Norfolk Lords
That was more like it. Our last away league performance left me feeling like your average North Korean – hysterical, staggering and full of bloody rhetoric – but last night’s showing was more like it. With most of the top seven failing to win, it was imperative that we did the job. Thanks to the kind of assertive start that we’ve been missing away from home, thanks to quality possession that allowed us to control the game and thanks to a solidity that won us the ball back soon after we lost it, we did just that.
In previous games where Scottie P and Sandro have started together and Luka’s been pushed out wide, we’ve lacked a bit of invention in the middle. But with the three of them playing centrally and Bale and Rafa roaming, we were able to outnumber Norwich in midfield and pose a threat from everywhere. There are positional interchanges going on in places I didn’t know existed. Like Al Pacino in Carlito’s Way, I can’t see the angles no more. It would have been nice to see us create a few more chances with the possession we had, but that’s far from a complaint. How Rafa even saw that pass for Ade’s first half chance – let alone pulled it off – is beyond me. Yet again, Ade’s strength and touch were crucial to our success, not least when his deceptively dainty feet allowed him to collect another pinpoint pass from Rafa, tip-toe round the tackles and tee up Bale for the first.
Our line-up was very much suited to playing away from home and also showed that, contrary to what some fans think, Harry is capable of deploying the side in a slightly different way. Bale used the freedom to run amok. On the subject of Bale, I just heard that Wales rugby captain Sam Warburton is an old schoolmate of his, as well as being a Spurs fan. As I seem to be saying more and more often recently, God bless the Welsh.
On the defensive side of things, a clean sheet without Ledley is nothing to be sniffed at, but it’s great to have Kaboul back after the pre-Chelsea scare. You know what you’re going to get from Norwich’s front two, but Kaboul and Gallas marshalled the physical threat superbly. By working hard further up the pitch, we further negated that threat by preventing them from getting the ball into our box. You can’t set the cat amongst the pigeons if you can’t get near the coop. Walker’s having to cover two positions in the absence of Lennon, but even when he was caught slightly out of position, his powers of recovery allowed him to cover the gaps before Norwich could take advantage. Although he often had to cross the ball from deeper positions rather than getting to the byline, he managed to curl a couple of beautiful balls into their box. We just needed to get on the end of them. The only thing that troubled Beni all game was Grant Holt’s unpunished forearm.
It would have been nice to see Kranjcar get a few more minutes of playing time, as he’s one superbly gifted player that we run the risk of losing in January. With the games coming up in droves, we’ll need to give him more of a chance to show that he can do more than just fill a gap.
There’s a fine line between comfort and complacency. All it takes to change the course of a match is a melee, a mistake, a decision or a bit of luck. It took us 55 minutes to break Norwich down last night. We had to work hard to deny them opportunities, to create openings, to get ourselves into a position that reflected our dominance. We’ll have to continue working hard for our results. As long as we continue to recognise that, we should be fine.