With the games coming thick and fast this month, I thought this would be a decent game to put out the backup players and build their fitness. It looked like it would be a good risk until we gave away a penalty in added time and ended up drawing the match.
The first team come back out and got a tight win against Barnsley. The defence weren’t at their best as Barnsley cut through us with their two goals. Jutkiewicz scored the important goals again to get us the points though.
Both Butland and Roberts picked up injuries during the week that will keep them out of the next few games and we weren’t at the races here as we struggled to a draw. Swansea missed a penalty before taking the lead and should have had the game wrapped up in the first half. We hung on in there and then Jutkiewicz got the equalizer from a deep free kick. I don’t know where we would be if he wasn’t so effective in the air for us.
Again Jutkiewicz scores for us although this one came from the penalty spot. We got an early penalty and then from then on the game was pretty balanced. Thankfully they couldn’t score and equalizer and the game drifted out to finish 1-0.
Jutkiewicz picked up a knock before the game which made me worry as Gimenez was already out but Connolly came in and both he and Nketiah got on the scoresheet here. The only downside here is that we lost the clean sheet with almost the last touch of the match.
Summary
Another really good month as the results keep on coming. We haven’t always looked the tightest at the back but we do always look like scoring. The target for the rest of the season will be to try and tweak the tactic so we are tighter at the back as we can not play such open football when we are playing Premier League football. Next month brings the winter transfer window and we already have one incoming arranged and have the budget to maybe make one more signing. Any transfers will be to long term to hopefully help us prepare for next season.
Player of the Month
Lukas Jutkiewicz
He just keeps on scoring and he puts in a great performance even when he doesn’t score. Every month so far the decision for PotM has been between someone or Jutkiewicz and this time I decided to go for.
We are dumped straight out of the FA Cup as we lose 1-0 to Wolves. They are a much better team than us at the moment and even the early sending off of Ruben Neves didn’t stop them from dominating the game and getting a deserved win.
We are straight back to winning ways against a very good Burnley side. Our midfield were great in this game with both widemen getting ratings of 8.5 and 8.2 while Bellingham got a rating of 7.6.
Huddersfield took the lead very early on from some poor defending and then we struggled to create anything until Roberts took a long throw and Jutkiewicz nodded it in. That combination has got us out of a few tight situations this season and could be extremely useful next season in the Premier League as well.
Another great result for us as we keep our unbeaten run going. I am shocked at how we have been able to keep this unbeaten run going but hopefully it can continue for a while.
A nice end to the month here as we take the 3 points. Again we conceded a late goal that cost us a clean sheet though. I feel that has happened 3 or 4 times already this season.
Summary
In the league it has been another strong month as we won 4 and drew once. In the FA Cup, we went straight out to Wolves who showed us we have plenty of improvements to do if we want to compete in the top division. I feel the transfer window went well as well as the team is slightly stronger than what it was at the start of the window and we made a bit of money overall as well.
Transfers Out
Only one player leaving in this window (kinda) as Dan Crowley left to join Preston in a deal worth up to £4.5mil. He was backup to Fran Villalba in the LM position and one of our incomings in this window meant he was now going to be 3rd choice in that position. The reason that Crowley is only kinda the only player to leave this month is that we have agreed to sell David Davis as well but he will be going to the MLS and doesn’t join Philadelphia until the middle of February.
Transfers In
We made 2 signings as we signed 2 young, English talents for small fees. The first deal was agreed in December as it sees Curtis Jones join us from Liverpool for just £1.1mil. He was going out of contract at the end of the season so I moved to bring him in now before he ended up signing for a foreign club for nothing before I could speak to him. He should compete with Villalba for the LM position although he could play in CM as well.
Our second signing is a player we are familiar with as we have turned Jake Clarke-Salters loan into a permanent deal for £1.6mil. This was similar to the Curtis Jones deal as Clarke-Salter was also out of contract at the end of the season. This time I was going to leave it until the summer and try and get him for free but a few teams from the MLS started to offer him deals so I decided to pay the small fee to make sure we signed him in this window.
Player of the Month
Eddie Nketiah
For the first time this season I can say that Lukas Jutkiewicz had a poor month but thankfully his strike partner Nketiah stepped up and delivered this month with plenty of goals and assists. The benefit of playing 2 up top though is that if one is not on form the other is there to pick up the slack.
We are getting closer and closer to confirming promotion. Hull had been on a good run of form with them picking up the player and manager of the month awards for January but we played well to beat them. Special mention to Sunjic who scored his first goal after 18 months at the club.
What an incredible second half that was sparked by bringing on Jones for Villalba after 55 mins. He, Nketiah and Jutkiewicz really clicked together as they got all 5 goals and also all 5 assists between them.
Another strong performance from the front line with Jutkiewicz scoring a hat trick here. Again we conceded a late goal to lose the clean sheet but there wasn’t much that could be done as Colback scored a great free kick.
Butland, Colin (Harding), Roberts, Clarke-Salter, Pedersen, Gotts, Stewart (Villalba), Sunjic, Jones, Connolly, Jutkiewicz
We were so close to losing our unbeaten run here. They scored in the first half and then defended incredibly well for almost the entire game. Eventually it was another Marc Roberts long throw that got us out of trouble as it came into the box and Jutkiewicz flicked it on for the ball to bounce off of the Barnsley player and into the net. Goals like that make me feel we are destined to go unbeaten this season.
We deserved so much more from this game. To give you an idea of how much we battered them, their goalkeeper was the MotM with a rating of 7.9 as we had 11 shots on target but could only score from the penalty we were given.
3 draws in a row now and the promotion bus is having to be put on hold for a while longer now. Both of their goals came from defensive mistakes as Clarke-Salter missed his header for the first and the Butland stayed on the ball for too long and was tackled for the second.
Summary
Another unbeaten month goes by but we should have got even more from it as we drew the last 3 games of the month. We were good in front of goal as we scored 15 goals this month but we only kept 1 clean sheet across the month and that is what has cost us points. Next month brings just 4 games as there is an international break but that should be enough for us to mathematically confirm promotion and maybe even the title if results go our way.
Player of the Month
Curtis Jones
It has been a great start to his career here as he has been very effective from the left wing. The hope now is that he can keep it up for the rest of the season to get ready for next season.
Everyone was on fire here. The lowest rated outfield player was Sunjic with 7.6 which shows just how good everyone plays. If the two strikers keep going like this then they are going to get over 50 or 60 goals between them before the end of the season.
Another big result with everyone playing well. This game was definitely about Nketiah though who scored two early goals and then assisted Gimenez’s late goal as well to add to the score line even more.
A very disappointing result here as Luton are rooted to the bottom of the table and looking certain to go down to League One but we couldn’t get a goal against them. We even missed a penalty that could have given us the points but we were poor in front of goal.
Butland, Colin (Harding), Roberts, Clarke-Salter, Seddon, Gotts, Bellingham, Stewart (Kieftenbeld), Jones, Nketiah, Jutkiewicz
PROMOTION!!! Back to winning ways here and this win is enough to secure our promotion to the Premier League. Its still not guaranteed us winning the league but that could come in the first game of April if we are able to win it. Seddon scored a rare goal here early on and then Jutkiewicz added to his tally with a late penalty.
Summary
A shorter month due to the international break comes to the end and it has been an almost perfect month. If we had won against Luton then it would have been as we won 3, drew 1 and also didn’t concede a single goal across those 4 games. Next month should see us confirm our place as champions of the Championship but we have some tough games against Newcastle, Southampton and our last game is against relegation threatened Brentford so our unbeaten record could be under some real threat.
Player of the Month
Steve Seddon
Seddon has had an incredibly consistent season that has seen him push Pedersen out of the LB position. This month he added to his consistency with a goal and an assist as well.
CHAMPIONS!!! The win here confirms that we are going to be promoted as the winners of the Championship. Gotts added another goal to his total for the season and he has quietly gone and got quite a few from the right wing.
A comfortable win here with Jutkiewicz breaking the club record of the number of goals in one season. The record was 34 which was set back in the 19th century but Jutkiewicz has now broken that with his 35th goal in the league here.
What a weird game here. We went 2-0 up after 30 minutes but then threw that away as the came back to 2-2. We had to go again after that and ended up winning by two goals.
Gutted. Absolutely gutted. We were 3 games away from going the entire season unbeaten but Southampton ripped us apart here. Danny Ings got the goals but we couldn’t deal with Djenepo and Redmond on the wings as they created chance after chance.
After such a disappointing result in our last game it is good to get straight back to winning ways. Swansea never threatened us and Sunjic’s late goal added some gloss to the result for the game.
It is a very nice end to the season here as we secure a good win and scored a few goals. Gotts really impressed with 2 goals here which means he ends the season on 12 goals which is a great return to add onto the big numbers from both strikers.
Summary
Overall it has been a good end to the season as we won 5 of our last 6 games, but we ended up losing our unbeaten run as Southampton beat us 3-0 in a comfortable victory for them. We scored plenty of goals again which is good to see and is something that we can hopefully do in Premier League next season. I will talk about the season overall in the end of season post but it has clearly been another strong month to end a very strong season.
Player of the Month
Robbie Gotts
It has been a very strong end to the season for Gotts who scored plenty of goals in the last few games.
An incredible season comes to an end and we are on our way to the Premier League. We were always leading the way in the league and never looked like we were not going to get promoted. There were a few games where a long throw or a well taken corner got us out of trouble but one the main attractions of playing with a target man as effective as Jutkiewicz is that he will give us a threat from those set pieces. I don’t plan on having Gimenez as his backup for next season and I already know who I want to come in and compete with him for that position but we will have to wait and see if we can sign him as other clubs are interested.
End of Season Awards
The team of the year is exactly as I thought it would be. That was the team that got us promoted and I will be relying on a lot of them to keep us up in the Premier League as well. The only position that could have been competed for was LM as it Villalba dominated that position in the first half of the season and then Curtis Jones did in the second half. Overall though I would give it to Villalba as well as he contributed over the entire season.
The player of the season award was definitely one-sided as Jutkiewicz received 75% of the fans votes. The next closest was Nketiah with just 10% and I thought he had a great season. It just shows how good Jutkiewicz has been for us. Robbie Gotts deservedly wins the signing of the season with the only competition for that really being Butland who did his job well but he had a pretty comfortable season where not a lot was asked of him.
Squad Overview
Goalkeepers – Butland is the clear number 1 and I don’t expect any changes to this over the summer. Trueman came in for a couple of league games around Christmas when Butland picked up an injury and he did well but he will never be more than a backup goalkeeper for us.
Defenders – The defence was incredibly strong for us this season with Colin and Seddon doing well down the wings while Roberts and Clarke-Salter defended admirably and Roberts getting involved high up the pitch with his long throws. We lack depth at the back and with us going into the Premier League, I will be looking improve at the back over the summer.
Midfielders – Again the midfield was very strong and created plenty of chances for the front 2. I’m not too sure on where to invest in the midfield and I may look more for depth so that we are able to rotate and keep everyone fresh throughout the season.
Forwards – Jutkiewicz and Nketiah were arguably our two best players last season and I look forward to seeing them both in the Prem next season (I have already agreed to loan Nketiah for next season as well). Gimenez played okay but won’t be relied upon in the Premier League while Connolly was poor and will be going back to Brighton. Therefore we will be looking to bring in 2 new strikers to compete with Jutkiewicz and Nketiah and I already have an idea on who I want for those two positions.
Plans for next season
The transfer window will definitely be a busy one as I look to move out a few players that are not capable of playing in the top division and I look to bring in a few players that will help us in our battle for safety. We have been given a budget of £35mil to try and improve the squad but this will only go so far so I am hoping to pick up a bargain here and there to help make sure this squad is ready to go when the new season starts.
It has been a busy pre-season but not as many transfers coming in or out of the club as some may expect. We had 6 players join us and just 1 leave. I didn’t want to change everything around by bringing in 10/11 players at the same time and I am putting faith in the players that got us promoted to keep us up.
Transfers Out
Only one deal to really talk about here and it wasn’t one I was expecting to do as Maxime Colin left to join Wuhan Zali for £14.75mil. I was fully planning on going into the season with Colin as the starting RB but then Wuhan came in with this bid and I decided to take the money. Colin is 29 and close to 30 and we would never get as good a bid for him in the future.
Transfers In
The first transfer in is a player that I was scouting since January and I knew I wanted him in if we got promoted. In comes Birmingham City fan Troy Deeney from Watford for £3.3mil. He may be 33 years old now but he should be a quality option to rotate with Jutkiewicz in the target man position. The hope is that these 2 can deliver for 1 or 2 years before we grow our reputation and are able to attract a top, young target man to the club.
The next signing is Luka Ivanusec from Dinamo Zagreb for £7.5mil. I felt we were a little light in midfield and had no options for the B2B position if Bellingham is out so I brought in Ivanusec for a relatively small fee considering his value went up to £15mil the moment he joined us.
The next deal is certainly the biggest name to join as we bring in Dries Mertens on a free transfer. His contract with Napoli had come to an end and no one else had made a move for him so I offered him a contract and he decided to join. He is on a very high wage but it is only for one season so it is relatively risk free.
The next deal is our biggest fee as we sign Kevin Danso for £8mil from Augsburg. This was the perfect deal for us as we needed to improve at the back but Danso has a great long throw so we won’t lose that threat when he replaces Marc Roberts in the team.
The next deal sees Diogo Dalot join us on loan for the season. After Colin left the club, we needed a new RB and after looking for a few of them, I decided that Dalot was the best option. He should provide a more attacking threat that Colin would have and hopefully he will get plenty of assists over the season.
Our last transfer in is the signing of Daniel Podence for £4.7mil. This was the hardest position to sign a player for as I wanted a player who could compete with Gotts but I didn’t have much left in the budget to make a big signing. Podence only spent one season at Wolves before moving to Sheffield United for one season before now moving to us. Hopefully he can have more success for us than he did for those two clubs.
A great start to the season as we get 3 points against a good Sheffield United team. We came out flying and were 2-0 up in less than half an hour. Thankfully Bellingham got a 3rd goal in the second half as they got a late goal that made it very tight at the end.
What a great result especially considering that Harding was sent off when the score was 1-1. After Harding got sent off, I decided to take a risk and leave both strikers on and clearly it worked as we still had chances in the game and eventually got a penalty that won us the points.
I’m so glad it finished at 5. We were battered here and it could have been double figures as they had 19 shots in this game. I would have liked to have blamed Villalba getting sent off for this but it was already 4-1 when he walked off.
We seem incapable of putting any kind of cup run together so far. We were promoted from the Championship last season while Brentford were relegated from it so there are two divisions between us but they still got a 1-0 win against us.
Thankfully we are back to winning ways here. Jutkiewicz again is so effective in the air and he gets two goals here to get us the 3 points. I thought this would be a really tough game but we created plenty of chances and had 25 shots compared to West Ham having just 8.
Summary
Overall I have to say it has been a very strong start to the season. We have won 3 out of 4 league games and the one loss comes against Man City. The cup again is an issue as we go out in the second round to Brentford who are two divisions below us at the moment. Going out of the cup so early does mean that the next few months will be focused solely on the Premier League and trying to collect as many points as we can to fight for survival.
Player of the Month
Jude Bellingham
It has been a great start to the season for the youngster as he is running things from midfield. I’m surprised we have been able to keep him for so long but I am hoping it continues for many more years.
Another big loss which started after Seddon was sent off for a second yellow that gave away a penalty. We are collecting far too many bookings and red cards so far which over the whole season is going to cost us. Unsurprisingly we didn’t offer much after the red card and 3-0 sounds about right for this game.
Jutkiewicz delivers again to make sure we get back to winning ways. The game finished a lot tighter than it should have as we couldn’t score any more chances and Ayew got them a late goal as well. Thankfully we held on for the win and took a vital 3 points.
A really tight game here that deserved to finish as a draw in the end. We were poor in the first half and they should have had the lead but we were much better in the second and took the lead before a late penalty given away by Seddon meant we took 1 point in our final game this month.
Summary
A short month here due to us being out of the cup and there being an international break at the start of it. We took 4 points from 9 available which is good and the only game we lost was away from home against Liverpool which is no surprise really. We are not keeping clean sheets which is worry as we conceded in every game this month and only kept one clean sheet last month as well. Hopefully we can improve in our defending over the next month or 2.
Player of the Month
Lukas Jutkiewicz
Again it is the big man up top who has settled into the Premier League like he has been playing in it for years. I brought in Troy Deeney as I was worried Jutkiewicz wouldn’t adapt well but he is keeping Deeney out of the team with the important goals he is getting.
We lose to another big team but this one was not as embarrassing as the previous ones. We were right in this game and with 10/15 minutes to go I decided to take a risk and push for the win but got caught on the counter.
This will almost certainly go down as the result of the season for us. Chelsea have an incredible front 3 of Coman, Lautaro Martinez and Sancho but none of them could break through our defence and then old Chelsea boy Clarke-Salter came up for a deep free kick and scored the only goal of the game. It’s a great result and sets us up nicely for our next game which is a big one.
I know I said our previous game will go down as our result of the season but this one will definitely challenge it as we smash rival Aston Villa 4-2 at their ground. The fact that Sunjic was sent off in the first half when it was still 1-1 makes the result even sweeter. We played incredibly well here and got our 3 points thanks to Jutkiewicz scoring a great hat trick for us.
Another win is a nice way to the end the month as 2 second half goals get us the three points. A MotM performance from Podence gives me a chance to recognize how good he has been lately. I started with Gotts on the right wing but Podence is beginning to make that position his own as he is always a threat down that wing.
Summary
At the start of the month I was worried this would be a very tough one as it started with games against Man Utd and Chelsea which led straight into our derby game with Villa before finishing with Hull. We performed well in all of the games though and won 3 out of 4 including the big game against Aston Villa. Next month brings just 3 games but they are all big as they are against Tottenham, Leicester and Arsenal. If we can get through that month with any points I will be pleased.
Player of the Month
Curtis Jones
He has quietly gone about his job this month but he has been very effective in all 3 of our wins this month. He is still very young and will have times when he is not on fire but for this month he definitely was.
What a weird end to the game here. It was tight for most of the game and then there were 3 goals in the last 3 minutes of the game that made the score line a lot bigger than it should have been.
A great score here as we battered Leicester. We had 56% possession and had 28 shots. I cant remember the last time we had such control over the game. The only downside here was that we didn’t get a clean sheet after Pedersen gave away a penalty in the first half.
Another massive result against a much bigger team. Arsenal clearly thought it would be an easy game as they had Aubameyang, Pepe and Saka all sitting on the bench but we held on in the first half and then the big man up top got us the only goal of the game.
Summary
Another short month due to no League Cup games and an international break and it has been another great month. I was worried this could have been 3 losses due to the quality of the opposition but we battled to a win against Arsenal and completely controlled the game against Leicester. The season is going incredibly well and with Chelsea and particularly Tottenham having poor seasons, I am starting to feel we could fight for a Europa League place by the end of the season.
Player of the Month
Lukas Jutkiewicz
It has to be the big man up top again for player of the month. He is so effective in this tactic and it will be hard to replace him when that time comes.
A strong start to the month as we beat Fulham 2-0 at home. Ivanusec did well to come in and get the first goal for us. He has been unlucky in that Sunjic and Bellingham have built a great partnership in the middle of the pitch so he hasn’t got as much game time as I would have liked.
A terrible result where we never looked like winning. Dalot getting a straight red in just the 11th minute certainly didn’t help but we didn’t look like ourselves and deserved nothing from the game.
Its great to get straight back to winning ways and in such a comfortable way as well as we scored 4 against a very poor Bournemouth side. Jutkiewicz got us off to a good start after just 7 minutes and from then on we never looked like losing the game.
Another big win to follow the last one as we win 3-0 away from home. The game was actually incredibly tight and it was only in the last 15/20 minutes where we were able to get a couple of goals to make the game look comfortable.
I was disappointed to lose this game, especially by losing a late goal, but we were not the better the team and we were holding on for a lot of the game. Everton have some real quality players in their team though so to be able to almost get a draw from them at their ground is no shame.
Can we play them every week. We beat Villa 4-2 earlier in the season and now we beat them 5-2 in the return fixture. Games against Villa are always intriguing but this one had everything happen between the 40th and 50th minute. There were 4 goals in these 10 minutes that took the score line from 2-1 to 5-2. It is another big against Villa that makes sure that we do the double over them for the season before the turn of the year.
Summary
It has been a very good month for us as we won 4 games out of 6 and then lost the other 2. Both losses were away from home so our home form has remained great and is right up there with the best in the league. Next month brings 4 league games and starts with the FA Cup 3rd round where we face Ipswich. Hopefully this will be the time we can finally put a decent cup run together.
Player of the Month
Jude Bellingham
Another stellar month for the youngster who is running our midfield at the moment. Incredibly he has now made over 100 appearances for the club and he is still only 18 years old. If we can keep hold of him for his entire career then he will break plenty of club records.
This is the current first team and the main roles that I use. If I am playing one of the big teams then the main changes I make is the full backs are more defensive. Other than that it is the same tactic for every game and it is going well so I am not changing it too much.
Through to the next round we go as 2 goals from Gimenez, either side of a Harlee Dean goal, were enough to get past Ipswich. The late goal from Bishop made the game tight at the end but we had enough to see it through.
At half time I was worried this game would become 4 or 5 but we kept it tight, got one back and made a real game of it towards the end. Early in the season we got hammered by the big teams but we are making a real game of them now.
A great result against Chelsea which incredibly means that we have done the double over them this season. The game was similar to the first game where we scored the first goal and then held on for the win by keeping it tight at the back. The defence deserve a special mention as they were great in this game and have been in many games this season.
A good win at home against Everton who beat us just last month. Both strikers got on the score sheet and we kept a clean sheet, it can’t get much better than that to be honest.
What an introduction from Pedro Heredia. We are through to the 5th round of the FA Cup thanks to the youngster as he scored 2 and assisted the other two in a 4-1 win. I brought in 3 youngsters and it was Heredia who really shone. He is a youngster we got in our first youth intake and it was a weird one as he is Andorran and he already has 14 caps for his nation and an international goal.
A good end to the month as we secured another win here. Jutkiewicz missed an early penalty against his former team and then he really struggled as we created plenty of chances for him but he couldn’t score. Eventually we did get the winner and it came from Curtis Jones who cut in from the left wing to tap in a cross from Nketiah.
Summary
It has been a busy month as we played 4 league games, 2 FA Cup games and had the transfer window to deal with. Most of the window was spent on moving players out rather than in and I will talk about that in a moment. Looking forward to next month, We have only 3 games scheduled and going by our current form, they are all winnable games as we face Wolves, Sheffield United and Watford.
Transfers Out
We are doing incredibly well in the league and I decided to use this January window to streamline the squad to begin preparing for next season so a lot of the backup players have left and the biggest deal didn’t actually bring in that much money for us. Fran Villalba left in a deal worth up to £26mil but whatever genius that signed him for us originally, decided to put a clause in the deal so that Valencia get 75% of the fee. What that means is that we will see very little of that money, even if all the clauses were met to make the fee the full £26mil.
The other deals were all backup players as well as Kieftenbeld, Harding, Gimenez and Stewart all left the club. Harding and Stewart were unhappy and had demanded moves while Kieftenbeld and Gimenez were both out of contract at the season so I was fine with letting all 4 players go. These sales left the squad a little thin which is why I have promoted 3 youngsters to the first team squad in Damion Dempsey, Joshua Williams and Pedro Heredia with them all making their debuts against Newcastle in the FA Cup.
Transfers In
Only one transfer in as we signed Dean Henderson from Man Utd for just £1.2mil. There was some interest in Butland so I was looking around for a decent option in case he left and even though Butland didn’t leave, I decided that the small fee to sign a keeper as good as Henderson was too good to turn down. His value is immediately a lot more than that fee and he should provide stiffer competition for Butland than Trueman currently does.
Player of the Month
Daniel Podence
I brought in Podence to be a rotation option with Robbie Gotts but once he got into the team he has been undroppable and really showed why this month with him getting plenty of assists over his last few games.
We lost the game and Butland was the man of the match, I think that shows who dominated the game. We were never in this game and we held on for 80 minutes before they got that one goal that gave them the win. These kind of performances have come every now and then and our next big step up will be to improve our consistency.
Back to winning ways straight away as we put three past Sheffield United. Most of the team played well but particularly Daniel Podence who assisted two of the goals and played very well down the right wing.
We were not good enough again here and didn’t look like getting a result. A late header from Clarke-Salter gave us a chance but we didn’t deserve anything from the game.
Summary
It has been a poor month as we played 3 games and won only 1 of them. The two losses have meant everything has bunched up behind us in our fight for Europe. We have had an incredible season so far but it looks as though fatigue is starting to affect the players as we are getting plenty of knocks in games and our performances have dipped. Next month brings 3 league games and the next round of the FA Cup so we will see whether this was just a small dip or whether we are going to really struggle for the rest of the season.
Player of the Month
Jack Butland
It is a shame that I only pick Butland as PotM when we haven’t played well but he has been important in making sure both losses weren’t by big scores and he has had a great season for us overall as well.
The youngsters weren’t available after playing for the youth team the day before so we played a few of the first team players in this cup game and with them we had the quality to get through to the next round. It was good to see Deeney get a couple of goals as he hasn’t had a lot of game time this season.
We had the chances to win this game but we just couldn’t get the second goal that we needed. Jutkiewicz missed a penalty late on that could have given us the points but it wasn’t to be.
A much stronger performance in front of goal but we were more open at the back and conceded two sloppy goals. Jutkiewicz and Nketiah have a great partnership up top as Nketiah scored twice and both were assisted by Jutkiewicz as he flicked the ball on and Nketiah got on to the end of it.
What a great result by the backup players as we go through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. We haven’t been able to put a decent cup run together before but now we have. The game was very tight and going to penalties was probably the fairest way to decide the game. Thankfully we held our nerve and scored all of ours while Chelsea missed twice.
Summary
A strong month as we went the whole month unbeaten, got through two rounds of the FA Cup to make the semi-finals and picked up 7 points out of 9 in the league. The league is getting tight as the top 3 are pulling away and we are in a really tight battle to try and hold on to that last Champions League place. We still have some tough games to play so while we might be in 4th place at the moment, it is not certain that we will be able to hold on to it.
Player of the Month
Kevin Danso
Danso has been a real pillar of strength at the back for us this season and he continued it this month with him building attacks from the back and providing a more direct threat with his long throws.
A very good result here, not only because the opposition were Arsenal but also because we were missing a few first team players with Dalot, Jones and Nketiah unavailable to play. Thankfully other players were able to step in and Heredia kept up his good start to his career by scoring the second goal.
A very disappointing result here as Leicester got a deserved victory over us. We didn’t create too many chances and couldn’t score any of the ones we did anyway while Leicester scored from a penalty and then a late set piece as well to wrap up the points.
I cannot believe we didn’t win here. We created chance after chance but just couldn’t get the goal we needed. Hull are rooted to the bottom of the table are almost mathematically gone but somehow, they held on to take a point.
Henderson, Gotts, Roberts, Dean, Seddon, Williams (Podence), Ivanusec, Dempsey (Bellingham), Jones (Mertens), Heredia, Deeney
What a game but unfortunately we came out on the wrong side and are out of the FA Cup to Liverpool. We took an early lead and then they had a man sent off which should have seen us build on our lead but the opposite happened and they dominated the game. Heredia got two late goals to finish his hat trick and take the game to extra time. We couldn’t hold on to take them to penalties however as a 116th minute goal from Haaland takes them to the final.
That’s now three league games in a row without winning, our longest run in the league without winning. We should have seen this one out as we were definitely the better team but West Ham have a lot of quality in their team and they got a late equalizer.
That’s 4 without a win now but I am happy to take a point from Man City. Their team is incredible as they have signed Dayot Upamecano Florentino Luis and Harry Kane while not losing any of the regular starters they had at the start of the game.
Summary
It is a terrible time to have it but this was probably our worst month of the season. We only won one game this month and it was the very first game against Arsenal. We went out of the FA Cup to Liverpool in an amazing 5-4 game while we lost vital points against teams like Hull and West Ham. There aren’t many positives to talk about but one good thing is that we have all but guaranteed our place in Europe next season, although we don’t know which European competition that will be yet.
Player of the Month
Pedro Heredia
I had to give player of the month to the youngster as he scored in both games that he started, and they were against Arsenal and Liverpool. His performance against Liverpool was outstanding as he scored a hat trick that kept us in the tie a bit longer and showed his quality in front of goal.
A strong start to the final month of the season as we see off West Brom. The two late goals from Jutkiewicz put some extra gloss on the game but we fully deserved the win anyway.
Another good win keeps us in with a chance of getting Champions League football, although it is very unlikely. Heredia came on to get the second goal that looked like it would give us a comfortable finish but they scored from their kick off which made the last couple of minutes very tight.
The season ends on a slight down point as we lose our last game against Liverpool. The quality in their team is amazing and we struggled to compete with them. This loss means we weren’t able to finish in the top 4 but we have still qualified for the Europa League next season.
Summary
The season comes to an end and overall we played well although we weren’t able to hold on to the final Champions League place. We played well in all three games and picked up 6 more points against good opposition. There isn’t much more to say about this month and I will do an overview of the whole season in an end of season post.
Player of the Month
Lukas Jutkiewicz
Our talisman was in good form again this month as he scored 3 out of our 5 goals and played well in all 3 of the games. He will be a hard player to replace when the time comes.
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