We were really sloppy in possession in the first half. The ball never stuck to the strikers and none of our midfielders, with the exception of Ben Arfa, could complete more than two passes in a row. Honestly, if we were down 2-0 at HT, I don't think any of us would have any reason to complain.
The second half was much different. Tiote played better, Ba got more involved and Cisse even got a few touches. We started playing the game more in their half and then they goal relaxed us. It probably relaxed us too much but we played much better in the second half.
I thought, on the whole, they were the better team. Their passing is slicker, their movement better and they created far more good chances than we did. It was a mirror of many of our matches last season, except this time we did it against a very good team. We took our chances and defended well at the end, much like last season. Its great knowing we don't get nervous defending leads in the last minutes anymore. We didn't drop back too deep and there weren't any nervy moments at the end. Such a change from five years ago.
I'm really confident in our team this year. I think we'll challenge for 4th and I think that if we can play like we did in the second half, we'll beat most teams at home this year and we'll do well against most sides away from home, too.