Born Under A Bad Sign
In the words of Albert King, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, you know, I wouldn’t have no luck at all”. In my desperate plea for a bit of luck last week this was NOT what I had in mind. But alas, unfortunately my wish was cruelly granted when Ashley Westwood’s corner snuck over the head of its intended target and glanced off the back of Auba’s head and into our net. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.
Mike Dean
Okay, okay, so the notorious referee had nothing to do with Xhaka’s sending off in the 56th minute. But unfortunately–for the second time in four weeks–our goal-allergic boys were forced to play a man down for nearly half a match. For a moment or two after Xhaka’s dismissal, we actually looked more like scoring than Burnley. But if you can’t score with 11 men on the pitch, then the odds are certainly not in your favor when you’re a man down. Strangely enough, in the absence of Westwood’s seeing-eye corner, our defense somehow managed to keep Burnley from capitalizing on their man advantage. And this was not a first this season–When Pépé was sent off in the 51st minute of our match against Leeds a few weeks ago, our boys hung on for a 0-0 draw. Go figure.
Better (Redux)?
On Sunday, not only did we have more possession than the visitors (nearly 65%), but we also outshot them (18-10; the most shots we’ve had in a league match since Week One v. Fulham). More importantly, six of those shots were on goal (also the most we’ve had since Week One). Look, our final balls are not where they should be, so we’re not making it easy for Auba & Co. to get off the schneid, but this was a vast improvement over most of our offensive (no pun intended?) performances this season. And we did it playing a man down for damn near half the match! This is not likely to instill fear in fourth place Southampton (who we play on Wednesday), but it’s something, right? Signed, Delusional