Well, looking at it the next day, after the emotions of the game and the bullshit subsided a bit, I think a point is what most of us would have taken from this game before it started. It was a little raw yesterday because we were less than a minute from winning, and even then Raya almost kept that last ball out with his flailing foot.
Takeaways..
Trossard was stupid. Yes, we know the refs are inconsistent, everyone knows that. But we've already had one player sent off for delaying a restart, and he was already on another bullshit yellow, why kick the ball away? Especially when we were winning and it was seconds from halftime.
We really need our forwards to start scoring. I think our run of relatively 'easier' games coming up might kick that into gear. All 3 of our goals in the past 2 games have been by defenders.
Calafiori and Timber look the real deal thus far. Yeah, Cala was burned for their first goal, but Savinho is a tricky little fucker, and this was Cala's first game, in a very difficult circumstance. And he made up for it with his own goal. And lets not read into Timbers pass completion for the match, we were up against it for 52+ minutes,
Partey was really good, he was instrumental in protecting the defense in the game. Martinelli was good, and defended well in the second half until he was totally gassed (and got an assist for Cala's goal). We know he isn't scoring, but todays game, given the context of the second half, is not the game i will judge his inability to score currently.
Our defending in the second half was some of the best i've seen. Yes, we have a great defense, but as a team, away, against arguably the best team in the world, we let them pass around outside the box all half and gave them nothing inside the box (until the last minute of the game of course).
Raya was incredible. Worth the money on today alone. He was so strong and when we face 28 shots in one half, there's not more that needs to be said. And he claimed crosses and shots that came his way. Nothing he could do about either of the goals, and he still almost managed to keep out Stone's shot.
There's lots more that can be said, but we just went through 3 of our 6 hardest away games within the first 5 games of the season and got 2 wins and a draw (which was almost an epic win). We are still unbeaten, we are still within 2 points of the top. Granted we are 2 points worse than at this stage last season, but we also played Villa, Spuds and City away already,
Our problem now is managing the squad and figuring out our creative hub while Ode is out.
Oh, and Rodri is despicable. He was bumped into by Kai and went down like he's been shot. Get real. He should be better than that, but karma's a bitch. Lets see how long he is out for. All the games City lost last year were without Rodri playing (i think). If he's out for any length of time, then City could suffer a little, because Kovacic is not Rodri.
