We are top of the league, say we are top of the league

Article by Steve Carrington

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The season is up and running. A solid and satisfactory pre-season under our belts, with the players able to tighten those belts a notch further after the increased intensity and fitness preparation instilled by the new regime. This is, of course, all aimed at enabling the philosophy of high intensity, pressing game that forms the basis of a much more pleasing brand of football.

So with a first, hard fought victory on opening day, followed by a much more emphatic score line in week two, what can we expect of the new campaign?

It must start with erasing the memories of the plodding, turgid displays from the start of last season with faster paced, incisive, attacking and enjoyable to watch football. The second essential requirement is the change in mentality, particularly against the teams near the top of the table. No more heavy defeats based on fragile defending and even more fragile mentality.

Net, we want more of the swash, less of the buckle. So what did get from the first couple of games?

In the season opener against West Ham, going down to 10 men early makes a genuine assessment that much more difficult.

The only thing Kyle Naughton's hand did was save the embarrassment of Kevin Nolan’s shot that was destined for the underside of the roof of the ground. Firstly, I question the validity of the penalty, though by the letter of the law the ball hit a hand in the penalty area. Having said that, the sending off that ensued was absurd.

Silly refereeing aside, the first game of the season is always tough, especially after a tough pre-season. The level of intensity is not designed to peak on the opening day, so I would expect that hard work to pay dividends down the line. This is a precursor to saying the high pressing and slick passing that we are moving toward were evidently lacking. There were moments, but all in all the cohesiveness was not quite there, the high pressing not fully consistent or effective. The passing still lacks the quickness needed and led to less effective passing (80.1% accuracy vs. West Ham’s 83.1%), albeit from higher possession of 53.4%.

On the second point, that of suspect defending, our renowned weakness under the high ball and at set pieces was always likely to be rigorously tested against the unsophisticated yet effective footballing blueprint of Big Sam's West Ham. As expected, they did indeed continuously test us under the high ball. For long periods, we looked under pressure and likely to concede. However, importantly, we did not succumb. We did not buckle, we did not concede even at a numerical disadvantage. Are these early signs of a tougher mentality emerging? Once the numbers were evened up, we were able to assert ourselves more and snatched it at the death with a ‘striker’s finish’ from the composed Eric Dier.

Winning the first game of the season has never seemed more important, given the recent turmoil (just ask Man Utd fans and Louis van Gaal). Additionally an away with a win, any win, is hugely important for squad confidence and particularly for belief in the new philosophy. Imagine the difference in reaction after a long, harder than ever pre-season being followed by a loss to a so called "smaller club".

So onto week two and another London derby and Pochettino’s first competitive game in charge at the Lane. A week on and the signs were more evident that we are headed in the right direction. In fairness, QPR were very average. New signing Rio Ferdinand looked every bit ready for his new career, as a football pundit. This is not to take too much away from us; the performance was, in parts, excellent. Particularly encouraging were standout performances from joint top goalscorer Eric Dier in defence and top provider Erik Lamela.

This week the passing was slicker, and more accurate at 90.2% versus the opening day, from a greater share of possession at 65.2%. The strongest evidence of this being a record-breaking forty-eight pass move culminating in a second goal for Nacer Chadli after great work from Erik Lamela and the whole team (literally) for our third goal. Also more evident this week was the high pressing, used sparingly and intelligently, we were able to squeeze QPR into several costly mistakes much higher up the pitch, by hunting in packs. This was particularly evident for our first goal with three players around the ball in the centre circle pressing play before Bentaleb dispossessed Loic Remy. He then broke swiftly releasing Adebayor. His crossed picked out Chadli to finish stylishly from close range.

Defensively there were few causes of concern. Matt Phillips had the only noteworthy chance which he snatched at, with the game still poised at 1-0. The return of an assured looking Vertoghen to the side and a more composed Kaboul were bright spots, while Dier continued to surprise with his versatility, rampaging down the right. Importantly, in the end we scored four unanswered goals for a second consecutive clean sheet and the biggest win of the weekend.

So after two league games it’s so far so good, we are sitting pretty at the top of the league. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts, with Liverpool next, it might not be for too long. Given the evidence so far, the heavy capitulation at home last season, at least, will not be repeated.

COYS

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