk in and of itself.

 

[Raveneye]

While subs could probably have been done earlier, taking Cavani off was the correct choice. Not because he's out of form, but because he is in it. Cavani is no spring chicken and his style of play makes him vulnerable to injury. I am not comfortable making him regularly play 90 minutes within a tight schedule.

Martial still helps the build up play plenty and has good chemistry with Rashford. Leaving him on to maybe get some confidence was correct. Cavani needs to be wrapped in cotton wool for the next match.

 

[nickyboy1981]

Great win and fully deserved, we need to see out games better though.

As much as I hate to see us running time down, its even worse watching us give the ball away at their corner flag with a couple of minutes left.

I don't think my heart can take it!

 

[Random Task]

This wasnt a put the game to bed game though, it was a come from behind win against a very tricky opponent

The more we grind out victories like this, the more I feel our title credentials increase.

Fulham are a tough side, they proved that tonight, but I always felt we were going to grab the winner regardless. There is determination within this team the likes of which we haven't seen since Fergie was running things.

 

[Cpt Negative]

I’m surprised at the awful performance comments.

we were by far the better team and just couldn’t find the final pass or cross. Fulham played a high line and caught us offside a few times.

they put a few more up top in the last 10, but that was always going to happen.

we need to remember that Fulham have been in form recently and have taken points of Spurs and Liverpool. If this was against the Fulham of the first half a dozen games, maybe be critical, but they’ve been a different beast recently.

 

[FCAES_7]

Might be slated for this, but Pogba has been the best player in the league this past month. Fred again proves his worth and that you sometimes need time to settle in the PL outstanding player

 

[Fitchett]

Important win, we were really good in parts, hanging on in others. What I really like about this team is the determination from the players. The spirit is back to what it was under Fergie, never say die for 90+ minutes.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

I like Ole's post-match comments of late; he's happy to identify aspects he isn't happy with rather than getting carried away with the good results.

 

[Red & White]

Swings and roundabouts, Pogba hits his shot v's Liverpool 6 inches the other way its a goal and we get 3 points there.

Enjoy the ride, we're winning our games and are top of the league.

I’m definitely enjoying the ride, as my other posts on here are testament to. Just posting on this game for now and as others have noted, we shouldn’t be putting ourselves in the position of hanging on for the last 10 minutes when we’ve been relatively sound defensively for the previous 80 minutes. We don’t want it to become a trend when we’ve got the players and even forward thinking play now to put games to bed earlier.

Delighted with the 3 points.

 

[mazhar13]