Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

If we beat Newport, it's Millwall or Rochdale away in the next round of the cup. I'm hoping for Rochdale seeing as we played Millwall last season.

Fans of round numbers can rejoice: Spurs have applied to Haringey council to up the capacity of the new stadium to 62,000 seats exactly. It was 61,559 previously, which was already a 98 seat increase (approved last May) from the original planning application capacity of 61,461.

Edit: just had a look at the planning application this morning as it's now live on the Haringey web site; the new capacity is actually 62,062. Sorry fans of round numbers, I got your hopes up erroneously there!

The letter that accompanied the application said that after the final decision was made on the seat types that would be used in the stadium, the design team found they were able to very slightly increase the number of seats installed in the curved areas of the bowl. Which is very interesting and I'm sure you were all dying to know that

[fallenangle]

Another, on paper , very winnable FA Cup draw. Whether it is Millwall or Rochdale I'm not too bothered as long as we win it, preferably, with a good performance.

[TonyDA]

Also hoping we beat Newport and then Rochdale do the same - always love it when we play teams that I can't remember us playing in my lifetime! The same in Europe as well, which is why I was hoping we'd draw Barcelona in the CL group stage and wasn't that unhappy when we drew Juve.

BT Sport have also selected the replay for live TV next Wednesday. Mind you, ticket prices are great - seriously considering making the trip up. It will also be the first time a Spurs match has VAR in use.

So our tough run (which begun prematurely on Saturday...lol) kicks off tomorrow with Man Utd. These next few games are going to be tough - Utd, now with Sanchez; Liverpool, struggling to beat 'lesser' teams but fine against the top ones, and Arsenal, likely to be boosted by Mikitaryan and Aubamayang.

Still, looks like Moura is almost ours - he arrived at St Pancs last night for his medical - and maybe, just maybe, there's another surprise coming. One can hope.

[EJG1980]

Still, looks like Moura is almost ours - he arrived at St Pancs last night for his medical - and maybe, just maybe, there's another surprise coming. One can hope.

Just random hope, or have you been reading some of the "ITK" updates on forums like Spurscommunity?

I take it all with a large pinch of salt, just a bit of fun, but yesterday out of nowhere there was some info posted that Llorente might be sold. Then a few hours later David Ornstein at the BBC reported that Spurs and Chelsea had been in talks about a possible swap deal with Llorente going to them and Batshuayi coming to us. The move broke down (according to Ornstein) because Batshuayi wants to go somewhere he'll play, not swap Chelsea's bench for someone else's, which is fair enough.

It'll be an interesting last couple of days of the windows!

[TonyDA]

Most certainly random hope - what do you expect from a Spurs fan?😀😀

Also saw the Llorente/Batshuayi rumour - I’d certainly take a straight swap, no loan rubbish. Apparently, allegedly, we’ll sell if we make a huge profit in the bargain. Our Chairman must think he’s Daniel Levy, trying to negotiate that one....

[TonyDA]

Well, how lovely was that? A superb performance, to the point that it's hard to think of anyone who either had a quiet game or didn't play well. Eriksen and Vertonghen were outstanding and that's the best I've seen Sanchez play against a top team.

And Lucas Moura signed as well. Although I'd argue that Phil Jones was our best signing of transfer deadline day!

[fallenangle]

Yep, just watched the highlights on MotD and it looked like a really good performance all round and not just the fact Spurs rocked MU with that early goal.

Stone cold penalty on Dele Ali too so should have been 3-0.

Liverpool though are the guys we really need to beat; if they win, they'll be 5 points ahead of us, Chelsea in all likelihood too (we should thank Bournemouth that they aren't 5 points ahead already) but if Spurs win we'll really be back in the top four mix.

[EJG1980]

Brilliant, the most comfortable win I've seen us have over Man Utd in recent memory. After we went in 2-0 at the break you think "Right, it's Man Utd, we can probably expect a bit of an onslaught in the second half," but we actually bossed it even more than we did in the first half and should missed a number of chances to increase our lead.

It would not have been an undeserved scoreline if we'd made it 3 or 4 nil. I think Lloris had one save to make, and we needed one tackle to prevent one of their players going through on goal, and that was about it from Man Utd in the second half.

As TonyDA said it's hard to single out players as it was a great team effort, but I'll give a bit of extra love to Dembele and Trippier. It was one of those nights for Dembele where he absolutely bossed the midfield and nobody could get close to him.

Trippier, who I think has been slightly off form the past month or so, was at his best tonight. Constantly on the ball, driving forwards and causing problems, putting in great crosses, linking superbly with our attackers, and not letting anyone past him at the back. Oh and I also think Alli quietly went about having a very very effective game, really good.

Better stop now as I'll be saying "Oh and...." and end up going though the whole team

[Mayhem]

Thought it was a penalty against Ali too, I suspect his history of diving worked against him here...

[RetroRevival]

And that's what we can do, shame we won't do it against Palace or West Brom in a few weeks

[EJG1980]

Blooooody hellllllll, that final few minutes

First half, Liverpool deserved the lead. We had a decent amount of possession but didn't really threaten Liverpool's goal while their counters always looked dangerous and we made a few slips that could have proved costly. Just about deserved to keep it down to 1-0 as Lloris didn't have to make many saves, but it wouldn't have been a surprise if they'd got a second.

Second half was the opposite, pretty much all Spurs and we deserved to at least be level. I was starting to wonder if the equaliser would come as time wore down but thankfully we stuck at it and Wanyama scored a sensational goal. It's a cliche, but he probably never will hit a shot that well again. Had we gone on to win it I don't think there could have been too many complaints, really good second half performance.

Then, that final five minutes... I thought it was going to be one of those days with a rare Kane penalty miss, then Liverpool going down the other end and scoring. Then we get a second penalty! Madness. Just a shame that Kane didn't take the first penalty as well as he took the second one, then we could have had all three points.

A very weird feeling of simultaneously being annoyed because we had a fantastic chance to win it and elated at managing to grab a draw

[hudson]

Liverpool looked tired as Spurs give us a game, but they were not pens. I thought the final one was more of a dive.

[EJG1980]

Thought the first was lucky as Kane was offside and I think that as the deflection off the Liverpool player wasn't deliberate it should mean Kane is still offside. I don't think he dived but the flag should probably have gone up before then.

I thought the second was a definite PK though. Lamela gets himself between VVD and the ball, VVD kicks the back of Lamela's leg, it's a straightforward foul as far as I can see.

PS - any Spurs fans who have Sky Sports, they're showing a programme with all 100 of Kane's Premier League goals at half seven.

[hudson]

Points shared was fair in the end. The conflicting refereeing between Moss and linesman was hard to take though.

[EJG1980]

Yup, a share of the spoils was fair with both sides being on top and winning a half each.

I don't mind the ref and the linesman conferring over a decision; they are meant to be assistant refs after all, so if they think a ref has missed something they should bring it to their attention. Obviously I reserve my right to change my mind as soon as such a thing results in Spurs being disadvantaged