Prior to the Crystal Palace game spirits were high, talk of us moving into the top 3 after sweeping aside these minnows, we had just beaten Man United and despite them being a much diminished force they are still a big club and we beat them without breaking sweat. We then went on to get what a lot of people thought was a decent point away from home at Bournemouth. Yes we had suffered a humiliating defeat in the Worthington Cup but the premier league was clearly the Managers focus and things were on track. Give Crystal Palace the spanking we all expect and we are on track for Champions League football. We know what has happened since then and now we look like we will be closer to bottom 4 than top 4 but I think you can argue we have not played well this season even when results were going our way and I actually think we were fortunate to be in the position we were prior to the Palace game.
First game of the season we got stuffed by City, a very good team though they are it was so easy for them and the way they carved us up was embarrassing.
On to Brighton, an extremely poor performance. How we got out of there with a point i'll never know. Think we were lucky in this one.
Watford, a 3-1 win. We did play some decent stuff in this one at times but Will Hughes missed an absolute sitter and the game could have gone another way, nevertheless 3-1 away from home is a decent result. Overall I did not think a good performance from us.
We then played Norwich at home, surely our best game this season. Pukki was on form and people were admiring their attacking football. In the second half of this game we saw the West Ham we have all wanted to see, but even in this game Cantwell missed a really good chance to equalise, had he taken that chance they may not have capitulated. Still you had to feel good after this one, we played nice passing football and should have scored more in the second half. Lanzini and Anderson looking superb.
Playing Aston Villa we could have expected to go there and win, reduced to ten men, an all round drab performance and in the end happy to leave with a point.
Man U up next and we won, that's about all you can say, we didn't play well but we won and we're feeling great, what will we do to teams when we do play well if we can beat Man United at a canter?
Bournemouth game and many were happy with this performance, I thought we were a bit poor so probably at odds with the opinions of most fans but we got out of there with a point after our arch nemesis Callum Wilson should have finished us off, I think we were again lucky to take anything from this game.
... and then our luck ran out beaten by Palace after going a goal up, crushed by Everton in a completely abject display and another poor performance against Sheff United at home where we get a disappointing draw.
Its not simply the results that have been poor its the level of performance, its the lack of fight and passion, its the team selections and the knee jerk reactions of the manager. I want to look forward to our games but win,lose or draw against Newcastle i'm fairly sure we won't see a performance that will inspire us.
Criticism of Pellegrini has often been met with people saying he is world class and talk of his time at City, Malaga and Villareal but that isn't going to save him from my criticism. I do believe we have a decent enough squad and its his job to get performances from this team, he's had long enough now to get his ideas across, he doesn't seem to be able to change things other than personnel, the formation stays the same, the attitude stays the same and its up to him to get us out of this rot.
People will say he should have had more money to spend but this groups of players is capable of better than what they are producing, being outclassed by teams like City and Liverpool i will take on the chin but watching our players give the ball away sloppily, look like they are pretending to challenge for headers and jogging around and allowing opponents time and space is just not tolerable. What are the answers? I don't know but i'm not paid 8 million pounds a year to come up with the answers. No i'm not saying Pellegrini out but I am looking squarely at the old fella to do something and not just carry on like this just dropping a few players each game because if things do carry on like this in terms of performances I will be saying Pellegrini out and I will not be alone.
