Very disappointed with this defeat. Always knew it would be a difficult game against Anderlecht due to our 1984 UEFA Cup win over them. And we had drawn all 3 previous matches against them. But Anderlecht had lost to Qarabag earlier and have only won 1 in their previous 18 matches in Europe. Thought we would get at least a draw in this match. Instead, it is annoying to see us failing to win after taking the lead yet again. It is clear we simply don't have the mentality to defend leads.
Credit to Eriksen for getting our only goal. Amazingly, Eriksen has now scored our last 3 goals despite not scoring for long time before that ! Wish we had taken advantage of that early goal to go on and win it. Lamela should have done better with the one-on-one chance he had a few mins later. It would have helped us greatly if we had gone 2-0 up then. Instead, we never looked like scoring after that and let Anderlecht came back into the match. Kane had a even better one-on-one chance in the second half but wasted it like he has done many times this season. This match proves yet again that we badly lack a clinical goal scorer. Wish we had bought another striker or kept Soldado who did well in European matches.
I think we lost this match in midfield. Thought our midfield had a poor game and let Anderlecht dominate the midfield. We were outplayed by the Anderlecht midfield for most of the match. Thought Dier was too quiet in this match and was not at all noticed for most of the match. Dembele showed his dribbling skills but again he lacked the his end product. Townsend had a chance to show his potential but instead he was very poor. In fact, our midfield went missing after scoring our goal.
Our defending were poor for both their goals. It seemed like our defence were too slow in this match. It was annoying that the Anderlecht player had a free shot for their first goal. We should have stopped him from taking that shot. For the second goal, Trippier was too slow to intercept the pass and allowed the Anderlech to cross easily which resulted in the goal. Still, Vertonghen should have done better to intercept the cross.
We are now winless in 4 matches since thrashing ManCity. It seems like the ManCity win has affected our good form and concentration. Wish we had lost to ManCity but won the 4 matches instead. We better get back to winning ways soon if we want to achieve something this season.