Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Floodlights failed in the Spurs match. Seems our Europa League matches are cursed to be delayed at the moment! Shame as we'd had a couple of decent attacks in the opening exchanges.

Huzzah, we're back!

Another floodlight failure. The only fair thing to do is award the win to Spurs!

Gah, have to settle for second. I don't think it makes a huge difference as there would have been some very tough potential opponents had we topped the group, but obviously you always want to win. As the pundits were saying I thought we played well in the first half, creating the best chances, but like against Palace we failed to put them away and then paid for it when our performance dropped in the second half.

With Adebayor on personal leave for an indeterminate amount of time and Soldado still struggling to put the ball in the net, I would like to see us sign a new striker in January.

Ah well, at least it was nice to see Kyle Walker back after all this time!

[EJG1980]

Our opponent for the first knock-out stage will be one of:

Borussia Monchengladbach
Club Brugge
FC Salzburg
Dinamo Moscow
Inter
Feyenoord
Napoli
Dynamo Kiev
Fiorentina
Legia Warsaw
Olympiacos
Sporting Lisbon
Athletic Bilbao
Zenit St. Petersburg

Quite a few potentially great match-ups there. As these draws usually throw up a match or two with "history" I wouldn't be surprised to see us paired with AVB's Zenit.

[fallenangle]

Frustrating match to watch last night and that's not including the floodlight failures.

Spurs were playing more like the home side for much of the match, dominating possession but as has so often been the case recently we didn't take the few good chances we had and were hit by a simple counter attack.

I like Demele but god in heaven is he dangerous when he gets the ball and tries to keep it with no cover behind. He does that 180 degree turn to try and protect the ball which is just sooooooo predictable with a 50/50 chance of guessing which way he'll turn. So many times he was being caught by the harrying Besiktas player(s) guessing right. Andros Townsend was infected with the same problem too but luckily that was usually further up the pitch.

Some interesting potential games for the knockout stages looking at that list. Just hope we don't get one of the Champions League drop outs in the first one.


Sunday Edit:-

Lucky but very useful win, yay! Just the sort of game Spurs needed some points from. Now up to 7th and only a couple of points behind Arsenal.

[EJG1980]

Lucky but very useful win, yay! Just the sort of game Spurs needed some points from. Now up to 7th and only a couple of points behind Arsenal.

Normal away service resumed with a last minute 2-1 win! No good for the heart though, or our cats with the yelling that happens when the goal goes in

You're right though, it was a pretty lucky win. I thought we played well for about the first... 15 minutes or so. Kept the ball well, doing all the attacking, and there was one passing move that ended with a Kane shot going just wide that was really lovely football. Then Swansea took over and were much the better side for a good 55 or 60 minutes and I was surprised they only managed to get it back to 1-1.

Thankfully we rode our luck and in the last 15-20 minutes we actually started creating chances again and Eriksen pops up yet again with another important goal. A shame Kane didn't add the extra bit of gloss to the score when he missed that one on one at the end, but another good performance from him, it's good to see a young player taking their chance when given it.

Now let's get some revenge on Newcastle in midweek and get ourselves into a semi-final.

[EJG1980]

Fiorentina in the Europa League! Awesome draw, really looking forward to it

Would love to go to the away leg but away in Florence? Gonna be impossible to get a ticket.

[fallenangle]

That description is exactly how it appeared to me on MotD - Spurs were good during the first fifteen and last fifteen minutes with Swansea dominating for most of the rest of the match. That sort of perserverance and not giving up combined with the ability to deal with, adequately if sometimes luckily, soak up such pressure, is a good thing to see.

Just hope Spurs take the Newcastle Capital One Cup game seriously because, as I said much earlier here, it is by far our best chance of some silverware this season. The guaranteed Europa League entry reward winning it brings would be a great safety net in case our upward thrust in the Premiership falters.

[EJG1980]

Very good performance last night and a thoroughly deserved win. Every player on the pitch had at least a decent game. Got the luck of the draw with our semi-final opponent too (although we know from our semi with Burnley a few years ago that no team should be taken lightly) so an excellent night all in all.

Hopefully we can keep the momentum going at home against Burnley at the weekend. The result against Palace was a disappointment but if we can win this weekend that'd be three wins in our last four home matches and a sign that maybe we're starting to put our home form on the right track.

[fallenangle]

Yes, good solid, if not flawless win and much more like you hope to see Spurs perform.

So we get Sheffield Utd in the semi-final - didn't hear that until now. Good news.

Does anyone know what happens to the Europa League place available for winning the Capital One Cup if Chelsea win? Assuming they remain in the Champion League qualification spots in the Premiership will their Europa League place go to the 7th position team or the losing Capital One Cup finalist?

Same question may also apply if Liverpool win and also qualify in a Europa League Premiership spot. In that case I would suspect 7th place would be used.

Love to see Spurs make the final and give Chelsea or Liverpool a good smacking but I'm not discounting a tough semi. Just hope we don't mess it up because, as I said here weeks ago, this will likely be our best chance of real success this season.

[Stoppy2000]

I believe the league cup spot always go to the league position rather than the runner up.

[EJG1980]

Good win today and nice to see Lamela put in the kind of performance I've been hoping to see from him. With a bit of luck his brilliant goal will give him the confidence to start putting in good performances on a more consistent basis.

The trio of Lamela, Eriksen and Chadli plus Kane up front combined really well in the first half. Another goal for Kane, as Poch said after the match seeing "Kane scored" in the match report is starting to feel like a normal thing. Did miss a sitter from a brilliant Lamela cross though, but you can't have everything

Still letting in a few too many chances at the back but Vertonghen and Fazio seem to be becoming the first choice pairing now, so hopefully they should get tighter the more they play together.

We were strangely lacklustre for most of the second half though, Burnley had a couple of good chances right away and we struggled to get going. Wasn't too worrying at the back but with only a one goal advantage it's always a bit nervy. We did start making chances again with 10-15 minutes to go but the Burnley free kick in injury time cause a few bitten nails! Thankfully Lloris was equal to it.

A great seven days, three wins out of three, a cup semi-final and up to sixth (for the moment) in the league. Let's keep it going! Leicester up next and then a very tough few days with Man Utd and Chelsea in quick succession.

[fallenangle]

Yes, hope the winning streak can be continued and Spurs build up some confidence and momentum. Defensively not exactly watertight as you say but good enough against the opposition yesterday despite allowing them to get that none too shabby equaliser.

Great Lamela goal and his general performance was pretty decent too. Looks like he is slowly coming good.

It'll be intetesting to see what happens in the January transfer window. I thought Soldado was certain to get offloaded but if Adebayor is actually going then I think that even if they get in a new striker it is likely Spurs will stick with Soldado until the end of the season.

[EJG1980]

I've got a soft spot for Soldado and I think I'd rather keep him than an unmotivated and sulky Adebayor (which he almost certainly will be if Poch doesn't seem him as first choice). Even though he hasn't been able to find his goalscoring form for Spurs, I've never suspected him of giving less than 100% when he's on the pitch.

I saw an interview with a player, I forget which one, who said that Soldado is a very popular figure on the training pitch and in the dressing room, geeing up and motivating other players. Always good to have players like that around for team spirit.

He's said that he knows his form isn't good enough for him to expect to be in the team, and actually feels a little embarrassed by how much support the Spurs fans show him considering his lack of goals, so it seems like he's a humble bloke who isn't going to make a fuss because he's not first choice.

Apparently The Sun claim (beep beep, truck of salt backing up!) that we're not only going to sign Berahino in January, buy we're going to sign him right away on 1st Jan. At least by giving a specific date we don't have to wait too long to find out if it's BS!

Edit: Not sure what I'd want to bring in if one of our strikers did leave. A top notch experienced striker would be good (although that's what Soldado was) but I'd be worried about Harry Kane's progress being stunted if he's pushed out of the side by a glamour signing. Bringing in a promising youngster means they'd be less likely to expect to be first choice, but having two thirds of your strikeforce being inexperienced youngsters could be quite risky. Difficult balancing act for Poch.

[EJG1980]

As many have suspected would be the case, DeAndre Yedlin will be joining the club in January rather than waiting until the summer.

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/deandre-to-join-in-january-231214/

[EJG1980]

Sounds like Leicester were unlucky not to get something out of the game today. The stats suggest that was the case, 22 shots to our 8 and 11 corners to our 1. Doesn't matter at the end of the match though, three points is three points!

Kane and Eriksen both scoring again. Four matches in a row now for Kane. Big test coming up for him now though, can he keep his scoring run going against Man Utd and Chelsea? If he can the hype levels will go up another notch

[fallenangle]

Judging from MotD very lucky that Leicester didn't at least hold us to a draw but we got the breaks and the goals and they didn't so I'm not feeling too sorry for them.

Hard games to come as you say so fingers crossed that the Kane and Erkisen can continue their goal scoring form.