ONE point from two huge games was not what everyone wanted but bear with me while I argue that it might do us a favour.
Wins over West Ham and Arsenal would have left us top by two points - but can a team that has not won a title in 55 years really be expected to lead from the front with nine games to go?
The pressure, focus and searing hot spotlight that comes from being frontrunners is surely too much for a club stalked by its own shadow of late-season stutters.
We have a history of easing off the gas from good positions, so let Leicester take the weight of responsibility for the time being.
With 27 points left to fight for, a five-point gap at this stage is hardly unassailable and
there is no sense in making ourselves the team to beat at the start of March.
We are safer riding Leicester's coat-tails as they attract the limelight and deflect attention.
Apart from anything else, my blood pressure could do with a rest from the nerve-shredding tension of our last two games. How the players must have felt is anybody's guess.
If the Foxes do win the title from here then they damn well deserve it and we should all stand up and applaud rather than picking apart our own supposed shortcomings.
But to put that feat into perspective, they have never won nine top-flight games in a row in their history.
It's a nervy time of year and everyone is dropping points. City lost to Liverpool, United at West Brom, and Arsenal haven't won in four.
Leicester's final two fixtures are Everton at home and Chelsea away. That's a tough enough finish in itself but in the meantime, if panic does finally strike Claudio Ranieri's squad, then any match becomes a banana skin and five points can disappear very quickly indeed.
Our final two games are home to Southampton and away at struggling Newcastle. Although by then they could well be "relegated Newcastle".
With that in mind, the main aim should be to stay within striking distance of the top, keep your fingers crossed we can hang in there and give ourselves a chance come May.
But many Spurs fans are starting to bite their fingernails not just over whether we will be fighting for the title come May, but whether we will still be in contention for the top four.
In 2011-12 we surrendered a 10-point lead over Arsenal in barely a month, the season before we won just one league game in ten from late February, including a home defeat to Blackpool.
Both seasons we had put ourselves in the driving seat with regards to a Champions League finish.
Yet in 2009-10 we got it right and beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City in a run-in that saw us nick fourth.
The difference being that season we were underdogs right until the penultimate game, where a shock 1-0 win at City sealed it a game early.
And that is why we shouldn't be too disheartened heading into another crucial week on the back of two disappointing results.
On Sunday it's Aston Villa away, followed by Bournemouth at home a week later.
Both matches present sides fighting for their lives and, given our recent history at this stage of the season, I'm happier to be going into it with a little less expectation on our shoulders.
Showing posts with label Top 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top 4. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
A welcome return to form - and hopefully not just for Tottenham
Strange things are happening in the Premier League - and the best thing about that is some of them are happening at White Hart Lane.
It’s March. Former title favourites Chelsea are still in the bottom half, former relegation candidates Leicester are top of the tree and English football’s former rulers Manchester United are still lurching weekly between progress and catastrophe.
Manchester City’s mind is already on next season, Arsenal are suffering severe deja vu and Tottenham, well, let’s just say things are looking up.
The maths started to stack up a few weeks ago. Then we beat City and the media - plus the teams around us - took notice. Now, having come from behind to beat Swansea on Sunday, even the fans are starting to believe. Some fans anyway.
That’s where I come in. My last blog post was just over two years ago before a new job sapped my spare time and, regretfully, this website fell onto the dreaded backburner. Now a proud dad of a newborn, I’m even busier than ever.
But with this amazing season taking twist after turn, week after week. And the faintest hope that maybe, just maybe, it might turn into something very, very special indeed, I just had to have my say.
There is a long way to go and a lot of tough games - each one of them our own Cup final. We have to go to Liverpool and Chelsea, not to mention West Ham tomorrow. Then there is what must be one of the biggest North London Derbies in a generation at lunchtime on Saturday.
However unlikely or difficult you see the possibility of us lifting the League Championship come May, Spurs fans would be foolish not to be getting just a little bit excited.
Many in my generation (born 1983) would have felt that the club’s existence nowadays was purely geared at the top four and that resting on the summit after 38 games was for the real rich kids and oligarchs. To find ourselves in this position at this stage of the season was unthinkable, a pipe dream. But what is the point in football if you can’t dream once in a while?
This run of form, this focus on the Academy, this brand of football has all come together to shake even the most miserly of fans from their slumbers and, as for me, well I wasn’t going to let it pass me by without getting my thoughts down.
I will endeavour to keep the blog up do date from here on in and see where that takes me. Whether you savour it, snub it, comment on it, condemn it, rave about it, rant or even recommend it, I’m not concerned. I suppose feedback is always nice but as long as I've got something on record to show another little Spurs fan sometime down the line, then that will do for me.
Although a Premier League title would be nice as well.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Finding a cure for the Bernabeu Blues
Scared to look at the papers today? You bet! And with good reason. Peter Crouch will wish he had pulled an Aaron Lennon and chickened out before kick-off because the cut-throat wordsmiths all have their pen-knives out and the logically challenged striker gets a deserved verbal kicking.
I don't blame Crouch exclusively for what happened last night. In fact, his sending off forced us to play with the ball on the ground and build from the back, rather than just lumping the ball forward. The way we dealt with the remainder of the first half was admirable but with only 10 men, fatigue was bound to set in and, for that, Crouch has to shoulder some responsibility.
The morning after the night before, and our recent results can no longer be twisted into having one eye on a glory, glory night; now they just look like a bad run. Sky Sports continues to play that advert for the road to the Champions League Final at Wembley but suddenly the feeling of involvement has all but evaporated. The season goes on regardless, and we need an almighty dusting down session before the Stoke game at the Lane on Saturday.
Games thick and fast, that's what suits Spurs best, right? Ten-day breaks between games certainly haven't seemed to work. We do relish our chances as the underdogs, however, and after this rotten run of results we are certainly underdogs to get back into the Top 4.
The European adventure has felt all along like we were flying by the seat of our pants; prevailing despite injuries and unfamiliar gameplans and still proving our worth on countless occasions. When you live on the edge, sometimes you fall off with a bump.
The rest of the season is now going to be about character; what's done is done and it is up to those who have played badly or made mistakes to dig in and find that something extra. I wouldn't say that the Champions League is a total lost cause - if any Spurs team can overturn this sort of deficit, it's this one - but it's unlikely. Very unlikely.
For now, we're going to have to put up with the sneers and the jibes. Men versus boys, finally found out, simply not good enough; you know, that sort of thing. The best tonic is a good performance and more importantly now a good result.
But there is another cure for the Bernabeu Blues:
On opening a Christmas card from my girlfriend, what should fall out but a copy of Spurs v Inter Milan. Immediately I stuck in it the DVD player and rewatched the game in its entirety. I then watched the highlights and then homed in on what I've come to call Bale's goal, watching it over and over. I watched it again last night.
Of course, we all know it wasn't Bale who applied the finishing touch but that third goal against the Champions League holders is as much the Welshman's as anyone else's.
From Younes Kaboul's interception, the touch to Bale, the quick thinking as he knocks the ball past Maicon and the audible gasp of crowd anticipation as he gives chase, the perfect ball across the box, again the crowd volume soars as 35,000 realise we're actually going to beat Inter Milan, Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In and Andy Gray stating "I have never, ever, seen a player do what he does." The whole thing constitutes a wonderful moment that sums up our season in Europe.
Nobody realistically expected us to win at the Bernabeu, yet everybody knew we might just get hammered. Next time you see an advert for the Wembley final, or a negative newspaper column, don't look back to last night, because it's not the sum total of what we've achieved along the way.
True glory may be out of our reach for the time being but being a football fan is as much about glorious moments as glory itself, so before you turn your attentions to Stoke and our end of season run-in, take some time to reflect on what we've done along the way. You won't be disappointed.
I don't blame Crouch exclusively for what happened last night. In fact, his sending off forced us to play with the ball on the ground and build from the back, rather than just lumping the ball forward. The way we dealt with the remainder of the first half was admirable but with only 10 men, fatigue was bound to set in and, for that, Crouch has to shoulder some responsibility.
The morning after the night before, and our recent results can no longer be twisted into having one eye on a glory, glory night; now they just look like a bad run. Sky Sports continues to play that advert for the road to the Champions League Final at Wembley but suddenly the feeling of involvement has all but evaporated. The season goes on regardless, and we need an almighty dusting down session before the Stoke game at the Lane on Saturday.
Games thick and fast, that's what suits Spurs best, right? Ten-day breaks between games certainly haven't seemed to work. We do relish our chances as the underdogs, however, and after this rotten run of results we are certainly underdogs to get back into the Top 4.
The European adventure has felt all along like we were flying by the seat of our pants; prevailing despite injuries and unfamiliar gameplans and still proving our worth on countless occasions. When you live on the edge, sometimes you fall off with a bump.
The rest of the season is now going to be about character; what's done is done and it is up to those who have played badly or made mistakes to dig in and find that something extra. I wouldn't say that the Champions League is a total lost cause - if any Spurs team can overturn this sort of deficit, it's this one - but it's unlikely. Very unlikely.
For now, we're going to have to put up with the sneers and the jibes. Men versus boys, finally found out, simply not good enough; you know, that sort of thing. The best tonic is a good performance and more importantly now a good result.
But there is another cure for the Bernabeu Blues:
On opening a Christmas card from my girlfriend, what should fall out but a copy of Spurs v Inter Milan. Immediately I stuck in it the DVD player and rewatched the game in its entirety. I then watched the highlights and then homed in on what I've come to call Bale's goal, watching it over and over. I watched it again last night.
Of course, we all know it wasn't Bale who applied the finishing touch but that third goal against the Champions League holders is as much the Welshman's as anyone else's.
From Younes Kaboul's interception, the touch to Bale, the quick thinking as he knocks the ball past Maicon and the audible gasp of crowd anticipation as he gives chase, the perfect ball across the box, again the crowd volume soars as 35,000 realise we're actually going to beat Inter Milan, Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In and Andy Gray stating "I have never, ever, seen a player do what he does." The whole thing constitutes a wonderful moment that sums up our season in Europe.
Nobody realistically expected us to win at the Bernabeu, yet everybody knew we might just get hammered. Next time you see an advert for the Wembley final, or a negative newspaper column, don't look back to last night, because it's not the sum total of what we've achieved along the way.
True glory may be out of our reach for the time being but being a football fan is as much about glorious moments as glory itself, so before you turn your attentions to Stoke and our end of season run-in, take some time to reflect on what we've done along the way. You won't be disappointed.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Some sort of perspective
I've had to wait a day before writing about the Wolves game. If I hadn't, you'd probably just be reading a four-letter diatribe of 'Why?' this and 'Why?' that.
Now that the nerves have settled and my blood has stopped boiling, I can take a proper look at the situation - how Harry Redknapp manages to immediately compose himself and do a post-match interview is beyond me.
The man's got nerves of steel, and he has an uncanny ability to put the whole thing in some sort of perspective. We're all sat there, head in hands, concerned that our wonderful journey is at an end, and 'Arry comes out and says "That's football", then points out that Wolves have beaten Man United, Chelsea and Man City at Molineux and suddenly we all feel that little bit better about things.
Make no mistake, our last two results have made a Top 4 finish an uphill struggle, but Spurs have never made things easy for themselves and, the result aside, there were a lot of encouraging signs to come from yesterday.
Obviously, the sight of Gareth Bale careering down the flank is a timely boost as we look towards another difficult run-in. And, never mind Kolo Toure, I want some of whatever Jermain Defoe's been having, as both those goals were not only out of the top drawer, but completely out of nothing - and that surprise element is something we've been badly missing.
Defoe is famed for slamming the ball home from 18 yards with no regard for the keeper's positioning, but both strikes yesterday were placed carefully out of Wayne Hennessey's reach. Now, if he can just learn to take it round the keeper in a one-on-one situation… one step at a time.
It was nice to see Roman Pavlyuchenko on the scoresheet, you have to go back to November for the last time two of our strikers scored in the same game. But for me, he puts very little into his off-the-ball game. Countless times yesterday he gave up the moment he was dispossessed, in stark contrast, Jermain Defoe harried and chased down every ball, highlighting the lack of effort from the man alongside him, and maybe that's the reason Redknapp is hesitant to give Pav a run in the side.
Sandro had a much better game on Sunday and is starting to look like he's getting to grips with the Premier League. He's got a good awareness, he seems to know when to get stuck in or pile forward and when to hold off, protect the space behind. Even if his development isn't as meteroic as Bale's last season, in future seasons he could prove to be the solid general midfielder we've been craving for so long.
Chelsea may have beaten Blackpool last night but then their following Premier League game is against Man City, so someone is guaranteed to drop points. Our next three games are West Ham, Wigan and Stoke so finger crossed we can make up some ground.
If all that's not enough, then we still have to play both Chelsea and Man City so, whilst recent results have not been what we'd hoped for, the situation is still very much in our hands.
Now that the nerves have settled and my blood has stopped boiling, I can take a proper look at the situation - how Harry Redknapp manages to immediately compose himself and do a post-match interview is beyond me.
The man's got nerves of steel, and he has an uncanny ability to put the whole thing in some sort of perspective. We're all sat there, head in hands, concerned that our wonderful journey is at an end, and 'Arry comes out and says "That's football", then points out that Wolves have beaten Man United, Chelsea and Man City at Molineux and suddenly we all feel that little bit better about things.
Make no mistake, our last two results have made a Top 4 finish an uphill struggle, but Spurs have never made things easy for themselves and, the result aside, there were a lot of encouraging signs to come from yesterday.
Obviously, the sight of Gareth Bale careering down the flank is a timely boost as we look towards another difficult run-in. And, never mind Kolo Toure, I want some of whatever Jermain Defoe's been having, as both those goals were not only out of the top drawer, but completely out of nothing - and that surprise element is something we've been badly missing.
Defoe is famed for slamming the ball home from 18 yards with no regard for the keeper's positioning, but both strikes yesterday were placed carefully out of Wayne Hennessey's reach. Now, if he can just learn to take it round the keeper in a one-on-one situation… one step at a time.
It was nice to see Roman Pavlyuchenko on the scoresheet, you have to go back to November for the last time two of our strikers scored in the same game. But for me, he puts very little into his off-the-ball game. Countless times yesterday he gave up the moment he was dispossessed, in stark contrast, Jermain Defoe harried and chased down every ball, highlighting the lack of effort from the man alongside him, and maybe that's the reason Redknapp is hesitant to give Pav a run in the side.
Sandro had a much better game on Sunday and is starting to look like he's getting to grips with the Premier League. He's got a good awareness, he seems to know when to get stuck in or pile forward and when to hold off, protect the space behind. Even if his development isn't as meteroic as Bale's last season, in future seasons he could prove to be the solid general midfielder we've been craving for so long.
Chelsea may have beaten Blackpool last night but then their following Premier League game is against Man City, so someone is guaranteed to drop points. Our next three games are West Ham, Wigan and Stoke so finger crossed we can make up some ground.
If all that's not enough, then we still have to play both Chelsea and Man City so, whilst recent results have not been what we'd hoped for, the situation is still very much in our hands.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Waiting for Wolves - Day 10
In the last seven days Man City's Kolo Toure has been banned for failing a drugs test, Chelsea's training ground became a shooting range, Man United's manager was charged with misconduct and Arsenal missed out on yet another trophy to add to their six-year dry spell.
Who would have thought I've just described the Top Four? Yes, the current cream of the crop in the English Premier League are all plunging themselves into turmoil at a vital point in the season. But, having had 10 days without a game, us Spurs fans have speculated over everything possible, so in an effort not to tempt fate before Sunday's game, I'm just going to attempt to make Friday a bit of fun.
Here is my very own Top Four... Spurs-related Youtube vids, that is.
In fourth, a Spurs ball boy becomes an instant hero with the Shelf Side, picking out Loumpoutis' weak spot in our 6-1 victory over Anorthosis Famagusta in September 2007.
At three, 'Arry reacts in style as he's asked a stupid question at a press conference.. It was a close run between this and the Wheeler Dealer reaction.
In second place, there are a host of these Hitler skits, but this is a translation of his reaction to our Champions League Last-16 draw against Milan.
Worthy first place goes to this brilliant account of two Spurs fans' trip to Milan last month. A few further clicks will take you to a series of "Away Day" videos, all of which are brilliant.
Who would have thought I've just described the Top Four? Yes, the current cream of the crop in the English Premier League are all plunging themselves into turmoil at a vital point in the season. But, having had 10 days without a game, us Spurs fans have speculated over everything possible, so in an effort not to tempt fate before Sunday's game, I'm just going to attempt to make Friday a bit of fun.
Here is my very own Top Four... Spurs-related Youtube vids, that is.
In fourth, a Spurs ball boy becomes an instant hero with the Shelf Side, picking out Loumpoutis' weak spot in our 6-1 victory over Anorthosis Famagusta in September 2007.
At three, 'Arry reacts in style as he's asked a stupid question at a press conference.. It was a close run between this and the Wheeler Dealer reaction.
In second place, there are a host of these Hitler skits, but this is a translation of his reaction to our Champions League Last-16 draw against Milan.
Worthy first place goes to this brilliant account of two Spurs fans' trip to Milan last month. A few further clicks will take you to a series of "Away Day" videos, all of which are brilliant.
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