Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[TonyDA]

What an anti climax....

Just kidding. Even as it went into injury time, I thought we were going to draw 3-3! A brilliant second half performance - not just the goals, but the control, the way it wasn’t a case of hanging on by our fingernails but calm and collected.

Dele’s best game for ages, Dier immense and Eriksen....just sublime. The pass for the third goal was as stunning as his goal. And as for berating Son instead of celebrating the third goal, just lol.

[EJG1980]

Yeah, that was okay, I suppose

We did to Chelsea what they did to us last season. Chelsea were the better team in the first half and deserved the lead, but then Eriksen scores his amazing goal on the stroke of half time and suddenly we're the ones going into the break with our tails up. We took that momentum into the second half, played much better and got the deserved win. As amazing as Eriksen's goal was, Dele's first was my favourite, absolutely world class control and finish. And what a pass to him from Dier!

I thought Lamela had a brilliant match too, I lost count of the amount of times he won the ball back and sped up our attacks with quick first time passes forward. In the interview with Dele and Eriksen after the match Dele talked about Lamela's movement taking away a defender for his first goal, and you could just about hear Eriksen off-camera saying "What a great game he had." Eriksen knows

I was happy to hear Poch and the players keeping their feet on the ground and not getting carried away with our position, but things are looking very good for a top four finish. Fingers crossed we can keep our form going all the way until the end of the season.

And as for berating Son instead of celebrating the third goal, just lol.

That was magnificent! We've just scored to go 3-1 up away against Chelsea, Dele is running over to the fans to celebrate, and Lamela and Eriksen and standing there berating Son for not passing the ball

[fallenangle]

Difficult to add anything extra to the above posts. Great game, great win.

Just watched it on MotD and after hearing how good DA's first goal was....................................it was. Eriksen's likewise.

[EJG1980]

Big day today, got season tickets for the new stadium for me and my brother and FA Cup semi-final tickets. The FA massively jacked up the prices of the semi-final tickets this year but luckily there were still plenty of the cheapest £30 tickets available so it wasn't too much of a hit. Just need to win the bloody thing now!

We ended up going for the eastern corner of the south stand at the new stadium, (right at the top, row 61, double winners tribute ). £975 now vs £880 for my season ticket at WHL, which isn't too bad an increase considering everything is brand spanking new, upgraded facilities, more leg room, and the prices had been frozen for four years before that.

View from the seat:


Very exciting, one step closer to it being real

[EJG1980]

Tough match today, Stoke were really battling away to try and get a point to help them stay up (they were very physical, loads of fouls) and we were below our best from an attacking point of view, but we did enough to get the job done. It's a shame Son didn't put away his early one on one chance, an early lead may have taken a bit of wind out of Stoke's sails.

After we went 2-1 up Stoke really only had one big chance to equalise with a free kick that hit the bar, but apart from that they didn't threaten us too much. Still, with us only one goal ahead, it was as nervous as I've been near the end of a match for a good long while, especially when they had set pieces.

Liverpool drawing with Everton gives us a little bit of breathing room in the match against Man City next week. If we drew we'd still be able to overtake Liverpool by winning our game in hand, a win puts us in a great position, and a loss isn't quite as bad as it was before. Hopefully Man City beat Man Utd tonight and then we're only two points behind them too.

Just gotta worry about ourselves though and hopefully keep on winning. Obviously I want to finish as high as possible, but as long as we end up anywhere between 4th and 2nd I'll be delighted!

[fallenangle]

Typical nowadays of MU, never sure what you're going to get from match to match and, as today, even half to half.

In the first half they were lousy and MC looked as if they could beat them by four or more goals. Second half MU clicked into gear when MC took their foot off the pedal and came back incredibly for the win. Does us no favours but I hope Poch takes note of MC's mistake so we don't make the same one against MU in the FA Cup.

[TonyDA]

I only found out the other day that it is irrelevant, in terms of CL qualification, where we finish in the top four - from next season, all four English teams will go straight into the group stage of the CL, with no need to play a qualifier. The top four nations in UEFAs co-efficient get this every season now. Obviously, finishing 2nd would be better than 4th, but there isn't that pressure there has been before to try and avoid 4th.

Nice to see Liverpool and Chelsea drop points this weekend - if we can get something from Man City next weekend, then win the game in hand the following Tuesday against Brighton, we'll move above Liverpool (assuming they beat Bournemouth at home next weekend). Not bad at all.

[fallenangle]

Very important game today against MC. If we win it then a top four place is pretty well guaranteed bearing in mind our remaining fixtures.

Problem is that Liverpool and MU have similar fixtures to come mostly against bottom half teams but Spurs' even, as TonyDA reminded me ^, with their game in hand against Liverpool, includes Newcastle and Leicester.

So where we finally end up, whilst still very much in our own hands, I think is more likely 4th than 3rd or 2nd if we don't win or at least get a point today.

[EJG1980]

Not our night tonight, the better team won, but I’m not going to complain when we’ve lost one match in the league in nearly five months, and that one loss is to the runaway league leaders.

The team have been superb and I’m sure they’ll be glad they only have a few days to wait to try and get back to winning ways and put tonight behind them. It’ll be a tough match with Brighton fighting the drop, but hopefully we can get straight back to winning ways.

As for tonight, Man City started very well but we helped them with some really sloppy passing, gave the ball back to them far too many times. We did improve a bit as the half went on, did well to keep it to 2-0, then gave ourselves a great boost with the goal before the break.

The first 25 minutes of the second half we gave it a real good go, played well, a shame we couldn’t nick an equaliser during that period. Unfortunately we didn’t and then we started getting sloppy again and Man City killed us off with the third.

[fallenangle]

Just watched the highlights on MotD and from that evidence Spurs were not playing badly just not as well as we know they can. Have to agree with the after match pundits analysis: Spurs looked in two minds, unsure whether to press high or keep compact and defend in depth. In the end they didn't do either. MC though, particularly in the first half, simply played better. Can't complain about the outcome but no way should their penalty have given.

Liking seeing Lucas Moura again; I think in games where Dele Ali is being shut down and ineffective he should be introduced earlier. He looks hungry to play and clearly has quality plus, because he is a relatively unknown quantity, the opposition might not have a plan to deal with him, unlike DA.

Sunday Edit

Extraordinary results today, particularly West Brom beating MU. It certainly makes losing yesterday less significant as regards our final position in the Premiership.

Congratulations obviously due to MC for winning the title race today as a result of the MU loss and doing it, arguably, better than it has ever been done before. Leicester fans may have another opinion on that but undoubtedly MC have had an incredible season and results which will be very difficult for any other side to match in the foreseeable future.

Just had a quick search through various Spurs' fan web sites and social media comments and it would seem I'm not alone in wondering why LM has not had more pitch time.

[EJG1980]

I agree that I'd liked to have seen him come off the bench a bit more often, but I trust Poch is handling him the right way. He didn't have a pre-season with us and barely played for Paris before he signed for us, so maybe Poch is easing him in slowly as he adjusts to our training methods and tactics. Our form in the league since he's been available for us (until the Man City match) had been D W W W W W W, so it's going to be difficult for him to get minutes ahead of players who have been doing the business.

He has started every FA Cup match since he's been here though, so I reckon he might start against Man Utd on Saturday.

[fallenangle]

Hope the game is decent and MU don't bounce back from yesterday's defeat.

Getting through the semi-final and being in the FA Cup final facing, mostly likely Chelsea, at Spurs' temporary home Wembley and winning would be a pretty good way of ending the season.

[EJG1980]

Fair result this evening, Brighton played well and we didn't perform well enough or create enough chances to deserve to win. We didn't play with our usual verve and pace, had a little bit of spark missing. Saving our best stuff for Saturday with a bit of luck!

[fallenangle]

Aurier's clumsiness cost us again even if the penalty decision was highly questionable but from the sound of it, yes, a fair result.

Very disappointing though that Spurs waste a good chance to get some useful points. One out of a potential six at this critical stage in the season is not good enough and risks Chelsea closing the gap and seriously challenging us for fourth place.

[TonyDA]

Luckily, our run-in looks ok - WBA (away) and Watford, Leicester & Newcastle at home. Chelsea have Burnley away on Thurs & Liverpool to come. With, at worst, a five point lead over Chelsea with four games each to play...if we can’t get enough points to get us over the line in 4th with that set-up, we don’t deserve CL football.

I’m saying nothing about Aurier. Or Sissoko. Or Lamela. ��