Make mine a treble JD
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 9:11AM Jermain Defoe wasn't the only treble of note yesterday evening. Lovely to see Spurs swagger their way through an away game with quality movement, passing and pace. A frolicsome performance full of confidence and belief. Before anyone shouts me down about it 'only being Hull', let's not banish the memories of countless years of away day blues where we've been bullied and beaten comfortably by teams costing a fraction in comparison. We don't travel well. The history books prove this. Perhaps times are changing, and if so, it's a good thing to look back and compare. It's only one game, but Spurs have a zest about them which suggests it will prove to be a fruitful season away from home.
Even when we conceded a goal, we just brushed it off and persisted in dominating the game. Working our socks off to pressure Hull when they had the ball and playing it with ruthless execution when we were in possession.
Many positives to be had out of this.
- Defoe looking strong and confident, netting a hat-trick for the first time in a few years. More importantly (for us in the long run) he's holding up the ball and laying it off with maturity that lacked from his game a season or two ago.
- Robbie Keane, much maligned (no Bent at Spurs anymore so we have to have at least one scapegoat) was bloody great. Assisting (twice), scoring and generally rediscovering that Orish spark. Excellent work ethic, which is inspiring to the rest of the team and looked playing alongside JD. This is captain material.
- Wilson, powering forward once more (as seen at WHL v Liverpool) and also getting on the score-sheet.
- Modric, strong on the ball, quiet in the more obvious creative way, but proved he can stick in a shift without the rest relying on him to be the conductor.
- Cudicini replaced Gomes (who seemed to land uncomfortably after a textbook punch), and although he was at fault for their goal, he looked assured and faultless for the reminder of the game.
- Corluka isn't a centre-back, so hurry back Woody. Not really a positive there.
I'm happy. And why not? Again, I know Hull are in poor form, but if the likes of Utd or Chelsea visited them yesterday and won by the same score line you'd hear shouts of 'professional performance', so for us to go there and dismantle them with relative ease should have us smiling.
I don't mind taking one game at a time. We played football at the KC. Didn't sit back and allow them to stick us under pressure. When they had their moments, we held strong and got through it. The belief was simply: We are good enough to play them off the park, so we will.
We will have disappoints no doubt - be ready for them. What will matter is how we react. Remember the Blackburn defeat last year and the way we collapsed? Granted, man sent off, but we felt sorry for ourselves and lost our way. Keep feet firmly on the ground, the players should take the 5-1 win as a good result, but nothing more - and look to continue to work hard for each other. We've been guilty far too many times in the past, getting carried away with the hype. But you get the feeling the team spirit and attitude is a little more understated and professional (there's that word again). Probably because of the amount of times we've been burnt in the past.
Quietly, quietly does it.
There will be games when we will be under the cosh, and its these games, a cheeky 1-0 or 2-1 win, which will be as important than any free-flowing goal-fest display.
I'm happy with our lot, thus far.
Two successive wins from the start of the season, makes this the best start since 2006. Hedonistic times. 22 wins now for Harry in 44 games. Unbeaten at the Lane since November. Looking great away. Good solid signings that are proving to have a positive effect on the teams balance. And Keane and Defoe actually looking like a partnership up-front.
And not a single Facebook relegation party in sight*.
*34 points to go before we're safe.
Reader Comments (20)
Great stuff. Don't want to be a party pooper but did feel last night that a better team would have punished some of our defending. Corluka at CB was found wanting a couple of times and Bassong was alarmingly below his Liverpool form. Great night, but there's work to do at the back before we take on West Ham, who will be going all out to end our run.
I think we played them off the park yesterday. Gomes' injury looks to be a few months out. I heard this morning that we are ready to offer David James a way out of Pompy. If this is true I am happy, I think he is a great keeper and he would obviously take the place of Cudicini for the No.1 shirt while Gomes is out.
I have also heard that we in fact sent Redknapp to the Celtic match to watch one Aiden McGeady!
A good quality all round display against a lesser side.. happy days indeed! Has been great watching Spurs perform this week against the top and bottom end of the table teams, something missing for a few years. The teams reaction to the opposition scoring against us has been great.. get another goal! I'm quietly (very very quietly) confidant we can do something this season.
WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE, SAY WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!
COYS
now as keane has lifted his game a shade....and the others being allowed to move with pace.......
via palacios etc it shows all the doubters have to show some patience,....this team has matured but still very early days...
who do you pick out they were all confident etc....we still have players on the bench !....
redknapp and bond have probably the best strike force in the league........
yep when woodgate returns we can settle the back four rotation ....
Is Gomes out for a couple of months then?
Quietly, quietly does it.... i m trying to keep that in mind but the smile on my face is making it very hard , spurs alwaus dissapoint at one point in the season so i try to be down to earth about it
The difference now (after only two games) is that this is a team not a collection of individuals with loads of talent.
Keane and JD were fantastic , the Hudd looks sharp and wilson is the embodiment of modern spurs football , skill and grinta combined !!!
the facebook relegation party ... the facebook gooners are even worse then the real life ones , mi tell yah
I think the midfield have been great for us, thehudd and the sgt have been exceptional in the 2 games so far, jenas may not get his place back on this sort of form.
Defoe looks a lot stronger this year, and it was great to see him bagging a hatrick, i was at the same game last year and we were lucky to get away with a 2-1 win, this year total dominance. Its definately a step in the right direction. Same team for saturday as against liverpool I hope. (except for gomes if he is out). But im sure cudicini will do a great job whilst he is out.
I can see us ringing in the changes for the league cup game next week though, give the squad team a chance to get some good run outs.
COYS
good professional clinical job done but we will have much sterner challenges away from home.
King back on Sunday will make a difference as we did look suspect against balls into our box.
Really keen to see a Sissoko type player replace Huddlestone in the centre with Palacios. Given time he is fine but when the game is tight and fast he gets bypassed much too easily
Shannon we with have King back for the weekend, and that means bassong can partner king and corluka can back to his better possition of right back. Hutton can go back to the bench (ok player but does make alot of errors in his game and doesnt feed lennon aswel as corluka). Very good game, if we play like our last 2 games we are very much title contestents!! And i scored lots of points on my fanatsy league team thanks to defoe!! might go down to bookies today put some money on man utd not making top 4 and defoe getting top goal scorer!!
Again, like many here, it is important to keep our heads when all around are losing theirs. Yes we are top (by default of goal difference and the fact that not all the teams have played 2 games so far), however we have done nothing we didn't do last season. Even if we beat the spammers, the points would replicate what we had achieved in the respective games of the fated 08/09 season. It is how we do when we are asked some tough questions that matters.
As someone above pointed out, a better team would have punished some of our poor defending and we still look vulnerable from set pieces without King or Woody to lead Bassong.
However, nice to enjoy the moment, just don't mention top 4 to any gooners they might think we're being serious (they don't exactly get irony mostly). Top 6 will still be a tough ask, even if we do have a good start.
For anyone who has seen 'the american flyers' as teh training moto says ' once you've got it up, keep it up'. Have a good day fellow spurs, and keep that smile on your face.
Right, time to watch england vs australia I think whilst doing some more 'work'.
Fantastic display all round. Corluka will be fighting for rb next week with alan hutton up his arse. Deadly ledley should be at west ham game i think bassong looks more confident with the king next to him. (kind of like keane looked better next to berbaRat).
Huddlestone looks alot lighter on his feet and rotating with wilson was brilliant last night. Moddle got outshone by deep dropping PSB but thats a good thing that we dont have to rely on modders to chip in every final ball.
Defoe ..... Excellent. He looks so sharp and quick he must have been training hard he looks the top of his game at the moment and i would not have anybody else in my team rather than him.
I think alex arsene rafa and the ever changing chelsea manager (insert name here) will be dropping bricks in their calvin kleins with these performances lets hope its not a fluke .. 6 points in 2 games.
A great performance from the boys. JD was on fire and Keane really did a fantastic job. From the two wins so far, the true positive is how we manage to come back after a team scores against us. No lucky penalty call for us... no controversial offside goal scored... instead, a masterminded quality play that leads up to a cracker of a finish. I've been waiting so long to see this. Thanks to the lads!
Now let's take it one game at a time please...
SPURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keanes link up play is some fo the best in the league imo. To me people keep going on about Keano not being the same without the bulgarian and this is true to some extent but Keane was still our best link up player before berbs and now that the whole scouse episode is long past to me Keano seems to be getting back to his best despite the twats in the stands. He scored 1 lastnight with 2 assists and involved in lots more besides and its no surprise to me the its the Bulgarian who looks lost without Keane and its JD who has had to up HIS game to play well alongside Keane. Think about that for a moment and also think that until we got Keane back, as good as the sarge made us we were still not getting the ball forward enough until Keane came back to link up and THATS what made the diference to our season. Keane is very important to us, with him and JD up front we PLAY football, we keep it on the floor, as sson as we bring the beanpole on we lump it forwards and it inevitably comes straight back at us. Crouch I could take or leave cos we had Pav who is way better imo but he's here so I hope he does well cos its good for Spurs and thats all that counts to me. A good performance last night from all, no bad comments to make cos the team as a whole and they were a team played well and deserved the win and deserve all the plaudits but its only 2 games so feet firmly on the deck but hope the smile remains as wide all season. I hope we sell nobody esp to the likes of villa or everton - why strengthen them? but it would weaken was is starting to look like a very formidable squad my biggest fear is old red nose starting to try to turn the players heads as he did with carrick and the sulk when we were starting to look a little dangerous, hes a master of this tactic and has used it before as we know all too well. But enjoyed the 2 wins so far hopr ledders is fit for wet spamday and oh yeh Keano theres only one Keano COYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With 1 More solid CM-right person for the job and defenders back wil have absolutly all chances of top 4.have doubts Tom Huddelston will keep it well all season long,JJ and Bentley will be just numbers.11 days to go.Who is that person next to Wil-our-son to dominate in this area?GK look good,Ledley,Woody and Dawson plus Bassong already showing up,Corluka play in right do always well and Lennon play better when Vedran is there,Modric and AE working better and better,havin creativity,finishing,just one little worry how long Tom will do the job,what will happend if Wil-our-son is no able to play.Just one solid CM-possible twin of Palacios will be great:)Great job so far.hope they will be a hammer for the hammers on sunday-love to see Green keep slip in it.COYS!!!
I agree with Shannon, although we performed brilliantly, there was alarming amount of space in our box when Hull did attack...for the goal, a Cuducini tip over and one other chance I saw on the highlights.
Charlie is a very sound RB but his coolness and purring around does not work well at CB when we need decisiveness and drive. We can expect that from Woody & King so we cannot complain too much about what is our 3rd and 4th(or 5th) choice centre backs. I feel we do need either King or Woody alongside Bassong to help him. King should make most games now, and Woody will be back in a few weeks so things will improve.
Ok, ok...not wanting to piss on the fire because my toast is done. What a great start, undeniable and it was always going to feel one hell of a lot better than last year. But 33 years a fan has taught me to never underestimate Spur's ability to let you down. Too many false dawns. Maybe that's why I'm so critical.
Yep we were great last night, excellent pretty much all over the park...slightly worrying at the back, but still good. Would a better team have caused more problems, definitely. Lets prove our consistancy over ten games first. Then see where we are and how we're doing. Actually make it 11 games like a certain side in 1961... ;o)
What worries me is looking at the media every other comment is Spurs for the top four, Spurs aiming for the title and a hundred and one other comments that only give the Woolwich or Spammers too much ammunition for when we don't acheive. Even Phil Brown said we played like a top four side last night. FFS, shut up! Please don't increase our expectations, let us wallow in the pre-season hope of just ending up in Europe again with a nice strong showing this season.
That way if we do end up doing the unexpected it's a nice surprise and when we don't we're not disappointed.
Blimey it's hard work on your sanity being a Spurs supporter.
COYS!
Just look at what happened to Villa last season if you need a reality check, although I believe that we have a stronger squad than them.
Even so... we've convincingly beaten a top four team and overcome our usual failing of meekly rolling over away to a team of northern cloggers (who gave Chelsea a proper scare at the bridge). In fact we didn't just beat them but smashed them into the ground. OK, so there were a couple of hairy moments in defence but we were missing our three first choice CB's and first choice keeper for most of the match.
It's not just the results that are impressive but the manner in which they are achieved. Various hoo-doos appear to be laid to rest: Harry's got JD and Keane playing together, Hudd's now box-to-box as opposed to burger-to-burger and we're not missing JJ's ability to, uh, run around a lot.
Anyway, feet back on ground, let's see where we are after the Chelsea game.
Say whatever you want to say people, I am starting to dream. So what if it all blows up in my face in the end. We have all gone through that for many seasons now but considering the kind of consistency that we have achieved under 'arry, it may just be possible.
"box - to - box as opposed to burger- to - burger -- not missing JJ's ability to uh run around a lot." hehehehe classic stuff Next Season hehe still giggling now mate. Cheers for brightening my day even further and I didnt think that could be possible hehehehe
i m loving it , we are all trying to stay calm and sane but inside the fire is roaring :-) We are all on the same rollercoaster and we do our best do deny that we love that little tingling feeling we get when it reaches full speed