[Football] Albion growing into a Premier League team

[Icy Gull]

Such a difference in approach from the first couple of games. I am very impressed with the way Hughton has gone about making this team look more assured with every game, OK we made mistakes yesterday but it’s great to see the way we have gone from trying not to be beaten to a team that looks to win games. The new players have slotted in brilliantly and all bring something good to the games now.

Loving this season and expecting the next few games to be really tough and think we could struggle to add many points but it is one hell of an adventure and the team and CH may well surprise us, well me anyway.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Completely agree. Anyone making judgments after only 2/3 games - and a few did - would have totally underestimated our ability to compete in this league.
To be fair in many ways last night was probably our shakiest defensive display, Dunk and Duffy let the guy go for the first, too easy with one long pass, and their second was another poor goal. But showed a lot of character to get back twice and you cannot have too much of a go at a defence who have been otherwise superb..
We have to accept that out of the big 6 we have only played 2, and have 4 between now and Dec 26 so points will be harder to come by. But we're in there fighting and doing everything I hoped for this season.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Didn’t think we would be ninth at any point of this season
So well happy with the way we are playing
We will take a few beatings up to the end of January but we have points in the bag already so just enjoy the ride

 

[Surf's Up]

Looking forward the key will be to avoid allowing the inevitable defeats, one or two of which may be quite heavy, to become a downward spiral. We must continue to pick up points in winnable games.

 

[Stat Brother]

Didn’t think we would be ninth at any point of this season
So well happy with the way we are playing
We will take a few beatings up to the end of January but we have points in the bag already so just enjoy the ride

I wonder how many of us would say:-
'I didn't think we would be ninth at any point of this season'.

But after studying the fixture list probably thought:-
'I'd expect us to be 4 to 7 points above the relegation zone, going into December'.

 

[jasetheace]

Yes and it is the partnership between Stephens and Propper that is driving that evolution (That we have a granite defence generally is now purely a given)

I am no apologist for what happened at the rear end of the transfer window but at least now we have a very singular one dimensional task in January's window...

 

[SUIYHP]

Think we have to be cautious still. Despite our very impressive performance, the next string of games is going to be a difficult one. We've only played one 'Big 6' side so far and in the next month or so we're playing three of them, and losing to all three of them is a possible outcome. Part of the evolution of a new Premier League side is to be able to accept a bad string of results and be able to take ourselves out of it. We can beat these sides, no doubt about that, but we must also be realistic about these matches and not let defeats get to us too much. Especially as we should be looking to win some of the games in between the 'big' ones. Palace have improved, Huddersfield are at a similar level to us in achieving some good results and Burnley have been an excellent side this season, so these will be tough matches for different reasons. I'd be very happy if leading up to the transfer window we had one or two wins and a couple of draws out of these. Part of me wishes we could beat one of the 'big teams' but I'm not going to be too upset about it if we don't.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Think we have to be cautious still. Despite our very impressive performance, the next string of games is going to be a difficult one. We've only played one 'Big 6' side so far and in the next month or so we're playing three of them, and losing to all three of them is a possible outcome. Part of the evolution of a new Premier League side is to be able to accept a bad string of results and be able to take ourselves out of it. We can beat these sides, no doubt about that, but we must also be realistic about these matches and not let defeats get to us too much. Especially as we should be looking to win some of the games in between the 'big' ones. Palace have improved, Huddersfield are at a similar level to us in achieving some good results and Burnley have been an excellent side this season, so these will be tough matches for different reasons. I'd be very happy if leading up to the transfer window we had one or two wins and a couple of draws out of these. Part of me wishes we could beat one of the 'big teams' but I'm not going to be too upset about it if we don't.

Is this an underhand dig at Arsenal?

 

[Albion my Albion]

Such a difference in approach from the first couple of games. I am very impressed with the way Hughton has gone about making this team look more assured with every game, OK we made mistakes yesterday but it’s great to see the way we have gone from trying not to be beaten to a team that looks to win games. The new players have slotted in brilliantly and all bring something good to the games now.

Loving this season and expecting the next few games to be really tough and think we could struggle to add many points but it is one hell of an adventure and the team and CH may well surprise us, well me anyway.

It's almost as if it's better for us to give up early goals and come from behind to level and possibly pass our oppo for a victory than score the first goal and go into a defensive shell and lose 2-1 or 3-1.

 

[Bwian]

Yes and it is the partnership between Stephens and Propper that is driving that evolution (That we have a granite defence generally is now purely a given)

I am no apologist for what happened at the rear end of the transfer window but at least now we have a very singular one dimensional task in January's window...

Which, presumably has been going on unnoticed since the transfer window closed.