"I cannot be pleased with a point"

Well we have had a day or so now to evaluate our 0-0 draw against Stoke so I thought I would tell you exactly where I am about the result and the performance.

We always knew Stoke away was going to be a hard and physical game so it came as no surprise some tackles were flying in and the physical stuff set pieces happened as they did.

AVB said after the game:

"Whatever the referee decided, (about the penalties) he decided, But the point I want to make is when you play in difficult games like this is the amount of pushing and grabbing in the box.

It's out of this world. We had to deal with Stoke's set-plays and were competent enough to avoid the dangers they created. But there is a limit to the pushing and grabbing that makes it impossible for referees. It's not pushing the boundaries of fair play. But it is pushing the boundaries on pushing and grabbing. It's difficult. Referees have to keep their eyes on the ball and be aware of certain situations. In this case, maybe the referee is in need of some help.

I cannot be pleased with a point, But I do think it's one of the most difficult grounds to play away from home. For our title challenge, I think one point at Stoke is not bad.'

(Source)
He has hit the nail on the head in both instances. I'm not happy that we drew our first game and didn't win it but at the same time plenty of sides will come away from Stoke with nothing so it's not all bad or as bad as people are making out.

Think back to the second half, we had a couple of chances to win the close game it turned out to be but Anelka's chip hit the crossbar and then Kalou headed the ball straight to their keeper's arms.

Yes we should of had at least one clear cut penalty out of the two or three and we totally dominated the game especially in the second half.

Some more positives for me, Bosingwa played well and looked as though he has a new lease of life under AVB. Alex was commanding at the back, and Fernando Torres looked really sharp as per the video I posted before.

There were a couple of negatives in the game for me and the obvious one is Kalou. Every time he picked the ball up he either lost it or couldn't create anything with it and too many of our "big players" never really stepped up to take hold of the game by the scruff of the neck to create and step up our tempo.

I do just want to say we have to remember it's the first game of the season so it's important not to jump on the bandwagon quite just yet. It's a long old season and we have plenty of time to get things right.

Here's looking forward to West Brom on Saturday!

KTBFFH

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