Wearing the orange kit is always a good way to begin the night, and seeing Tom Davies in the line-up is a fantastic follow up. Not to read too much into a Caramel Cup game, especially one that we literally couldn’t watch, but everything seemed to be a tad better tonight. That’s good enough right now, we just need something to lift the spirits.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin had an electric start to the game with two goals in the first ten minutes, and that was seriously needed. I have made no illusions about how desperate I am to see Dom come good, and I still believe he will, but right now he is a square peg. We just need goals, and nobody seems to be stepping up to get them.
But anyways, I am negative enough in the pre-match content that I can’t be here. We didn’t look great, but we won, and scored goals.
That’s all that needs to be said tonight.
Jordan Pickford: 5
Shaky at times once again with his distribution but there wasn’t much else for him to deal with.
Djibril Sidibe: 7
An excellent assist in the first half was all that was required for most of us to see that Djibril is the man to start in the near future.
Yerry Mina: 6
Good enough to keep the clean sheet, if somewhat vulnerable with the channel runs.
Mason Holgate: 6
Largely the same case as Yerry Mina although seemed his usual careless self with some silly errors.
Lucas Digne: 6
Captain Lucas Digne was a brilliant sight to see.
Not that there was much else to see, mind.
Tom Davies: 6
Davies picked up the ball well and got forward with it.
That’s all we need from a midfielder sometimes, because we certainly have enough ‘playmaker’ types.
Fabian Delph: 5
Not his usual self tonight as he made some very questionable decisions. Weirdly, on the ball he looked (or at least sounded) very impressive with some deeper runs.
Alex Iwobi: 6
A good assist for Dom’s second and a better all around game from Alex. He is the central player we need going forward.
Bernard: 6
A hard working effort from the Brazilian, even if it resulted in little of the flair we are so accustomed to.
Richarlison: 5
Some good runs early on but faded out as time went on.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 7 (Man of the Match)
Clinical finishing early doors gives Dom his best performance of the season so far. While not as heavily involved as normal, he had far more opportunities in front of goal and that’s exactly what both he and the team need.
Subs:
Theo Walcott, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Morgan Schneiderlin.
My audio stream cut out just as Theo came on so I’m not even going to pretend on this one.