A curious one, this. Back in the days of yore, when Luka Modric limped off against Birmingham, I
don't think anyone foresaw things panning out quite this way. Robbie Keane undroppable, wingers
treated like lepers, long-ball upon long-ball. We're muddling through, but the sooner both the
Croatian genius and Lennon return, the better.
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We're great when we're winning. Opponents are forced to push forward, and we duly pick them off
on the break, with the clinical precision of a trained sniper (until Keane starts stumbling over
his own feet). We have the players, including those on the fringes of the squad, to counter with
pace and inventiveness, on top of which it makes for a cracking spectacle.
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If you enjoy those 15 half-time minutes when the subs come trotting out and half-heartedly ping
the ball around, you'll love tonight. Pav, Bentley, Hutton and Bale are all in line to start, as
‘Arry rings the changes with half an eye (in a manner of speaking) on Saturday's game.
League or Cups?
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I miss Ledley. Some games we're so rampant going forward that he is barely needed at the back,
but on days like yesterday we cry out for someone to hold things together and be in the right place
– as well as dealing with any aerial bullying meted out by opposition forwards. The lack of a
commander-in-chief at the back was notable in the first half in which Spurs players competed
earnestly with each other to be the most obliging to our hosts.
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Curiously, our most emphatic win in recent years was achieved without us ever really hitting top
gear. There were some moments at the end of the first half when we played true champagne football,
and Defoe might have finished off a couple of moves so pleasing on the eye they ought to have been
put on canvass and stuck in a gallery.
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Two consecutive defeats it may be, but even the most pessimistic amongst us have struggled to
make a convincing case for this being a crisis. Man Utd and Chelski are the best two teams in the
country, and amongst the best handful in Europe. Losing to them is not exactly to be welcomed, but
neither is it a cause for alarm.
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Before beginning the gruesome business of the post-mortem I think it's worth doffing my cap
towards Man Utd – they were a quality act yesterday. I demonstrated in my preview that
mathematics is hardly the academic subject of choice at AANP Towers, but nevertheless it really did
seem that being reduced to 10 men made them play as if they had 12.
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Good grief, what's come over them? The stylish win at home to Liverpool was in keeping with the
glory-glory Tottenham tradition, the demolition of Hull an all-action romp - but getting bogged
down in a scrap and emerging victorious? I plan to catch this, pop it in a jar and charge
a tenner for people to come marvel at it.
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Cracking stuff. Good performances all round, three well-deserved points in the bag, lots of
wholesome goodness to report – all in all a most pleasant jamboree in the sun.
Top Marks For Hunger and Intent
Lighting a pipe, contentedly sipping on a bourbon and stepping back to deliver verdicts on the
game as a whole, we at AANP Towers have been murmuring appreciatively at the general mentality of
the Tottenham team today.
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So, it's once more unto the breach, for the new season is upon us. The friendlies are done,
fantasy league teams picked – all that's left is for AANP Towers to rustle up a list of top ten
aims for season 2009-10, and then we can get cracking...
1. European Qualification
Top six, or a trophy.
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So, our first signings of the summer are announced – and rather curiously they are more
full-backs. The trendily-named Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker – 20 and 19 respectively – may
sound like characters from Starship Troopers, but they are now lilywhites, plucked from
Sheff Utd for anywhere between 5 and 10 mil, depending on which website you trust.
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So, our first signings of the summer are announced – and rather curiously they are more
full-backs. The trendily-named Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker – 20 and 19 respectively – may
sound like characters from Starship Troopers, but they are now lilywhites, plucked from
Sheff Utd for anywhere between 5 and 10 mil, depending on which website you trust.
Click to continue reading...
So, our first signings of the summer are announced – and rather curiously they are more
full-backs. The trendily-named Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker – 20 and 19 respectively – may
sound like characters from Starship Troopers, but they are now lilywhites, plucked from
Sheff Utd for anywhere between 5 and 10 mil, depending on which website you trust.
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Suffering withdrawal? Desperately seeking an unnecessarily nail-biting one-nil win? Confused by
the absence of someone at whom to scream "F*ck sake Jenas"? Then knock yourself out with the All
Action No Plot Awards, and re-live Tottenham Hotspur, season 2008-09
Two-Points-Eight-Games Award For Completely Turning Around His Season
Step forward Heurelho Gomes.
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After yesterday's supposed Liverpool-Spurs "preview" morphed onto a completely different topic,
I spent the entire night racked with guilt. (Actually, that's a pretty blatant lie – I spent last
night pickling my liver and hurling down shapes on various London dancefloors. That new Dizzee
Rascal number is rather a toe-tapper).
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Eighth is looking likeliest, which I think we'd all have accepted after Two Points Eight
Games™. While AANP could not be bothered to work out exactly how well we've done this calendar
year, I'd expect Spurs would be somewhere near the top of any table based solely on 2009 form. Home
form all season has been spot-on, the record of only conceding ten goals in nineteen games mildly
astonishing.
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There are lies, damned lies and statistics, but a scoreline never spoke a truer word than
Everton 0-0 Tottenham yesterday. We edged the first half, they edged the second half and neither
‘keeper had a serious save to make.
There were some interesting sub-plots though. ‘Arry Redknapp has developed a serious allergy
to change of any form, either before or during games.
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The mild apathy of last week's game against West Brom suggested that the players are gently
winding down. Fans too seem a little underwhelmed by the prospect of a fight for seventh, even
though we're only one point away with three to play. I guess fixtures away to both Liverpool and
Everton are grounds for mild pessimism – but today at least we've a ruddy good chance.
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One of these days, watching Tottenham will be the death of me. They'll score early and dominate,
but then instead of scoring a second against submissive fatted calves bred specifically for the
slaughter, they'll spend the final hour earnestly faffing. I shall chew my nails, squirm and curse;
and then swear and kick people; and finally become so wound up by the faffing that my heart will
pop and I'll keel over.
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Up and down the better half of North London the deluded are insisting that our Carling Cup
performance will prove something of a turning-point for the rest of our season. Earnestly they
point out that we matched, and at times outdid the European Champions, or some version thereof -
for 120 minutes no less.
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What a curious three-point haul. It was neither outstandingly good nor egregiously bad, just
blisteringly average. Once upon a time Spurs played in an all-action-no-plot style, attacking with
free-flowing, gay abandon, scoring four and shipping in three. In a parallel universe this probably
continues.
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