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.
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.
Watching a Spurs fan piss in the sink of the South Stand toilets at White Hart Lane yesterday, I
couldn't help but make the frank analogy between his actual of porcelain defiling and our failure
to claim maximum points. Against a team of a vagabonds and thugs, the game trickled down the plug
hole and out of sight.
Believe it or not, win this by four goals and we'll be top of the table, albeit until Chelski
conclude their evening game. Try informing your nearest Spurs-supporting chum of this fact, and the
chances are that you will be greeted with little more than a nod of approval and a healthy dose of
perspective.
Not so much a game of two halves as a game of two thirds and a third third. We seemed to be
cruising serenely after an hour or so – but then that wouldn't be the Tottenham way, would it?
Cue a wild thump of the self-destruct button, the halving of our lead and a daft sending off. The
three points were eventually achieved in slightly nerve-jangling, harum-scarum style.
Good old Peter Crouch. His scoring record for England now reads: played 35, started 17, scored
18; comfortably inside the hallowed ‘goal every other game' ratio international strikers look to
operate in. More prolific than Michael Owen's 40 in 89 haul and offering a greater return, even,
than Shrek Rooney (25 in 55); Capello's favourite man-child.
Still reeling from the shock revelation that the word "gullible" had been removed from the
dictionary, we at AANP Towers were sent scrambling to our official panic stations yesterday as news
of ‘Arry's alleged departure spread like wildfire. The panic button was hit, the lights flashed
and the stern lady kept announcing "This is not a drill".
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.
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.
If you want to save yourself time you might as well just cast your mind back to the first round
tie away to Doncaster – five more goals, away from home, and despite the occasional early scare
the gulf in class eventually told. Deja-vu all over again. It's not the Tottenham I grew
up with I tell ye.
Well we can call off the missing person's search. Head down to Deepdale tonight and you're
likely to be treated to rare glimpses of Giovani and David Bentley, last seen being surreptitiously
airbrushed into the background as 'Arry's favourites went through their pre-match warm-ups. There
has been some clamour for Giovani's inclusion in recent weeks, and after the two woeful attempts by
'Arry to compensate for the absence of Modric, it would really warm the cockles tonight to see the
Mexican put in a virtuoso performance on the left.
It seems like we are reverting back to the Spurs of a few years ago with awful luck where
players getting injured is concerned. After losing Bassong and Ledley on Sunday, our defence is
literally in pieces. Woodgate has no imminent return date and although Dawson isn't too far away
now, him leading the line is something I don't want to think about.
Where would Tottenham Hotspur's second XI finish in the Premier League? You be the judge. I've
got: Cudicini - Naughton (or Hutton), Dawson, Woodgate, Bale - Bentley, Jenas, Bostock, Kranjcar -
Pavlyuchenko, Crouch.
Is that better than Liverpool's second XI: Diego - Degen, Agger, Kyrgiakos, Fabio Aurelio -
Lucas, Plessis - Benayoun, Voronin, Babel - N'Gog?
There is just no way Spurs will last the pace. They have been cut from 200/1 to 30/1 after an
impressive start - that's a huge over-reaction from the bookies. They will be the Villa of last
season, a bright start fading away at Christmas as teams get wise to them and fatigue sets in.
Bassong, eh? Well first up, if you're looking for an in-depth
Strengths-Weakness-Opportunities-Threats analysis of the chap, then look elsewhere. We at
AANP Towers spent most of last season watching Spurs, rather than Newcastle, which I would suggest
is a fairly pardonable offence.
Beauty, grace, and poise, it's Miss Ameri - er, I mean, Peter Crouch. Enjoy, Spurs fans.
With the news that Peter Crouch is set to sign for Spurs, I'm afriad I've had to scratch my head
in confusion at. Old 'Arry's transfer policy has seemed increasingly questionable to me lately, and
this has served only to confirm my suspicions that he's got too much money to spend and not enough
ideas about what to do with it.
A disappointing loss last night for the U-18 team in Carson, California, but a great effort from
the young players. Here is U.S. Soccer Communication's official match summary (lineups and stats
after the jump): CARMEL UNITED WIN 2009 U.S. SOCCER DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY U-17/18 CROWN WITH 1-0
VICTORY AGAINST D.Click to continue reading...
Well this incredible season fizzled out very tamely in the end. We played as if we didn't really
want European football and gave Liverpool too much space to play in and played at too slow a tempo
to stretch them. For the first 20 minutes we were completely outplayed. However Liverpool are a
very good team and we should have had two goals from the ball over the top as they played a very
high line. Click to continue reading...
0-1 R.Fuller 41'0-2 L.Lawrence 73'1-2 A.Dawson 90'DISCLAIMER: Calcioplus non hosta alcun video
pubblicato su di esso. Tutti i video pubblicati sono caricati da amanti di calcio su siti di video
hosting come Youtube e Dailymotion ed ubicati dunque su siti esterni a Calcioplus. Calcioplus non
è responsabile del contenuto di tali siti web. Click to continue reading...
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.
Given that this season I've needed so little encouragement to bow my head in despair and slip into
a straitjacket of pessimism whenever the Tottenham circus rolls back into town, it is strange and
vaguely ironic that today's most hopeless of situations finds me at my most optimistic. A two-goal
deficit would be tricky enough [. Click to continue reading...
We could have, we should have, but we didn't. Not just a quick summary of the Arsenal game but in
some ways a summary of the the season, and of the past couple of decades really. We are always on
the verge of achieving something, unfortunately this year its avoiding relegation, but somehow lack
the mental energy to pull it off. Click to continue reading...
Last season it was Roller Coasters: this season its Snakes and Ladders. It certainly was this week;
we got four points to go up the ladder, but lost Woodgate and Jenas to possible serious injuries.
We gave an excellent team performance to take a point off Man. U but with Newcastle winning at
Portsmouth we slid down the snake again to hover one point above the relegation places. Click to continue reading...
