Stunning super show sees sensational Spurs smiling
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 8:24AM Spurs 5 Norwich 0
No need for a full strength side so soon after the away trip to Sunderland. Tottenham's resolve and focus on securing a Champions League spot was solid in selection and application in a scintillating display at White Hart Lane that saw the home side dispatch the visitors with bullish determination and high end quality football.
Spurs reverted back to the successful 442 which has seen much acclaim this season with Saha and Defoe rekindling their telepathic partnership. King lined up at the back alongside Kaboul and the midfield saw Bale and Lennon on the flanks with Livermore and Modric in the middle. With the Chelsea game at Wembley practically being played tomorrow (technically it's on Sunday evening), Spurs benched the likes of Adebayor and van der Vaart. Both spectators. Both lucky enough to have the best seats in the house, munching on popcorn as they watched the dismantling of Lambert's men as the hosts displayed guile, spirit and tenacity for the victory.
The first goal was majestic in its majesty. Bale, on the left cut inside and beat four men down the middle before running back 40 yards to then beat another four men again this time down the left hand flank before finally slotting the ball home for the 1-0. Because he could. Defoe was next when Saha played a beautiful dummy allowing the ball to land at JD's feet who scored with a deft touch, so good the referee awarded two goals for it much to the dismay of Paul Lambert.
3-0 at half time and more of the same followed in the second. Spurs continued to push forward with drive and astuteness, bullying Norwich, first to every ball and quick to lay it off and run into space to continue to carve and create more chances.
Saha, still standing in the same position he was in when he played the dummy in the first half, hit the post without having to move, instead preferring to use telekinesis. Then Modric almost scored directly from a corner, the bar this time getting in the way. Spurs fans were busy doing the Pozican (a Mexican Wave hybrid incorporating the Poznan) to concern themselves too much with the woodwork action. They knew it would only be a matter of time before another goal arrived.
The opposition continued to struggle with Spurs dominance in midfield, dictating play and tempo with Harry Redknapp dictating the tempo on the bench defeating Joe Jordan in a cheeky game of Mario Kart. Kevin Bond refused to be involved citing Just Dance as more his kind of thing. The Spurs defence had no tempo to concern themselves with having nothing to do other than tidy up the left-overs from the picnic they enjoyed whilst watching their team-mates in the far reaches of the pitch. Although the only complaint to be had was with Ledley King who didn't much like the cucumber and jam combo sandwiches although they all laughed about his hissy fit and then debated football boot colours over some glasses of Pimms.
Then it was 4-0 Spurs and game over. This time with a move that was started by that man Bale and finished by that man Bale. Bale in the middle played the ball out to the left where Bale picked it up and played a five touch one-two with Bale before a disguised pass gave Bale the chance to fire into the top corner. Bale gave the heart sign celebration to Bale and they passionately snogged for a few moments whilst others watched on. And touched themselves. Football bloggers in their armchairs already penning sonnets to the manager.
By now the Paxton was alight with flares and relentless singing whilst the West Stand bourgeoisie gave a nod of acceptance at the football below with a thumbs up.
There was time for a fifth, a wonderful wonderful set-piece. Benny taking the plaudits and taking advantage of an anomaly in the space time continuum to guide the ball into the net from around fifty yards out which saw the whole stadium erupt and stand up to applaud Tottenham reclaiming 3rd spot and that's when I dropped my crack pipe and realised I wasn't wearing any clothes.
Reader Comments (60)
"Saha played a beautiful dummy allowing the ball to land at JD's feet who scored with a deft touch, so good the referee awarded two goals for it much to the dismay of Paul Lambert." The only thing to make me smile in the last 24 hours.
I started to read but I had to stop after the first goal. Yesterday still hurts so much.
LOL, quality, I too have restarted on the crack after yesterday, it really helps. Speedballs are good too. COME ON YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SPUUUUUUUUUURSSSSSSSSS
I'm still hoping that yesterday was just a bad dream and in fact we did beat that team of nobodies 5-0. that harry didn't parachute 5 players who have probably started 5 games in total over the last 3 months into the side, and proceeded to change the formation as well. I tweeted before the game that if we won great, but if we didn't serious questions needed to be answered in relation to selection and formation. As the journo Ben Pearce said the game at Sunderland was never a must win game, the Norwich game was a must win. The only good thing which happened across the whole weekend was Fulham holding chelsea last night, at least we can say with some certainty 5 wins and 4th will be ours, it seems unlikely that Newcastle would be able to overhaul the goal difference, if we were to win the final 5 games. The worry is that at the moment it feels highly unlikely that we will win anything like 5 games, we've got 11 days till QPR away which now is truly MUST WIN. COYS - we can still do top 4 + FA cup ... I'd have taken that any stage of the season.
A few weeks ago after the Ars**al match i suggested that a qiuck parting of the ways between HR (i cann't even bring myself to type his full name) and spurs would probably be best all round. Let him piss off to the England job that he has been prostituting himself for. I was roundly criticised for it. Given the shambles since is anyone else now coming round to this opinion? - although it is now a couple of months too late to save our season. No one can say the players are playing for the manager- particularly over the last two games.
You see the mentality of Arry. He now settles for 4th spot. Did you ever hear wenger accept that they will finish 6,7,8 when they were going through a bad patch, no, not at all. Why, because they have the winning mentality, we don't, that's the difference!!!
I'm not even sure we're capable of beating West Ham's ladies team at the moment.
One simple fact from yesterday - Norwich wanted it more than we did. Which is an absolute disgrace. Regardless of the point you're trying to make there Spooky, that team should still be capable of beating Norwich.
Ps - Ledley King is finished.
Anybody who still thinks the cup and forth are still up for grabs doesn't need to smoke crack. The look on their collective faces was as naked as Spooky at the end of this article. Initial confusion and subsequent disinterest both on the pitch and off it speaks volumes. Yes, the half hearted attempts are still there, but do you think anyone is about to bust a gut or go into a 50/50 challenge when everybody knows (HAH! I'd love it if he didn't get the job and was subsequently sacked by Levy) that Arry is off at the end of the season.
Dear (real) Mr Levy, you fucked that one up for the shareholders: No payoff for Arry from the FA, no Champions league dosh next season and if you think someone will dole out 40 Mil for Modric, you can pass the douchie ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE!!!
According to Harry:
6 weeks ago we were challenging for the title
2 Days ago we were favourites for 3rd
Today we will be happy with 4th! wonder what tomorrow will bring but remember us Spurs have have never had it so good!
Said this a while ago and will say it again, what is the point of Gareth Bale? and don't even get me started on Ledley King
"We had 2 points from 8 games when I left there"
As an Arsenal fan (in peace, if there is such a thing!) I've got to say I love the humour in this piece - I'm very familiar with trying to laugh at my team's failings rather than dwell on a crushingly disappointing loss!
Just wondered though, ignoring Redknapp's England ambitions, what is the reason for Spurs form in 2012 ON THE PITCH? It seems Bale believing his own hype is a genuine concern - I've said for a while he's brilliant until he comes up against a proper full-back (Maicon is not a full-back!) and then gets lost when he wonders elsewhere on the pitch, trying too hard.
Also, what's the opinion on Adebayor? Is he doing what he did at Arsenal and City - looking good in some games but going missing when you could do with him coming up with something!? Would you sign him permanently this summer if you were in charge?
PS - I don't write this with any bragging maliciousness...with Arsenal now in full control of 3rd spot I'm fully expecting a loss away at Wolves tomorrow to blow the whole Gunners/Spurs/Newcastle/Chelsea race wide open! :-(
didnt see one player smile yday. champs league cotenders, fa cup semis..if they have faces as long as horses then i can only assume Arry has lost the dressing room.
thought norwich were superb mind you. never mind rogers, it's lambert who's impressed me most. winning mentality.
We can all assume Hazard is as good as gone
Jesus, I haven't seen this much knee jerk since the last defeat. I think everyone needs to take a leaf out of the scousers book and "calm down". Yes we were out battled by a well organised norwich side at home yesterday but it's only 1 game. In our last 4 league games we've been away to chelski who we haven't beaten since god knows when and took a good point which should have been more. We beat swansea at home in a good performance. We drew with a park the bus sunderland, again no easy place to go. We lost to norwich in a poor performance, our first in a while. We need to go back to the 4-5-1 formation and play our best players and we'll be fine... Simple as. As for some blaming Levy, I've never heard such ridiculous tripe. Give it a rest. The man has been nothing been good for our club in the past couple of seasons. How quick we forget? The blame lies with Harry and his ever changing formations.
I'm in the middle of Fringe. Season and for a fleeting moment when I was reading this article I thought my alternate dad had taken my from my bed in the middle of the night and brought me through an inter dimensional gate to Another world. A world the only subtle difference is that we did win yesterday and git our swagger back at the same time.
lol, wicked article.
Simply put, we were unbeaten in our last 3 league games playing 4-5-1. It should have been easy to bring in Lennon and Defoe and keep the same formation. Livermore in for Parker, with Sandro retaining his place, despite his stinker on Saturday.
And what is the point of having Ryan Nelson if you're not going to play him? Ledley looked like he'd had a few pints the night before and spent most of the game going backwards!
Team should have been: Friedel, Ekotto, Walker, Kaboul, Nelson, Bale, Modric, Sandro, Livermore, Lennon, Defoe.
Ade & VDV rested and if Defoe didnt work as hard as he had to, it would have been obvious.
Instead Arry has confused everyone with his mystical team selection and then blaming it all on the fact he is playing 4 forwards??! Who?
Like I've said all along. We lost 3rd place through our poor transfer dealings. Since Christmas, Arsenal have got all their players back from injury and we've loaned out all of our squad players to keep their wages off the books. Good work from the WHL strategists. I'm looking for a new role should Mr Levy be reading this. Performance analysis is one of my core skill sets. I'll do it for £100k a year. Give us a call Dan. I'll sort this out.
As an Arsenal fan, a month or 2 back I was really hoping you guys would stumble and drop points - but even I was surprised by the speed and extent of your decline. I do sympathise with you guys, because it reminded me of what happened to the gunners last year towards the end when we got kicked out of 3 (or 2??) comp in matter of weeks and our league campaign fell to pieces - that was painful. It is hugely frustrating and you go into each game hoping & praying that this would the turning point to stop the rot. For us that turning point never came, in fact we carried that poor form into early this season.
The good news for you lot is that 4th place is still up for grabs, and you have by far the easiest schedule compared to chelsea & newcastle. If after all this you managed to hang on to 4th place, then this would be considered a good year.... ie this is something most spurs fan would be happy with at the start of the season.
Either way - your manager situation needs to be sorted out. Whilst i think a lot of the blame for your recent form should be directed at your players and not 'arry.... I do think he is NOT the answer to take you guys to the next level.
jax - 3rd is still up for grabs also - please dont patronise us. - You have 2 very loseable games left - lets be honest - you were good against a City side that did not turn up at all - they didnt even come close to challenging you on the field - but that doesn mean 3rd is yours for the taking. I seem to remember you getting done over by QPR not 10 days ago so best not to count your chickens and all that mate.
Let's hope we get a repeat of the 09/10 season where defeat in the FA Cup spurred us on to finish with a CL spot in the league.
The focus seems to be more on the games in the future rather than the 90 mins that are in the present.
I was so infuriated with the performance that I ended up sending an abusive tweet to BAE, Walker, Defoe & Lennon..... Shame on me, but I was pissed off.
God made me a Spurs fan so I can really enjoy everything else in my life. Thank you Lord, you certainly do move in mysterious ways (a bit like the Spurs team yesterday)
Wow... came on about an hour ago to catch up on your musings and got stuck on your one from the other day 214 comments and counting..... nice work (is that a record?). Always get a few knob heads from both sides which make you cringe but loved the random Manc popping up to chip in, who invited him!?
Still plenty of football left to play, the way your lot played for the first half of the season deserves something, but as we know all to well you don't get anything for pretty football alone. It's all pretty finely balanced at the moment, if Van Persie goes we're f*cked, if 'Arry goes and Bale and/or Modric fancies a change then you'll struggle.
Could be worse though, you could be Samir Nasri and look like a mong-faced lesbian (Bet he ends up playing for you at some point).
This is getting embarrassing. Gooners coming on here and offering sympathies shows that we are no longer threatening them. Spooky, great attempt to use humour to soften the blow, but unfortunately its not making me feel any better.
"Could be worse though, you could be Samir Nasri and look like a mong-faced lesbian (Bet he ends up playing for you at some point)." So fucking true. hahahahaha
Something else that summed up the player mentality at the moment - 40 mins before kick-off BAE was on Twitter!!!
Sorry, but 40 mins before kick-off our players should be starting to focus on the task at hand.
Twitter is where I vent a lot of my Spurs frustrations - unfortunately the BBC tend to pick up on those frustrations and print them. My suggestion that Ledley hangs up his boots this summer started much discussion. He's like a lame horse at the moment, but one where the trainer has no other horse who can make it race distance.
I also don't like it when Gooners start re-tweeting my comments about us dropping a 10 point lead and barely holding onto 4th.
"when I came here, we had 2 from 8 " Now we have 1 from 8, let's see how many times that stat getus trotted out in the next few interviews #notverylikely
2pts from 8 games when he joined, now it's 6pts from 8 games..... nobody can argue that you aren't making progress under 'Arry!! xx
dear gooners,
to those of you that are genuine, thanks for the sympathy and all that but
please f*ck off and let us wallow in our own misery
why are you all even here??
go back to arseblog or gooner whatever its called
Emotions post match yesterday was just like the old days, that sick feeling we used to have many times a season, just when we thought we were a proper side (albeit one in a slump recently, but Swansea told us it was still there), we go and do that. 'Spurs will always let you down' seems so annoyingly apt. Ledley has gone, he went at the precise moment of the Walcott goal, it was clear to see then and it's even more clear now. But he's the best we have bar Kaboul at the moment. As for the tactics, further proof if any were needed of HR's ineptitude. Accusations of knee-jerk reactions are wide of the mark, it is now deadly serious and if our squad finishes below Newcastle's squad then Hr should go regardless of the England job. As for Twitter. Ban all players from using it from 24 hours before a match. We all see what's needed, here's hoping those that need to can as well!!
Thank you Spooky. Thank you for bringing a big fucking grin to my face after what I can only describe as "the 5-year old turning up at the paedophile's house and giving him a good raping". Norwich were that 5 year old. And we were that lonely, desperate paedophile. Thank god we have irony, sarcasm and crack to ease the pain of watching us getting turned over, caught unawares in our pyjamas, munching on our paedophile toast. I can only hope that on Sunday Chelsea will be as inept as we were yesterday.
DB0407(Gooner).... enjoy it while it lasts sir.
Also, to all you arsenal fans who have SUDDENlY started to show up and post on this sacred blog...where the fuck were you in September October November December and January? Oh wait that's right you were wallowing in your own self pity whilst we were playing better football. It takes a true fan to laugh when it's bad and continue believing, and this just reinforces what we've known all along, that you're just pretenders. Pretenders who flash bin bags and demand that their longest serving and most successful manager leave and then suddenly forget you ever did those things when it starts going well.
Gooners, kindly fuck off, and let the big men chat while you go and play at the Emirates library. Come back when you've got a spine.
We were so shit, we looked like the Arse 3 months back.
Can someone please explain why Parker wasn't even on the bench.
It's all ok, because apparently 2 points doesn't pick the team, buy the players or pick the formation.
My thoughts are that you have to also blame Levy as well as Redknapp for this ever since they decided the January transfer window was an opportunity to save some money rather than improve the squad and challenge for the title. Our net spend on players in the last 3 transfer windows is about £0 plus we farmed out so many on loan that we've only achieved a cut in the wage bill. Reasonable squad players out and a couple of has beens in the replace them. We have 3 strikers and 2 of them aren't really even ours!
This causes two problems for the players:
1. It shows the club has a lack of ambition (this hardly persuades the likes of Modric and Bale that we're committed to going places)
2. The reduced squad means certain players have no competition for their places anymore so they can relax and even if they don't perform they know they'll be on the teamsheet next week (Bale, Modric, Walker for example).
Guys, if Arsenal fans are here expressing sympathy and addressing the game in a mature manner, let them. That's the normal, grown-up thing to do. As is responding in a mature, friendly manner. I know we're supposed to hate each other but they're not being patronizing. They're showing sympathy. If and when Arsenal loses, we should do the same while still holding on to that friendly rivalry. The Spurs are getting better and better. Some performances have been poor but that goes for almost every football team. Arsenal's had some shit games too. And I say this all as an Arsenal supported who stuck around when we were playing just awful football a few months back - now, I just declared myself an Arsenal fan so everything I said might be ignoring but we all know 4th place is almost guaranteed for you guys and third place is just up for grabs, it's in your reach. Anything can happen and if you guys finish third, I'll be very proud of how far you've come. Enjoy your best team in ages! We will be here to challenge you every step of the way and isn't that what makes our passion for football so beautiful?! Our love for our club and a friendly, respectful rivalry with our rivals. With that, I'm off. I wish you guys luck in your next few games.
Wow, that post is riddled with mistakes. Bare with me, gentlemen.
Will someone please tell BAE to stop wearing his hair in a bun -- all our losses this season have come when he wears a bun!
Gotta say I love this article. The reason being I could see all the above happening before xmas (except for the naked spooky bit)
Honestly, is it as simple as the "harry to england" thing? or is what vdV said last season about harry not doing tatically actually true and the players are totally fed up with it now?
And one last thing (not aimed at you Spooky)
Its NELSEN, not Nelson, Nielsen, or any other random combination of letters. Ok!
@MartinX
That post is very mature, balanced and friendly. Well said and well done. Its lads like you that keep the rivalry banter laden and personal abuse free. Long may it continue!
(I'd prefer it if ye fecked off back south of the river though!!)
We should be lucky for the FA to take Harry off our hands at the end of this season. I can see him being passed over for the post and Levy subsequently sacking him.
Under normal circumstances I think Levy would be sacking Harry on Monday morning if we lose to Chelsea.
However, because he believes we'll get compensation from the FA, he's holding fire for now.
The problem with that is that the compensation we'd get from the FA will be substantially less than amount we'd get for making the CL. Of course, that's looking incredibly unlikely.
Have to say, having had a good run at the start of the season, followed by a wobble and now returning to form thanks to a new striker partnership, Newcastle deserve to be in the CL more than us or Chelsea.
@Mispent Youth
Here's why Parker wasn't in the matchday squad
Scott Parker missed the Norwich game because he had told the club's doctors he felt as though he would tear his hamstrings if he played. ....from ......
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2012/04/10/3025562/blame-game-five-reasons-why-it-has-all-gone-wrong-for
Fellow arsenal fans, i know you are trying to be friendly and modest to our london neighbours but could you all just shut the fcuk up and stop posting such lily livered<no pun intented> drivel , the spu*s fans here are the scum of the earth and deserve no sympathy, let them wallow in their pile of shi.t and vomit. Love, from a gunner.
That's more like it gunner! Now fuck off!
also quick question, who here believes modric is worth 40million, he does'nt score, neither does he assist, for fucks sake what does he do?, excuse me if i come across as polite but i would rather sell him and buy a midfielder or attacker that actually has end product to his game. If you think about it dembele is on par with modric in terms of ability and is available at 10million, just saying. P.s you will always be a shit west ham
Your post about Modric shows us how ignorant you are. If you had Modders to replace Cesc, I daresay you'd be giving United a run for their money instead of Citeh. I expect Modric to leave this summer and we'll see how much clubs are willing to pay for him.
This is not over. I've been down, I've cried, I've smoked some crack, I've done a bottle of Bells, and now I know THIS AINT OVER
legendary season. LEGENDARY
Liverpool have two sacred cows...Stevie G and Cara...look how far its gets them year in and year out these days. They have added Dalglish, another sacred cow, and look where that has got them in the league. They sell us bogus PR stories, success in Cups etc., conspiracy all around at the FA and so forth. They do not take a hard look at themselves in public. I believe that they are on the same failing track - the track of failing to qualify for the CL again, the track of failing to grow into a commercial space needed to compete fully - the track of failure on basis of hardest measurement - peer review with the biggest and best in Europe not just the PL - i.e. CL qualification year in and year out and ditto in terms of Revenue growth.
My father told me when I was young, never reinforce failure. I believe that this is what Liverpool have been doing so for the past 5 years. The question is are Spurs doing the same?
Yes, some positive noise and colour is made at WHL in respect of Spurs being a big club and making strong inroads to success etc. Yes, some nice football is being played, yes, some commercial discussion is taking place...but is it qualified as real progress on basis of peer reveiw with Europes biggest and best? Perhaps it is better to take a hard bottom line rather than a soft top one. Time for a real audit not a PR release noting To Dare is to Win.
My hard audit reveals the following - I would be asking King to retire (thanks but time to step away), tell Bale to grow up (become a Giggs, v.v.good but not George Best, yet, in acknowledging as much it has allowed to become a consumate pro who does one/two things well), move Modric along to Spain/Italy and rid yourselves of Adebayor and VDV (both good on a good day but v.v.bad on the other 350 days of the year. Finally, move Arry along and bring Lambert or Martninez in (Arry is not Spurs, never was the case - another PR dress up - move him along and bring in a strong young visionary with a WHL legend to instill some tradition.
What I am noting is not unique and can probably be summed in short form with the following - time to stop the PR spin and take a hard look to the future. Even if Spurs qualify for the CL - what happens then? Team and framework is not built for medium term support. Failure to do the above will simply be reinforcing failure. Thoughts?