Opinion from the stands

The best possible start we could have hoped for?

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What an incredible weekend to be a hammer, not even the most optimistic of the Claret and Blue army would have said we would beat Arsenal at the Emirates on the back of our disappointed flurry in Europe and keep a clean sheet in the process. A 2-0 victory handed us our first points in a fixture with Arsenal for 5 years. Our previous 10 games with Arsenal resulted in 9 defeats and a draw with an aggregate score line of 27-7. But a resilient performance, including some outstanding individual displays, helped us to defeating one of the real title favourites.

Firstly, Adrian was a wall in goal at the Emirates, making more saves than any other keeper in the league on the opening weekend. Adrian looks very confident in goal, claiming crosses and commanding his area. Chris Wood has come in this summer as our new goalkeeper coach and this can only be good for Adrain, and Darren Randolph too, in improving them as players. Wood has experience with keepers such as David De Gea so hopefully we will continue to see these performances from the Spaniard.

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The whole of the defence was composed. In particularly, Ogbonna was very solid, strong and his international and European experience was evident. An early yellow card would have worried the players and staff alike but Angelo handled himself excellently and was a credit to the scouting team and the chairmen for bringing in a player of his calibre. Tomkins, Reid and Cresswell also played excellently.

The surprise package of the game was 16 year old Reece Oxford, the young centre back played in defensive midfield and what a Premier League debut he had! Many people have picked up on the job he did on Mesut Ozil but he also an authoritative figure, pointing where the man on the ball should pass. The performance that Oxford put in was similar to that of a player with a decade of experience. Teddy Sheringham failed in a loan request for Oxford this summer and he said even when he tried to get the England U17 captain to Stevenage he had doubts about how he would cope at such a young age. Bilic seems much more confident in Oxford’s ability and how right he was, I hope that Oxford gets more chances this year. Noble and Kouyate were also very solid and organised in midfield and they didn’t put a foot wrong all game, but Oxford stole the show.

The attacking trio linked up well too, with Dimitri Payet impressing on his debut. His skill and power was evident throughout the game from the first minute to the last. He bagged his first assist of the Premier League season, something we are expecting Payet to do frequently if statistics are anything to go by. Zarate and Sakho’s movement was very impressive and they were fighting hard for lost causes throughout the game. A quality performance was just what Zarate needed to silence some of his critics and while the negative people will say the jury is still out, Zarate is a player who works very hard and has the full backing of the manager and the board so hopefully we will see a lot of him this season as he is a real game changer on his day.

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Payet showed his class on his Premier League debut

Join the conversation below and give us your views on Sunday’s victory.

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1 comment

  • JB says:

    Bilic made a wise choice in saving everything for the Premier League. The Europa League is a “B” grade European competition anyway and sometimes not worth the effort and can be fatal. It just isn’t worth it to burn oneself out in it. UEFA doesn’t care so why should we care about them. Great stuff WHUFC

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