Late drama at the Boleyn Ground helped us snatch a point against Norwich on Saturday, which I see as a point gained rather than two points dropped.
It was another somewhat disappointing home performance in comparison to our away ones, but we are in a very good position, which many people need to look at.
We currently sit third in the Premier League, but how far can we push this season?
We started the match as we did against Leicester and Bournemouth and we were punished in the nineth minute when a sloppy pass by Mark Noble got intercepted by Robbie Brady, who made no mistake of slotting the ball past Adrian.
Norwich were looking comfortable for a prolonged period in the first half and we were making them look like Barcelona. No pressing, no urgency and no belief that we could make something happen.
Then a wonderful flick by the inform Sakho out wide to Payet, who got down the right hand side and put in a cross that got through three bodies before giving Sakho pretty much an open goal to make it 1-1 with just over 10 minutes to play in the half.
When you need a bit of brilliance to get back into these matches, you look to your quality players, and Payet stepped up once again.
I said in my preview that Moses was tired and should have started on the bench, but Bilic kept him in and I thought he played very poorly. He was then subbed off 10 minutes into the second half for Obiang, which I thought was strange – I wanted to see Antonio – but he is still yet to make his first start for us.
Neither team was creating any real chances, but we had two good ones to make it 2-1, one being a Sakho header that was saved by Ruddy and another from Payet who missed a one-on-one situation with the keeper.
Payet was not his typical self on Saturday, and it showed that maybe he was a little tired as he gave the ball away 19 times, more than any other player in claret and blue.
Once again it was good to see Andy Carroll make an appearance and get another 20 minutes under his belt, who came on for Lanzini in the 72nd minute.
Our fatigue from the Leicester match showed late on when substitute Nathan Redmond cut inside from the left hand side to fire in through a crowd of players, making it 2-1 to the visitors with seven minutes left to play.
It wasn’t a shock to me when they scored because they deserved to win the way we were playing, but good teams go to the final whistle and grind out results, even when they’re not playing well.
Cheikhou Kouyate stepped up to the mark when a 93rd minute free kick was whipped in by Payet and dropped kindly for the Senegal international to fire home.
To me it was not a deserved point, but as I said the sign of a good team is picking up points when you are not playing well, and we did that.
That 2-2 draw makes it four consecutive leagues without loss, and we face Sunderland away next week, which I am very much looking forward to.
To sum up, our players were a little off the boil on Saturday, but we ground out a good point and are in the top three after seven games, which is more than impressive from Bilic.
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