Tottenham Hotspur received an unexpected break on Tuesday evening with news that our EFL Cup tie with Leyton Orient had been postponed following a Coronavirus outbreak in their ‘bubble’ – so we move swiftly on to Thursday evening’s Qualifying Third Round Europa League clash with Shkendija.
Whatever happens with Orient, is now up in the air with claims they could field a squad who tested negative and the rumblings of the game potentially going ahead next week and then maybe a bit of readjustment for the fourth round tie (making the assumption we would be victorious!).
For now, it’s a couple of extra days off for manager Jose Mourinho’s group but I doubt the extra 48 hours in effect will do anything for us on an injury front with the returning Gareth Bale still ruled out until mid-October, Sergio Reguilon out until the weekend and Japhet Tanganga still sidelined.
Still, there are plenty of positives to come out of the Southampton clash, and even though we don’t now play tonight, allowing for some rotation, the players will definitely want to follow on with another win in Europe.
Shkendija...
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Super Sunday For Spurs But MotM After Southampton Demolition Is A More Difficult Question
At least we are at home next week but up against what I believe is a higher quality side.
Not exactly a classic. Lots of possession but not much done with it. Too many attempts wide of the mark. A lot of huffing and puffing really. But we got the result in the end. I suppose these Euro nite’s in the ar+e end of nowhere are difficult.
There are a few who need to have a word with themselves performance wise.
As always there seems to a bit of a “buy anybody” philosophy to transfer discussions on this site. We can’t get the centre forward we need ? no matter we’ll buy a defender instead, just as long as we spend some money …
Good result, OKish performance – we dominated them at least for the most part which was encouraging.
Sonny MOTM for sure, followed by N’Dom – great game from him and brilliant to see him play the full match out – have to concede it’s starting to look as if him, with Lo Celso and Hojbjerg protecting is going to be the way forward for us in that central midfield area – shame for Dele especially but also even Winks and Sissoko but that’s the way it looks like it’s going to have to be – that said great cover to have with the experience those 3 regular’s from our past couple of season’s can and will provide, etc!
Shame there was no clean sheet, but I would say that was more down to a lack of proper pressing and covering from midfield rather than any defensive or GK errors, did see Dele trying to get back at least and cover before the shot was made but could not get there in the nick of time unfortunately – shame for him personally and should really have scored also in the 1st half with a good chance – overall thought he did OK and at least tried hard which is commendable and hopefully JM takes this on board.
Thought apart from the above, Lo Celso was impressive when he came on (pretty usual now), HK10 did his bit coming on with that 3rd goal after a disappointing miss a bit earlier, Aurier got up and down well, sneaked into some excellent positions and finally got some quality crosses off into the box – shame he did not come away with at least 1 assist as he definitely deserved, Lamela took his goal brilliantly but could and should have had more with some better finishing.
At the end of the day what really mattered was the result and we got that – so now onwards and upwards to Sunday at home v Newcastle and at least the next 2/3 games will be at home before Utd away the following Sunday and then hopefully a bit of respite with the international schedule coming up (although a lot of our players will still continue to be involved and it’s 3 games in a week or so roughly – certainly far from ideal again)!
Finally what exactly are the authorities playing at as regards the Carabao – it’s now Friday and still no decision over Tuesday and the 4th round starts this coming Tuesday already – we need to know ASAP so JM can plan accordingly for example with the Newcastle game already on Sunday at 2pm and if we then have to face someone (be it Orient or Chelski on Tuesday, etc) – bloody ridiculous handling of it all quite frankly!
As for transfers obviously going to be 1/2 in’s quite possibly and definitely quite a few out’s still for sure – looking fwd to seeing what the next 10 days bring finally …………….!
Watched the game, no breakdowns lol! so watched all of it, hot n humid has been mentioned, thought so as JM was in a shirt only, ok plus his trolley’s lol!, the temp was probably the reason for our slow possession and not really going for it.
The our game play was very lethargic and the commentator actually said about us not being quick enough, passing the ball wise, because JM was screaming from the sideline “move it quicker”.
Anyway, whatever we won, was on the cards that there was going to be only one winner, job done now back to home for next weeks decider. COYS
Now we can all celebrate getting a bye in the Carabao cup……
Then we can all go crazy when we get knocked out next week, by Lampard’s Lads!
A bye does help for sure, now for Chelski – if you’re going to win it – you normally have to beat at least 1-2 of the top 6 to do so unless you get a ridiculous run of forture – so fair enough that we have to play such already in rd 4 and at least we’re at home so that should hopefully help (if nothing else no travelling for the next 3 games as all at THS until Utd away on the 4th October)!
Be interesting to see us pit ourselves against a top side who similarly have done heavy recruiting this summer also, shame that we’ve only got 1 day’s proper rest in between Sunday afternoon v Newcastle and Tuesday night not to mention then playing Thursday night again in the EL decider, but so be it so let’s just get on with it as best we can and see what we can come up with – hoping for 3 victories (obviously) however they may come (though)!
You would think that the powers that be want us to lose in these competitions.
Before JM took over even Poch complained re domestic fixtures and the intransigence from the
FA to help English clubs win in Euro competitions and how the Spanish moved their domestic games to help teams progress in Europe.
Busy week next week hopefully we’ll bag em all with no ET.