I thought we played well on Saturday and unfortunately didn't get the rub of the green. Chelsea scored from three dead ball situations and a worldie. Not much we could do about that (apart from not unnecessarily conceding them in the first place). I think we didn't get much help from the referee but I also said earlier that Emirates Marketing Project had much more to complain about their ref than we did. Have you ever refereed? It is a damn sight harder than it looks and refs only get one look at it in real time. Yes he could (and should) have booked Alonso and Kante earlier, but I don't feel that would have had as much effect as if we had scored from one of our set pieces.
As I continue to say, in finely balanced games (such as this one) we need to give ourselves every competitive advantage. While our corner variation has improved this season, on Saturday it went back to the same old , same old. We didn't create as much as half a chance from the 11 corners we had.
To give a golfing analogy. Corners are much like putting. They are a game within a game. You can be virtually certain that in every game we will have a few corners. To not give ourselves the optimum chance of scoring from them is much the same as a golfer not practicing his putting. It is a specialist area, where we still fall well short, not just of our rivals, but also the mean for the division. All I am saying is that we need to give proper attention to detail in this area, where we have hitherto been sorely lacking.
Indeed, as we are one of the most exciting and attacking sides in the country, we can surely anticipate that we will have above the average number of corners in a game. All I am saying is that we need to give ourselves the best possible advantage to capitalise on that situation. Not to do so would be negligent, no?
