Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

Lol, nice to see Ange has a sense of humour.

On the Chloe Kelly loan thing what I find most odd is that she apparently wanted to go to MU and Arsenal were second choice. But why MC would let her go to either of those baffles me. Both are serious contenders for the top three Womens' CL spots and Arsenal, just one point behind MC, are the team most likely to 'steal' third place from them.

Spurs or Liverpool are both 7 points behind Arsenal so you'd think either would have been more attractive to MC for a loan deal because of that.

Strange.

[EJG1980]

I suppose that while Man City would prefer her to go to a lower ranked club, that probably wasn't too appealing to her and she'd likely reject any moves that she felt were beneath her level; can't force a player to move to a club if they're not interested. If Man Utd were her first choice, perhaps the move to Arsenal was a compromise, she still gets to go to a top club but Man City avoid having to lose a player to their cross city rivals.

Back to the men, Everton won today so we're now down to 16th in the table (which feels just crazy to type) and Wolves unexpected win against Villa means we're now only 7 points above the relegation zone. However Leicester and Ipswich losing means that if we can beat Brentford we can bump that gap to the relegation up to 10 points. Even a draw wouldn't be horrible as at least the gap would be the same 8 points as at the start of the weekend.

I feel like I need to capitalise, bold, and double underline the if in "if we can win" though

Edit: bloody hell, we're actually signing a player. I may faint!

[fallenangle]

Spurs were apparently involved in a number of possible loan deals in January but AFAIK none of those went through.

I wonder what line up Ange is going to go for later today - will he stick with the same starting eleven used in the EL (minus Dragusin) or go for the final configuration with the three teenagers?

[EJG1980]

Even our starting eleven against Elfsborg already had three teenagers in it, Moore 17, Bergvall 18, Gray 18. Easy to forget the latter two are so young as they've been forced to play so much. Had four on by the end when we added Ajayi. I almost said five but I double checked and Dane Scarlett is an elder statesmen at an ancient 20 years old

I think that as Brentford away will be a much tougher prospect than Elfsborg at home, Ange will go with the most experienced starting eleven he can. Gray will definitely start and I think Bergvall probably does too, Moore a possible starter, but if we see Ajayi and Scarlett I think it'll almost certainly be from the bench. Which might not be a bad idea, to bring on their youthful exuberance when the opposition is more tired.

With the state we're in and Brentford's very good home form (they're 5th in the home league table) I think a draw and no new injuries would be a good result for us today. Maybe we can get some luck and pull off a win, it would certainly be a welcome boost going into the semi-final against Liverpool.

We've announced the Kevin Danso signing, apparently if we get the work permit in time he'll be able to play in the cup match against Liverpool.

Edit: a win and a clean sheet! Had to grind it out a bit in the second half but the defence did very well clearing away the Brentford crosses, blocking shots, etc.. Not too many "How didn't they score??" moments or big saves needed from Kinsky, lots of shots from Brentford but mostly long range or half chances. Lovely goal at the end from Sarr to make the final few minutes comfortable instead of nerve wracking.

Djed Spence got the Sky Sports man of the match and I'd agree with that. He dealt very very well with a classy opponent in Mbeumo, and was very good at driving forwards with the ball to relieve the pressure and get us onto the front foot. Big block on the line from a Brentford shot that started the move for our second goal too. And all on what is supposed to be his weaker side.

Good from Ange too, he adapted the approach a bit today, it was noticeable that the full backs (especially Porro) weren't bombing forwards anywhere near as much, managed to close up the gaping holes that we usually leave for the opposition to run through. Kinsky also went long a lot more often than we usually do, instead of religiously sticking to passing it short.

Ten points between us and the relegation zone so we can breath a little bit more easily now as we concentrate on the two cup matches.

[fallenangle]

Newcastle unexpectedly beating Arsenal both H&A 2 - 0 in the first 'League Cup' Semi Final with a 4 - 0 aggregate. I'm hoping it augurs well for our second leg against Liverpool; a 1 - 0 win to us at Anfield would certainly be nice.

I think a draw there would be more likely but any scenario that gives us the win I'd be happy with.

[EJG1980]

Gonna be very very tough, Liverpool having a superb season, us having a poor season and lots of injuries, our record at Anfield being atrocious even when we've been at our best; we'll need to be at the top of our game and even then it's still a match you can easily lose.

But... it's football, so you never know And we do have that one goal advantage that means a draw would be good enough. Fingers crossed it's one of those nights where the stars align and we make it through to the final!

Edit: Ah well, obviously didn't cross my fingers hard enough

Not too much to say, not an unexpected outcome with Liverpool outclassing us all night long. A shame we couldn't have made it a little bit closer and not such an emphatic defeat. And yet another injury with Richarlison getting injured yet again. All in all, not a fun night!

[fallenangle]

Yep, I was hoping for rather than expecting a closer game and there was some cause for positiveness keeping Liverpool to 1 - 0 after a fairly decent defensive performance first half. But with the penalty and barely a shot, let alone one on target in the second half, that positiveness drained away very quickly and the most likely result ensued. Just glad it wasn't worse.

Aston Villa at the weekend, who've been off the boil recently, so I think we have the opportunity there to pick up some more much needed points.

[EJG1980]

I didn't realise how long Villa's inconsistent run had been going this season; I just looked and in the league they've only won 6 of their last 19 matches which is somewhat surprisingly the same as us, although they have got 5 extra draws in those 19 matches, but still.

Villa are also one of the teams Ange seems to have a bit of luck against, beat them 4-0 away last season and beat them 4-1 at home earlier this season. Hopefully after the humbling by Liverpool, we can go back to putting in a performance more akin to the one we just saw against Brentford.

I do very confidently predict though that we will pick up zero points this weekend. Mostly because the Villa match is in the FA Cup

[fallenangle]

Yes - my bad; I quickly Googled what the next Spurs fixture was forgetting it is an FA Cup weekend and the search results didn't include that relevant information. Should have checked.

[EJG1980]

Any time something about keeping track of fixtures comes up it always reminds me of 1999 when we played Wimbledon five times in a month in three different competitions.

Once in the Premier League, FA Cup 4th round, League Cup Semi first leg, FA Cup 4th round replay, League Cup Semi second leg, all between 16th January and 16th February

Amazingly we didn't lose a single one of those matches.

Edit: just watched the Orient vs Man City match, what a strike from Spurs youngster Jamie Donley that gave Orient the lead, just a shame it'll go in the history books as an own goal for bouncing back off the keeper.

Their other Spurs loanee Josh Keeley was excellent and pulled off some very good saves, but it wasn't quite enough to stop Man City from sneaking through. Orient had a glorious chance to take it to extra time right at the death but unfortunately their player blazed it over the bar.

[fallenangle]

I was going to post exactly the same comments about the LO versus MC match - really good watch and the LO manger afterwards thanked Spurs for their player loan arrangements with them.

Other good matches today (Saturday) - I wasn't going to binge but I hadn't anything better to do so watched the Birmingham v Newcastle, the BHA v Chelsea games and MotD too. All good, genuinely entertaining games, not least because of some very suspect refereeing decisions when they don't have the crutch of GLT and VAR to rely on.

Just hope the AV v Spurs game is as good too but even if it is dull as long as Spurs win I'll be OK with it.

[EJG1980]

Just hope the AV v Spurs game is as good too but even if it is dull as long as Spurs win I'll be OK with it.

Positives: Kinsky, as after the howler for the first goal, he didn't let it affect him and he pulled off some very good saves. The finish from Tel for the consolation goal at the end was really nice. The fifteen minutes after half time where we made a bit of a game of it. That's probably about it!

Son is primarily a forward that plays on the left, but can fill in in the centre if needs be. Tel is primarily a forward that plays in the centre, but can fill in on the left if need be. So why did we start with Son in the middle and Tel on the left? Especially as Son is so short on confidence at the moment, if Tel had been on the end of that Mikey Moore cross in the first half instead of Son I think there's a much greater chance of an equaliser.

And why take off Moore at half time when his beautiful cross was pretty much the only highlight of our first half? There's more but, meh, can't be bothered at the moment! Still being in three cups despite the poor league form was something to cling to, but in the space of a few days we're down to one cup left. Very disheartening.

[fallenangle]

They did a long dissection of what was wrong with Spurs in the after match punditry with Jermain Defoe, Dion Dublin and Joe Hart on BBC1 and I could not have agreed more with 99% of what they said.

Indeed very disheartening although one undoubted positive was that Tel goal from Kulu's great cross - not unlike the Kevin De Bruyne's highly praised finish for MC on Saturday.

Also should say about the Saturday results for our Foxes friends here that Leicester were robbed of at least extra time.

[Mayhem]

Yeah, there's something in the water this year for Man U non VAR decisions...! But to be honest, I think they would have won it in ET, Garnacho coming on was easily the turning point.

[EJG1980]

Back to back Premier League wins, sorcery! Funny little fact, the last time we had back to back wins in the Premier League was all the way back in September, when we beat, guess who, Brentford followed by Man Utd.

We were the better team and deserved the win, only one real sustained period of Man Utd being on top which was from about the start of the second half to about the hour mark. They did miss a couple of decent chances to equalise, but at the same time, we missed more chances than that to grab a second, and had more spells where we were well on top (especially in the first half) so as I said, it was a deserved victory.

Really good to see a decent number of players coming back from injury today. Vicario and Maddison going straight into the team, Johnson and Odobert coming on from the bench. Destiny Udogie was also back on the bench but didn't make it onto the pitch. Now to keep our fingers crossed that they can actually all stay fit until the end of the season!!