Tottenham nabbed a last minute winner against Stoke yesterday to keep themselves in with a chance of nicking the last Champions League position from Arsenal, and believe that Wigan are in the perfect frame of mind to cause an upset at the Emirates tomorrow evening.
Wigan may have won the FA Cup, but now they are fighting for their Premiership survival, and the Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas thinks that they are primed and ready for tomorrow.
Arsenal's home game against Wigan has now taken on even more importance after the Spuds late winner over Stoke yesterday. The Gunners have dropped below Spurs with just two games to go, so we simply MUST beat Wigan at the Emirates to regain our ascendance to the Champions League.
Once those three points are secured, we will have a free run up at Newcastle on the last day of the season after the Toon beat QPR to ensure their safety from relegation.
To borrow a phrase from the retiring Alex Ferguson, it really is squeaky bum time for Arsenal. Tottenham got yet another result they barely deserved at Stoke today, which means that the Gunners are now sitting outside the Champions League places in fifth position.
Spurs now have 69 points, two more than Arsenal, so we absolutely must beat Wigan Athletic at the Emirates on Tuesday.
All of the Arsenal fans love Wojciech Szczesny and most of us think he has the abilty and potential to be one of the best keepers in the world. Up until a few weeks ago, though, his future at Arsenal looked uncertain after his form tailed off dramatically in a season to forget for the Polish international.
Real Madrid's president considers AVB as Mourinho's replacement
The continuity of Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid is a mystery, similarly to how it is at any other club he has coached. The rumours about his departure from Madrid never cease, but this time it seems like his move away from the white team is more likely than ever.
The Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas looks to be presiding over yet another Spurs capitulation at the end of the season, and has seen Arsenal steadily close the gap to the Top Four.
The Gunners are now sitting just two points behind Tottenham with a game in hand and are on a great winning run.
It would obviously have been one of Arsene Wenger's most painful moments of the season watching Arsenal put in arguably their worst performance of the season at White Hart Lane at the start of March. Not only was it a blow in the race for the top four, but it gave everybody connected with the Spuds, and most of the media, to continue with their anti-Arsenal garbage, using one lucky win to apparently `prove` that we had lost our position of dominance.
Arsenal are in a downward spiral and will struggle to get out of it claims the croaky voiced manager of Tottemham. The defeat at White Hart Lane on Sunday has broken the spirit of the Gunners while Tottenham are sitting on top of the world, apparently. I'm sure that Villas-Boas would love that to be true, but I very much doubt he really believes it.
The last time Arsenal played Tottenham was back in mid-November, and turned out to0 be a very good day indeed for the Gunners. Andre Villas-Boas opted for a fairly attacking line up with both Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor starting. It began well for Spurs, with both strikers being involved in the early goal.
Arsene Wenger has been speaking about the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham, and the Frenchman is looking at it as an opportunity to start hauling back the pace setters in the Premier league. Despite Arsenal being 11 points behind the leaders Manchester United, he has by no means given up the chase.
Arsenal host Tottenham in the great North London derby tomorrow lunchtime and the Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas admits he is just learning about the great rivalry between the teams, but would rather concentrate on the fight for points on the table.
He does seem to have caught Arsene Wenger's idea that a Top Four place is a trophy, either that or he hasn't quite grasped the meaning of "recent"!
When Daniel Levy sacked Harry Redknapp in May, It would have been difficult to find a manager so contrastingly different from his predecessor than the one appointed, Andre Villas-Boas. The Portuguese is a young and enthusiastic prodigy who never played professionally, while Redknapp is a 64 year old veteran of the game, having played and then managed extensively across England (a three year spell in America aside) for the past forty-seven years.
Arsenal are currently leading the race for the coveted Third Place in the Premiership, which guarantees direct entry into the Group Stages of the Champions League, but after yesterday's results they are just one point ahead of Chelsea and two ahead of Spurs.
The race is still far from over though as both teams below them have a game in hand, and the Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas believes that his Tottenham team are now in control of their fate once again.
The North London derby was a painful day for Arsenal, there's no doubt about it. The rubbish that the Tottenham players and manager started spouting afterwards was even worse. AVB claimed that the Gunners would be locked into a spiral of depression and defeat that would see their grip on the top four place strengthen.
A midfield trio of Lucas Leiva, Joe Allen and Steven Gerrard appears a little too cautious on paper, but their collective performance in last week's comprehensive 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic will have encouraged Brendan Rodgers, who likes to fill his sides with as many passers as possible.
Domination so complete, I have a crick in my neck from facing in the same direction for too long. Then, finally, Lloris's bank holiday stroll around his green and pleasant area is rudely interrupted. He saves well, low to his right, two hands. Being alert after long periods of inactivity is another of his many attributes.
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has been charged with many failings during hisrelativelyshort career. These include being aloof and uncommunicative, out of his depth, obsessed with tactics and worst of all, not being Jose Mourinho or Harry Redknapp. Over the weekend came the ultimate condemnation AVB, you were seen in possession of a notebook.
Harry Redknapp: A difficult act to follow? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
It would be all too easy to attriubte the recent success of Tottenham Hotspur to Harry Redknapp. Breaking into the top 4 is no mean feat, one yet to be emulated by anyone other than cashbags Manchester City for quite some time.
Sorry to break this to you, Arsenal fans, but we were totally outplayed by Tottenham yesterday, according to the Spurs boss Andres Villas-Boas. He must be allergic to points, then, because his Spurs side controlled their way out of winning any.
"We were in control from the first minute to the last.
The ex-Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor famously annoyed all the Arsenal fans when he over-celebrated his goal for Manchester City after he left the Gunners, and the Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas is hoping that the taunts from the home crowd will propel Adebayor into another supreme performance against his former club.
His appointment did more than just raise a few eyebrows. As the shock dismissal of HarryRedknapp was still sinking in, the fresh-faced Andre Villas Boas had taken the reins at Spurs. More than anything else, his disappointing record at Chelsea left the fans wondering why the club couldn't have gone for someone better with more experience.
The value of some performances transcends the goals, the points or the league table. Spurs victory at Old Trafford yesterday evening was infused with meaning that runs deep and will resonate long after the celebrations die down, although Isuspectthose who were fortunate enough to be there floated home rather than requiring any form of transport.
Cut to fit mohair, deep blue not black,hand-stitched. Three button, bottom one undone, buttons on the sleeve, tapered trousers.AVB fits Spurs like a made-to-measure suit andwe look sharp.
Genuine silk lining, brushes against the skin as you put on the jacket. Can't be seen but we know it's quality.
Spurs manager Andre Villas Boas knows only too well that a Premier League manager could easily find themselves out of work before the end of the season. We presume that's why he used his post-match press conference after Spurs' 0-0 draw with Lazio to suck-up to Uefa boss Michel Platini. AVB launched his manifesto for [.
Amongstall the guff that's spouted in the media about Tottenhammanager Andre Villas-Boas, the dossiers, the trenchcoats, the goalkeeper, what the hell the fact he's foreign,Spurs fans are beginning to sort out the reality. Yesterday he demonstrated a quality that will endear him to the people that matter the most (and no, I'm not talking about tabloid sports journos) loyalty.
The Hugo Lloris issue is an unwelcome distraction at the moment and while it's tempting to
ignore it, the stories as to who is our number one just won't go away.
Over the weekend, Brad Friedel stirred those reports as he insisted that he remained AVB's first
choice.
"The fact of the matter is, right now, we have four quality goalkeepers at the football
club.
Burnley decided against appointing Andre Villas Boas as their manager because they were baffled by
his football jargon. AVB was inteviewed for the Clarets job after Owen Coyle left to join Bolton in
January 2010. Before enjoying huge success with Porto and suffering major disappointment with
Chelsea, the then Academica manager was ready to takeover [.
Burnley decided against appointing Andre Villas Boas as their manager because they were baffled by
his football jargon. AVB was inteviewed for the Clarets job after Owen Coyle left to join Bolton in
January 2010. Before enjoying huge success with Porto and suffering major disappointment with
Chelsea, the then Academica manager was ready to takeover [.
It's nearly a week since the transfer window closed in this country yet the papers are still
talking about the late bid to bring Porto midfielder Joao Moutinho into White Hart Lane. With AVB
reportedly fuming and Zenit st Petersburg set to pounce, could the Portuguese be forever seen as
the ‘one that got away?
In amongst the media frenzy that led up to the closing of the transfer window on Friday, news of
the Europa League and Capital One Cup draws was almost lost amongst the gossip and rumour.
As we all know, the club has been drawn away to Carlisle in the Cup while Lazio, Panathinaikos
and Maribor await in the Europa League.
KayP's Note: To make up for all the silence on this site, we are now double-billing our posts. Surely the return of AVB deserves a double-bill revenge story. Like Kill Bill. So first up, we have big-time Chelsea fan Vineeth 'Fat Frank' Raman (his suggestion, not ours) with his first post for BigFourZa!
Much has been spoken and written about Liverpool's wafer thin striker line up for the current
season. Luis Suarez has been particularly wasteful in front of the goal and Fabio Borini hasn't
shown any resourcefulness either. To add to their compounding woes, their pony-tailed striker Andy
Carroll has moved to West Ham on loan (with Big Sam at the helm, it's a match made in heaven).
It all could have been so different for Andre Villas-Boas. Instead of walking a path which took
in Euro-success with Porto, lack-of-success with Chelsea and not-sure-yet-if-he'll-have-any-success
with Tottenham, the Portuguese tactician could have been the main man at none other than Burnley
FC.
Shelvey increpa a Ferguson al entrar al túnel de... by rrmisas 1. After all the pre-match diplomatic work to ensure Manchester United didn't burst into their 'Always the victims, it's never your fault' chant, perhaps Jonjo Shelvey shouldn't have followed his two-footed lunge by pointing at Sir Alex Ferguson and saying: "That's your fault!
I was unsure whether or not I wanted Redknapp to stay on as our manager at the end of last season. You can't argue with a finishing record of 4th, 5th, 4th, but my god was the man irritating.
But that's beside the point. He's not our manager, he's not the England manager, come to think of it, he's nobody's manager.
I have taken some stick on my blog over the past day or so because I have changed my opinion. As we
all know, Chelsea have played with the tried and trusted 4-3-3 formation ever since Jose Mourinho
was manager in 2004. That formation has brought Chelsea major successes as we know.
In recent seasons however, it seems that the opposition had worked out how to defend against the
4-3-3 formation we were using and Chelsea found it very difficult to break down.
After leaving new permanent signing Emmanuel Adebayor on the bench for the first two games of
the season, the press are suggestion that Andre Villas-Boas is ready to trust the Togolese with
leading the line at Reading, providing he is satisfied with the player's fitness.
After weeks and weeks of wrangling over personal terms, it seemed surprising for many supporters
to see Ade starting on the bench against West Brom and Norwich but it seems that he may simply not
have been fit enough.
When is a deal between two clubs not a straight deal? When it involves a third party.
Spurs found out Joao Moutinho's economic interests were not just owned by Porto but a third
party investor who wanted to be paid his share of the transfer fee. It's all quite complex and the
Guardian has the goods.
