Had a fun night over the Emirates on Tuesday so will definitely be trying to get tickets to see what the kids can do against Carroll and co.
Told you lot Nketiah was a goalscorer! 😆
But seriously how does that even happen? His first touch! I couldn't believe it when I worked out it was also him that got the second. I've struggled to put a good definition to it in the Youth Team thread but he has a certain genius about him in the box. That skill that you usually can't give someone that means they seem to be in just the right place and pick just the right finish more often than for it to be luck. Hes a clever, clever boy.
West Ham could be a really good night. Especially for just 10 quid! We'll have to play much better than we did for 75 minutes here though. Haven't seen any of the incidents back but it looked like we were very lucky not get a red card when Elneny got done for pace (again, bless him!) - Holding was covering but he wasnt level- and I thought it was a penalty when Debuchy made that challenge towards the end, but I was at the other end of the ground. Also how Jack didn't get at least a yellow in the first half for a scything tackle he made out of frustration is a bit beyond me. Though not complaining obviously.
All of the kids were good;
Eddie obviously stole the show - magnificent celebrations too btw, you gotta be a proper goalscorer to remember to be bad ass after the two moments he had! Could have scored 5 as well. He was incredibly good quite frankly. He blew me away when I saw him for the U23s at the Emirates a couple of months back but this is obviously something else altogether.
Nelson was class all match but he had his hands full defensively with Josh Murphy, who was brilliant on the night and looks a real talent. A super finish from him as well. Nelson just didn't get enough opportunity to attack because we didn't have that sort of control over the game. When he did he caused problems galore. Amazing to think that as promising as Murphy is he's a full 4 years older than Reiss!
I thought Maitland-Niles put in his best performance in that tricky left wingback role that he doesn't like very much. Just limited by the fact that he's on the left and has zero threat on the outside.
Macey was okay except for the hairy moment when he nearly caught a ball under the cross bar and his, albeit understandable, hesitation to come out and close Murphy when he went through and chipped him.
Dasilva and Willock did well when they came on, Akpom tried to make things happen but struggled out wide because he doesn't have the dribbling ability to penetrate at this level.
Of the more senior players, I thought Holding was up and down, he did a lot of good things but constantly struggled with the pace and physicality of their striker, Oliveira. Elneny struggled badly with anything that didn't involve front foot defending. Anything in behind or movement out of his periphery and he was nowhere. Debuchy I thought was probably our best performer on the night. He did almost nothing wrong and won just about every duel - ground or air - he went in for. Used the ball well too. Two very good performances in a row for him now and he lasted the pace remarkably well all things considered. I guess a fullback that's trained for years to cover the length of the field for 90 minutes finds it very easy to stick to covering just one third.
Jack was average in midfield but got a load of minutes in his legs which will do him the world of good. He was dying towards the end! Barely moved in extra time. Coquelin was genuinely diabolical - save from a couple of good tackles he was near useless. Although I think he might have been the guy that flicked on Walcott's corner for Nketiah's first goal?
Talking of Theo, I'm not saying he played well, he did not, but as far as I can see, he's getting little or no credit for working his balls off in every single game he plays at the moment. He's not complaining about not getting a look in for serious games and he makes run after run, presses, tackles, and keeps on trying even when things aren't going his way. He ended up at RWB when Nelson went off and he didn't shirk his duty in any way. Also his corners were on point all night and he forced an incredible fingertip save from young Man City loanee, Angus Gunn, late on.
Giroud, on the hand, played like a lazy good for nothing for most of the match and only started actually trying even a bit when the atmosphere in the stadium went up to boiling point towards the the end of the 90 minutes. He ate their centrbacks for breakfast after that having previously been completely dominated. Not impressed one little bit with that and he was exactly the same against Doncaster as well.
Iwobi was absolutely electric early on but it came to very little because he had nothing ahead him to work with. Giroud was basically hiding and Theo was just getting everything he did wrong. He tried hard to link with Maitland-Niles but all that resulted in was the latter coming inside and passing it off because he's not a wide player and he doesn't have much of a left foot. I loved Iwobi's attitude and effort though, he was absolutely spent by the time he came off for Dasilva.
I think ultimately it's Wenger that keeps handicapping a lot of these players with the positions he picks them in. He's picking unbalanced teams and putting players in positions that do not suit their strengths. With that said, I am glad that we've moved forward to a point where Coquelin, Walcott and Giroud are not starters in the serious competitions any more. Those guys probably have 500 appearances between them over the last 5 years and that says a lot about why we've plumbed the depths we have, in my humble opinion. There's some real talent showing through now though and it's good to see.
Roll on West Ham!
