15 Points, 8 Games...please
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 10:52AM What a crock. The one time the FA give us an opening day home fixture they give us Liverpool. Man Utd get a newly promoted side at OT. Chelsea get Hull at Stamford Bridge. We get Liverpool. Still, we managed to ride our luck last time out at WHL and steal all three points, so hopefully a balanced confident side should be able to compete. We hope. I'm only really complaining in jest. I'm grateful for it. We all at Tottenham would like to thank you (the FA) for the privilege. At least Arsenal have been sent up to Everton for their opener. It's a minor miracle. But alas one that is dashed when you glance at the scums first 5 home games. That pesky fixture list mainframe does it again!
Obviously I can't post the the list in it's entirety or in part here because of intellectual copyright reasons (ridiculous) but I'm sure you won't have trouble finding it on a site that can afford a license. Nice little earner that for the bigwigs at Soho Square.
Only games I'm interested in at the moment are the opening eight for the simple fact that I challenge Harry Redknapp to avoid a repeat of the Ramos collapse of last season. Two Points Eight Games© must never be repeated. Never, ever. And here's the super-eight that will have many sweating through the summer nights in anticipation for the big kick-off:
Home - Scousers (Elite Four)
Away - Tigers (Almost got relegated)
Away - Spammers
Home - Brummies (Newly Promoted)
Home - Champions (Elite Four)
Away - Russians (Elite Four)
Home - Suicide Squad (Newly Promoted)
Away - Megson's lot
So, we've got ourselves three of the top four sides in our opening eight games. Does David Dein still have security access to the FA Headquarters? The voice in my head is telling me something about us doing pretty well against the 'big' teams last term out. So maybe the games we should be more concerned about are the ones against Hull, West Ham, Birmingham, Burnley and Bolton - one side almost went down and two have just come up. If we have any true intention to push forward with intent then we need to be ruthless. Absolutely no bloody fuck ups.
Prediction time:
Lane - Scousers - D - 1 point
Away - Tigers - W - 3 points
Away - Spammers - W - 3 points
Lane - Brummies - W - 3 points
Lane - Champions - L - 0 point
Away - Russians - D - 1 point
Lane - Suicide Squad - W - 3 points
Away - Megson's lot - D - 1 points
15 Points, Eight Games. Lap that up Mr Ramos (I've had rum for breakfast). My prediction is based on the assumption that we start confidently, something we rarely do because of some in-built mental mechanism that automatically switches off the whole Spurs collective rendering them as soft as a lemon mousse (which ironically is what our new home kit will look like).
Worst (acceptable) case scenario is Chelsea dick us away from home and Bolton beat us (which they always manage to do). That would give us: 13 points. But it's all just impossible to really know at this point. Like last year I will not be getting carried away if we thrash Barcelona at Wembley (like we did to Roma at WHL).
Harry Redknapp has to buck the trend. It's that simple. No more believing the hype. It's time to create hype off the back of hard work, determination and spirit. We would like something back in the way of hope. It's been a while since the giddy heights of 2006.
As for the back end of the season? We've got Arsenal and Chelsea at the Lane and then Man Utd away followed by Bolton back home and finally Burnley away.
Brutal finish to go with the tricky start.
COYS.
Reader Comments (20)
You're confident Spooky. Oh hold on, you're drunk.
Carry on.
Liverpool at home is not a great game to start the season. Didn't we have them on the opener the last time we got a home fixture first game? Or is my memory playing tricks?
The final part of the season is the crucial and scary part to our fixtures list! I hope we are off to a solid start! I also hope we start buying and selling the squad soon so they have time to get acquainted with each other.
By the way spooky, you really love your rum, eh??????
COYS!!!!!!
I can only see us winning only 3 of those games.
Does it really matter what order the fixtures are in?
Oh, and I'd also like to chip in with:
"There's no easy games at this level"
Or is that internationals? I can never remember.
At the end of the day we have to play the 'Big Four' at some stage of the season so why not get those games out of the way early on. It will also give us an insight into what sort of season we can expect from Spurs. Let's face it, even with those difficult opening games, we can't possibly do as bad as we did last season! Surely we can pick up more than two points from these opening encounters. My prediction is 12 points.
Spooky completely agree with you on the FA!
How, after years of sending us up North on opening day for what seems like an eternity do they contrive to finally give us a home game then make it against Liverpool?!
However, I've just read an article linking Pepe Reina with a move to Barcelona. If he goes then I really fancy our chances against the bindippers on opening day.
The only thing you can say is they we've got to play everyone at least once and the season is a marathon not a sprint. Harry's built a half decent squad so far and he's also made us quite resilient, without the hassle of the Europa League I'd like to see us really go for it this season.
COYS
suprise sur-fucking-prise, i wonder how random the fixture list REALLY is.
yes we're at home, and the thiefs are beatable, but i do question every season when the likes of united and chelsea etc get easy home games at the start and usually the goon squad do.
funny that for 3 years running now we play fulham on boxing day, sound random? doesn't really to me.
hey ho anyways, suppose you have to play everyone during a season, just would be nice to get on a roll early...
on a side note, wonder how many grand slam super sundays there will be this year. of course, these will be random selections as well.
maybe the new kit is to serve as a distraction to our opponents ..... you cant run and laugh at the same time!
"There's no easy games at this level"
I think he's taking the piss.
The other way of looking at the opening game against the bin dippers and the 5th and 6th games against the champs and the blue scum is that early in the season they may not have a gelled team firing on all 4 cylinders so it could be a decent time to try and get results. The champs have started poorly for the past 2 seasons. It looks like the blue scum will have had a fair few changes going on in their squad too.
I hope to god we don't have a mare and are looking like relegation fodder in late March because the 3 games in a row against the red scum, blue scum and champs is not ideal!!! In fact that is not ideal whether fighting for 4th, 6th, top half, or against relegation!!
Does David Dein have anything to do with the fixtures computer?!?!
As long as we do not see a repeat of the fabled Challenge Spurs serious that dominated this blog for the most part of last season, I'll be content.
On a side note, and sorry for changing the topic, but does anyone else find it hilarious that 'boro are prepared to enter negotiations (albeit they will make it difficult negotiations) to buy the injured Stuart Downing for 15m, Wow jeees, thanks - what an interesting proposition. Urm maybe not!! If the papers are to be believed and Levy is negotiating for Robben they can stick their rubbish (IMO) Downing up their Championship ar*es. The only way he would have looked more desperate to sell Downing to get some money would have been appearing on MOTD begging into the camera!!
Robben would be nice but it's unlikely. As for Downing I don't see the obsession that we apparently have for him, and for £15M after burning our fingers with Bentley is way too much for a relegated INJURED player.
with all the best for next season.....get the feeling harry is up to something!
Downing thanks but NO THANKS.
I reckon Levy will return from Spain with 2 players.
Capel anyone?
There's a great chance for a really good start here, and after shocking everyone by beating Liverpool, Man U and Chelsea, we can then consolidate our position at the top of the log and go on to win the title. Its going to be a memorable Spurs season, I have this feeling. Sure, I've had the same feeling every season but one day I'll be right.
Not impressed with our April fixtures but is there ever a good time to play the "top 4"? Did find this shed a little light on the "random" computer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/06/secrets_of_the_fixture_compute.html#097608
With 'arry's revolving door at full revs I can confidently predict a 7th place or therebouts position come the end of the season. Good news - no relegation struggle this time. Bad news - no serious top 4 challenge (can anybody seriously believe we're up for that ?) I don't know what Mr Levy is doing sniffing round in Madrid but the inevitable outcome will be that targets like Robben will either be too expensive in terms of wages and/or be wanting CL football (even if their clubs would happily off-load them).