This is the first home match since that West Ham debacle. It is going to be interesting how the fans and the players react. The team were rightly booed off after that humiliating loss to West Ham. Can see the players being very nervous until we score a goal. We need to find that all-important goal as early as possible. The longer this match goes without us scoring, the more pressure it will be on the players. Unfortunately we don't have a leader in the team who can calm the team down when the going gets tough. Hope someone will step up and lead us to victory. Being at home, there is no reason whatsover why we cannot beat Hull.
It is a bit embarassing to note we have only scored 3 goals more than bottom club Sunderland. In fact, only the bottom 4 teams and Hulll have scored less goals than us. We really need to start scoring 2 or more goals per match. Hope we will start doing that from this match. Soldado did well to score his first league goal from open play against Villa. Hope he will be boosted by that goal and will be all fired up to score more goals in this match. Similiarly Defoe must be full of confidence after equaling our European scoring record against Sheriff. Hope he will try to score his first league goal of the season if he gets to play in this match. We are still waiting for his first goal from our record signing Lamela. How great it will be if Lamela gets to score in this match. Just can't see Adebayor getting a place on the bench but if he does gets to play, hope he will prove his worth as well. We will need all the goals we can get to boost our goal difference.
Our midfield will have to play a key role in this match. No doubt Hudd will be all fired up to get revenge on us for selling him to Hull. Our midfield should not let Hudd much space to start their attacks. I think our ideal partnership will be Sandro and Paulinho. But not sure if Sandro will be too tired to start after playing against Sheriff. I think our midfield looks more compact when Sandro plays compared to Dembele. Both Holtby and Eriksen have been inconsistent so far this season. On paper, Eriksen seems like a better player but he is still struggling to adapt to the PL. Similiarly, Holtby has not really shown his true worth in the league. I guess it all depends on AVB's tacticts on who gets to start this match. Whoever plays needs to be more creative compared to the previous matches. Ofcourse our key player will have to be Townsend. He has been playing really well lately but needs to improve on his finishing, just like Lennon. Want to see Townsend create more for us instead of trying to score. I think Townsend still needs to go a long way before he becomes a consistent goal scorer. I think will prefer Lennon to start instead of Sigurdsson. I think Lennon's pace will help our attacks more compared to Sigurdsson.
Our defence have done well to keep so many clean sheets this season. Being at home, will be very disappointed and annoyed if we can't keep a clean sheet against Hull. Ofcourse we did concede 3 goals to West Ham at home. Hope the defence have learned a thing or two from that match. It proved that we cannot afford to be complacent even when we play the minor teams. We should look out for the defence-splitting long range passes from Hudd. If we can stop Hudd, we would have won half the battle in this match. It is a pity we had to play virtually our entire defence against Sheriff. Hope players like Lloris, Vertonghen and Dawson won't be too tired in this match.
With all our rivals winning their matches this week, we have no choice but to beat Hull to stay in the title race. Just hope we will turn up and make use of our chances in front of goal. A big win will be a bonus and will improve our goal tally. But won't mind if we get another simple win. There is no need to be outstanding at this early stage of the season. Also, remember we have to play Hull again in the League Cup on Wednesday. So, hope we will do just enough to win this match.
