Arjen Robben - Emperor In Eindhoven

cheers again mate

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Ajax 0-2 PSV | Johaan Cruijff Schaal | Fabio Silva x2

The stage was set at the Johaan Cruijff ArenA - Home to Ajax - for another De Topper classic as PSV and Ajax set out to go head to head once more and win the Johaan Cruijff Schaal.

Last season's tie pitted the same sides against one another in a game Ajax came very much out on top, battering PSV 5-0 in only Arjen Robben's second game in charge of the club.

Lots of things have changed in a year though with comings and goings, and a full season for the club to familiarise itself with new surroundings. This contest would be an entirely different ball game for Ten Haag's Champions.

Off they kicked with the first blow of the whistle as both sets of fans went wild for each other. It begun a fairly aggressive affair Kik Pierie absolutely clattering Ihattaren outside of his box. Leading to a free kick, Rosario viciously whipped it around the wall but to no avail.

It would be a day to remember for youngster Dylan Hopman who was given his first start in midfield since his promotion from the academy. Dylan put in a fine performance throughout the game doing all he could to repay his managers faith.

21 minutes into the game this hotly contested match-up would be sent into disarray for De Godenzonen after another reckless challenge from Kik Pierie was met by the referee's red card.

PSV now had the advantage although both sides would go into the second half all square at 0-0. With no real chances to touch upon, something needed to be done for either side to make a breakthrough.

In the second half as you would expect PSV dominated possession taking full advantage of their extra man. More chances were swinging in their favour and it was looking likely that any moment now they would take the lead against their old rivals.

The first goal wasn't to be seen for another 40 minutes. In the 85th minute Fabio Silva picked up a pass on the edge of the box, turned and darted past his marker. Blind turned with him to make the tackle but missed the ball, and a penalty was awarded.

Fabio Silva stepped up, a year on from joining the club. Took one deep breath, and with 2 steps...Coolly slotted home for Boeren.

With only a few minutes left to go it was looking like Eindhoven's day. Robben would soon be stepping up to celebrate his first trophy with the club. Not before Silva had one final say in the matter though, running on to a lofted ball on the left hand side, beating his man and bending a beautiful strike into the bottom corner of the far post.

It was PSV's day after all! The old enemy were beaten in their own back yard, and they'd celebrate this one long into the night.

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PSV 1-0 PEC Zwolle | Eredivisie | Antonisse
FC Emmen 2-1 PSV | | Silva
PSV 4-2 Vitesse | Eredivisie | Malen x2, Silva, Teze
PSV 3-2 Feyenoord | Eredivisie | Silva x3
PSV 2-1 Ajax | Eredivisie | Malen Luckassen

In form, and currently flying all fronts. I really started to believe that this year we may actually push for a good title challenge. It was always my aim to really give Ajax something to think about and I feel like they'll know we're hot on their heels after that wonderful win against them in the cup.

In their own back yard too. Heh

It was onto the league after we'd passed through the CL Playoffs and into the groups. Firstly beginning with Zwolle. Not a team that's challenged us much so far and seemingly probably won't for a while if this game was anything to go by.

Jeremy Antonisse is a fantastic left winger and developing brilliantly. So it was good to see him reap the rewards and score the winner in this one. The only goal at that. It made for a good day out in our season opener. Onto Emmen.

Not good. Where things managed to go wrong here I really don't know. In total Emmen had 3 shots on goal and 3 on target. 2 goals went in for them.

In comparison, we had 20 shots and 9 on target. Their keeper was very much on form. We even scored the first goal! Eventually they equalised and somehow got the winner from an audaciously long ball. A bitterly disappointing pill to swallow.

It was only about to get harder as well with Vitesse, Feyenoord and Ajax all in that order coming up. We had the advantage being at home in every fixture. We wiped the slate clean with Vitesse getting back to winning ways which was very much needed.

Feynoord proved a different kettle of fish. They scored. Then again straight after. Fabio Silva got us back in it a minute later and all of a sudden there was light at the end of the tunnel. We equalised in the second half through him again and after that we put our foot down. Instead of knocking on the door we tried to bash it down...Inevitably this ended up in a penalty to our favour.

Hattrick! Goal number 3 in the 87th minute and what an important one it was too.

We've now beaten Ajax twice this season. Once in the league and once in a cup final. Brilliant stuff! Although they too are flying in the league a long side us this win for us brings them down a peg back to level points with us at the top.

It's going to be a long, hard season but we need to do everything we can to push them all the way and see where it gets us!

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VVV-Venlo 0-3 PSV | Eredivisie | Fabio Silva x2, Morato
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 PSV | UEFA Champions League Group H | Cody Gakpo
Roda JC 1-0 PSV | Eredivisie | N/A
Willem 1-1 PSV | Eredivisie | Proper
PSV 1-0 Valencia | UEFA Champions League Group H | Silva

Tell me. How do we beat Dortmund. Lose to Roda, draw to Willem...And then go and beat Valencia? As a PSV fan things are never easy and we always seem to do things the hard way. It's frustrating and I wish just sometime soon we can have a month where we are logically good.

Not to worry though. Mustn't complain too much, we're flying in the Champions League! How? I've no idea. It could be because we are good or rather because a team like Dortmund are having an abysmal season. In this group anyway...They're top of the Bundesliga.

We'd no right winning it. Dominated all game only for Cody Gakpo to go and nod in a late winner at the far post. it was unbelievable scenes. I remember being in the Coffee shop at the time, it erupted with chants. Everyone went crazy! What a win!!

We dominated against Roda JC and Willem but as is customary these days we fell very, very short of the mark which sees us drop to a measly 5th in the league. After a great first month we're now already 5 points away from Ajax. We need to close the gap FAST if we're to push them. At this rate we're not going to.

We ended on a huge high. Another massive Champions League victory. We really gave Valencia a game and took it too them. it was sad not to see Dumfries play against us after his departure but maybe we'll get to applaud him in the second fixture.

Fabio Silva has been remarkable so far and to score the winner in a game as tough as this just has to be applauded. What a player we've got!!

Sign the contract!!!

A tough last month after a really positive start to the season, of the back of some really smart business in the summer. I hope the form can turn back around domestically, and keep improving in Europe. Still a long way to go this season!

Seb: It was tough! But that's always the aim, to keep improving no matter how good we get. Let's see how far we can go

Form has drifted a little in the league, but an incredible start to life in the Champions League!

Scott: We're all hoping to get back to normal in october. Hopefully we can continue winning in the CL and get to the round of 16!

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PSV 2-1 Groningen | Eredivisie | Gakpo, Proper
PSV 3-0 Excelsior | Eredivisie | Doan, Malen, Ihattaren
Inter Milan 3-0 PSV | UEFA Champions League Group H | N/A
Fortuna Sittard 2-2 PSV | Eredivisie | Rosario, Silva
PSV 3-0 Kozakken Boys | KNVB Beker 1st Round | Malen x3
PSV 3-0 FC Twente | Eredivisie | Malen x2, Sadilek

Fortuna largely remain a thorn in our side continuing to be bloody-minded about losing to us. They were a really difficult team to play against last year as I'm sure you remember they knocked us out of the cup at the quarter final round.

Another draw in the league after they put out a strong and stubborn performance and I'm finding it hard to believe that we'll be able to catch Ajax up with enough time to make the leapfrog.

Just when the Champions League was going so well for us, it instantly goes the other way. Against Inter we were seeking to take the initiative and it was looking like we would. We held most of the possession and completely controlled the game.

That was until Morato decided to get a second yellow in the first half, and it was all down hill from their. The Italian's took full advantage and we were battered. Plain and simple. Back down to Earth in the group now. Still in the top 2 nonetheless with Dortmund having achieve zero (0) points.

It was nice to progress in the cup of course. A competition I think realistically we should be aiming to win and although I put the younger boys out against Kozakken I was pleased to watch them do so well from the sidelines.

Moving on from all the negativity - it's not all doom and gloom. We got 3 wins all coming against Groningen, Twente and Excelsior.

Excelsior being recently promoted after winning the league below finishing 7 points clear, would never turn out to be a huge threat. We've face bigger and badder this year and sure enough we romped them 3-0. The sending off in the 61st minute for their side certainly had an effect on their morale, leaving them wide open for the taking.

The league is shaping out very nicely. We need to keep up our form in order to jump ahead of the over performing Utrecht and make second are own. I've all the faith that we can do just that. We're a fantastic side, we'll get the job done. I know it.

Unfortunate against Sittard. Much better overall though.

Dortmund on 0 points after three games is a bit of a surprise :eyes: League wise it's better this month and hopefully an Ajax slip up is on the way. Four points isn't the worst gap, although they have that game in hand. Still a good platform.

Scott: Much better, yes!

Seb: I was as surprised as you! Ajax are hopefully peaking early but we'll see

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PSV 1-1 Inter Milan | UEFA Champions League Group H | Rosario
PSV 0-0 Heerenveen | Eredivisie | N/A
Utrecht 0-1 PSV | Eredivisie | Gakpo
PSV 2-0 Borussia Dortmund | UEFA Champions League Group H | Gakpo x2
PSV 0-0 Go Ahead Eagles | Eredivisie | N/A

Gakpo is a name not many of you will be too familiar with just yet but in the coming months to years he could potentially be the one name on PSV fans' lips, and for good reason too. Having cropped up with 4 goals in only 8 appearances this season it's looking quite likely that he could become one of the first names on Arjen Robben's team sheet.

PSV had set themselves up with 2 wins and a loss needing 4 points to get themselves through to the next round of the Champions League. With Inter coming back just two weeks later to play them after giving the side a 3-0 whooping, Arjen's boys would be looking for revenge.

Despite going down to a 3-0 loss against their qualification rivals they by no means showed to be entirely slack. In fact, they looked the better side for 38 minutes until they had Morato sent off for a careless lunge on Lukaku.

This game proved to be a much closer affair ending the tie at 1-1. Eindhoven took the lead 10 mins in and were hopeful of making the gap even bigger, however Inter had other ideas. Scoring 11 minutes later was Anthony with a curling effort from outside the box. 3 points to get for PSV.

It would probably (and I say this lightly) the easiest opportunity for Boeren to get through with Dortmund up next. The germans had only managed to notch 3 points in 4 games. Having already been knocked out of the group there was little to play for, for BVB.

PSV went in and came shooting out of the blocks having two close range efforts saved by the wonderful Strakosha! It was all in favour of the Dutch throughout the half but no breakthrough could be made, until half time super sub Cody Gakpo ran on to a beautifully floated Madueke cross from the right wing and blasted it home with his head.

Clearly having practised that very move Dortmund were caught napping again by the same two wingers 20 minutes later. Madueke managed to beat Schulz on his inside shoulder before beating a low driven cross into the box for Cody to latch onto and nestle sweetly into the bottom right corner.

PSV were through, and against all odds too.

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PSV 2-0 Heracles Almelo | Eredivisie | Madueke, Silva
Valencia 1-0 PSV | UEFA Champions League Group H | N/A
PSV 1-0 Willem II | Eredivisie | Antonisse
Roda JC 1-3 PSV | KNVB Beker 2nd Round | Malen x3
Excelsior 2-2 PSV | Eredivisie | Malen x2
PSV 1-0 FC Emmen | Eredivisie | Madueke

We've certainly found much better form in recent matches. Still we see silly slip[ ups here and there but it's all part of the process, the experience, the journey. That's how I like to think of things with PSV. It's always a journey. Albeit at the moment a frustrating one but under Robben we play some fantastic football, our recruitment has improved drastically.

Who knows how far we can go, we even got drawn out of the hat against Barcelona for the round of 16 tie in February.

You know what they say. You have to beat the best to be the best. So I hope we give it out all, despite needing to focus in other areas too!

It was a shame to lose our last game to Valencia, I thought we played a good match of football at their place but oh well. The result didn't mean a great deal and we still head through with counterparts Inter Milan so in reality I couldn't be happier with how we've done in Europe. A massive improvement on last years abysmal display!

We're really showing how far we've come and with January on the way plus the reports of a 50M pound war-chest lined up for the winter window it will be interesting to see how Robben spends. Will he go all out in a bid to challenge Ajax better in the second half of the season, or save it for the summer? He's unpredictable you know.

Bang for our buck in the league mind you. Something that annoys me a lot is the fact that on our day we can beat anyone in this league, and we do it week in week out but the silly slip ups to teams like Excelsior are right where we're going wrong.

And they are just that. Silly slip ups. Every game we're on top, we look fresh and better but late on we just seem to let go and concede silly goals. I'm sure the manager is aware of it, how couldn't he be? If the fans can see it so can he. I have faith he'll fix things soon.

Another thing I've been really impressed with is Madueke and Gakpo's performances. Not just their performances but their harmony when playing together. Despite being on two separate sides of the pitch they just seem to know exactly where each other are all the time.

I can't count how many times I'm seeing brilliant balls played in to the box from one to the other, and a lot of the time it ends up in a goal. They're ever so young and to watch them develop here will be a thing of beauty. It'll be hard to keep hold of them though, especially with Madueke being English.

You know what that lot are like over the pond...

A good year in all honesty. Third in the league but with a game in hand so very easily could be second soon enough. The gap on Ajax is still rather large but hopefully that will get cut with time. Also to qualify for the Round of 16 after last years horror show in Europe is massive. Barca will be a tough test, but who knows!