Disappointed with the performance and result. We only needed a win against our traditional feeder club Everton to finish in 3rd but we failed to do so. Chelsea were always going to drop points to Leicester away but we failed to take advantage of that. After finishing in top 3 for the last 3 seasons and being in top 3 for most of this season, find it hard to accept that we ended up in 4th this season. Chelsea, along with Arsenal and ManU, were the laughing stock of PL this season but we somehow managed to finish below them. It could have been worse as Arsenal finished only 1 point behind us.
Credit to Dier and Eriksen for the goals but we didn't look like scoring apart from that. Whenever we score an early goal, we always go into sleeping mode for the rest of the match. This was the case again in this match. After scoring early, we got complacent and failed to lift our game. Fortunately, Eriksen managed to score from the freekick to help us get the draw. Amazingly, this is Eriksen's first league goal direct from freekick for over 3 years ! During these 3 years, Eriksen only scored 1 other freekick goal, which was against Juventus in the CL last season. On both occasions, Lamela wanted to take the freekick but Eriksen took it first. This shows Eriksen needs someone to push him all the time to be at his best ! After his hattrick against Ajax, thought Moura would score at least one goal but he was hardly in the game. Moura needs to be more consistent as he has never scored in 2 or more games in a row. Lamela's brilliant corner helped to set up our first goal but he looked rusty as the game progressed. Alli, Llorente and Janssen didn't have much impact in the game.
This match showed how badly we need to sign defensive midfielders. Our midfield started well but became poor as the match progressed. For all his hard work, Sissoko doesn't tackle enough. We need to find reliable replacements for Dembele and Wanyama. Wanyama was great in his first season for us but has been struggling since then. Wanyama has become too error-prone nowadays.
Our defence conceded 2 soft goals. We were always going to face problem as we started the error-prone Dier and KWP in defence. We should have put Wanyama or Sissoko in defence instead of Dier. Our defence were too slow to react for both the goals. Davies should have tackled the shot for their first goal. Lloris and KWP should have reacted faster for their second goal. Apart from that, Lloris did well to pull off a few good saves.
It is a disappointing way to end the season, being winless in 3 matches, 2 of them at home and having lost 6 consecutive away matches in the league.
This has been a mediocre season in the league. We started the season in great form, winning 9 of our first 12 matches but finished the season in relegation form, only winning 3 of our last 12 matches. Our total 23 wins were same as last season and joint-second best since 1967. But our total 13 defeats are our worst in 10 years ! Our CL campaign have really saved our season. Hope we will now win the CL to make this a successful season.
. Lets hope a CL final comes around a few times over the next few years ( but it may not) so make the most of it.
