THFC1882 presents guest writer Kenny Palmer's report of Tottenham Hotspur versus Wigan:

A man of the match performance by Gareth Bale against obliging opponents Wigan helped reignite Spurs title challenge, as they now sit just five points behind the Manchester clubs following the leaders City's defeat to Everton.

Spurs took the concept of winning ugly to new depths on Friday night in a poor performance that saw them edge past Watford and into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Match winner Rafael van der Vaart conceded that this wasn't the best performance by this current Spurs side but he was relieved to get through the tie.

Liverpool's 3-1 defeat over Bolton Wanderers, apparently gave more than just disappointment for the club's manager, Kenny Dalglish, as he was also infuriated with his player's poor performance and threatened to get rid of those who can't improve their performance.

Dalglish was so furious that he doesn't really want to give much credit for his opponent as he really felt that it was the Reds' poor performance which cause that defeat.

By 1970's Gooner I call it as I see it and after Arshavin's poor performance against Swansea I shudder to contemplate what will happen when Nani begins to terrorise young Miquel on the left hand side of Arsenal's defence. Add to this the likely possibility that Arsenal will be without Arteta and you then face the possibility that we will be suffering in

Anfield legend John Barnes has slammed Manchester City's poor performance against his old club earlier tonight, arguing that Liverpool were 'well worth the victory'.Summarising the game for LFC TV, Barnes observed:"Man City had nothing to offer at all until Nasri came on and they changed the dynamic of it, but the way they started from the first minutes, they took the game to Man City"They [

Central Coast Mariners showed the true qualities needed from a team capable of winning the league – the ability to win ugly. An Oliver Bozanic goal in the opening 10 minutes was enough to earn the league leader a narrow 1-0 victory against a lacklustre Sydney FC – who slumped to their third straight defeat in the process.

With the Carling Cup semi-final first-leg fast approaching, Anfield legend Tommy Smith has urged Liverpool to learn from the mistakes that condemned the club to defeat against Man City last week. Smith pulled no punches as he outlined his 'frustration' over Liverpool's 'poor' performance in the 3-0 defeat, and gave his view on what the club needs to do to beat City on Wednesday.

1. Back to back defeats for Manchester United now against teams we should not be losing to. Blackburn have been woeful this season and Newcastle have had a pretty poor record at home. We are of course missing important players like Nemanja Vidic and Tom Cleverley but that isn't a good enough excuse for not getting the wake up call we should have had after the Blackburn result.

Everybody yearns to be up there, to be a contender. Yet we're still puzzling over what success feels like. Here's another side of it, being the envy of other fans. Top four, playing dazzling football. It won't be long before the negative coverage begins. Players who have been doing well for an entire season will be picked on by pundits after a single poor performance, or young men playing out of their skin will fail to be at the top of their game for one of their 50 or so performances and people will pick holes.

A genuinely poor performance it was not. It was, however, a rather terrible result.

A myriad of culpable parties

Chelsea again surrender a lead despite being in a position to record a comfortable win. First Wigan, and now Fulham. What the hell. More bemusing, the fact that this latest setback arrived just days after we put in an excellent shift at White Hart Lane in a game we easily could have won.

Chelsea failed to give a special Christmas treat for their fans as Andre Villas-Boas' team only picked up a draw against Fulham at Stamford Bridge, making it their third 1-1 result in a row.

Juan Mata's goal wasn't enough to secure all three points for the Blues as their poor performance on the day was punished by Clint Dempsey, who netted the away side's equalizer.

A worried Steve Kean could do with three points on Boxing Day...Liverpool welcome Blackburn Rovers to Anfield on Boxing Day for a festive feast of footy. Blackburn have been very poor of late and with unbearable pressure on manager Steve Kean it could work in Liverpool's favour. Blackburn have sometimes shown signs of taking teams to the cleaners but they've lost their nerve at vital moments.

Boxing Day Against Blackburn

A worried Steve Kean could do with three points on Boxing Day... Liverpool welcome Blackburn Rovers to Anfield on Boxing Day for a festive feast of footy. Blackburn have been very poor of late and with unbearable pressure on manager Steve Kean it could work in Liverpool's favour.

It's a simple question isn't it. The reality is that we need our best side out tonight to win this one. We could say a week or so ago that we knew what our best side was based on current form but it's amazing what one poor performance does!
I asked a couple of questions to you all yesterday about the game.

Jonas Gutierrez was not pleased on Saturday that Newcastle failed to garner all 3 points against Swansea City. Jonas Gutierrez in action on Saturday It was important to put in a good performance on Saturday after the very poor performance at Norwich, and Newcastle did that. And it has to be said the lads had no luck on Saturday, otherwise they would have been at least [.

There is no doubt that every Barcelona and Real Madrid fan is still reeling under the effect of the brilliant El Cklasico night at the Bernebeu on Saturday. Can't blame anyone as it usually takes more than a day atleast to get over these. The reactions from both Camp to the result was very much interesting.

Remember when Rafael Benitez showed up that press conference ahead of Liverpool's game against Stoke and produced a sheet of paper containing 'facts' about Sir Alex Ferguson?

During Andre Villas-Boas Friday press conference, the Chelsea manager produced a laminated chart to show the press his club's current points compared with other teams of years gone by.

Real Madrid players have lamented their 3-1 loss to arch rivals Barcelona at the Bernabeu last night with defender Sergio Ramos saying that losing to the Catalans is always more hurtful.

Speaking to the press after the loss, Ramos was also quick to offer his congratulatory remarks to Barca.

Wednesday's Carling Cup defeat to Crystal Palace was both embarrassing and disappointing for Manchester United, as even with an under-strength side, United were expected to take care of business at home against the Championship side. But with a couple of exceptions, that under-strength side put in a poor performance, and credit to Palace, they came [.

Fernando Torres: 10 other Premier League flops

As Fernando Torres continues to lurch from one poor performance to another, heavily weighed down by the burden of a British record transfer fee, Sportsmail looks back at 10 other flops.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-11-30 21:25:07 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

James Milner says Manchester City will be looking to make up for their last performance at Liverpool, when they travel to Anfield on Sunday.
The Etihad Stadium team was walloped 3-0 in front of the Kop last season, and Milner says Roberto Mancini's side want to put it right this time.
It will be no easy task, however, as Kenny Dalglish's team are now joint with City and Newcastle in having the meanest defensive record in the league.

Harry Redknapp enjoyed a successful return to the Tottenham Hotspur dugout tonight as he saw his side stroll past Aston Villa 2-0 at White Hart Lane. With the win, Spurs are up to third place in the Premier League table, four points behind Manchester United with a game in hand.

The spotlight this season has been on the two Manchester sides, and problems and both Arsenal and Chelsea and nobody has paid any real attention to a Spurs side that is much better than the one that finished fifth last season.

Emmanuel Adebayor helped himself to a first half brace, but should have had at least a hat-trick during a game that Tottenham barely had to break a sweat to dominate. In fairness, such was the gulf in quality, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have left with the score only 2-0.

There were rumours before kick off that Alex McLeish intended to field Alan Hutton as a right midfielder and Carlos Cuellar behind him at right back to deal with the threat of Gareth Bale and that's what he did.

Phil Jones is good, but please Fabio, he's no Baresi

While those of us who have covered England for longer than we care to remember are trying to manfully manage expectations, up steps Fabio Capello. Phil Jones after his cavalier start with Manchester United (his rick against Basel and poor performance of Anfield have already been airbrushed from popular perception) can, according to Capello, be braketed with Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro.

A few days ago, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol criticised Daniel Agger for publicly suggesting that some of his team-mates did not care enough about the club's poor performance against Swansea. Former Newcastle and West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop has backed up Nicol's stance on the issue, arguing that it wasn't Agger's place to question the commitment of his colleagues in public.

Liverpool 0-0 Swansea City | Premier League match report

Swansea deservedly gained only their second away point in the Premier League with a performance that had the Anfield crowd cheering them off at the final whistle. The Welsh team were indebted to Michel Vorm, Holland's No 2 goalkeeper, for two outstanding saves at the death, but the quality of their football merited a point.

News today that Leicester City want to ­interview Huddersfield Town manager Lee Clark for their managerial vacancy. Lee Clark with Glenn Roeder at Norwich City Former Leicester City manager Martin O'Neill turned down the opportunity to manage at Leicester City again, after former England manager Sven Eriksson had been sacked for poor performance this season.

News today that Leicester City want to ­interview Huddersfield Town manager Lee Clark for their managerial vacancy. Lee Clark with Glenn Roeder at Norwich City Former Leicester City manager Martin O'Neill turned down the opportunity to manage at Leicester City again, after former England manager Sven Eriksson had been sacked for poor performance this season.

Liverpool FC has undoubtedly changed for the better since NESV (now Fenway Sports Group) wrestled the club away from Tom Hicks and George Gillett. A year has now passed since the new regime took over, but how has the change of ownership affected the players?
Has the day to day business of playing for Liverpool Football Club in the Premier League changed as a result of new ownership?

No matter how much the official site tries to dress things up, this was poor. A poor performance against another of The Championship's poor sides, and culminating in leaving with no points to show for it to boot. The plus side, Steve Cotterill watching from the stands has seen exactly what he has to work with, what our limitations are, and what he needs to fix [.

Keon Daniel's tale of unfortunate events continued last night, as the Philadelphia Union player was substituted off in the 46th minute of Trinidad and Tobago's 4-0 win over Barbados.

The 25-year-old Daniel was unable to regain the form that he had found with the Union and carried over to the Trinidadian national team, before failing to impress in his start in Trinidad's 2-1 loss to Bermuda on October 7.

By JOEY SAMUEL

Different coach, same old inconsistency.

That was the story Tuesday night as Argentina slumped to a 1-0 defeat away to Venezuela in the second round of 2014 World Cup qualifying in South America. Despite replacing coach Sergio Batista after a poor performance at the 2011 Copa America, Argentina once again struggled against a lesser opponent under new coach Alejandro Sabella.

CONCACAF nations play their fourth round games of the 2014 World Cup Qualifying season tonight, with one of the most important of those games being between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. The two island nations are competing for second place in CONCACAF Group B, as first place Guyana has all but wrapped up first place.

Carra looking to the future with both feet in the present

With a large chunk of the Liverpool squad away with their national sides it's been a less intense week of training for those who stayed behind. One of those is Jamie Carragher and the break from the Premier League calendar gave him time to talk to national radio and also to a football conference in London.

It's looking a bit like a video game where you score points for bad behaviour

Tell me whose jaw did not drop seeing Roberto Mancini sub Edin Dzeko with Nigel De Jong with City two goals down? Which manager does that? There is enough attacking talent left on the City bench to launch a third world war and Mancini goes for a holding midfielder.

BARROW TOWN 1-2 (aet) OADBY TOWN Tuesday 27th September 2011 Leicestershire Senior Cup 1st Round Riverside Park, Barrow-upon-Soar
A week off from work fortunately coincided with a midweek fixture for Oadby Town and pitted probably the two best teams in the competition against each other in a 1st round tie.

Yep, 2 for 2 in the championship already. Who would have thought? Certainly not me (if I read correctly, we had 2 points by this time last season). And really, THESE are the games we must be winning. Take the 07-08 season for example, where easily avoidable home losses to teams like Iraklis and Panionios cost us the championship.

It has to be fair game to wonder what happened to the faith Kenny Dalglish showed John Flanagan towards the end of last season; to wonder where it went on the back of a poor performance that owed a great deal to the young fullback being left exposed by the man playing in front of him.

It has to be fair game to wonder about the insistence on playing that man, Jordan Henderson, ahead of the more experienced Dirk Kuyt no matter the circumstances—even when coming up against one of the league's top six club's on the road.

Ahead of our Champions League game against Benfica, Éter from Ceu Encarnado has taken time to answer a few questions for us about tonight's opponents.

Scott the Red: Last season you finished miles behind Porto. Are you confident you can catch them up this season?

Éter: Sure.

Ahead of our Champions League game against Benfica, Éter from Ceu Encarnado has taken time to answer a few questions for us about tonight's opponents.

Scott the Red: Last season you finished miles behind Porto. Are you confident you can catch them up this season?

Éter: Sure.