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Match Report: Man City 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur

January 23rd, 2012 Posted in Articles, Match Reports, Premier League
Jan, 23 2012
2 Comments »

THFC1882 presents Adam Nathan’s report of Tottenham Hotspur’s visit to Manchester City.

They are two time-old clichés, but not only is it a funny old game, it’s also one heck of a rollercoaster following Tottenham Hotspur. After a drab first half, the second period against Manchester City yesterday afternoon pretty much had it all. Having gone two down and looked like potentially being on the end of another Nasri-inspired hammering, a little bit of luck and an awful lot of drive saw us fire our way back on level terms, and probably look the most likely winners with twenty minutes of the game to go. What followed was a period fraught with tension from both sides, with some of it spilling over illegally-both Joleon Lescott and Mario Balotelli will feel extremely fortunate to step out onto the Anfield turf on Wednesday night-but more importantly manifesting in errors, all of which performed by players in mud-spattered white shirts. No sooner had Bale and Defoe conspired to miss one of the chances of the season, Ekotto, Parker and King all made uncharacteristic mistakes that saw a ball start in our left back position, have a brief soiree into the Manchester City midfield before looping, bouncing, and ricocheting out for what all Spurs fans hoped was to be a Manchester City corner. Sadly, Howard Webb’s arm correctly pointed to the penalty spot, and with practically the last kick of the game, Balotelli was able to dust himself down and slot the Etihad stadium into raptures.

Whilst the moment itself was depressing enough, Spurs fans will be further saddened this week when thinking back to all three City goals, which, with a touch more concentration in some areas and desire in others, probably would have been averted. With all that said, if this was to be the acid-test for Harry Redknapp’s men, they certainly passed as far as the performance was concerned. Unlike in August, the lilywhites matched their hosts from whistle to whistle, and will hope that as the season continues, they don’t have to face such heartbreak on any other occasions.

In terms of the first half, I’m not going to waste too much of your valuable time by talking about it. Ultimately, it was cagey and both sides were pretty flat. Milner did an excellent job marshalling Bale when he drifted inside which really halted our attacking progress, and Van Der Vaart spent a lot of time in a more central area than attacking, which left Defoe isolated. As always, people are split on the performance of the Duutchman, but in truth-and I am biased because I think he’s great-I felt that he was the only one of our players who was moving the ball around with intelligence. Yes, a lot of his passes were from side to side, but if you want to play possession football, you need players like that who just keep the ball ticking over. I daresay that if Modric and Parker had shown the same desire to be on the ball and use it quickly, we may have been able to leave Rafa in a more attacking position. In addition, Van Der Vaart ran the highest number of yards in the first half, and the more I watch him, the more of a leader I can see in him; say what you like, but he has carried us through so many games since joining, probably more than anyone else in the squad, and to give him the amount of criticism that he receives not only seems laughable at times, but ungrateful. Our whole club ethos revolves around players like Van Der Vaart, and whilst Modric and Parker are seemingly able to escape with below par performances on an all too regular basis at the moment, it never ceases to amaze me how often anything less than a perfect team performance is always blamed on Rafa.

And breathe.

In terms of the second half, it seems futile now to go through the moments that determined the mach in too much detail, so I’d rather look at the connotations, and perhaps what we could have done differently. In terms of the positives, I was really impressed with the efforts of Defoe up front, who was well rewarded with a goal that was indicative of his performance; not the prettiest, but earned through grafting and anticipating errors from the opposition backline. Naturally Bale’s goal is one that will be showed over and over again, and it’s no coincidence that it was created in one of the rare moments in the match where Lennon actually attacked a full back and created space as a result. The more I watch the speedy winger against good teams, the more let down I’m beginning to feel. I’m not sure if it’s a mental issue that still hangs over him after the World Cup, but if I were an extremely fast winger, the thought of my man being booked after 10 minutes would have me licking my lips; as it happens, Lennon didn’t take Clichy on once for the rest of the game, which was a real shame. I’m just starting to wonder if he’s got the bottle for the biggest games anymore.

In terms of the goals we conceded, I think there are two ways of looking at them, depending on the way you’ve been talking about the team this season. If your focus has always been on getting into the top four and giving it our best shot, then we were a bit sloppy in the main and thoroughly capitalized on by clinical finishing by the Citizens. If, however you have been talking us up for the title as many of the journalists have done recently, then you probably have to highlight a number of individual errors for all three goals that handed City the points. I know this sounds harsh, but sadly there are no concessions when you are in your first title race. Unlike getting free banking for a new business in your first year, in the Premier League it doesn’t matter if it’s your first or twentieth title race, the circumstances are the same. Having seen all the goals again, I couldn’t help but thinking how furious Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho or an early 2000s Arsene Wenger would have been with their teams had they given up such soft scores to their opposition. For the first, Silva has no right to get away from Bale and Modric, who seem to give up chasing him, Parker wasn’t in the position you’d expect from a defensive midfielder and of course, perhaps more lethally, Kyle Walker let Nasri run completely free to finish emphatically. For the second, Bale really has to win the ball at the near post from the corner-albeit it was excellent work from Dzeko-and on another day Parker may have won the battle with Lescott at the back post to prevent the latter from bundling the ball in.

The third goal, irrespective of timing and context, was the most disappointing thing to give up. Firstly, Ekotto could probably have let the ball run out for a throw, but in keeping it in, he simply has to send his clearance down the line. In aiming for Defoe’s head, he handed possession straight back to City, and with our midfield rushing out at the time, left a big gap between them and the defence, which is exactly where their forward ball landed. I’m inclined to point a finger at Parker here and say that the ball should have landed on his right boot, but I’m cautious about being too harsh on him; I do believe that footballing wise, Sandro is a better player, but to ignore Parker’s influence on the team mentally would be harsh on him to say the least. He has turned our season around, but it just doesn’t overly surprise me that he has put in his two worst performances this year against the top class midfields of Chelsea and Manchester City. Overall, I do think we should have done better for the goals, but I don’t think anyone ‘cost’ us any of them, or the game for that matter. We were just punished by the most clinical Premier league team I’ve seen since Mourinho’s Chelsea.

The only things left to talk about are the Defoe miss in the last minute and, sadly, refereeing decisions. As for the chance, I personally believe that Bale should have slipped Defoe in as soon as possible and give him a one-on-one with Hart. This isn’t to say that what he did was wrong necessarily, but if I was coaching a defender in a two-on-one situation, I would urge him to send the attacker with the ball wide, and if possible, make him cross it. Both Lescott and Bale did their jobs very well, and I am hesitant to blame Defoe for not getting there in time. From what I’ve seen of Jermain over the past seven years, I reckon he’d trample over his grandma if it meant scoring a goal, so I certainly don’t think it was a lack of effort. I just think it was one of those moments that confirm it’s just not going to be your day.

As for referees, I don’t actually blame Webb for not seeing the incidents on Kaboul and Parker. Ultimately, I blame the game. If you run a business where your employees are incapable of doing their job, you have to go to whatever lengths possible to make it easier for them. Until television replays are used, or there is one man watching the game on a screen and reporting to the ref, as in the majority of other sports, I almost find it pointless to chastise the referee for incidents that they only get one view of. None of the Spurs players appealed for red cards on either occasion, and they had as long as Webb to have a look at it. It’s really annoying, but I’ve popped too many blood cells and wasted too much precious oxygen bemoaning refs recently, when in reality, the reasoning is that they are not able to do their jobs with the game being as fast as it is currently. If you’re reading this Sepp, get your head out of your backside and sort it out, because it is killing the sport.

Overall, I think we’ve all woken up today wondering what might have been. To be behind, come back, nearly win and then lose it like that is stuff that even the nightmare goblins in your head wince at when you drift off to sleep, and to see it happen like that will take some getting over. With all that said, the lads showed an incredible amount of spirit to get back into the game; heck for thirty five minutes they really did play like potential title winners. In order to clinch the hallowed crown, they will have to turn thirty five into ninety five on sixteen more occasions this season. Do they have the talent? On the basis of yesterday, undoubtedly yes. Will they be able to put that ability into practice? That remains to be seen. Whatever happens, we are still ten points clear of fifth and everything is shaping up for a memorable run-in and celebration of some sort in May.

COYS

Adam Nathan (follow Adam on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/#!/adamdnathan)

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Match Preview: Man City v Tottenham Hotspur

January 21st, 2012 Posted in Match Previews, Premier League
Jan, 21 2012
3 Comments »

THFC1882 welcomes another new guest writer. I’ve been wanting this guy to write for the blog for ages and finally he’s found the time. Here’s Adam Nathan with his preview of Tottenham Hotspur’s crucial visit to Manchester City.

Spurs travel to the Etihad on Sunday to face perhaps their fiercest competitors for the Premier League Title in Manchester City. Much has and will be made of the importance of this game in the context of both sides’ seasons; a Spurs win or draw would be enough to cement their credentials as potential champions come May, whilst a victory for the hosts will only confirm that Roberto Mancini’s ‘noisy neighbours’ are perfectly set to claim the league crown from their bitter rivals on the other side of town.

In the world of Sky Sports that we are compelled to live in, it would be understandable to see the game as make or break for our hopes this season but in truth, it is important to remember that nothing, even elimination from the battle for top spot, can ever be confirmed in the middle of January. With a tough run of fixtures to come, Spurs’ fans will be praying for a positive result to kick-start the New Year that has yielded good results but perhaps not the same performance levels as the first half of the season. A defeat would of course be a major set-back, but only a terminal one if the team are unable to bounce back and show their qualities as the season draws to a close.

Games are never won on precedents, but Spurs will take heart from the fact that Eastlands has often proved to be a successful location for them, especially when the odds have been with the Citizens. In the past years, Fredi Kanoute, Darren Bent, Robbie Keane, Steed Malbranque, and of course Peter Crouch have chipped in with winning goals in games that Spurs would have been delighted with a point from. Whilst this Manchester City side represents a completely different challenge to any of the teams featuring Danny Mills or Elano, the travelling support will hope that another man in white can make himself a hero this weekend. With that said, the hosts undoubtedly hold the bragging rights in the duel at this stage, having clinched their Champions League place against us in this fixture last year, in addition to the ‘oh-why-can’t-i-forget-it-already’ hammering that they dealt us (well, a team that wore the same colour shirts as us anyway) in August.

As for team news, Spurs are expected to be without Gallas and Sandro once again as they continue to recover from their torn calf injuries, although Ledley King may make a surprise, and extremely welcome return. Up front, Adebayor misses out through ineligibility, with Roberto Mancini exercising the ridiculous rule that, although he isn’t good enough to play for him, he is far too good to play against him. Agreeing with Arsene Wenger isn’t something I can usually stomach, but on the loan player issue, he does have a point.

For Manchester City, influential captain Vincent Kompany misses out again through suspension, serving the third game of Chris Foy’s redemption present to us, whilst the Toure brothers are away with the Ivory Coast at the African Nations. Latest injury reports would suggest that Micah Richards and Mario Balotelli will be fit for the clash.

As for team selection, it has been a fascinating week to be a part of social media. Whilst everyone will expect Jermain Defoe to start, which in truth he probably deserves after a string of good performances this season, there have been a lot of calls on Twitter and the forums to start with Van Der Vaart up front instead. There is certainly a lot of mileage to this idea, and is probably what I would go with on Sunday afternoon if I was in Redknapp’s shoes. Defoe has proved me wrong a number of times this year and is probably as complete a player as he will ever be, but my worry is that, whilst he is good in almost every attribute, he is exceptional in none. As a result, he becomes exactly the type of player that Joleon Lescott thrives against. Rafa may not have the pace of the England man, but his positional sense and movement are fantastic. Far from me to ever compare us to the greats of Barcelona, it would be interesting to see how we played with Van Der Vaart dropping off ala Messi with Lennon and Bale playing on the shoulder of the last men, positions that Pedro, Villa and Alexis benefit from on a weekly basis. In addition, we would have space for another defensive midfielder, and whilst Livermore is no Sandro, he certainly impressed with disciplined performances against West Brom and in his real acid test against Cahill and Fellaini last Wednesday.

The return of King would of course be a huge boost, but if he plays, it must be next to Younes Kaboul, who for my money has become the best defender at the club this year. King is still a wonderful player, but having seen the Chelsea game where he was partnered with Gallas who is less able to sweep up in behind, we looked a bit of a mess at the back. King and Dawson has always been an excellent pairing, but in my opinion one of the centre back positions is Kaboul’s to lose at this stage of the season.

Gareth Bale will of course start, but his positioning must be sorted out. Redknapp definitely has a point that Bale can be explosive when playing through the middle, but that tactic is more likely to work when it comes as a surprise as opposed to being the norm. Against West Brom, Everton and Wolves we looked very congested as the Welshman spent far more time inside than out on the wing, and in truth created far fewer chances than usual. When thinking back to the wonderful performances we put in against Aston Villa, QPR and Bolton with two orthodox wide players, it would be folly to consider that system obsolete. For me, Bale should spend the majority of time out wide and occasionally drift inside, especially when we are on counter attacks. We will see a lot of possession on Sunday but also spend large portions of the game defending; when we do have the ball in attacking areas it is essential that we make the most of it; with Bale out wide I feel that is more likely.

It is difficult to predict how Manchester City will line up, but their defence is likely to be the area of greatest interest to us. With Micah Richards being fit, Mancini may line up with him partnering Joleon Lescott at centre back, thus sparing the at times hapless Savic, but he may fear that Zabaleta doesn’t have the pace to compete with Bale out wide. Personally, I find that Bale seems to find it easier to play against brawn than brain-see games against Glen Johnson and Phil Neville as examples of that-so I’d rather see Richards in his usual position of right it with Savic central, although he will of course offer plenty going forward. Going forward, it is always difficult to predict how City will line up, although Mancini’s moans about lack of depth clearly have foundation; after all, he may only have three twenty five million pound players warming the bench, as opposed to the usual five or six. I expect Barry and De Jong to sit in front of the back four, with Milner, Aguero, Silva and Balotelli operating in the forward positions. When you put it like that, it’s actually a bit scary.

In conclusion, it is impossible not to be extremely excited about the game. Many a pundit will label it as a true test of our ambitions and ability, but in truth, I think that is just over-hyping a bit game in mid-January to attract bigger TV ratings. For me, whilst it would of course be damaging to our title ambitions if we lose, I don’t really see this as a game where our players should feel any pressure whatsoever. At the start of the season, I would have been sectioned for predicting the league table to look like it does at this stage of the season, and that is a huge credit to the players and coaching staff that have worked so hard to turn this into a wonderful year so far. Getting a win tomorrow would be the stuff that fantasies are made of, and I would be delighted with even a point, but with ten home wins out of ten this season, City rightfully go into the game as favourites. It is of course a results business, but a negative one tomorrow would do nothing more than make us less likely to win the title. Even to write that makes me feel dizzy, and personally, I seem to look south rather than north when studying the table, with the distance between us and fifth of far greater importance to me than the one separating us from the summit. Without wanting to sound too pessimistic, I will be delighted with a good performance tomorrow and waking up on Monday morning with a gap between us and fifth place of at least nine points. With that said, we do have every chance of making a real statement to the rest of the league tomorrow. If we can combine intelligent, patient play with some of the electrifying pace we have displayed this year, Spurs fans may be dreaming on Sunday night of one hell of a party on Tottenham High Road in the middle of May.

COYS

Adam Nathan ( @adamnathan on Twitter )

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What went wrong? Spurs 1 Man City 5

August 30th, 2011 Posted in Articles, Match Reports, Premier League
Aug, 30 2011
35 Comments »

An hour before kick off, stood in the car park of the Bell & Hare the sun was shining and there were some optimistic voices. Minutes later and the team news filtered through.
Almost everyone was incredulous. A central midfield of Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar against the most powerful & dangerous midfield in the Premier League? Surely a mistake? No. Unfortunately not. Whether you like Redknapp or not no one can say he made a good choice. It would have been a poor decision for a new manager in his 1st job, for someone as experienced as Redknapp it was shocking and almost negligent. He had basically chosen a team to get beaten. Why? Perhaps to try and force Levy’s hand in securing Scott Parker. Perhaps he is just as feckless as some say.
As if his starting line up wasn’t bad enough he compounded it with the wrong substitutions too. With the midfield being overrun of course a half time change was needed. What wasn’t needed was Tom Huddlestone. Less mobile than Kranjcar – which really is saying something – and still struggling for form and fitness, Huddlestone added nothing. Taking Lennon off shortly after meant Van der Vaart going to the right wing. Allegedly. Rafa on the right has never worked and never will with the current tactical set up. Too little, too late Jake Livermore was introduced just after the hour and showed why he should have started the match. He brought an energy, passion and fight that had been missing from almost everyone else. When Rafa tore his hamstring not long after Livermore’s introduction all of Redknapp’s errors were compounded as Spurs had to play on with ten men.
It would be wrong not to mention that the players didn’t help themselves. Only Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Luka Modric – playing his last game for the club???? – Jake Livermore and Jermain Defoe can say they showed commitment and looked like they were trying and cared.
It would also be foolish not to give City credit. They are an absolutely dominant machine and will, along with United, surely run away at the top of the Premier League. You can only beat the team in front of you and City were ruthless in putting Spurs to the sword. They also showed a nasty side and cynicism that winners need, something Spurs are badly lacking.
Having played the best two teams in the country, things should be looked at with some perspective, but even so there are massive issues at Spurs right now. The next two days of the transfer window can help resolve some of those if Levy and Redknapp can put their differences aside for the sake of our club.
Whatever happens, unlike the glory hunting City fans, you can guarantee Spurs fans will sing even when they aren’t winning. Let’s hope there are some wins to cheer about in the very near future.

COYS

Stuart Watts
( @Studub on Twitter )

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When Does a Season Become Bad?

May 6th, 2011 Posted in Match Previews, Premier League
May, 06 2011
9 Comments »

“It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high. So high, in fact, that even failure will have in it an echo of glory!” — Bill Nicholson OBE

Before I start the first thing I should say is I don’t consider this season to be a bad one. Like any Spurs fan over 10 years old I’ve experienced far too many bad seasons and no matter what way you look at it and no matter where we finish in the league, this season can’t be compared to the dross we’ve had to contend with in the last 20 years or so.

That being said it’s been a disappointing season for me, but I think that’s my own doing. I think I expected too much, more than the team and management could deliver. I expected more domestic cup games and a much more consistent and entertaining league campaign than we’ve had. I’m not quite sure what I expected from the champions league and obviously what we did get didn’t disappoint in the slightest. However, I do think it’s papered over a relatively poor season. The most important word in that last sentence is relatively, because that’s exactly what it is, relative.

Like the Olympic Stadium mess, the feelings on this season have divided fans right down the middle. There are those who believe 5/6th place in the league and a ¼ final appearance in the champions league constitutes an excellent season. I’ve seen some say one of the best we’ve ever had. I completely understand this thinking too. Compare it to pretty much any season in the previous 20 and it’s been very good, with the only exception possibly being last season. It certainly outshines Martin Jol’s two 5th spots on paper, although once again because I expected so much more it doesn’t have the same sense of achievement.

Then there are those of us, like myself, who don’t compare this season with any season other than the last one because it’s the only season that has basically the same teams to compare it with. There’s no point comparing today’s results with one’s 15 years ago. If we’re doing that then we might as well keep going and say no matter what happens from season to season we should be happy because there was a time we weren’t even playing league football. Do Stoke fans just sit back and enjoy everything that happens because it wasn’t that long ago they were in the lower divisions? Of course not. That might happen in the first season in the top flight but after that comparisons are made with the previous season to judge where the club is heading and if we compare this season with last this has been a disappointment.

There have obviously been smatterings of absolute joy too, showing what this current team is capable of. Inter Milan at home, Arsenal away and AC Milan away to name three. Unfortunately there have been way too many bad memories from this season too and in fact they outweigh the good. Wigan home, Arsenal home (Carling cup), West Ham away, Bolton away, Fulham away (FA Cup) and then the last few weeks with the exception of Stoke at home that have really put a downer on the entire year for some.

Basically what I’m saying is if you remove the champions league performances and results from this season we really haven’t done very much to cheer about have we? Whether English teams have worked us out in a way European one’s didn’t I don’t know but the free flowing, attacking, goal scoring displays we’ve seen in midweek games have been largely missing on a Saturday. In fact you could marry the teams performances with a certain PFA player of the year. When Bale has performed in the manner he did from January to May last season the team has looked brilliant. At times putting in breathtaking displays and scoring some of the best goals I’ve seen at the Lane (or away from it). The fast break against Villa on Boxing Day springs to mind and then the obvious individual hat-trick in the San Siro in what shouldn’t be forgotten was a defeat but we got style marks in the second half.

I’m not blaming Bale personally here by the way. In fact I’m not blaming anyone. It’s just one of those things. I’m sure half (or more) of the people reading this will be thinking what a moaning, glass half empty kind of guy he is and you’d be right. My glass is always half empty and I love a bit of a moan, but that’s because I want us to be the best. I don’t buy into the theory that we can’t compete with two billionaire owned clubs, the two most successful English teams in history and the French Foreign Legion down the road. Why can’t we? All I hear is we won’t be able to compete until we have a bigger stadium so we can pay the bigger wages etc. Of course on a long term scale I understand this theory but we competed just fine last season against the same opposition so why not this? I’ve also heard the argument that both Liverpool and Chelsea spent big in January which of course is true but Chelsea’s spending was primarily on an out of form striker who’s caused them more problems than he’s worth and a defender when keeping clean sheets was never really a problem for them. Liverpool’s resurgence was as much about “King Kenny” returning and managing them correctly as it has been the new strikers they’ve bought with the money Chelsea gave them. Andy Carroll has hardly played for them in that time.

The arguments for accepting this as a good season are:

  • It’s been better than most of the last 20 years
  • We got to the ¼ finals of the champions league
  • 5/6th is the best we can realistically hope for

None of those are good reasons in my eyes. With my glass half empty specs on I’d be more inclined to look at it like this:

  • We’ve failed to build on a fantastic season last year
  • The teams above us have become more inconsistent and yet we’ve dropped back
  • We failed to buy the correct players in the correct positions
  • Out early in both domestic competitions in embarrassing fashion
  • We’ve got a particularly poor goal scoring record for a “top” side
  • We haven’t experienced many “easy” wins like the 5-1′s and very rare 9-1 from last season

Baring a miracle, 4th place and another champions league campaign are off the cards but 5th place is still very much on and winning our remaining two home games against the seasiders and Birmingham are must win’s if we’ve got any chance. If you would rather we didn’t play in the Europa League like so many then keep your fingers crossed for more disappointment, although we may find no matter where we finish we could get into that competition through the fair play league so we might as well finish as high up as we can. After all, if we finish behind a Liverpool team that’s spent half the season in “crisis” surely that’s yet another sign of it being a poor season?

Here’s where some positivity comes into this update. It’s 50 years to the day that we became the first club to win the league and cup double in the 20th century and I think we’ll celebrate in style tomorrow. Sadly at the expense of Blackpool who having started our decline in recent weeks with their 3-1 win in a game that highlighted everything that’s been wrong with spurs in the league this season, are now struggling to beat the drop and I think we’ll put one more nail in that coffin. For the record I really hope they manage to stay up purely because of the way they try to play football but any points they need will have to come after tomorrow.

I’ve got a feeling we’ll see the team perform more like they were last season and this season in Europe. We’ll live up to the entertaining, attacking, goal scoring tag the press seem to have given us but this time without conceding 2 or 3 goals first. It’ll be an afternoon to remember, a celebration of a time when 5th place and a ¼ final was seen as an ok season, not a good one and of a team who would only settle for playing blistering football and 1st place. A time I wish we all shared now. As the great man once said, it’s better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low.

COYS

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North London Derby: The Fall Out

November 23rd, 2010 Posted in Articles
Nov, 23 2010
5 Comments »

We’ve had 60 hours or so now to let Saturday’s excellent result sink into the subconscious and come to terms with not having to hear about what an awful record we have away from home against our rivals and the other members of the Sky hierarchy. Thanks to the goings on at Chelsea we didn’t really have the normal press coverage that the result and manner in which it came would’ve got but there was still enough to warrant some comments.

Spurs Can Win the League

That’s one of the main things the press seem to have picked up on. Now I don’t know about you but I never heard Redknapp say that. What he said was there’s no reason why with the addition of a few quality players we couldn’t compete for it in a couple of seasons time. All he was doing was echoing his comments from pre-season. He was on TalkSPORT last night saying the same thing, although when asked if we could compete this season his response was, “why not?”, which I guess is an honest assessment seeing how no-one really seems to want to put a string of results together, including us.

But can we really win the league this season? No chance. I don’t think that’s me being negative, it’s just realistic. We’ll probably end up about 20 points behind whoever does eventually win it. Any closer than that and we’ll be laughing. Can we at least challenge in the coming reasons? As Redknapp says, why not. We’ve got the core of a very good team who are gaining belief in their own abilities with every game, or at least every positive game. Even Redknapp seems to be slowly learning how to effect games for the better. Keep hold of those players, add some more in key positions and who knows.

Gallas as Captain

An interesting one this. The one thing Harry does well is man management. He has his moments of madness, like comparing Darren Bent to his wife but who’s to say that wouldn’t have worked with some players? It just didn’t with Bent. I remember travelling to West Brom and hearing the potential news that Gallas might be made captain and the various comments that echoed there way through the train weren’t complimentary. I’m sure the same was said before kick off on Saturday but it worked.

Gallas showed a side of him and a performance he hadn’t shown previously in a spurs shirt. One which had it been King, the press and fans alike would’ve been raving about. Whether it was the armband, his ex club or just time he put it in is yet to be seen. The one thing I don’t think Redknapp likes to do is swap his captain much so I would expect to see Gallas retain the armband until Dawson or King return from injury.

Does he deserve it? I’m not sure. Personally I’d prefer vdV to have it but I don’t think he needs it to be a leader. That’s just his natural persona. Maybe Gallas does need it and if by having it he performs like he did in every game I’m happy to swallow my pride for the sake of the team, at least for the time being.

Goons Go on the Attack

It’s been hugely entertaining listening to the various radio show phone ins and watching Sky Sports News since about 3pm on Saturday. Here was me thinking they didn’t care about the derby and their really big games were against United and Chelsea. Seems like a strange reaction for a bunch of people who don’t really care.

Wenger is an idiot and it’s time he’s booted out. That’s been the general opinion. I know only the idiots ring into these shows, much the same as the Spurs equivalent who ring up saying Defoe should be sold because he misses too many chances etc, but it’s not just those idiots who are saying it. I believe the vast majority don’t feel this way but it’s certainly a growing theme within the many hospitality boxes at the Emirates.

My opinion is he’s doing a good job. ;) They do play some fantastic football at times and are only a few points off the top. Will they win the league? They’ve got a better chance than we have but no. Like us they’re missing a few players in key positions, which of course will be one more next summer when Cesc leaves.

The one thing we should take notice of is the money they’ve had to spend since moving into their new stadium. Whether it’s in Tottenham (it will be) or somewhere else, it’s a venture we’re not far from embarking on and one we need to realise will impact on player funding. Would Redknapp be able to keep us in the top 5/6 for half a decade without much financial support to the playing staff?

So there you have it. On Friday we were struggling, they were about to challenge for the title and Man City were boring and needed to sack their manager. Half a week and 1 round of matches later, we’re title contenders, they’re on a slippery slop to mid-table and City have already won the league. It’s a funny old game.

COYS

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