Those of us who have called Mark Noble at times – and I’m guilty – are being left with egg all over their faces and frankly I have no trouble with that at all.
The team – and winning – is far more important than any ego issues and it’s brilliant to see the guy performing to the levels of a man usually perhaps five years younger!
The skipper was subbed towards the end on Saturday and left the pitch to a thunderous ovation which was thoroughly earned on the back of a great performance.
Like every player the guy has his off days, but since the last few games of last season he has been in brilliant form and much of the credit for the victories over Watford and Norwich are down to him.
Many believed this could be the season which saw him finally start winding down but the reality is he’s looking more important to the team than ever
And discussing the performance against Norwich at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/september/01-september/noble-it-was-best-weve-played-long-time he said: “It should have been a bigger scoreline. Obviously I’m pleased with the 2-0 result and the way that we played, but I’ve come away thinking we should have won by more.
“The last two [Premier League] games we’ve played extremely well, especially going forward, but I said to the players in the week that we were really good in attack at Watford but we left ourselves open at times.
“I didn’t like that, but today we were solid. We really limited them to a couple of half chances and we should have scored six or seven ourselves.
“The whole back four was brilliant to keep Pukki quiet because he’s such a good goalscorer, but the aggression we played with, the pace, was brilliant. For me it was the best we’ve played for a long time.”
LIke the rest of the squad he was thrilled for Anriy Yarmolenko saying: “Everyone was really pleased for him. We’ve seen what he’s been through in the last ten months – he started off really well for the club and scored a couple of goals, but then got that injury.
“No matter what, even if you’re injured for two weeks, you don’t feel a part of it because you’re in the gym and not training with the lads.
He’s suffered, he’s had a whole summer to think about it, and it was hard for him to get up to speed in pre-season. But I thought he looked really good today and the whole team was buzzing for him to get his goal.”
I’ve said it elsewhere, but I’ll say it here too. This young man (and to me he is a young man!!) is far more deserving of the epithet “Captain, Leader, Legend” than the individual to whom fans of some other club in London attached it.