Just watched this back because it was on at an ungodly hour Darwin time, and I was out in the country this morning. Not a bad watch. To say the least we were fortunate to keep a clean sheet, and this was a very useful result for us.

Martinelli has never been quite this poor, pretty much every ball was overhit or misdirected and every decision was bad. He looked much better in preseason, I think the pressure from Trossard is getting to him. Trossard's goal celebration was fucking funny, but also had a hint of "I should be starting" about it, understandably so.

I wouldn't mind a forward signing just to shake up the dynamic and get rid of the sense it's all about the competition for Martinelli's place. Merino's eventual introduction might also do that.

Martinelli and Havertz both had stinkers. The rest were somewhere between mixed (most folks) and good (largely Saliba, Raya and White), but these 2 were almost singularly bad. While I know that the "hot hand" does not really exist and streaks are a part of even Poisson distributions, Havertz feels like a very streaky player who somehow needs to gain confidence in some intangible way before he starts contributing. The issue is that when he is not on a "streak", he's an active liability. Feels like we have too many sub-optimal players in the forward line, who, while they provide bodies, don't provide much capability.

Missed the game but absolutely delighted with the result!

Let's iron out the kinks, sign an attacker and see if we can keep rolling on.

Made me chuckle a little

Big Willie If he could finish with that accuracy he'd sort our forward problems. Someone needs to make him feel about the goal the way he feels about Steve Holland

Burnwinter loved this moment.

TambourineMan The way Digne crumples is deeply satisfying

Burnwinter McGinn*

So we are 3 points up on equivalent games from last year. Good start to the season

While I think he will definitely improve once he gets some confidence, Martinelli was definitely an issue yesterday. His inability to cut inside onto his strong foot and continue those penetrating runs into the box is very puzzling. Add that to when he goes to the outside (much more frequently), his final ball on his left foot is usually poor and results in either a floated over hit ball to the back post that Saka has to track back for or he over hits his touch to set it up and it runs out for a goal kick. I don’t think it helps him when Rice is at the 8 either. I was very frustrated with Rice in this game - he was so far forward and largely a passenger in the game for large stretches. I may be in the minority but personally I feel like Rice at the 8 when Jorginho isn’t at the 6 does not work. He was way too far away from Partey and his combinations with Martinelli fairly nonexistent. There were too many times when the distance between our defense and Partey and then Rice/Martinelli was far too great and they were effectively on an island. I want to see Rice at the 6, Merino at the 8 and Calafiori at LB (not inverting as much) to really see the left sided dynamics with Martinelli- that’s a scenario I feel like he will thrive in. Outside of those conditions, I do think it’s important to bring in another winger who has 1v1 ability and decisiveness. We saw how effective Trossard was immediately with his decisive actions and having another option like that (Jesus would have also been huge if healthy) would make us extremely tough to defend.

Mirth Havertz is fine. The issue now is that Jesus is either injured or recovering or generally out of form and not nearly decisive enough. We need someone to replace Jesus and provide another real option at CF.

flobaba Agree that it was a tight game, but that's where you want the front 3 to be as efficient as possible. Not that Saka was the most efficient yesterday, but he was a fraction away from scoring in the first half (when Martinez saved) and had both assists in some fashion. I didn't really see Havertz hold the ball up yesterday - if anything, he didn't really get in the game much. He had the fewest touches and fewest passes of any outfielder yesterday bar Martinelli. I also didn't see him in the box looking for crosses / cutbacks / trying to hold off defenders. In fact, on both goals, I thought he should have been looking for the chance - he was on his heels when Saka made the cutback and just about got to the ball in time to put off the defender and let it run to Trossard and didn't even make the attempt when Trossard crossed across the box in the lead up to the second. The only thing of note I saw from him was the run to drag the defender away for the chance that fell to Odegaard late in the game. I am sure there are a few things I don't remember but felt like it was a bad game for Havertz overall, which is ok (everyone has those), but I think in such games, he contributes nothing whatsoever and it's like playing with 10 men, which is why I called him an active liability. Hope that clarifies.

Mirth

I love this guy so much!

Feels a bit weird having so many "favourite" players in the squad. Especially after the banter years.

if martinelli could just cut in and curl one he would be so much more effective.