30 Apr 2026 22:51:41
Once again, not taking our chances has come back to bite us. Can’t understand why he keeps starting with Buendia, always looks better when a sub. Digna, you only put your arms up like that on a rollercoaster, can’t understand what he was thinking. Also, with a player like Hutchinson, you don’t let him back onto his left foot. Ginny not at his best tonight; some of his passing was way off, fantastic player but we need him at his best.
You can understand the ref wanting to keep the game going, but in doing that, he let a few tackles on Ollie and Rogers go. Anderson a good player but tonight he was allowed to get away with murder, that follow through on Ollie was half way up his ankle. Emery seemed happy with result, but we have to play better than that next Thursday.
Let’s hope we can pile on the misery for Tottenham on Sunday. Utv
30 Apr 2026 23:05:36
Dave, unfortunately, we only seem to be able to pile misery on ourselves.
30 Apr 2026 23:26:25
Pretty fair summary there, Davedean - we all know there's a core of the squad that Emery trusts and several players that, understandably, he doesn't. I suspect they will be doing all they can to get them out. But, in the meantime, I can understand starting Buendia over Sancho and Bailey... despite his poor performance tonight, he's far more reliable than those two and at least puts a shift in.
We've had nearly 12 months of over-the-top reactions from fans... some saying we'll be in for a relegation battle after our poor start, others getting frustrated when we're not keeping pace with some of the best teams in the country after an excellent run of form. The reality is that, thanks to Emery, we're continuing, on average, to overperform. Emery is working a miracle getting us to this position in the league and a cup, despite having one hand tied behind his back with a limited squad, especially in the final third. I dare say none of us enjoy almost every game being a chess match, but in the absence of us being able to spend at pace with other clubs, I can begrudgingly see why Emery focuses on shape and tactics.
He can't trust our attacking players to go all out to kill teams off. So that's where we find ourselves. We're overachieving with some limited players, but at the end of the day, we're competing above where we probably would be with any other manager.
Below par tonight, but going to a second leg at VP with a single-goal deficit might actually work to our favour and force us to go on the front foot. Who knows, but I do know that if you had offered fans the opportunity to be going into the last month of the season in a good position for the Champions League and a chance of a cup final, we'd almost all have taken it at the start of the season. It's never easy; it's the high-pressure stage of the season, but let's try and temper short-term frustration with long-term perspective. Bring on next week. Elliot to play a part? What a story that would be.