Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Aside from three seasons in the middle of "peak Poch", 15/16 to 17/18, all our (modern) top four finishes since and including that first one under Redknapp have been close calls that weren't decided until the last couple of matches of the season.

So unless we can go on a really good run similar to our start to the season once we have all our first choice players back (fingers crossed!), I think there'll probably be a few more in/out of the top four moments before the season ends.

We are pretty close now to having all our first choice players back though, as Mali went out of the Africa Cup of Nations to Ivory Coast yesterday, so Bissouma is on his way home now.

The final of the Asian championships is on the 10th, so even if Sonny goes all the way our home match with Brighton will be the last one he misses before coming home.

Like a lot of the matches I've seen at the African and Asian championships, that Mali vs Ivory Coast match was another crazy one. IC had ten men for most of it but scored a last minute equaliser, then got a last minute winner in extra time with a back heel goal. The goalscorer also took his shirt off when celebrating and got a second yellow card, meaning he's banned from the semi-final; talk about bitter sweet!

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Yes, I saw the highlights of that match too - bonkers game and good watch because of that.

Yesterday's quarter final between Cape Verde and South Africa was much less engaging with neither side's forwards looking as though they knew how or when to shoot but............................................... ...... The penalty shoot out was about as mad as it gets.

[EJG1980]

Cheers for the vid, which I luckily managed to watch before the uploader removed it. At first I was wondering if it was going to end up 1-0 with everything being missed except for that first SA penalty

I read that the SA keeper who saved four penalties also made a crucial save in the last minute of the match, so quite a memorable night for him.

Sonny's semi-final in the AFC Asian Cup is up today at 3PM so I'll be keeping an eye on Twitter for updates on that. This evening the Plymouth vs Leeds FA Cup replay on the BBC might be worth checking out with Ashley Phillips and Alfie Devine both on loan at Plymouth from Spurs and Joe Rodon on loan at Leeds being a mainstay in their defence.

Edit: Well, Sonny is on his way home, 2-0 win for Jordan in the semi-final and from the stats it sounds like it was a well deserved win. People who have followed the whole tournament have said SK have been pretty poor all the way through, three times they've needed last minute equalisers (including in both previous knockout rounds) and they couldn't pull off yet another escape today.

No third place playoff at this tournament so I assume Son will fly home tomorrow morning, so there could be a chance he'd start against Brighton. After all the break between matches wouldn't be dissimilar to a midweek European match followed by a weekend Premier League match. At the same time, he's had a couple of matches before today go to extra time so he's likely to be quite drained, perhaps a place on the bench is the more likely option. It'll be nice to have him back, either way.

Edit 2: Oops, forgot that Alfie Devine played in the cup when on loan at Port Vale in the first half of the season so he was cup tied for tonight’s match. Pretty decent match, nice to see Ashley Phillips with the assist for the Plymouth equaliser. Great effort from them but they really ran out of steam in extra time. Joe Rodon into the next round though.

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I quite enjoyed the game too despite ending only 1:1 after 90mins.

Plymouth's collapse in extra time was extraordinary - I have not seen anything like that in a long time. It was as though they'd put everything into the 90 mins rather than pacing themselves. I suppose with Leeds being a top three Championship and potential Premiership side again they're just operating at a higher level of fitness than a newly promoted team from Division One like Plymouth.

[EJG1980]

Brennan!!

There's nothing like a last minute winner, although it's a shame you have to go through all the nail biting to get there

A deserved win today though, even if we did leave it very very late to seal it. We were a bit sloppy in the opening fifteen minutes, but after Brighton scored their penalty it was pretty much one way traffic with Vicario having very little to do, we just couldn't find the clinical edge in front of goal to convert the chances we were making. We kept plugging away though and finally got our reward with the equaliser from Sarr in the second half.

I have to say that I thought the subs we made after that goal actually derailed our momentum a bit and we went off the boil for about fifteen/twenty minutes. Perhaps in hindsight it was too many subs at once, and we should have spread them out a bit more (but who knows, maybe we'd have had a iffy spell at that point whatever we did). Brighton had a couple of chances during that period which thankfully they didn't convert.

Luckily we got our rhythm back in time to finally snatch the winner at the end, and it was two of the subs combining to get the goal, which as I said before we deserved on the balance of the whole 90 mins. Nice to get that after being on the receiving end last week with Everton's late equaliser.

Back in the top four for now, time to become Man U and West Ham fans for a day tomorrow

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Just seen the highlights on MotD - lovely winning goal move.

I was watching BBC Final Score when it went in and as the match hadn't ended I had to switch over to something else and then 5 minutes later check the final score. I was half expecting it to have been disallowed by VAR or Brighton to have score an even more unlikely late goal to draw the match. When I found 2 - 1 was the final score it was a relief, then joy in that order.

I think the best result for MU game is actually a draw as it still keeps AV below us in the Premiership on GD but will further diminish the chances of MU becoming a threat themselves. They'll be eight points, effectively three wins, behind and we'll be left with just AV to worry about. But we certainly do not want AV to win, that would definitely be bad.

But I'll be cheering on WH, that is for sure. However, lets be realistic, I think it unlikely they'll get anything out of the game and chances are Arsenal will give them a bit of spanking.

[EJG1980]

But I'll be cheering on WH, that is for sure. However, lets be realistic, I think it unlikely they'll get anything out of the game and chances are Arsenal will give them a bit of spanking.

Well I was thinking that as West Ham beat them about a month ago, and beat them in the cup, maybe a West Ham win isn’t so craz…… nope! 4-0 down at half time

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WH - yep, oh dear I hate being right with something like this. It could be double that by the end of the game as I don't think Arsenal will take their foot off the pedal just because they're winning. GD may well matter at the end of the season.

Monday Edit
6 - 0 and could have been more but, as said, not unexpected.

Damn AV - 86th minute and they let MU score a winner.

On MotD they were saying that despite their up and down season MU are now within striking distance of the top four. Realistically 4th is the only likely CL place that is going to be available now unless someone in the top three goes into meltdown.

Obviously it is in our hands but it means we're going to need better results than both AV and MU now until the end of the season. I worry about Wolves and Chelsea both of whom have a habit of spoiling our day no matter what their/our current form. But 10th of March against AV will be very important particularly as late April/early May we have a really tough run of PL fixtures: MC, Arsenal and then Liverpool (at Anfield). Eeek.

[EJG1980]

I didn't mind Man Utd scoring the last minute winner, there's so many games to go it's impossible to know really what will be consider the "good" result by the end of the season. We got into 4th place with a last minute winner, and then the next day a result happened that kept us there; I'm okay with that

I think the pundits reactions to Man Utd are as up and down as Man Utd's season! They've turned the corner and we've seen the "real Man Utd" a number of times this season. They've won three matches in a row, the last time they won three in a row they followed it up with two wins in eight. Yes they COULD go on a good run and keep it going, but they're just as likely to now chuck in a few unexpected losses. And for all the talk of Man Utd closing in, five matches ago Man Utd were five points behind us, and now they're six points behind us...

Anyway, I don't think it's worth too much worrying about what's behind us. If we do badly and throw away too many points we shouldn't, then someone will probably overtake us, I don't think it's worth worrying who it'll be.

Our match with Chelsea is gonna be postponed as it's the same weekend as the League Cup final, so we should be getting a couple of weeks off after the Wolves match. What's the betting that the Chelsea match gets rearranged to a date that adds to that delightful looking April/May run?

Saturday edit: Bugger. I’m not okay with that result though, can I return it for a different one? I still have the receipt!

Can’t really complain, we have were well off it attacking wise today. We did miss Udogie and Porro bombing forward but the likes of Son, Maddison, Richy, Kulu, should have been enough but they all had off days where they seemed to like ideas and inspiration. We didn’t create anywhere near enough clear cut chances and Wolves were excellent on the break, can't say they didn't deserve the win.

It could have been different if we’d capitalised on the momentum of equalising straight after half time. The next 20 mins were our best spell of the match but again, can’t think of any amazing saves the Wolves keeper had to pull off, maybe one... We did have a great headed chance to equalise at the death (I think it was Davies but I may be wrong) but alas he couldn’t find the target.

Two weeks on the training pitch now, hopefully we can put it to good use and go on another run of good results when we return to action.

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......................I worry about Wolves and Chelsea both of whom have a habit of spoiling our day..................

I hate being right. Just hope I'm wrong about Chelsea as they're showing much better form and resilience of late eg. holding MC to a draw today.

Could have been a draw for us today too. Indeed it was Davies but who 'missed' the chance but looking at it the angle the ball came to him and the deftness required to redirect it towards the goal was a big ask for a defender.

From the MotD highlights I think it was not an undeserved victory for Wolves but I would have taken a draw under any circumstances.

Still not a disastrous result but, again, as I predicted, if MU beat Luton and Fulham which is very possible and we lose against Chelsea, MU will really be back in the race for the CL places.

EDIT
Chelsea game postponed so Crystal Place next on 02.03.24.

Should be winnable with their new manager barely having time to get his feet under the table but..............................who knows?

[EJG1980]

At least Man Utd lived up to my expectations of them still chucking away unexpected points, especially the way they looked liked they’d rescued a draw against Fulham and then still managed to lose the match. Of course we have to take advantage of it now and get the gap back up to six points (and make sure we don’t let Villa get away).

Palace made a winning start with their new manager, but, at home to Burnley, who had ten men for most of the match, I’d have expected them to win that new manager or not. They’ll still have a few of their best players missing against us though, really is one where it’d be disappointing if we don’t get all three points.

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Made the correct viewing decision yesterday watching the Chelsea v. Leeds FA Cup game on ITV4. Easily the best game overall I've seen in this round for the neutral viewer.

The way Chelsea played and in the Carabao Cup final gives me great hope that Spurs can get points from them in the delayed Premiership game too.

[EJG1980]

Hurrah, back to winning ways!

One thing we improved a lot today compared to some of our recent matches was not giving away any big chances, as we often seem to gift at least a couple of sitters to the opposition. Today though we restricted Palace to four shots during the whole match (and the only time they did force a Vicario special it was offside anyway).

Of course we can't have it easy, so on the day we restrict the opposition to four shots, one of them has to be a brilliant free-kick that gives them the lead

Even though we left it late with our goals, it was a deserved win, we had a huge amount of the ball and created all the chances. I was really glad Werner scored an important goal after his big miss in the first half. Great assist from Brennan Johnson for that goal too, who was superb off the bench.

We can still play much better than we did, but there were periods where you could see things starting to click again. I think the players like Maddison and Bentancur coming back from injury, and the players coming back from Asian/African championships, have had a bit of a tough time rediscovering their best form, but I think there were signs today that it's starting to come.

HUGE match up next against Villa.

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I was watching BBC Final Score when that Crystal Palace free kick went in and my heart sank, particularly as at one point we'd had over 80% of the possession. I thought that was it for a win but I held out hope for a draw. When I saw the final result it was almost a relief.

Pity Luton couldn't do us a favour against AV.

It means our AV game, whilst not make or break as they have played one game more than us, means if we can get a win against them or at worst, a draw then beat Chelsea whenever that game is rescheduled, I might believe we can still finish in the top four. Of course if both AV and Arsenal go into melt down it would be even better.

I'll probably watch the WSL match later today on BBC2: Arsenal v. Spurs. The home game was a good watch so hopefully this will be too and a win for Spurs might auger well for the whole club.

Apparently, according to what I've just read, the Emirates stadium has been sold out for the game which is quite impressive.

Spurs have a particularly good player, on loan from MU: Grace Clinton, who's like a, young, female version of James Madison ie. both play maker and goal scorer. She has been a standout in the recent England international games too.

SUNDAY EDIT

Mediocre game to be honest. Under relentless Arsenal pressure Spurs defended commendably but were dire at holding the ball. However Arsenal were pretty poor at that themselves in the final third and just couldn't break down the Spurs defence.

Spurs inevitably eventually let in a goal and it was not until substitutions after 70mins that things heated up as Spurs went for an equalizer and it became a bit more spicy and a decent watch.

But Arsenal held on for the 1 - 0 win.

60,050 crowd.

[EJG1980]

I was watching BBC Final Score when that Crystal Palace free kick went in and my heart sank

Yup, especially as it came a couple of minutes after Son had hit the post, it gave it a real "it's gonna be one of those days, isn't it?" feeling. Excellent response from the players though, could easily have let their heads drop but they kept going, upped their game, and got their just rewards.

Apparently, according to what I've just read, the Emirates stadium has been sold out for the game which is quite impressive.

They've done a very impressive job of promoting their women's team. They'll play half their home games at the Emirates this season and the worst crowd so far was 38K for Aston Villa. The tickets are only £12-15 which makes a big difference, but, it's still very impressive when most women's teams are charging the same kind of prices and not even selling out far far smaller stadiums.

A shame we lost, but getting a 1-0 home win and 1-0 away loss against them this season looks like good progress. It's only our 5th season in the top flight compared to them being one of the best women's teams for decades; a few years ago an Arsenal thrashing in both matches would have been the expected result.