Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Having Son back with his energy and obvious desire to score is the thing we needed up front missing with HK a DA sidelined. He and Llorente could be more than just adequate if they're given the chance to learn how to work well together. With Eriksen, Moura and Lamela also well capable of taking any chances that come their way too with Son on form we're now actually not terribly disadvantaged without HK.

[EJG1980]

Yes! This team doesn’t give up and always keeps going

We deserved the win; point blank headed miss from Moura, hit the bar with Lamela, a couple of goal line clearances, a header over from Llorente, and a couple of other chances before Son finally (with a bit of help from the keeper) put the ball in the net.

I thought Winks was excellent again today, he really is developing into an excellent all action midfielder. He was my man of the match. Vertonghen put in a very good display at left back too.

Newcastle were very dangerous on the break though and had about three or four really excellent chances that could easily have been a goal. Brilliant save from Lloris for one of them and they hit the woodwork too. Always a worry at 0-0 and 1-0 that they could pop up and score and we couldn’t have complained if they had.

Up to second, for a while at least! Nice to go first this weekend and put a bit of pressure on Liverpool and especially Man City. Always makes for a more relaxed weekend when you win the early kickoff

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I was listening to the game on BBC5L and it sounded like Spurs pretty much dominated the second half but at 0-0 there was always the danger of giving a goal away. Newcastle were certainly no pushover and dangerous on the attack as you described. Spurs left it late (again) for their goal and missed good earlier chances (again) too but they came through with what was needed thanks to Son (again).

Another job well done with Spurs now definitely well in the mix for second spot and if Liverpool 'hiccup' there is still hope for even better. I expected Leicester to 'hiccup' the season they won but they never did. If it was MC, playing as well as they did last season, I'd have given up hope at this point but I'm not convinced Liverpool are that good and won't have a bad patch some time before the end of the season.

Spurs are going to have to produce pretty much perfect results from now on to be able to benefit from any Liverpool mistakes and for that matter even just keep in contention with MC but neither are unrealistic tasks, yet.

[fallenangle]

Looking good so far today, 2-0 up with 20+ minutes to go. Fingers crossed because, from the sound of it, if Leicester had taken all their chances, including a penalty, the scoreline at this point could have been very different.

Well that was all getting a bit desperate and worrying but Son did his thing, again, and Spurs win 3-1.

Sounded like an 'interesting' game looking forward to seeing the highlights on MotD. Onward and upwards, the top two are not getting away from us and there's a nice gap between Spurs and the newly revitalized MU in fourth place.

[EJG1980]

Tough win today, you are correct that it was closer than the score line suggests. There was a fair chunk of the match where Leicester were on top and they created a lot of good chances, more than we did. Luckily we were clinical with ours and they weren’t. Really glad Son got that late goal as that was a nervy last fifteen minutes until he did!

He’s made a few mistakes this season and not always been at his best, but Lloris was fantastic today. And a rare sight of seeing him save a penalty too Obviously a massive moment in the match with us going 2-0 up so quickly afterwards.

From what I’ve read (a tweet by Ryan Mason and a comment on the BBC from Steve Sidwell) Son shouldn’t have been booked for diving and we should have had a penalty. I was at the opposite end of the stadium so I have no idea. Thankfully it didn’t matter in the end.

Another good three points, keeping us in touch in the title race and maintaining our gap to the teams behind us. Fingers crossed for a good result against Dortmund and then we get about ten days off before the Burnley match, which, according to Poch, Kane has a decent chance of being fit for. Hopefully Alli isn’t too far behind and maybe we could have a pretty much fully fit squad for the run in.

[Mayhem]

Think you got away with that a bit heh... still, it does highlight Leicester really, really need another world class striker in their squad.

[EJG1980]

Yup, today can be filed under "winning when not at your best" for us. Although it's definitely a good thing that we're able to do that

My incredible football insight of the day, with 30 minutes on the clock at the Etihad: I don't reckon we're going to get any help in the title race from Chelsea! At least we get the consolation prize of our gap to 5th place increasing to ten points.

[EJG1980]

What a great night!

The first half was how I had expected the whole match to go: evenly balanced, tough, tight, moments with us doing well, moments with them doing well, and not very much in it. Dortmund had the slightly better of the chances with Lloris having to make one fantastic save, while their keeper stuck out an excellent leg to stop a Son cross reaching Moura for a tap in.

The second half though, all Spurs, dominant for the whole 45 minutes, the scoreline was a deserved one, just a really really excellent display. I think Dortmund had one long range shot in the whole half that gave Lloris no trouble at all. We completely closed down the space that their attackers had been getting in the first half while also creating way more space and opportunity for our own attackers. A perfect balance of frequent attacking while staying solid and making sure Dortmund didn't get a sniff of getting back into it.

Nobody had a bad game. Vertonghen was outstanding, brilliant going forwards and solid at the back, man of the match. After one scare early on, Juan Foyth was excellent and looked right at home in such a big match. Winks and Sissoko bossed the midfield, and Eriksen and Son were causing lots of problems up front. Sanchez and Alderweireld were extremely soild, Aurier got better and better as the game went on (fantastic cross for the Vertonghen goal). Lucas was perhaps a little below the level of his fellow attackers in the second half, but he still had a decent game and was probably our brightest attacker in the first half. Great cameo from Llorente too; comes on, scores two minutes later, thanks very much!

I'd have been happy with a 1-0 win before the match, so to go into the second leg with a three goal lead and no away goals conceded is fantastic. Only half time of course, and with such a mountain to climb you'd expect Dortmund to really go for it in the second leg so we can't take anything for granted (not that I'd expect the team to be anything other than fully switched on and professional).

Edit: watching the second half again during lunch (bugger all else to do!) and I think I may have underrated Moura's second half performance a bit. There were three or four occasions where he made runs into very good positions where he would have had a great chance on goal if he'd been picked out by a teammate.

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I listened to the first half and my thoughts about how this was going to play out were exactly the same. Then the second half started and Son scored almost immediately and it acted like a sucker punch, they were pretty much entirely on the defensive for the next 45mins and still conceded two more goals. Excellent stuff.

No counting of chickens yet, I do not expect the second leg to be anything but hard work. However if Spurs can not turn a 3-0 first leg lead into a win we do not deserve to progress.

If you remember I suggested here that B Dortmund would be an ideal first knockout round opponent to get - a tough test but a side Spurs have had more recent experience with than any other European side and good reason to believe they could beat.

So far so good.

[EJG1980]

Highlights of the match from BT Sport on Youtube (I don't think anyone shows the highlights on terrestrial TV anymore, do they?)



Funny fact I found out earlier, last night was the first time Llorente has come off the bench for us and scored, in what was his 32nd substitute appearance! Every other goal he's got for us came when he started the match.

[fallenangle]

Big thanks for posting that. I thought ITV would have shown the highlights of all the CL games either on Wednesday after the matches finished or yesterday but if they did it was well hidden.

EDIT

Just watched it. Great highlights, really excellent performance. Puts me in a good mood when Spurs play like that.

[EJG1980]

Oof. Disappointing result and can't complain about it really, didn't create enough going forward and we weren't at our best at the back and got punished for it.

Their opening goal was from a corner that should have been a goal kick, but stuff like that happens all the time and we wouldn't care if we'd scored from the same situation.

Equally though, Burnley complained that Danny Rose took the throw that lead to our goal too far forwards (which he did) but Burnley took multiple throws from the wrong place (for example a couple that went out at the corner flag which they then took from much better positions half way up the 18 yard box) and I doubt they'd have asked for the ref to chalk it off if they'd scored from one of those.

The main disappointment is that after we scored to get it to 1-1 (lovely goal from Kane, the big positive today was him being back and getting straight into goalscoring form) we didn't take that momentum and really put Burnley under the kosh. If anything it was Burnley who played better after that, and as I said, can't complain that they went on to win the match.

Chelsea and Arsenal up next, those would be two very good games to bounce back in!

[fallenangle]

Very disappointing indeed. Just watched the highlights on MotD and it looked as though Spurs played OK but Burnley successfully stifled our attacks with their, newly refound, renowned, well organised and committed defending. They were also dangerous enough up front to be able to convert their chances and win the game.

One bright spot was seeing HK back and immediately get on the score sheet.

But I think that is it as regards any chance we had of the title. If Spurs had won we would have only been two points behind the top even if having played one game more than Liverpool. Now we're still five points shy of MC and the prospect of being eight points behind Liverpool with those next two tough matches in prospect. It is MC's or Liverpool's to lose and both them going off the rails before the end of the season is too much to hope for. But I will .

[EJG1980]

Not a great performance again. Actually the first half wasn’t bad, Chelsea on top for the first 20 mins and then we started to take a bit more control and were the better team for the final 20.

Poor in the second half though, didn’t test the keeper at all and made some big mistakes at the back. The Trippier own goal at the end... yeesh.

And every other team around us won too, worst possible night for us.

It makes the Arsenal match on Saturday huge. Win the match and we go 7 clear, lose the match and they’re only 1 behind (and will likely have Chelsea and Man U right on us too).

[fallenangle]

Losing to Chelsea is bad enough but that embarrassing second goal with both Trippier and Lloris to blame was almost too much to take. But stuff like that happens.

As you say the Arsenal game is now even more important than it was before.