Originally posted by Loftgroover
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A cup final they stumbled in to in reality. I was more talking about them dropping about 15 points in the league in the last couple of months and dropping from first to either fourth or fifth in reality. -
I don't worry too much what Arsenal do. They're the team I want us to beat most of all when we play, I would love to finally bloody well finish above them again, and I don't want them to have success, but if they do it doesn't really bother me.
If I did want to have a gloat though... faltering title challenge or not, they're probably going to end up 4th with a cup win or 5th with a cup win, whereas we're likely to finish 6th or 7th with no cups. Can't exactly take the piss too much with that
Edit: having said all that, come on you Tigers
Last edited by EJG1980; 13-04-2014, 18:04.Comment
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Another couple of assists for Eriksen, some superb goalkeeping from Hugo (was sat right behind the goal for his penalty save) and three goals in three starts for the goal machine Kane
It's been a funny old season; with all that's gone on it seems strange that we still have a chance of matching our record (PL) points total.Comment
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Although Spurs final Premiership position is now out of their hands I think today's Everton v. Man.Utd is crucial. Realistically Everton 'only' have to win two out of their remaining four matches to beat us on GD whatever Spurs do. Man.Utd have to win four out of five to do the same. Arsenal are one point ahead of Everton so their task will be even easier than Everton's if they beat Hull today.
Looking at Everton's and Man.Utd's fixtures where they've both got Hull and Southampton to come, I'd fancy Everton to get those six points no matter what the result today. Man.Utd have Norwich and Sunderland to come so I think the best scenario is that the Toffees give the Reds a real beating and then we hope those relegation fighters give Man.Utd a nasty time too.
Of course Spurs still have to perform in their final matches with W.Ham and Stoke having proven flies in our ointment on more than one occasion recently. But after yesterday's good result winning all three remaining game definitely isn't beyond us. So, with luck, it can still be a top six finish and, if the footballing gods are with us, even that fourth place is still possible.Comment
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I thought fourth was a long short even before Everton and Arsenal won today, but after... well I don't think the footballing gods like Spurs anywhere near enough
Even if we won all three of our remaining matches we'd need Arsenal to only take one point from Norwich away, West Brom and Newcastle at home. I just can't see them messing up that badly.
Everton have a tougher final three (Hull away, Man City home, Saints away) so maybe we could sneak past them for fifth.
I just hope we can win all three of our matches, which guarantees us a minimum of sixth place, and then hope we're lucky enough for it to be a little bit more than that. Might as well hope for it while it's still mathematically possible!Comment
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Think you'll end up sixth. Least (hopefully) you'll finish above Man U this year if nothing else been a long time since that happened.
Norwich have the worst final games, they play LFC, Man U, Chesea, Arsenal. Bosh. Good luck with that. One loss and three games to go.Comment
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After the Everton match, which went the way I hoped, Man.Utd now have to win all four of their remaining matches to guarantee finishing above Spurs. So if they drop any points at all from now on Spurs' fate will be back in their own hands.
Norwich gave a damned good account of themselves against Liverpool yesterday so, fingers crossed, they produce something like that against Man.Utd. You can be very sure Sunderland aren't going to roll over for them either.Comment
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It's already in our own hands, isn't it? They're six points behind but only have one game in hand, so if they win all their games and we win all ours they'll finish three points behind us.
It would be useful if they could still drop some more points (I agree Norwich and Sunderland could be very tough for them with them fighting for their lives) to give us more of a cushion though, as Stoke away and West Ham away are certainly not going to be easy wins for us.
Hopefully the Moyes rumours (and possible sacking) will destabilise them further rather than geeing them up for their final matches!Comment
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Yes, sorry you're right. Man.Utd can only get a maximum of 69 points (57 + 12) now it means Spurs have to get 70 points to guarantee beating them. So 7 (63 +7) more points from their 3 remaining matches to guarantee 6th place or better and any stumble by Man.Utd works very much in our favour.
The uncertainty over Moyes could well work in our favour too with some of their key players likely to be unhappy about no European football next season. I noticed that Welbeck was being linked to Spurs as a summer transfer target rumour reported in some newspapers.
What Spurs now want is for Arsenal and Everton to go into meltdown and Spurs could still grab 4th place. That would help us hang on to our best players with others clubs here and abroad apparently sniffing around Eriksen already.Comment
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Ah yeah, I forgot that with the three point gap means we could already afford to draw one of our remaining matches and still have enough points to finish ahead of Man Utd. Stoke away is the match I'm worried about the most, they've only lost twice at home all season so getting all three points there will be pretty difficult.
It would be amazing if Arsenal and Everton both went into meltdown. To actually be the one benefiting from a meltdown would be a nice change Hard to see it happening but I shall have my fingers well and truly crossed, on the off-chance.
I think there will be a fair amount of gossip about Eriksen, Vertonghen and Lloris this summer. I think we should be okay holding on to Eriksen, he's young and only been here a season so I think we'll get more time out of him before the sharks start circling. PSG and Barca are reportedly interested in Lloris though, could be quite difficult to hold on to him if they are genuinely interested.Comment
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I really hope we hold onto Eriksen because he's shaping up into the midfield play maker we've so badly needed. None of the other midfielders we bought with the Bale money seem capable or willing to do the same job.
At MU Moyes has now gone, as predicted, and Ryan Giggs left in temporary charge. Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing as regards their morale and the effect it might have on the pitch and consequent results. We'll have to wait and see.Comment
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Alas, it didn't do them any harm today, although I would have expected them to beat Norwich whoever was in charge.
No matter as long as we keep taking care of our own matches and we got a good win today against Stoke. We're only the third team to win there this season, but we made quite hard work of it! The first half was a good away performance from us but in the second half they were the ones creating the better chances even though they were a man short. So many times we got into promising positions only to misplace an easy pass straight to a Stoke player, or dwell on the ball and run into trouble. We got the three points though which is all that counts.
Our goal was very nice, if a little bizarre to see Adebayor crossing and little Danny Rose doing the powerful headed finish He actually had a really good game, but it was the right decision to sub him, the Stoke players and fans were trying their best to wind him up so as soon he was booked I think we had to play it safe and take him off.
Good to see that Everton lost today too. With them having to play Man City still our chances of nicking 5th got a very nice boost today. I'm sure Arsenal will end up 4th but it would be nice if Newcastle could at least jangle their nerves a bit by beating them on Monday.Comment
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Yes, disappointing from Spurs' point of view to see Man.Utd perform so effectively againt Norwich but that Everton result, as you say, opens up another possible route to a top six finish. It is increasingly likely it will all come down to winning the last game for Everton, Man.Utd and Spurs as to who gets fifth and sixth places.Comment
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The BBC are reporting that Ajax have said Spurs have contacted them to enquire about the availability of Frank de Boer. Of course, for all we know, Spurs have contacted multiple clubs to ask if their manager is available, but it seems that de Boer is definitely on our list.
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Tweets from a Dutch journalist, quotes from an interview de Boer gave on Dutch radio:
Frank de Boer has said that he is open to talks with the North London club, saying he wants to 'talk and listen'
De Boer: "Spurs have made an approach. After the last league game I ll think about it. I ll talk to them and listen what they have to say."
Frank de Boer on his next step: 'I want to add something to a club, build something. - I won't be talking to other clubs til after May 3.'.
De Boer: 'I see a perspective at Tottenham Hotspur, just as Liverpool and Newcastle United sometimes are, they are sleeping giants'.
Frank de Boer is not denying an approach of Monaco, but indicates he is more open to a club like Tottenham Hotspur.
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Unsurprisingly the odds on him become the next Spurs manager have tumbled and he's now odds on with a few places. The above comments and more I've been reading from him make it sound like he's definitely interested. A Dutch newspaper are reporting that he'll come to London on 3rd May for talks with Levy.
I think Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen would be pretty happy with their former manager coming in. His assistant at Ajax is Denis Bergkamp, so that'd be interesting if he came along too
Last edited by EJG1980; 29-04-2014, 19:12.Comment
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Statement from Spurs following all the Frank de Boer stuff yesterday:
"Reports that we have made approaches to other clubs regarding coaching staff are wholly inaccurate. We have NOT contacted any club regarding coaching appointments. We regret that a statement such as this is necessary, however we feel it is important to clarify matters."
I suspect this is probably a bit of spin from Spurs, I doubt FDB would have made the whole thing up when he gave those quotes yesterday.Comment
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