Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Nice, straightforward win tonight, clean sheet and a couple of goals lead. Would have been nice to add a third (Bale and Vinicius passing up good chances right at the end) but you’d expect us to professionally complete the job in the second leg. If we can get one away from home they’ll need four, so we’re in a good position.

[fallenangle]

Yes, nice victory, a clean sheet is the icing on the cake. One goal in the return leg and they'll have to score four to beat us. Certainly not counting our chickens yet but there are grounds for optimism at the very least.

Thanks for posting the highlights. I was just about to go looking for them before I came here.

[EJG1980]

That’s a damn shame after the good performances of the last few matches. Didn’t turn up today and the loss was a deserved one. Annoyingly we actually looked the better team and were attacking really well for the final 15 minutes, AFTER we’d gone down to ten men.

We were unlucky not to score in that period but where was that for the previous 75 minutes when it was 11v11? After 70 minutes we’d had 2 shots, nowhere near good enough. And even with the poor display, it was a mistake from us to gift them the penalty winner, silly challenge from Sanchez clearing out their striker after he’d already fluffed his shot.

It's also disappointing as this is not a very good Arsenal side, 10th in the table and 7 points behind us even though we've had a very poor time of it ourselves for the past few months. Their defence is well known for shooting itself in the foot when under a bit of pressure, so after a number of good displays with all our attackers starting to click we... sit back and barely lay a glove on them. So frustrating.

Incredible goal by Lamela though, amazing moment, such a shame it ended up counting for nothing. Missed opportunity too with quite a few results going for us this weekend. Bah, I’ll have to avoid anything football related until next Thursday now!

(Though I’ve now seen a few ex players arguing that it shouldn’t have been a penalty, and I can kind of see their point... so maybe I’ve been harsh on Sanchez there. Still, even if that might have been slightly unlucky, doesn’t excuse the overall performance).

[fallenangle]

That Lamela Rabona was extraordinary, then he gets himself sent off. Doh!

No penalty IMHO.

Not a disastrous loss with both clubs, Everton and WH, just above us losing so we're still on track with a top six finish at least. However unless Chelsea go into meltdown if we lose or even only draw the next match against Aston Villa then a top four finish will be unlikely.

Hopefully that Europa League game will bring us some joy.

[EJG1980]

Up until the sending off, Lamela was almost the only player on the team playing like it was a big derby match, everyone else seemed to be in their shells (with the exception of the centre backs, who generally did pretty well, and maybe Lucas Moura). Yet when that one player playing with any intensity gets sent off, THEN everyone else suddenly perks up and starts playing with some drive and intensity

Yup, in the heat of the moment, I thought it was a clear penalty, was fuming, couldn't believe we'd gifted them the lead. But it's one of those that looks like less and less of a penalty with every replay, and now I'm annoyed that they gave it

I seem to remember in Mourinho's first season at Man Utd that, towards the end of the season, when it was clear the top four was out of reach, he started playing their full strength side in the Europa League and resting lots of players for Premier League matches. I wonder if we might end up going the same way eventually.

[fallenangle]

It was very weird, I think J.Jenas on MotD, pointed out that when Spurs went down to ten men they suddenly perked up and had their best spell in the entire game. WTF!

I'm sure he took GB off yesterday for that reason you suggest, JM wants him fit as possible for the Europa match and the rest of the team at full strength. With Son possibly out injured it adds credence to that theory about what's going on in JM's mind.

Since coming to Spurs I still get the impression in almost every interview after the games he wants to say a hell of a lot more than he does, he's holding back his frustration and annoyance. Expressing himself without restraint is what lost him the MU dressing room and contributed to ultimately his job there.

He didn't understand or perhaps respect enough their attacking tradition, very like Spurs'. But I think this time he's got it. He holds back the criticism and is trying to adapt to that more attack minded philosophy even when its against his natural footballing instincts.

I can't remember which game it was we either lost or drew which Spurs should have won (there have been so many ) but he almost said as much in the immediate post match interview. It was something along the lines of: see what happens when you play a high pressing, attacking game and fail to defend effectively.

[EJG1980]

I've given up trying to work out who out of the players and manager is most to blame for some of the poor performances this season, just gonna go along for the ride, hope for the best, and hope we end up somewhere nice

One bit of good news as apparently the injury to Son isn't as bad as first feared. Alasdair Gold reporting that the club think he should be back for the Newcastle game (the first after the international break). He also said that there's an outside chance Son could even be ready for the Villa match at the weekend, but that he may sit that game out even if fit so he can be withdrawn from the South Korea squad and spend the whole of the international break getting a much needed rest.

And in a strange bit of news, the manager of our Europa League opponents Dinamo Zagreb has had to resign after being sentenced to four years in prison for fraud, while his brother (and ex-director of the club) has fled the country after being sentenced to six years himself! Not exactly ideal preparation for the second leg against Spurs.

[fallenangle]

Anything that tips the scales in our favour is welcome.

[EJG1980]

Well, bugger me. Got exactly what we deserved tonight, can’t believe how lacklustre we were, especially when you’re hoping for a response to putting in a poor derby performance. Famous night for Dinamo Zagreb and they fully deserved it, scored some fantastic goals and at times played lovely passing football. Absolutely gutted how we’ve blown that.

[fallenangle]

Oops double post.

[fallenangle]

Damned right. Ruined my day when I saw the score.

Throwing away a two goal lead and not scoring. A great chance to progress messed up.

Just watched the highlights and we could have had that almost certainly match winning away goal but they, as JM said after the match, had that right attitude and threw themselves into defending as much as their attacking play. It was that difference in attitude that tipped the scales.

Their first goal was not entirely due to Aurier but I was shouting at him to get back into position faster than he did. It was just so obvious the ball was going to go out to the left and he was only a couple of yards away from being able to stop that. Still all their goals were high quality and needed to be because Spurs were not awful, just not as committed, or so it appeared.

[EJG1980]

Did you see the Hugo Lloris post match interview? He didn't hold back, I can't recalling hearing a post match interview quite like it before.

[fallenangle]

Yes, an extraordinarily honest and open interview but Spurs can not afford to dwell on this loss. Admitting there's a commitment and/or attitude problem with some players is one thing. Doing something about it is another.

We still have the Carabao Cup final to come against MC which might salve this deep disappointment. It is winnable if Spurs go into the game with the right attitude: belief they can win it.

[EJG1980]

It'll be interesting to see what the squad looks like for today's match against Villa. Lloris pretty much said that there are players who aren't first choices that aren't putting in the required effort in matches or training, just staying on the sidelines and complaining, causing disharmony and friction with the rest of the squad. With the reduced schedule there's now no need to rely on any of those players in matches; we've got one match a week from now on, strongest eleven every week, no need to rotate.

Will we see any of them "banished" from the match day squad? Leaving them out completely and filling up the bench with a few promising youngsters, to try and restore some togetherness and spirit for the match day squad. It's what Poch did during his first season; after a couple of months players like Kaboul, Capoue and Adebayor were just gone completely from the match day squads, their places taken by youngsters like Bentaleb and Mason.

If what Lloris said is true, I wouldn't be against seeing the same thing happen now, for the rest of the season.

Edit: Hmmmm...

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Post match edit: good stuff today (for the most part) and a much needed win. The first half an hour wasn’t that great. Villa didn’t actually make any shots on goal but there were a couple of occasions where it was probably more luck than judgement that stopped them getting through (though there was also good defending in there too) and they were the team on top. Nothing wrong with the effort or work rate, it just wasn’t quite clicking during that period.

Then the Villa keeper made a mistake and we took the lead against the run of play. It was an excellent goal though, still a lot of good play after pouncing on the loose pass from the keeper. Easy finish for Vinicius but you gotta be in the right place at the right time.

After that we slowly but surely got better and better and deserved it when we finally went 2-0 up through the penalty. And it was really good to see that after getting the second we didn’t sit on it, we stayed on the front foot and were well on top for the remainder of the match.

Lucas deservedly man of the match, very very good today. I think the last 7 or 8 matches has been one of his best runs of form since he’s been at the club, even in the matches where we’ve been poor he’s often been one of the few bright sparks. Kane was excellent as well, but it’s almost so expected for him to be involved in everything that he has to do a bit extra to get man of the match Rodon and Tanganga (when we calmed down after the iffyish start) both did well too.

Good to go into the international break on a win, and all still to play for as far as the top four is concerned, only a three point gap to fourth. Let’s hope we can go on a good run like we had at the start of the season, and this weird up and down season might still end on an up yet!

[EJG1980]

Great result for us with West Brom putting five past Chelsea earlier. West Brom played some beautiful football, couldn't believe what I was seeing from a relegation battling Big Sam side, the passing and movement for some of the goals was fantastic. Yeah, against ten men, but still.

We now have a really big opportunity tomorrow, a win and we move above Chelsea in the table.