Pata

Yet I got challenged by one dafty for saying this? Level of opposition doesn’t really matter either. If you take away our penalty that was gifted by Brentford’s keeper and partially by the referee the xG would have been pretty much dead even at ~0.7 vs ~0.6.

No, we were slight favourites until the lineups came out. Then it drifted to about 36%-30%-34% when you take away the bookie’s commission.

Yeah, the positive thing during this stretch has been that we've been doing a decent job in keeping teams away from big chances and the conceded xG has been mostly due to the sheer volume of speculative shots that we've faced. Brighton's xG wouldn't have been that impressive if that one rebound to Ferguson didn't happen and it honestly shouldn't have happened. It's still a problem but would be fixed automatically if/when our own possession play improves.

I really don't follow your logic here to be perfectly honest. Our trend isn't exactly good right now and that worries me a bit. If you play poorly for a few games in a row it's more likely that we keep playing poorly in the future too. Same thing works when we are playing well.

Disagree and I'm not really sure what context I'm missing here. We conceded almost 3 xG and had one shot on target in the 94th minute in a match that was supposed to be a coin-flip beforehand. Milan are a good team but they wouldn't be CL regulars if they played in PL and we just bought their talisman midfielder in the summer. They missed the CL spots in a weakish Serie A for seven seasons in a row between 13/14 and 19/20. They have been improving since but believe many think they are stronger than they really are due to their fabled history.

These are exactly my thoughts, great post!

The experience Milan have of these games is a fair point but the odds pre-match were pretty much even and we had shorter odds than them to go through from this group which implies the money in the world thinks we are better than them. Hope we are not as nervous in the following group stage matches when the players have made their CL debut now. I just like to look beyond the result and at the actual performance. 3 points against Brentford and an away point at Milan are great results in a vacuum but if we continue to perform like in those matches it will get harder and harder to replicate those results.

Are we really not allowed to say we played poorly anymore? Ashley years happened but I don't see how that 14 years is relevant to the commentary on the performances of the current team. The bar has been raised and will go even higher in future. And just to be clear, I thought the performance was alright against Man City and Liverpool was just an unlucky freak result. Brighton and Milan away are tough games but it doesn't change the fact that we were really poor in both despite the lucky point at Milan. Important 3 points against Brentford but we really struggled to create much in that game too. And to be even more clear I'm 100% behind Howe and right now hope he's here until he retires due to old age. But we were really poor against Milan.

I really want a ticket for the Dortmund home to combine it with the Crystal Palace game. Sucks if I need to wait until the ballot to book the flights and hotel.

0/3 but taking a break from applying now as I bought a hospitality package for Crystal Palace (h).

And I absolutely think we'll be fine too, just been frustrated by how results-orientated so many posters are here.

Nah, you're doing the exact same thing when talking about Bayern that you've been criticising people when they are talking about us. They have had iffy performances, we've had iffy performances. We'll be fine but you are doubting how far they can get in this competition. I honestly don't think the first group stage match in September means anything to their chances of going far in this competition and they won the match while scoring four goals.

Why you have to be so serious? Chill.

You've been laughing at everyone's overreactions for the last 24 hours and come up with posts like these.

Bournemouth home was one of the poorest performances during that stretch iirc. Crystal Palace draw was way more unluckier and still not sure how it ended 0-0.

You shouldn’t be worried about other fans and just enjoy the moment. Ahh shit, NPW ruins it.

No idea, didn't see anything on the replays but something was going. Ref probably wasn't sure who handled the ball or something. Thought it was fair to not allow the second corner, Trippier took a ridiculously long time to take the first one and I was actually scared ref would blow it before the corner due to that.

You're talking like we are Luton Town. I said many of the same things that you've said earlier, we were doing a decent job keeping them away from really good chances and improved on the second half. Just disappointed how we failed to create anything against a team that just shipped five goals couple of days ago. Hope it was just nerves and confident we look better at home.

Because we got a point. Same performance but a loss and 100% guarantee there would be people telling you how Howe got schooled at the big stage and might have reached his limit. I’m very happy with the point and proud of the fight and determination shown by the team but still think it was a really poor performance. We lose that match 8-9 times out of 10 despite the odds being pretty much even before the match had started.

Obviously not the majority but few lost souls who are now praising this result.

I don't think there are many who are disappointed with the result, just the performance. If we had lost that match 2-0 or 3-0 (like the xG indicated) with that same performance there would be people calling for Howe's head.

It's like 3.5-4km walk ffs. TWO HOURS!

I just can't agree here. Bookies had this as a really close match and we were absolutely crushed in xG (2.98-0.36), scoring attempts (25-6), shots on target (8-1) etc. I'm sure Howe (and fans) are happy with the point in the end but if we play like that for the rest of the group stages we have no chance of advancing. Milan are a traditional huge club but the fact we were favourites (or even close to it) at San Siro shows that they are quite far from the powerhouse days of 90s and 00s. Yet we made them look amazing in this game. There are still positives to take from this match though besides the away point. Firstly the second half was a lot better and we seemed to be better prepared for it defensively. They had a ton of shots but we kept them away decently from really good chances and thought some individual performances were good. We were also alright in keeping possession but Milan don't really press tbf. Just a really messy performance overall and I'm certain Howe won't be happy with that when the cameras aren't rolling. I really hope the nerviness is gone now for the rest of the group matches.

Terrible decision, ball was going nowhere.

Thought he was a lot better today in possession and back to last seasons form. Has to quit the embarrassing dives though, he’s really bad at them.