Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[VR46]

Nobody can put together a string of victories, bar Spurs recently ended run. Sure one team will step up and grab it by the throat, but it could be anyone of five teams really now it's all compacted up a bit again.

Latest odds from Coral.

Leicester City 13/8

Tottenham 2/1

Arsenal 10/3

Man City 15/2

Man Utd 25/1

Liverpool 300/1

West Ham 300/1

Chelsea 500/1

Southampton 1000/1

[EJG1980]

Should have won that one today. To be 2-1 up against ten men and not win... big chance missed.

Ospina was in great form unfortunately (most saves by an Arsenal keeper in any match since 2009) and you couldn't have picked a worse time for some rare poor keeping from Lloris. We did get a bit of luck with Eric Dier though; can't believe the ref didn't show him a second yellow card when it seemed as clear as day.

Still, ignoring how the match went, a least the draw means we maintain our gap to them. And being sat behind the goal for that Harry Kane strike was a wonderful moment.

Ah well, back to winning ways in our next league match with a bit of luck! I'll have to become a temporary Watford fan later on as well

[fallenangle]

I'll take a 2-2 draw; after I heard that they'd score first I thought the worst and couldn't even listen to it on R5. But yet again 'new' Spurs showed their resilience. Look foward to seeing the match on MotD.

Would have been really good if Spurs hadn't given away the second goal, particularly against a ten man side, but the main point is we didn't lose. We're still well within reach of Leicester even if they win at Watford later today who, like you, I'll be urging on as well.

[EJG1980]

Yup, most of the people I talked to before the match thought that the main thing today was to make sure we didn't lose.

I'm looking forward to seeing Kane's goal again tonight, it's an amazing strike.

[Mayhem]

Yeah, it got a bit of a response from the people in the pub heh. Quite an up and down match that.

[fallenangle]

Hoping against hope for a surprise today but unfortunately there was nothing surprising about the game except that Spurs didn't give away more goals. Totally out-classed.

Still not a completely dead tie, coming back from three goals down isn't impossible but it would have helped if we'd got an away goal even if we'd still lost by three goals. Now all they have to do is score one at WHL and we'd have to score five to win. Is that going to happen? I don't think so.

[Nu-Eclipse]

To be honest, anybody looking to win this season's Europa League will have to beat Borussia Dortmund to do it.

Best side left in the competition by a distance, imo.

[fallenangle]

Yep, just a shame that we had to meet them at this stage and all that good work in the earlier rounds has likely come to nothing. Luck of the draw of course but, as said, Spurs aren't dead and buried yet.

[EJG1980]

Dortmund are a class side and there's no shame in being taught a lesson by them. They're definitely the best team we've faced this season. They're good enough that they'd be doing well in the Champions League, never mind the Europa League.

The tie isn't technically over yet but us going through is a real, real long shot. Playing at our best we can beat anyone, so in a one off match on one night, could we beat Dortmund? Yes. But a win by at least three goals while keeping a clean sheet... I think that's too much of a mountain to climb.

Still, looking forward to seeing them visit The Lane next week! If nothing else both matches should be good experiences for our young squad to play against players at the kind of level they should be aspiring to reach.

[TonyDA]

I think last night's game also taught us a lesson that I think, deep down, we all knew - our 'squad' isn't good enough to succeed against the better teams if a few of the main men aren't playing. So, if we can play a team from our best 12-14 players, we can beat anyone; start to rest half of those and we have a problem. I'm not saying we're unique in that - look how Man City struggle without Aguero and Kompany, and they've spent far more than we have.

The other issue is a tired squad, and trying to navigate that to the point that our best team is fit enough to compete in the last nine league games. The likes of Dier, Alli and Kane have played most of the league and cup games and need some rest - that's why they didn't play last night (Alli was suspended, which was probably a good thing!). A midfield of Mason & Carroll would be too light against most Premier League teams, let alone one good enough to test the best Champions League teams, so we were bound to struggle.

[fallenangle]

Really goes without saying but another must win game today against AV. Lets just hope that Spurs don't make a cock up of it because this should be a high scoring three point banker for us.

I can't see Leicester messing up against Newcastle and if they get another three points ahead will anyone be able to catch them?

[EJG1980]

Listened to the match via the radio commentary on the Spurs web site. Thought it might have been "one of those" first halves with us totally dominante but the chances just not going in, but Kane popped up at just the right moment to put us ahead. Then the quick fire goal in the second half pretty much killed it off. The commentators described the second half as a training session with a village cricket match atmosphere

Almost a nervy finish when Lescott had a great chance with a couple of minutes to go, but luckily we kept our clean sheet and saw it out with little fuss. Just what we needed as now all the teams around us have the pressure on them knowing that they need to win their game in hand.

Speaking of Newcastle, I'd have given them no chance against Leicester tomorrow, but now that they've appointed Benitez as manager there's an inkling of hope that they might benefit from the new manager bounce. Fingers crossed!

[fallenangle]

Listened to it on 5LiveSExtra and heard the first goal go in and after so many other good chances I had a feeling Spurs weren't going to blow it.

However watching it on MotD we should have converted more of those chances because with a bit more luck AV could have made us pay dearly for taking our foot off the gas towards the end of the game.

Still the result is what we needed and all the pressure now back on Leicester, at least for the time being.

[VR46]

Indeed, time for Leicester to show tonight what they're like under a bit of pressure.
Should be a good game for the neutral and a slim chance of it being 0-0 at least.
2-1 to Leicester I reckon.

[fallenangle]

Newcastle, predictably, didn't do us any favours as far as the result but from the reports I read they made it as hard a they could manage for Leicester to get the win.