Spurs v Villa. Squeaky-bum time.
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 1:14PM There are now 14 games left in the season. It's suddenly dawned on me…this is it. The business end. The run-in. There is practically no room left now for excuses or the suggestion that if we drop points, we'll catch-up because shirley the teams around us will drop points at some point. Except the point is, there is no longer enough wiggle room to place our hopes on the form of others.
If you're a pessimist, no doubt you'll have already accepted defeat. We've dropped 5-8 points that could be perceived us self-inflicted (obviously, this is all in the eye of the beholder). Fact is, if a team self-implodes (Everton away for example) it's because the team is not good enough. Something is still missing. If a team can't keep it together and kill the game off (Everton away for example) then the players are lacking the right level of mental strength to claim anything above 5th. However - the fact that we've sat pretty much in 4th or there abouts for a while now makes all this doubly frustrating.
If only for that extra bit of decisiveness we'd be laughing. Regardless of whether it disguises the fact that were still not quite good enough. Almost. Possibly a player or two short from, say, beating Everton away after taking a 2-0 lead and not throwing it away.
14 games. It's within touching distance. And then again, its not. Thanks to City and their games in hand, it makes it impossible for us to drop any points at home. IMO. Making the game against Villa a massive one.
Stand up and be counted, THFC.
14 games. 7 at home, 7 away. What was I saying about not dropping points at home?
Villa.
Everton.
Blackburn.
Pompey.
Arsenal.
Chelsea.
Bolton.
I count three of those which should be wins. Another one that ought to be a win. A score-draw. And the remaining two, gut-wrenchingly tough - but, whatever. Who dares wins, right? To dare is to do is even more apt.
Our away games are a little bit more easy on the eye.
Wolves.
Wigan.
City.
Stoke.
Sunderland.
Man Utd.
Burnley.
Err. Actually, no they're not. Teams fighting for dear life, another fighting for the same thing we are and one of them looking towards claiming the very top spot. It's a monstrously tricky end of season. I count 5 'Cup Finals', both home and away. Genuinely, there is no room, no room at all for fuck-ups or missed opportunities.
We all know, hand on heart, we'd have accepted 6th at the start of the season. People laughed off 4th spot and CL. Until it became evident that the standard of quality at the top had further collapsed down a level, drawing us and others closer to that usually elusive spot. I will be bitterly disappointed if we lost out mainly because of the various disappointments that have left us anchored closer to 5th and below than 3rd. We are not in a commanding position. Could have been though. Hence the (potential) disappointment.
Still, at least we've attempted a challenge of sorts. And its far from over. Rather this than pussying around in mid-table.
I expect Villa have the exact same aspirations. Remember the encounter early in the season and how we played them off the park in the second half? One or two of their fans (on a few blogs/boards) commented how they got shown up and that Spurs were genuine contenders. And yet not long after, they hit form. It's been the essence of this roller-coaster season. Nobody has truly taken it by the scruff of the neck.
No more last chances. This is it. 14 games. 10 wins at the very least required. Odds are stacked against us.
Squeaky-bum time is officially with us.
I'm buzzing for it.
COYS.
Reader Comments (53)
Being the typical pessimistic Spurs fan, IF we get 4th spot, don't we still have to play a team to qualify proper for the CL and if so, you just know we'll feck that up. All that hard slogging only to be beat at the last hurdle...
Good luck this weekend to both Villa and Spurs, both performing similar this season, not taking full points when they need to, Villa more so against weaker opposition. But on the other hand Villa are taking a lot of points from last seasons top four, proving they can do well with the big boys. So saying that its is very hard to see past a draw. I'd love to see either of these 2 teams break the big four this season, both if only it were possibly. Looking at Villas line up after Man U on wednesday, they certainly got an easier set of fixtures than both City and Spurs.
I like to think of it as a win/win situation. If we fuck things up, that's pretty much what we expected and besides, if you've been supporting this team long enough you should be used to it by now. On the other hand, if we manage to pick up our form, we're in for one hell of a time with a great ending and, who knows where we might go from there?
KC , doesn't the used to it part bother you anymore ? It still annoys the hell out of me and i ve been only following for about 10 and then some years ...
All four of the teams gunning for 4th have the same inconsistent characteristic and all have dropped points they should not. This is bound to remain the same till the end of the season so even if we drop points then we still have a good chance of 4th. It will be exceptionally tight and for me, the key is not giving points to our rivals so the Villa and Man City games are probably more crucial than the Arse, Chelski or ManU
I'd still be happy with a 5th / 6th place, as long as we can mount a decnt cup run a tthe same time.
I don't think 4th was ever really going to happen long term. After all it is the spurs way to raise expectations before pounding them on hte rocks.
Having said that the one glimmer of hope from last season was our good form on the run in. A cheeky little win against the goons wouldn't go amisss either.
My guess is that it will be liverpool and not city that eventually take 4th. don't ask me why I just think that seasons of twists and turns often end up with an element of inevitability.
I hope, rather than expect, for a spurs victory as maybe poetic justice for some of those other games where luck has failed us, after all aren't these things supposed to balance themselves out over the course of a season?
Of course it bothers me belgian spur, it bothers me everytime I watch us throw away a 2-0 lead at Everton, give away a penalty in injury time at Leeds, or that piss poor goal we conceded against the Arse just before half time last time we met (to name a few).
I really have high hopes for us this season, I know if we don't make 4th I will be disappointed regardless, but I try my hardest not to let it get to me too much and not to get my hopes up too high, trying to make the best of the situation rather than feel upset that we've dropped points. If I personally look at where we are right now, this is certainly better than I would've imagined we'd be.
I just hope that we don't all throw again next season and drop back into mid-table mediocrity yet again....
Villa is a must win game in all reality, the Spurs fan in me says we will probably beat them and the lose at Wolves its in the nature of things!!
The main challenge according to all informed sources is that City are the main rivals for fourth and thats probably true given the games in hand but their fixture list looks preety good from a Spurs point of view.
Homes...Bolton,Liverpool,Chelsea,us,Villa ,Man u Wigan and Birmingham
Aways Stoke,Sunderland,Fulham,Burnley Arsenal and the Pikies last game when they could be playing to stay in the Premiership.
So, its still, just ,in our hands.Keep the faith
COYS.
"dont call me surley"
We'll win this one. We just wont win enough to end in 4th.
If the fallacy that things balance themselves out over the season is true then
With some of the games we should have…….Won……..and didn’t
And some of the decisions that we should have……Got……and didn’t
We should go to the end of the season without dropping another point
If we play like we did in the second half, away, for the whole game, no problems.
;-)
Have you seen Villas lineup?
Home: Man U, Burnley, Sunderland, Wolves, Everton, Birmingham, Blackburn. (Should win at least 4 or 5 of those)
Away: us, Stoke, Wigan, Chelsea, Bolton, Pompey, City (3 or more of those)
Out of the top four contenders line up they certainly have the easiest of line ups. I think people are making Villa least fave to finish top four out of the 4 because of their slump last season. They have a great chance. That is why we must beat them on Saturday (and cuz of the game in the hand), as I wouldn't write them off not getting something against UNited in the week.
I wish we'll be LUCKY and finish 4th. I think all other teams chasing 4th place are almost similar. I think that our main problem is that we have in our team too many delicate and soft players. Also the intelligence level of some of them is below that of a monkey.
i agree with tricky. I'll be well chuffed with 6th, lets be honest Man city will get 4th, liverpool 5th and ourselves or villa 6th. Why should we expect more ?? we traditionally have always been a top 6 team with the odd good cup run. thats whats spurs have always been and will always be.
Anyone who bangs on about top 4 is deluded.
or hopeful.....
Come on peeps lets be more positive - all our rivals have just as good a chance of cocking it up as we do - win against villa and anything is possible. I would have taken us being on contention with 14 games to go - if we can say the same with 4-5 games to go then happy days.
City are the team in the driving seat. It's theirs to give away now.
AP,
You make a good point about our (Villa's) run-in.
Looking at that we should have a very good chance.
It'll all depend if we can see off the lesser teams, something we've struggled to do up to now.
Whatever happens, at least it's been interesting this season.
I have said before, that places 4-7 will be tight - not much between them. Whoever finishes 7 shouldn't be ashamed because it doesn't mean that they are not good enough. It is TIGHT. My worry is that CITY have the games in hand, have spent cash, have more attacking depth and appear to be more clinical at the moment. Vila and Liverpool - who knows? We just need to keep going. And to those people who bemoan dropping points to Stoke, Wolves and Hull at home: if we did win them, we would be in the title race! But it is only theoretical - dropping points these made us earn extra points elsewhere. If we win, we have a good chance. Lose, and we'll be in 6th place this weekend.
If if if if if .....my aunty had cojones etc.
What it comes down to, is one game at a time. We win, we watch the others round us fall behind or keep up, we lose, we watch them overtake us.
I have faith in the best team we have, I don't have much faith when it's not the best team on the pitch.
We need Azza back, we need Modric doing his best Hoddle impression in these next 14 games and ffs, we NEED JD to score more than he misses.
Fourth doesn't put me up nor down anyway, I want us to finish top, or at least be in the running. As that's not likely to happen, then the cup would be good. We're a cup team anyway and there's a 1 in the year.
Ok. Statistics time. So far Spurs have got 42 points from 24 games, which is 1.75 points per game. We have 14 games left - and at that rate we will get 24.5 points from them. So 66 points at end of season. However, looking at our remaining fixtures I can suggest a conservative minimum points haul of 19 points. So I believe we will get somewhere between 61 and 66 points at the end of the season. Good enough for 4th? Maybe.
the fourth spot has often been debated , in a way it is ridiculous that so much attention is given to a mere 4 the finishing place ... Finishing 4 th is equal to winning the league for the slightly less fortunate teams ...
It is the appeal of the CL , the death of football as we knew it. The CL that brings in the money and convinces top level players to join your club ... No CL , well forget about signing the real stars then because they all want to play barcelona , real, inter ... and have their own big billboards and sponsorship deals.
It's not about scoring goals but about doing overpayed gillette ads
I hadn't twigged that city's last game was away at West Ham. Just imagine the delicious irony if Tevez scores the goals that send them down, 3 years after the whole Sheffield United affair.
As for Spurs. I'm TRYING not to get my hopes up. Whenyou look at our squad you know we have the players capable of pulling it off and I actually fancy us more against half-decent teams than the crap one who don't even bother trying to win the game off anything other than a hopeful punt or a set-piece.
However, this season has seen me applaud our midfield for their drive and creativity one game, and slaughter them for being too slow and soft the next. You just don't with some of our players what sort of shift they will put in.
One thing's for certain, even though our fans have been pretty reserved about crowing about our top 4 chances, you can bet your bottom dollar that all other fans will ignore this and indulge in a mass celebration of schadenfreude once again.
Even if the Pikies go down they'll still take the piss. But then they are massive cunts.
that's the very problem TonyTott, when Spurs go on a bad run they then up the performance levels and win a game they shouldn't. When they've won a few good ones they ease off and lose an easy game. I've seen it too many times now. It's all down to character and a will to win, something we don't have at the moment. It's about getting players that won't accept defeat. I've no doubt the current bunch of players are good enough technically, but the soft centre will always hold them back. Take the game at Birmingham - in the back of their heads a draw was an ok result. They didn't have the balls to strive for a great result. Same thing at Everton. At the end of the league, teams usually finish where they believe they should be. Spurs players just don't believe they're that good. Okay when things are going well they think they are world beaters, but when you scratch the surface there is always that doubt and indecisivenesss about our play against better teams. Emirates, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge this season (and every season), to name but a few places where the cockiness that they show against Wigan completely deserts the likes of Hudd and Defoe. When it comes down to it we need about for Roy Keanes, not just one...
Tony - I read on a site a while ago that for the last 4 or 5 seasons 1.78 points a game has been enough. A bit more of the same plus a little bit! It's marginal.
Shirley - back to your point. What can't afford to self implode. The problem is not the quality of the players, just that they haven't done it before and don't know how. Maybe Eidur won't let them?
I meant to say "we can't afford to..."
aland - I tried to say the same thing but in a slightly different way.
Must say, a slightly better vibe on here today?
A win on Saturday will likely to put us 4 points behind Arsenal. A win against Arsenal will put us 1 point behind. 4th? I'm expecting 3rd.
Right, time for my medicine.
''A win on Saturday will likely to put us 4 points behind Arsenal. A win against Arsenal will put us 1 point behind. 4th? I'm expecting 3rd.
Right, time for my medicine''
Yey, that's more like it, forget this 4th shite!!
just scraping 4th, and being 'the best of the rest' really isnt good enough. I'd rather we missed out and made a serious assault on Arsenal and Chelsea next year without loads of CL games. Play the reserves in the europa. If you want the club to be genuinely big, and be in the CL year after year, you have to mount a serious-ish title challenge year on year.
Personally I believe our squad, in terms of talent, is good enough to do this. The big shortfall comes int he belief stakes. The only thing stopping us beating everton, b'ham, hull, wolves was ourselves. As the old guy said, the only thing left to fear is fear itself (what a fucking quote).
We SHOULD beat villa, we SHOULD be closer to 3rd than 5th....but we aint. Players like JD, Modric, Dawson...they are young, silly kids, but they have to accept that they are the senior statesmen of a team challenging for the top positions int he best league in the world. Thats quite an intimidating thought. Hopefully, though, soon the penny will fucking drop that they are doing all this because they deserve it!! It's no fluke to find yourself leading, comfortably, away to very strong PL teams. The players need to come to terms with their own skill really. The 2nd half perfomance v leeds will help this. But for fucks sake, dont try to keep playing out time with 5-10 minutes left. Score another fucking goal!! Keep the ball in the corner only in injury time!! It's pretty thick really.
Team should be the same as on weds but with modric and willy in. Niko, Eidur and Kaboul ready to come off the bench and make an impact. Bentley and defoe the key men. Also hope Dawson can contain Shaq (sorry Carew). Bentley is skilful enough to adapt his crossing style to suit a small striker. I can see those 2 making quite a combo.
On another note, im not a spurs club memeber or whatever, so what are the chances of getting a ticket for bolton. I jokingly mentioned it as a valentines day trip and amazingly the wife was well up for it. Poor sod.
Loving the fact that at least we're up there with a shout. Probably the biggest deciding factor is who picks up key injuries and whether the squad have enough quality. We do need Lennon back, but at least Bentley's confidence should be up after his recent performances. Time to get behind the team and stop the typical Spurs mentality that is over critical to a point where if we don't get 4th there will be a line of know-it-alls who will stand there saying "I told you so". Negative wankers are just that - they bring everything and everyone down with them. Go get a life is what I say to them.
Good story, but I reckon the author has had even more to drink than I have this lunch time! Let's do the Villa and trust that other results go our way. COYS!!!
aland - yes we do have a soft centre, but despite this we are still 4th. We dropped home points against hull, stoke, wolves - yet still 4th. We are missing Lennon - our most vibrant player - still 4th. I do believe that we are fourth with a little in reserve. BUT I do feel that we will need to take out Villa and one of Chelsea and Arsenal to tip us over the edge. Also better not leak points to City when we face them.
"It will be exceptionally tight and for me, the key is not giving points to our rivals so the Villa and Man City games are probably more crucial than the Arse, Chelski or ManU"......
nailed in a sentence STul. Forget the rest spooky, these two games provide the answers!
Keep the faith. We'll win it and the 'push for 4th' will once more be on on on.
Going on recent form the result is dependent on a simple fact.
If our strikers are clinical we shall win by a good margin even against a side as good as Villa.
But if we continue to miss open goals and waste chances then we will struggle to get a point.
Quite frustrating for a club that was scoring for fun most of the season to start to dry up recently. Especially when we do not have the players to shut the game down and protect a single goal lead.
I think Defoe and Crouch will start and EG will get a run out after an hour or so. Be great to see the Icelander - I have high hopes for him and think he will do great for us once he settles in.
2-1 to Spurs is my prediction. COYS !
It realy does annoy me that fans are so 'win/win if we finish 5/6th' as we 'expected not to make the CL'... I do not understand this mind-set. Then again, I guess it may be the same as some of our players simply accepting a poor result. The minute we do qualify, our best players may stay, as we can then pay them more, (think Keane when he was good / Berbatov) and other player will join us. Simples! The only thinkg lacking from our squad, in my opinion, is the mental toughness and know-how.
Tery dropped as captain! Superb!
Make that Terry... ;)
cant believe how few games are left, im jacked up.
who thinks SOS children's villages should be our shirt sponsor instead of goddamn mansion
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/spurslaunchorphansponsorshipcamapign050210.html
4th place in the bag!! We should push for 2nd
Well put Spooky! It's crunch time and the boys have to give it their all if we are to steal 4th away from the rest. Liverpool face a tough match tomorrow with a derby at Anfield so the lads need to take it to Villa with fierce pressure right from kick-off.
COYS!!
I'll be okay with 6th or even 7th but at the same time I'm not ready to abandon my crazy hope for 4th!!!
COYS!!!
A few things to keep in mind:
1. We've gathered enough points not to get relegated even if we lose the rest of our matches here on
2. A Chelsea win will start an ARSE free downfall. Who knows, we might just catch up and overtake them
3. Though the title is more or less a 2 horse race, ARSE and Pool are the most vulnerable teams to miss out on the CL spot, meaning there might be 2 places up for grabs rather than 1 (Spurs, Villa, Man City take note)
Keep the faith YIDs. AV is coming to the Lane to attack to get the 3 points, which will suit our game fine as Hudd and Modric will have a field day linking up Crouch and Defoe all match long rather than deal with a freight train lodged permanently in front of their goal post ala Hull.
I dont believe we didnt win this game.. cant fault the effort though..its just not happening for us.. one of the reasons why villa is up there challenging is in no small part due to the excellent friedel..
As for our top 4 aspirations..I really still want to BELIEVE..
"Keep the faith YIDs. AV is coming to the Lane to attack to get the 3 points, which will suit our game fine as Hudd and Modric will have a field day linking up Crouch and Defoe all match long rather than deal with a freight train lodged permanently in front of their goal post ala Hull."
IaG - nice fucking call man. lol.
Our new motto should be "so near, yet so far".
Defoe was predictably shite.
Once again we created enough to win comfortably but lacked the clinical final touch.
Nothing really on the bench to change the game. Aside from a keeper and three players who only arrived last week there was Jenas who has been poor recently. Only Kranjcar.left and who would you take off to bring him on?
Bentley had his best ever game in a Spurs shirt and Luka is always a threat.
Villa were boring but fair play to them for sticking to their plan. Not easy on the eye but an impressive performance nonetheless.
I think Villa's defending was simply fantastic and you have to tip your caps to them. Several brave blocks in the last 20 minutes. It'd be nice if we caught a break, the way we played we deserved to get that penalty shout given. Bentley has been very good the last few games. At the very least, he's playing himself into a move that might get us some dosh back. A bit frustrating that we kept knocking crosses in during the last 10 minutes and they just sat there with 2 central defenders between the penalty dot and 6yr box waiting for them. Two games against Villa, should have 6pts, we've taken 2pts. I'm starting to think we just aren't good enough for 4th despite the opportunity this year has presented. Hard to say what we lack but if I had to make a wish, it'd be a world class CM & a world class striker. Those two pieces, and we are there. Bale had his best game defensively. I think the boy is absolute class. If we sold Jenas, Pavlenchenko, Keane, Hutton, O'Hara, you'd think we'd have 30mm to spend easy? I have a feeling about the FA cup this year...I just do....
again we cant finish.80% of the game we are on top.we have only 2 strikers.defoe who was denied a penalty after being brought down in the area.crouch who was hit across the face,again in the area.all great teams also rely on goals from midfield.we cant,tom hit two great shots low and hard,but no goals resulted.palacious is to busy tackling and covering.perhaps when essotto comes back,bale can go to mid field,he has many pluses.more then tom.its no coincidence that we fail to get results against top clubs.our attack is lightweigt.our pluses are that we now have the extra options of bale and bentley.lets hope arry uses them.