Away from the refereeing decisions, we should have had the game wrapped up by half time. If you don't take your chances against decent sides, then nine times out of ten, you'll live to regret it. One goal is never enough and certainly not with our shaky defence.
On the plus side, Tierney is looking like the honest and hard working full back that we haven't had for years. Impressed by the quality of crosses he whips in across the 6 yard line and our forwards need to be alive to them. Martinez is a revelation so far...commands his box and has good handling. We've only ever seen glimpses of him before, so it's good to be able to judge him in a run of games and I can't remember when we last had two decent keepers. Saka looking good in patches for a youngster and brilliant the way he sat Evans on his arse and picked out Auba. Ceballos...I doubt we'll be keeping him, but I want him to be a success. There's a player in there imo and he performed well last night.
For the negatives, well, my old mate Xhaka never lets me down. DB10 pointed out a couple of his early and typical fuck ups, but this bloke seems to slide under the radar of most of the commentators. They seem to know that he's crap, but don't highlight his glaring errors. He lost possession in the second half when we were 1-0 up and it led directly to Vardy setting up Iheanacho, who should have scored. For their goal, Mustafi is getting stick, not entirely unfairly, but take a look at how Xhaka allows Gray to get the cross in. He lumbers like a fucking dinosaur and makes no effort to stop the cross, but no one mentions it. The bloke is a complete liability and must be a nightmare to play alongside. Imo, Guendouzi, Torriera and Ceballos are decent players, but many supporters have doubts about all of them. I'd suggest that the common denominator undermining all of them, is that they're invariably having to play alongside a complete muppet. We will NEVER achieve anything with Xhaka in the middle of the park. It's bad enough carrying a liabilty in any position, but it's impossible in centre mid, because you can't cover for it.
I also struggle with some of Arteta's substitutions. What's this thing about Willock? Average at best and contributes very little when playing, to the point where you can forget he's on the pitch. He added nothing last night and I couldn't see the point in taking off Saka, who didn't appear to be flagging and is far more of a threat and covers at the back better. It was also dangerous to take off Auba for AMN, as it removed the chance of an out ball and just invited them on even more. Imo, if you're down to 10, you have to keep a quick bloke up front, just to keep the other side on their toes and prevent them piling forward without a care. Did I ever tell you lot that I've been in football for 30 years ??