After another dull and boring international break as many of us ignored the serially uninspiring Gareth Southgate stick with his preferred 1-7-0-3 formation for England, the positives for Tottenham Hotspur were both rest and no further injuries that I noted.
With the Premier League return this weekend, Sunday sees us welcome the Appy Ammers to White Hart Lane and manager Jose Mourinho will be hoping to see his side build on our solid recent victories, particularly the 6-1 thumping of Manchester United.
On an injury front, there’s some hope and expectation we can get a first glimpse of the returning Gareth Bale. Giovani Lo Celso and Eric Dier should also come back into contention as well, but according to PhysioRoom.com Japhet Tanganga will again be missing.
Spurs’ own injury update in the next day or two should clear things up.
Despite West Ham having joy ahead of the break with victory over Leicester City, we need to keep our own momentum going and jumping ourselves to ten points would begin opening up that gap in the table, even if it’s still very early days in the campaign.
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How poor was bale when he came on. Porbfrom set pieces and stupid free kicks given away.
Well Well !!
Words fail me . What a shambles !!
All the good work which has happened in the last month has completely been undone .
I will let others analyse the game but why oh why did we allow them to press in the 2nd half with us trying to hit on the counter ?
I know HK hit the post and Bale fluffed his lines but >>
Same old …
There was only one team in and perhaps because of our negative tactics they deserved the point ?
As you rightly point out DH…..2 points from our 3 home league games isn’t exactly title winning form.
If it were down to me I would show the video of them celebrating Lanzini’s goal in our changing room before every match from now until the end of the season to remind the players what happens when you don’t play for the full 90 minutes.
Oh dear. That was so Spursy. From the sublime to the ridiculous. I knew that as soon as W. HAM scored we would capitulate. Bringing on Moura and Winks was very poor. Winks offers very little and Moura is no longer a threat. Should have moved our best midfielder and defender, HK10 into midfield and brought on Vinicius to pressurise them. As it was we lost Son and N’Dombele for 2 mediocre subs and sat back. We went from 2nd in the Prem to 6th . Where were Dele and Lamela . Winks and Moura should have been spectating not playing they have both become so ordinary.We have a good squad now but play the best when in the Premier. Very poor from Jose. He should take the blame. Second half was pretty grim. Why was Jose not up shouting and motivating instead of slumped on his thrown scribbling notes.
Lamela (and Lo Celso) were injured and Lucas only came on for the last 10 mins or so of the game. The idea was obviously to have a pacy front man to take advantage of a team chasing the game and I didn’t see him doing much wrong. Still, if having a go at a manager you despise and players you don’t think much of helps you to get over this disappointing draw so be it. You do it your way I’ll do it my way (see my comment below).
WW
Agreed re the subs. I thought closing off a game may have been Winksy strength.
I don’t know exactly what is.
I know for definate at least 1 mediocre player brought on.
Still in a bit of shock.
I don’t mind that Spam got a point but I’m well irritated that we gave away 2.
Do me a favour guys! Spurs were brilliant in the first half and only drew because of an own goal that deflected in the far corner of the net and a wonder strike from someone (who hasn’t scored in yonks) in the last seconds of the game that no team could have stopped. There was also the Bale miss that could have finished off the game which resulted from another brilliant move with some great footwork from Bale that he would have put away if he had had more game time. Sometimes sheer bad luck swings games, as happened against Newcastle and as happened when Everton got a very lucky point against Liverpool. To slag off the lad and Mourinho in these circumstances is the response of petulant kids who have had their sweeties snatched away rather than of seasoned supporters who should know that shit happens in football regardless of how your team has performed.
Good post…. nothing beats luck
Stan, just read your post, totally agree. mate. COYS
100% Stan
As I said in an earlier post an OG and a, worldie doesn’t make us, a bad team.
What I will say is that I would argue that people covering for Aurier caused the two goals.
I would argue that the free kick given for the first was given by Sissoko covering for an out of position Aurier and the clearence by Winks should really hav been where Aurier was.
When he is on the field we are weak down the right hand side.
Sorry he needs to go. Get someone else in to compete with Doh.
I’d love to be a petulant kid Stan but as someone of pensionable age I don’t think I would get away with it. If you are comfortable with conceding a game that we were 3-0 up in inside 16 minutes then you clearly have very little expectations in terms of our club actually winning any silverware and/or titles.
Not comfortable TQ2. But I think I’m more understanding of the ups and downs of football which are sometimes out of the control of the team you support.
But that’s the point Stan…….the game was well within our control for 82 minutes, the fact that we couldn’t maintain that control for just another 8 minutes or so is what is both worrying and frustrating. That’s why my reaction is what it is……we are so close to being title/cup contenders but trip up on our own laces every time!
Losing after being up by three goals isn’t good no matter how you try to square it. That should not happen. Full stop.
Full stop? How could that last shot have been stopped. It was described as a once in a career shot!
That may be so Stan but if we hadn’t conceded the two previous goals through poor defending the worldie would have been the spectacle it was but wouldn’t have cost us two points!
TK
Just seen you quoting me earlier.
So remind me of the last time we beat Man U 6-1.?
All you guys spouting Jose out are lost in some haze about Poch and how Brill he was.
Reality check TK and others we won FEK ALL, I’ll say it again FEK ALL with Poch as manager.
I enjoyed the ride with him but its over time to move on.
Like many here I’m neutral re JM.
But can’t blame him for this one or the Newcastle one.
I was listening to Talk Sport earlier today and people were talking about us being title challengers.
If SANCHEZ had of kept his head out of the way we were sitting 2nd tonight.
So you and some others don’t want JM.
Who do you want then?
Spurs draw and it definitely feels like a loss. The Hammers draw and it definitely feels like a win. Same result but totally different emotion for both sets of supporters. It’s a funny old game.
I’ve been on a high since the United game and now I’ll be on a low until the next game. It can’t be good for your health.
Not sure why we sat back in the second half. We could have gone on with our first half performance and looked to double the score but the substitutions did not allow this to happen.
We defended well by attacking in the first half. When we sit back there is always the feeling that the other team will score if we keep letting them put crosses into the box. It’s just a matter of time. Giving opponents too many unnecessary corners and free kicks is a real concern if we are intent on defending. There are very deep and meaningful lessons to learn from this result …. if there is the willingness to be educated.
I agree with you, Geoff. Spurs looked a completely different team in the second half. It looked like they had settled for 3-0 and were happy to just sit back and defend it. Was that the players or Jose? I would have thought being 3 up at half time the attitude would have been “ ok boys, let’s go out and get another 3”. It obviously wasn’t. I don’t understand it! Or was it West Ham?
Hi Ekk …. Don’t know whose decision it was to change the play in the second half, but it wasn’t a good one.
Niall D. My dislike of JM has nothing to do with Poch, nor with today’s play. I’ve been following the man since he was managing in Porto. In the Portuguese language papers. Let’s face it: anyone who wants to be called “the special one” isn’t committed to the club, but worships himself, and although self-love can be done in a decent way, JM demands it in an indecent way. I don’t mind the there a people like JM around, but I regret the day he became associated with the club that I have loved for well more that half a century. 6 x 1 vs Manure doesn’t change anything, nor does today’s ridiculous display of giving up a three-goal lead. This is football FFS, not the NBA. Three goals. lead. thrown away. But that’s not the basis for my not wanting this miserable man at N17. I do not like the perennial negativity associated with this fellow. Full stop.
Who do I want then? you ask? Anyone but Mourinho. I’d as soon take back Harry Redknapp. lol. at least he knows he’s the not so special one.
As to Poch: I never felt embarrassed by him. I’d like to see THFC win the league, but I really don’t want to feel embarrassed by our association with JM while doing so. To me, he is an embarrassment. It would take a real sea change to change that. The last miracle on that level I’ve experienced was back when Peaches Ryder gave me some tongue back aroud 12 or 13 years olf. No need to ask who she was. I’d have allowed that to go on forever, but she was out of my league. I’d like another miracle now to take JM out of the Premier League.
I said before the game that it would be a test of how far Jose had got in toughening us up, the answer is not far enough. This was the old Spurs, throwing away a good lead. Its been going on far too long and it has to change.
I was interested to hear Carragher’s comments, criticising not just our defence but defending generally. He questioned whether there were any really good defenders around at the moment. He has a point, does Van Dijk stand out because he is that good or because everyone else is mediocre ? It used to be that there were a lot more quality defenders around than forwards, now it seems to be the other way around.
What that does is change the rules. There was a time when the third goal killed the game , not any more. If a shark stops swimming it dies, in the same way it seems if a team stops scoring it starts leaking goals. Managing the game out seems to have disappeared. Against United we kept going forward, against West Ham we tried to sit on a lead, in modern football that seems a bad option.
jod …. Good point. If defending became so effective that few goals were scored everyone would be wondering where all the good strikers are. It’s the defenders job to stop goals and its the strikers job to score goals. Good defenders will defend well. Good strikers will score goals. They are all in the mix that is football. At the moment there are a fair number of very good attackers in the PL. No matter how good the defending is …. they will score goals. It comes down, as you suggest, to managing each game.
I have just finished watching my recording of the game yesterday, to watch it with a different perspective, I am now going to try and give my calmed down opinion, that’s even after reading some good, some bad posts on here, right here goes…..
A hard lesson will or should be learnt after that game, thus could/should quite easily be a turning point in our season as there is still a long way to go yet, played 5, W2 D2 L1.
The old saying came in “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings” yesterday proved that.
A certain amount of luck is required in all games, they did have some/lot of luck, ours disappeared…
Their luck = 3 goals, 1st crap defending by Sissoko, 2nd OG poor or bad luck by Sanchez and 3rd Lanzini’s worldie, won’t happen again, plus add why didn’t VAR look at the off the ball foul on Winks who was trying to stop Lanzini…
Our luck…Kane hitting the post, 9 out of 10 times it would have been a goal, thus game over, plus him trying to get his hattrick when he could have passed to a player in a better position, then you have Bale not scoring that sitter, it happens.
When winning keep the pressure on, simple, as we did v MU, that game 3 goals clear at HT, scored again early in the 2nd, MU’s heads down, same should have happened yesterday.
There is the problem that winning so easily at HT can have a negative affect, and the HT talk by the losing team is “go out there and win the 2nd, at least go down trying because anything can happen”, thus yesterdays result, we should have known that and not take our foot off the pedal that we had in the 1st, but we did and is now history, lessons will/should be learnt.
Another point is, in that 2nd half, how many goal scoring chances did they make with all their possession/attacking football, 1 comes t mind, against how many chances we had, chances made, we won that, but ended up dropping 2 pts, that’s football I suppose. COYS
You do not hand over the initiative to your opponents and try to manage the game to a win,