First off , all back to normal on the seating front, with my European neighbours not in attendance (see Genk post) made the day a whole more enjoyable. And its always nice to get one over on the Totts, if nothing else just to chip away at the myth that they are a big club, which they held onto despite not beating us last season, and finishing below us in the league, and being part of the failed breakaway league with some real big clubs.
As part of this big club myth, this game has always been sold by Spurs fans as West Ham’s cup final. Well that got put firmly to bed this week, as we Spurs rested their whole first team on Thursday in Europe, to prepare for this game. Such a priority that none of the real team play in another game they lost. Whose cup final ?
Anyway, the game itself did not live up to a London Derby. Hardly any 50-50’s, no real aggression from either team, but WHU seemed to have the upper hand. 0-0 at half time was about even, and a soft yellow card for Soucek was about the biggest talking point. God knows what Sky were talking about, although I will take a guess later.
The second half was more of the same, with Spurs coming into to it a little more, and some nice through balls for Son (not their forward ) as Kane (their forward), was normally elsewhere. As the game went on he had dropped back so far, he was bossing their midfield.
The deadlock was broken just after 72 minutes when Cresswell (again) crossed in for Antonio (again ) to sweep home despite midfield general Kane being in close attendance.
Not normally one for having a pop but Benrahma was shocking. not finding passes and giving the ball away at every opportunity. Maybe time for Vlasic to make a starting appearance,
So we take the win and banish the Thursday night hoodoo, in what was a poor game. We seem to be treating the European thing currently as a bit of a laugh, and swapping around players willy nilly, with the exception of Antonio. Spurs on the other hand seem to be saving their teams for cup finals, and then failing. Why’s that then ? And I’m sure Sky covered this.
Kane does not want to be there, plain and simple. Levy should have cleared house when he had the chance, but this one has backfired and is not only costing money, it embarrassing the club, to see Harry going through the motions every week. He had a chance in the first half that normally he would have buried all day long, but headed it directly at Fab instead. Not deliberate I’m sure, but that extra 5% is what differentiates a world class player from a player. And currently Son is trying the carry the whole team by playing 3 positions while Kane is plodding about averagely. Long may it continue.
I was informed by our Chelsea connections that Spurs were so poor they had no shots on target. In depth research (BBC website) tells me they had 4 but none in the second half. We only had 4 as well, but one of ours was better, and that just about sums up the game.
This game pushes us to 4th and still 6 points clear in our Europa League. not bad for a small club !
MOTM is Rice. Added another 5 mil to his value yesterday. Was everywhere across the middle, and dominated the opposition through speed, and timing. Zouma was immense as well, and another assist for Cresswell is becoming the norm these days.
Mrben09 