The Man in The Shed

17^th February 2020 – Deflated

So, after the longest “week” in Fantasy Football history (oh, and the Premier League Winter break) we were back at home to Manchester United. Only time would tell if this benefits the players (no excuses at the Euros in the summer now) but certainly one or two of our young players looked in need of a rest (Mount for one) and the chance for one or two others to work back to fitness (Abraham specifically but Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic too).

So, it was with some disappointment to see that both Hudson-Odoi and Abraham had been ruled out with injuries. I’d felt that we’d not suffered too badly with injuries this season (one or two here and there) but as a very tricky run of fixtures arrived so we were losing players.

Looking at the starting 11 it was difficult to see where the goals were going to come from out of Pedro, Willian and Batshuayi - backed up by 3 defensive midfielders. The consolation was that United were looking particularly mediocre too this season.

As Batshuayi cushioned a ball off his @rse early on it just felt that we’d lost all of the fan enthusiasm surrounding the young players. This was probably due to the fact that only James had started this game.

At the risk of repeating myself the team had performed pretty much the same way as most recent home games – great approach play until within sight of goal and then a complete lack of penetration in the final third. Lampard was sounding like a broken record after every game now.

Failure to capitalise on a positive start was punished again. United’s first effort on target was a goal. OK, Christensen was probably still groggy from a strong challenge just before (it subsequently turned out to be a broken nose) but he was beaten to a header by Martial and we were behind.

The first half analysis didn’t make good reading. Batshuayi had squandered 3 decent chances, Kanté had been injured again, Willian had been booked for diving (and because the challenge on him was outside the box it didn’t go to VAR). Only Kovacic and James seemed to be playing well and United were looking decidedly average.

It seemed quite sad that this was once seen as a big game; a title decider. Now it was just a Champions league qualification decider at best. The lack of reaction when Maguire tried to rearrange Batshuayi’s man parts with his boot was the biggest surprise of the half. In earlier days both sets of players and benches would have been pushing and shoving for several minutes. After the game most “experts” agreed it was a red card offense. The fact Maguire remained on the pitch would have ramifications later.

Chelsea picked up the pace as the second half began. Ten minutes in and Zouma shoots us level from a corner. Then the inevitable wait for the VAR check. No goal due to a push. Cue chants of “It’s not football any more” and I feel great sadness both for my team but for football overall. This is killing our game.

It was then no great surprise when Maguire powered in a header from a corner. It wasn’t going to be our night. All of the major decisions were going against us.

Just enough time though for a Giroud cameo. On for the hapless Batshuayi he produced a brilliant header to score only for VAR to show his foot made him offside. That was clearly the last straw for many fans as they began leaving in droves. I couldn’t blame them.

With such as difficult set of fixtures coming up it was a bad result. OK almost everything that could have gone against us had done so but we were clinging onto fourth place now by just a point.

Still – Tottenham up next !