Author: John Pearman

All so very comfortable more a stroll in the sunshine – first real warm day of the year. The usual suspects scored, Mane, Salah, Firmino, three could have six but nobody’s complaining. That top four spot is in our own hands. Roma to come, blimey, life seems good.

Nerve racking, of course it was but long before the end, the tie was done and dusted.  Manchester’s richest club was always going to give it a go, and got the early goal they would craved.  There were issues, controversial issues, it was a football match but there weren’t as many as the City manager said and why go back a year to their defeat against Monaco only he knows.  Almost Evertonianesque. We deserved the win, they had the ball they had the possession they didn’t have our desire though.  They didn’t have Mo Salah or Bobby Firmino either. They can think back and reflect on what might have been whilst we think about the semi finals.

A tepid derby that’s for sure. Jurgen rang the changes but nobody complained this time around. Naturally I wanted a win, but under the circumstances I’m happy not to have lost. The Kaiser rested and rotated so we had Clyne back for his first try out since last season, Ings made his first start since Brendan was manager and Dom Solanke was put up front with Danny Boy. We even had an aging centre back playing left back because Moreno couldn’t get through the warm up.  And for 75-minutes we were still the better team. It was only when a few more changes were made the Blueslime got into the game and near the end the home support celebrated winning a corner like they’d finally won a derby.  So 0-0 it was, another point picked up on the road to the fabulous fourth spot and we have a slightly bigger fish to try and fry haven’t we?

Allez, Allez, Allez and all that stuff. Long way to go yet but hope nobody minds if we dine off this one for a day or two? Fantastic atmosphere INSIDE the ground but what happened outside wasn’t necessary. The first half we looked like we were better than the so-called ‘Best team in Europe’ and over the ninety minutes we did just about everything right. We didn’t have a corner, they had several, but they didn’t have a shot on target; we did.  A couple more injuries to worry about but maybe the result and what’s required next will help the healing process.

bThis had all the signs of being one of those days especially when Palace went ahead from the spot. Karius was clumsy but by the time he’d made contact with Zaha the ball was already in the crowd! Mane should have gone down straight away instead of waiting about five seconds before jumping to the ground but we can forgave him when he scored after halftime.  His head can’t have been right when he picked the ball up thinking he’d been fouled but thankfully the ref decided on leniency. Disappointing when Lallana went off just after coming on but it might have been the turning point because Lovren was better in the air than Matip and the Selhurst bomb threat subsided.  In times of need there is always Mo Salah and even though he didn’t have the best of games, but then again, who did, it was down to him to win it for us. There was a time not so long ago when we’d have succumbed in a game like this but not for the first time this season, we dug in and dug out a win.