Another Win: Thoughts on Our Opening 10

Seriously, how many more ways of saying ‘unspectacular, but job done’ are there?

Not one for a recovering heart surgery patient this, but we were resilient and gritty in the face of a pretty determined opponent; the moments of quality from the first half and a bit of outrageous fortune at the death (Defoe’s deflection, not young Kylie’s ‘handball’) meant it was another one of those where the score line didn’t tell the whole story, to coin that oft-pedalled cliché. Or any of it really. If the score line was made into a book, it would have read ‘once, 2 teams played football and one of them won 3-1. The end’. I can’t see it bothering the upper reaches of the Amazon bestsellers list, but you know what, even if the whole thing was eulogised over, it can’t all be Dickens. I’ll take a bit of Spot the Dog away from home. But then we’ve only been Shakespearean in small doses throughout the season, and we eventually need to be penning a few more classics to be contenders… but then even the wordsmiths’ of City succumbed to the Fulham scribes, so we can’t complain too much. Where was I?

Lovely goal from Lenny, even if he did fade in the second half, and young Bareth seems to be re-discovering the form he was showcasing all over Europe this time last year. Special mention to BBB who deservedly got the prestigious sky viewers man of the match award. If that’s what yoga and pilates can do for you into your forties, you’ll forgive me if I invest in lycra, smoke some peace candles, and change my name to ‘Tree’.

With the internationals set to step into the limelight over the next couple of weeks, what are your thoughts on how our opening 10 games have gone? Personally, I’m delighted at how we’ve recovered from those first 2, but still unconvinced by our level of performance, and think we’ve been the benefactors of a general downturn in the quality of the ‘lesser’ lights of the Premier League. Away wins at Wolves, Wigan, Blackburn and now Fulham have been fantastic, but I can’t help but feel we’ve not been as stretched as we might have been in previous visits. Or perhaps we really are more resilient? Indeed, I can’t think of any real ‘shocks’ so far, with the exception of Blackburn v Arsenal, but then both sides were playing terribly at the time, and the margin of victory reflected how it could have been either one of them cocking it up by the end. A creditable draw for Fulham against Man City is the only other stand-out that springs to mind of a ‘mid-table’ team raising their game. Newcastle, or, more-than-the-sum-of-their-parts United, with a squad of comparable individuals to those they’re meant to be competing with, have gone back to basics and found a way of getting past the less spectacular sides, to become the most spectacular of them all. A little thought and a lot of effort that the others have been unable to match. What do you reckon?