Against City we witnessed our new look squad perform admirably against what is, without doubt, the best squad in the country. Hughes had a game plan and his men followed orders. Keep it tight, even if we go 1-0 down, keep it tight. Don't panic, wait for your chances, then strike. And strike we did. Bobby Zamora latched onto the rebound of Andy Johnson's stinging drive and the smash and grab looked on. As it finished, the smash and grab was abruptly stifled by City's superstars, but we did well. We expected to lose, but we didn't expect our new hooped heroes to play as well as they did.
Then came the game against the champions of Europe, Chelsea. Again we all hoped and dreamed we could beat our sworn enemies, the way we did at Loftus Road last season. We wanted to intimidate them. We wanted them to lose their heads, we wanted John Terry to score a hat-trick of own goals and cry like he did in the Champions League final against Man United. But for all the hype that went on before the game, this was never going to happen. Chelsea had added even more flair and firepower since we had played them last and were unbeaten sitting at the top of the table. We, on the other hand, had added a host of unknown entities to our squad and knew that this was a work in progress. "Let's just make sure we play with pride and passion lads", was the sentiment from most of the Loftus Road faithful. We did that and some. There were a few nervy moments during the game, that was to be expected. But what an improvement.
Many fans will disagree with me, but I was far more satisfied with our performance and getting a 0-0 draw against them, than I was when we beat them 1-0 last season. Yes the initial ecstasy of beating our arch nemesis was great, but after the celebrations died down, we all knew we got lucky. We hung on and scraped a 1-0 win against a team with 9 men who really outplayed and outclassed us for 90 minutes. But this time, we didn't get the win, but my word did we put on a performance. There was passion, but it was focussed passion. Our latin midfield maestro's completely outplayed Lampard, Mikel and Ramires. Our Kiwi rock at the back contained and frustrated Torres and Hazard, who combined are valued at more than our entire squad. So much so that Torres, when substituted, stormed off down the Loftus Road tunnel like a child being sent to their room, knowing that he had been dominated and outclassed. Even Anton Ferdinand had an assured game, and as much as we support and respect Anton, how many times have we seen him play as well as he did? Yes we only got 1 point instead of 3, but we played like we knew what we were doing at last. We looked like we had a plan, we knew our strengths and attacked their weaknesses, and for those Chelsea fans that thought they were going to turn up and give us a hiding like they did at Stamford Bridge last season, this was gutting. Not only did the noisy neighbours from W12 end their winning streak, but we made the champions of Europe look average. They had to respect our performance, there was no hiding from it, this is when the foreign feeling of confidence in my team began.
Then to White Hart Lane, where my new found optimism grew even further. We lost the game 2-1, but it didn't feel like a crushing defeat. It didn't feel like losing 2-1 at home to Wolves last season. Or losing 1-0 to West Brom away. There wasn't that feeling of annoyance, that my team had not only lost but never looked like winning. We completely and utterly deserved to beat Spurs. Even the most die hard Spurs fans will admit, particularly in the 1st half there was only one team in the game. Perhaps we should've had a healthier lead going into half time, but were it not for a huge slice of misfortune, we would've deservedly won that game. Hoilett and Zamora looked very effective together, and although we were all cursing our luck that Andy Johnson had gotten injured against Chelsea just as he started to look dangerous, Hoilett looks like he will be an excellent foil for Zamora up front. Don't forget the injuries we had going into this game, defensively we looked like we could struggle with so many players out. But as he did at the back end of last season, Clint Hill silenced his critics with, for me, a man of the match performance. He displayed the typical grit and determination we are used to seeing but he also showed us his defensive ability, keeping Defoe quiet for large portions of the game. Julio Cesar gave me confidence that I haven't felt in a QPR goalkeeper for a long while, and for me perhaps the most pleasing display was that of Kieron Dyer who showed that he still has a lot to offer QPR as long as he can stay fit.
We dominated the game and 65 seconds of madness and bad luck cost us the game, like I said being a QPR fan is never easy, that won't ever change. But from what I've seen from our new signings and the new professionalism that our squad and club as a whole are displaying, as fans we have far more hope to latch onto. It finally looks like the vision that our fantastic owners had for us is starting to come to fruition and I can say with my hand on my heart and my head held high, we are improving. Genuinely improving.
