Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Spot on about Perisic, I keep meaning to mention him specifically, he’s done very well every time he’s come off the bench this season. If he puts in ten crosses in a match you can almost guarantee that seven or eight will be right on the money. It helps as well that he’s now playing in his Croatia position of wide left forward rather than left wing back, and that he’s coming off the bench fresh to face up to defenders who have seventy or seventy five minutes in their legs (and though I’d have no problem with him starting matches either, he is a really great bench option).

[EJG1980]

You've gotta be kidding me

[Mayhem]

Harry still putting the boot into Man U even though he's no longer in England heh.

[fallenangle]

You've gotta be kidding me

Well that is bad news and just after we were singing his praises too.

If that had happened last season chances are Reguilon would have been the replacement but that can't happen now, obviously.

It will be interesting to see what alternative formations/line ups Spurs use with Perisic unavailable.

[EJG1980]

Good interview with Ange available on the BBC iPlayer at the mo:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0gffnv6/football-focus-lineker-meets-postecoglou

[fallenangle]

Yes, watched the shorter version on BBC1 Football Focus about 90 minutes ago.

Good stuff, particularly his long history getting to where he is now.

[EJG1980]

Good result today and (eventually) a good performance, a draw away at one of the other big teams is always a decent result, especially as we came from behind twice.

Arsenal started well and were easily the better team in the opening half an hour, deserved their lead and thankfully they didn't double it after a big James Maddison mistake where he gave the ball away to Jesus on the edge of the box. So we had a bit of luck in that opening period to keep it at 1-0, although to be fair, Vicario wasn’t having to pull off a ton of saves; but it was nervy stuff and they were clearly on top and putting a lot of pressure on us.

After 30-35 minutes we started to settle down and actually got our passing going properly, and then for the final ten minutes of the half we played very well, forced Raya into a couple of good saves, and then got the equaliser. Great setup work from Maddison and a lovely finish from Son.

Second half was fairly even with some good periods where we were on top, periods where they were on top, and we were giving as good as we got; dare I say that up until about 70/75 minutes we edged it as the better side. Great reaction as well when we went behind to the penalty, to equalise so quickly, with another lovely Maddison and Son combo.

Once Son and Maddison went off our passing dropped off a bit and we couldn't keep the ball as well, so we started to drop a bit too deep (which is a hard habit to break after four years of defensive football, so I won't complain when they tried to play on the front foot for so much of the match before that). So we were on the back-foot a bit for the last 10 mins + extra time, but there were no big scares, we stood firm and fully deserved a point in the end.

The main thing I wanted today, regardless of result, was us to go there and have a go, as our meek performances of recent seasons have been tough to watch. And once we settled into the match we got exactly that, ended up 13 shots to each side and 57-43 possession in our favour. A far cry from last season when Arsenal had 65% possession and over 30 shots against us. We went toe to toe with them and that's what you wanna see.

My man of the match today, due to the circumstances of how it unfolded, goes to Udogie. During that first half an hour loads of the Arsenal attacks were coming down his side, he got booked early on, and Gary Neville on commentary was saying there’s no way he’ll cope for the rest of the match, Ange needs to think about subbing him off.

Well, he stayed on the pitch, and ended up having an excellent match. Very little, if anything, got past him during the second half, he put in well timed tackles, positioned himself well to stifle Arsenal attacks, and did well going forward too. Never looked in any danger of being sent off and we didn’t get a peep out of Neville about him. Brilliant reaction from a twenty year old and I’m even more impressed with him now than I already had been this season.

The only downside was Brennan Johnson pulling up with some kind of injury. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious but you always worry about the ones where they’re running along fine and just suddenly pull up hurt.

[fallenangle]

I was listening to most of the second half of it on the BBC - initially I had my fingers crossed because my feeling was that Arsenal could well beat us heavily if it was like last season. I was half expecting the score to be 2 - 0 or worse in their favour. But when I found out it was 2 - 2 and Spurs were indeed giving as good as they were getting most of the time I was really pleased.

They were not just hanging on they deserved the draw and that is very encouraging.

We still need to be able to beat or hold like this all the other potential top four finishing teams to give us a real chance of a top four finish ourselves but at this point in the season and it being Arsenal I'm pretty happy with this result.


Saturday Edit

Some highly questionable VAR decisions in our favour but over the season I'm sure Spurs will be on the wrong side of just as many.

However, the win against Liverpool = fantastic, not least because it is so rare.

Just what we need to be seeing, another potential top four club losing three points to us. As I said earlier a win or at least a draw against those contenders is vital if Spurs wants to be one of those clubs too.

[EJG1980]

Saturday Edit

Some highly questionable VAR decisions in our favour but over the season I'm sure Spurs will be on the wrong side of just as many.

However, the win against Liverpool = fantastic, not least because it is so rare.

Just what we need to be seeing, another potential top four club losing three points to us. As I said earlier a win or at least a draw against those contenders is vital if Spurs wants to be one of those clubs too.

Yup, after our good start these two games were massive; Arsenal away and Liverpool anywhere, abysmal records for both. I'd have honestly been happy with a couple of draws, so to come out of them with four points is great.

Now we need to keep the momentum going and not slip up in the so called "kinder" fixtures that we have coming up. The most intriguing upcoming fixture is that home match with Chelsea on 6th November, obviously because of the Poch factor, but you have to wonder if Poch will still be manager by the time of their visit if Chelsea's current woes continue.

[EJG1980]

Another weekend, another incident free, dull match from Spurs

If we'd had our finishing boots on we could have been 0-3 up after ten minutes. Richy especially guilty of some poor misses. And although after that we weren't creating chances at the same pace, we still had another three or four chances where you'd expect us to score at least one of them.

So it looked like it was going to be a frustrating 0-0 at half time when we should really have been a few goals to the good, and then we got the cherry on top of Bissouma getting himself sent off.

No idea what he was doing, one of the most clear and obvious dives you'll ever see for his second yellow, 100% deserved to be sent off. He's been exceptional this season, but that was a real moment of madness. Even more bizzare due to there being a whole half to go, we'd been playing well and just needed to take one of our chances. It wasn't like it was the last minute of the season and we needed a goal to avoid relegation or something, when you'd at least understand the desperation.

Second half, Luton took our role of missing early chances. They really should have gone 1-0 up a couple of times at least, especially the very first chance they had in the half. We really rode our luck there, but we started getting better with limiting their chances and looking more dangerous on the break ourselves.

Brilliant goal from Micky VDV to give us the lead. Great quick thinking from Kulu to take the short corner, brilliant work from Maddison to set up the chance, and the way VDV sorted out his feet to get the shot away was excellent. Top quality goal.

Still quite a few nervy moments after that but by and large we dealt with the pressure well, they didn't have any more "How didn't they score??" chances like they had at the start of the half. Saw out the match as comfortably as you could expect, being one goal ahead and down to ten men.

On another day, we'd have been three or four up at half time and strolled to a win. But also on another day, Luton could have scored a couple at the start of that second half. In the end though, it was primed to ones of those "Ah look, Spurs could have gone top of the league, but they messed it up against a relegation candidate," type of days, but we dug in and came away with all three points. In the long run, dealing with matches like that might be a better experience for our young team than a straightforward win would have been.

[fallenangle]

Sounds like a fun game; look forward to seeing it on MotD.

It is these sorts of games I just wish Spurs would not make such heavy weather of by putting away those chances. A one goal lead with only ten men tends to make the final 15 minutes a little too 'interesting' for my liking.

But we're proving we can now churn out the sort of good results against teams we should beat but, in the past, often hiccuped. So even if we're making things hard for ourselves we're getting the points.

Another Interesting thing: I read today that one of my ex-Spurs favourites, Andros Towsend, may be signing on with Luton.

I think he wants a last go in the Premiership before mostly likely settling down to a post-playing career as a pundit. He's actually pretty good at that and more articulate than many - I remember being impressed by that at the 2014 Brazil WC which he missed as a player because of injury.

[EJG1980]

He's actually pretty good at that and more articulate than many - I remember being impressed by that at the 2014 Brazil WC which he missed as a player because of injury.

Yeah I remember that, he was always paired with the same main commentator (whose name I can't remember!) and they were a very good duo; entertaining without going over the top, and really good analysis of the matches.

[fallenangle]

Talking about sending offs - just seen the maddest one ever in the WSL MC v Chelsea game.

Alex Greenwood, England international and MC captain, recognised as one of the best women's football defenders, got a second yellow card for.................time wasting whilst taking a free kick. There was nobody free to pass to so she changed her mind and knocked it square and, no warning or anything, just ten seconds too long for the referee's liking and out came the second yellow card.

Potential game ruining decision I think will be examined and one I hope will not be replicated in the Premiership.

EDIT
Have to say ^ that was very entertaining WSL, incident filled game which has just ended with +13mins of extra time. Ten yellow cards (including MC's manager) and two reds.

MC down to 9 players because Lauren Hemp (England international) was given a second yellow card. At one time they were down to 8 because of an injury. But they still ended up drawing the game 1 - 1 after giving away a scrambled 90+6 extra time goal.

[EJG1980]

Sounds like a mad match!

There was a crazy sending off incident in the Serie A game I was watching last night, Genoa vs Milan. Milan 1-0 up, last minute, Genoa player though on goal and the Milan keeper rushes out of the box and ends up kneeing the Genoa player in the face, Milan keeper rightly sent off. Milan have made all their subs so ex-Chelsea and Arsenal striker Oliver Giroud ends up going in goal.

Genoa, desperate for an equaliser, send their keeper (who was given a yellow card earlier in the match) up for a corner to give them an extra man in the box. The Genoa keeper lunges in to challenge on a Milan defender who's clearing the ball, very high and studs up that clips the Milan player, gets a second yellow card and is also sent off!

I think it's the only match I've ever seen where both keepers were sent off, and within a couple of minutes of each other. Also, Giroud actually ended up making one decent save, kept a clean sheet and the win for Milan.

Speaking of women's football, I must get around to going to a Spurs women's match this season. I keep thinking about it and never actually get around to doing it. They're doing well today, so far, 3-1 up against Bristol City with just under 15 minutes to go.

And finally, seeing as I don't know when I'll be able to mention it again and it could change later this afternoon, the Tottenham first team, under 21s and under 18s are all currently sitting top of their respective leagues. Their combined record so far this season is Played 20, Won 17, Drawn 2, Lost 1. Hopefully all three can keep it going as long as possible

Edit - TNT Sports put a video up on YouTube of the final ten minutes of the Genoa vs Milan match, from the first sending off:

[fallenangle]

I was going to mention Spurs being top of the Premiership myself and, it appears, both the under 21s and 18s are still at the top today (Monday) too.

Good times.

Spurs Women did indeed win 3 - 1 against Bristol.

Looking at their fixtures the next worthwhile Spurs WSL home game* would be Liverpool on the 12th of November but the December fixtures both look more interesting, MU on the 10th and Arsenal on 17th. Either could be good because they both have international level players but the Arsenal game seem the obvious choice.

Arsenal having England's strikers Alessa Russo and Beth Mead (if not still injured) and the wonderfully named Swedish international Stina Blackstenius which I've always thought sounds more like a Marvel super-villianess's name than a real one. But she's good too.

* all the Spurs' WSL home matches fixture are listed as being played at Brisbane Road, Leyton Orient's ground. A bit surprised there isn't something at the Tottenham Stadium, they have played there several times.