Thought it was a powerful performance today and three good points secured. The critiques of Nketiah are misplaced, to me. We may benefit from different running in his position, but we would have had the chance to see that in the last half hour from Trossard if Tomiyasu hadn't gotten to two yellows in such a dubious manner. Meanwhile Nketiah's sharp focus on his responsibilities won us two of our three points, so how you going to complain about that?
Shout out also to Øde for such a class penalty, I'm happy if he takes them for as long as they look like that, he took Johnstone's tiny brain for a holiday souvenir.
I'm quite enjoying what Havertz does to this side, it's almost what I envisaged, he breaks up and confuses the rhythm of the match, offers awkward height and physicality in some situations but still has the technique to take part in dangerous combinations. Havertz is a good wild card as part of the "basketball offence" that became too predictable at times last season. We might benefit less from these factors when Jesus is available ...
Comparing this to the first match last season, we showed much greater control and we are now more physical and manly. I remember Palace throwing a lot of athleticism at us (they had Zaha admittedly) and making us look a bit too compact and short of long legs. With the lineup we're putting out there now and a big season behind our core, we look mature and very hard to beat. The match turned into a bit of a slog, but our strength demoralised Palace more than vice versa.
