Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
Well no handicap is 'complete' in a sporting sense - that's the point of handicaps, they are designed to level the field when there is one manifestly superior performer. What this handicap did was bring our fitness, availability and stamina down to a level that lessened or even negated the impact of our generally superior players, allowing Bournemouth to take advantage - at least until they became tired, at which point our advantage was restored.
I have to say, Burney, I find this idea that Bournemouth got tired but we didn't to be disingenuous at the very least. While I appreciate that they were working harder than us, it's not like Arsenal were standing around breathing in oxygen and receiving massages while Bournemouth ran about. We were also putting in a significant amount of effort and if we really were at that much of an advantage I would have expected us to really struggle second half.

And how many times do you see teams press other teams and then get tired and the other team weathers the storm and then gets back into it? That happens all the time, and it happened last night, so I fail to see that the initial additional fatigue really had much of an impact.