Well, it’s that time of the week again where Tottenham Hotspur fans turn their attentions back to our stuttering Premier League campaign.
With a flying start under new head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, performances were still a worry and we are now on a run of three straight (heavy) losses. Welcoming improved Aston Villa to White Hart Lane for Sunday’s afternoon action is not going to be an easy task with the Midlands side having secured back to back victories over Everton and Manchester United.
However, with a much improved showing in the midweek Europa Conference League clash with NS Mura, we should come into the tie with renewed confidence – particularly so for Harry Kane following his hattrick on Thursday evening.
In advance of proper team news, we should be largely as we were, as it’s not expected that Steven Bergwijn will return for this one, but Ben Davies is also likely out having missed the midweek game with suspected appendicitis.
We have the quality for all three points here, we just have to hope we turn up.
Good win. Sonny boy is so good!
Phew, Sonny at his best, to be fair we could have won that by 2 or 3 goals, Kane was much more involved 2nd half and could have put it to bed, hopefully getting some confidence back, very relieved. Good, not great win but 1 game at a time now. COYS.
Andre, just proves we all see things differently, my oppo’s, ST holders, gave me a report over the dog n bone, they all reckon HK was the worst player on the pitch, no real effort from him.
Though they did say Son n Emerson were both excellent, either for MOM. COYS
No spot on, he is nowhere near the Kane we know, anonymous first half but he got onto the ball a lot more in the 2nd half, I was actually thinking if we had a decent replacement he should have been subbed but there were glimpses, hit a very decent shot late in the 2nd half which we are used to seeing going in, but just a few signs to encourage me.
Well, we needed that.
Brilliant performance from Son..easily Man of the Match. Not bad from N’Dombele too. Emerson good on the attack.
They say that Nuno had lost the dressing room. Not really sure he had ever won it. Players do not seem to have a relationship with him. And he looks lost and anxious on the touch line.
We just deserved this one. Son could have had two wonder goals as well as his assists. Kane does not look very happy and missed two chances he would normally put away.
Four away games next in Prem so we had to win today to keep us out of the bottom group. Othetr games have just about gone our way.
That’s more like it! A bit of passion and desire goes a long way.
I will own up to saying we should have bought Tomiyasu instead of Emerson after the NLD defeat but I have to say he was fantastic today and I’ve changed my mind! 🙂
Great game, hard fought and we thoroughly deserved to win. Emerson and Lucas were great and Sonny fantastic. The weak link for me is Ndombele. Yes he has ability but he can’t carry a game and can be a liability with his over confidence in ball retention.
Will have to watch highlights to night at 10 on Sky, might be able to give an opinion then COYS
Workmanlike performance. Defence was sound and together. Emerson great down the right.
However, I just cannot get excited about Spurs except when Son has the ball. I did shout ooh and agh twice when he had great attempts on goal but that was it. Everything else is mechanical and unexciting.
N’Dombele has moments of tricky feet but we still need that midfield general who can control the game. Hojberjg and Skipp are solid.
As I said, Spurs are no longer exciting or good on the eye. Odd moments from Son and Emerson but so little flair. Lots to do and we haven’t got the coach or players to do it yet.
A well deserved win with Son excellent .
Not sure ref Emerson . Yes he had the best match for the team so far esp as an offensive player .
However he was not put under much pressure and allowed to come forward .
I reserve judgement on him ( not impressed so far although will be a def upgrade on Doherty ) and wait to see if he has improved when up against a nippy winger .
Some good link up play from the team with many chances created but some of our non pressured passing still requires work as well as dwelling on the ball nearly embarrassed us and still long balls to the opposition
Made hard work of it but deserved to win. If it had been down to me N’Dombele would have been substituted at half time. I don’t care how much talent he has, his attitude is all wrong. At least the team looked balanced, to my mind we have to play Hojbjerg and Skipp in tandem. Easier to do of course if Hojbjerg can score the odd goal. The question is who plays in that third midfield spot, not N’Dombele hopefully, but Lo Celsco, Dele or Gil ? Son and Moura played well and so did the defence. Kane was better in the second half but is nowhere near his best.
Much needed 3 points, but look at the cluster of teams packed together,
Evening folks
Trust youre all well,
Re today’s game, I just heard snippets, of commentary however, from what I heard it was fairly even with Spurs bit ahead with better chances, but I think around 80 odd minutes, we were playing keep ball, and definately after 90 there were chances but we took it to the corners to close off the game.
I would say their defence and keeper were the busier and Kane and LoCelso could’ve finished the game off.
Can’t say much from the highlights on MOTD, as I feel they made it look a bit more even than (maybe) it really was.
But will echo Jods comments that we looked a bit more balanced today, Romero, and Emerson look decent enough.
In short we never looked like losing that game, the best Villa were getting was a draw, but they didn’t.
Sonny fantastic..
I think we actually have a week to prepare now.
You can see the Euro games, starting to bite, a bit with Leicester and W/Ham.
TQ …. I thought it was a comfortable win for Spurs in the WSL. The only criticism is that they should have won by a lot more as many easy chances were not put away. I bet they didn’t expect to be joint top after four games! I bet City didn’t expect to be where they are either.
Hi Geof, yes this has been a common theme since we were promoted to the WSL, we have always and still lack firepower up front. If only we had a Sam Kerr! Our new Aussie (Simon?) has been missing through injury for most of the season so far so hopefully things will improve when she gets to play regularly. All round though it was a pretty dominating performance against the promoted side and we surprisingly still have a 100% record after 4 games.
A couple of other points from the game. Firstly we played with two attacking full backs rather than one as we have been doing. It seemed to work well, probably because the defence was getting protection from the midfield.
Secondly my low opinion of referees was reinforced. Villa should have ended the game with four or five players in the book for persistent fouling. But they didn’t. Last season referees booked everything, now they are booking nothing, its like an on/off switch. These are highly paid individuals, is it too much to ask that they do their job properly ?
Apart from some of their defending and a good game from their goalkeeper, I thought that Villa were very poor.
As for Spurs? There was some improvement. And as others have mentioned, Son was great. I also thought that we defended really well, with Royal and Dier standing out to me.
As with jod, I felt that Tanguy was not that good, overall. He does do some very good stuff. He does have great ability and skills. But it never seems to be enough. And, he often slows the play down too much.
Kane was better. But still nowhere near the level of energy and commitment that we saw from Son, for instance.
Good win. A much needed win.
And now we have another bloody International break to curb any momentum we may have got from this. Oh well…
Did you all notice the attendance – only 53,000 – the lowest for a premier league game at the new stadium by far. The number of season ticket holders putting their tickets up for sale was unsurprisingly very worrying. What must Levy be thinking, the money is safe for this season but next seasons season ticket sales could be interesting if we are not showing any signs of improvement. COYS
There are a few things to think about going forward. If you want to play the Hojbjerg/Skipp combination in every league game, I would argue we have to, then you don’t want to play them in Europe and burn them out. So the shape of the midfield for the European games needs thinking about. Then there’s who plays the attacking midfield role, I would argue it can’t be N’Dombele with his attitude, which basically means Lo Celsco or Dele. Nuno also needs a settled back line. Dier and Romero looked a good combination and I’d want to stick with that. Playing the two attacking full backs also seemed to work so again I’d stick with Reguilon and Emerson. The more they play together the better they are likely to perform.
jod….after watching 80+ mins of yesterdays game on Sky last night, I think am inclined to agree with you there.
So another International break is upon us, I bloody hate em!
Onwards and upwards though. COYS
jod re: your comments about N’Dombele. Unfortunately we have no one else at the moment. It is not Dele’s natural position…he should be feeding off Kane or supplying Kane in their box. Also, Dele is way off form.
As far as Lo Celso is concerned, he has scored once in 51 Prem outings. Missed 2 sitters yesterday to close out the game. Also he spends too much time falling over instead of riding tackles.
We are then left with N’Dombele and all his faults. Great feet, very skilful but infuriating.
We have never been the same since Eriksen and Dembele. Hence our football is mundane and lacking in inspiration. With no goalscorer/ free kick taker in midfield. We are relying so heavily on the magnificent Son.
Is ther no young player who can step up and be that missing link in midfield? Until we find an answer, we shall be the mid table team swapping places with fellow strugglers whilst the top 4 run away with things yet again. Just look at the wonderful play by Liverpool and Man C. yesterday.
It’s amazing to think that we are only one game away from second place on the table. We’re also one game away from dropping into a relegation battle. The problem is that we have too many players who are not the answer to our problems on the pitch. It’s easy to complain about the way Nuno sets up the team (and I suspect there will be a deluge of such complaints in the coming weeks) but what the hell is he supposed to do. If he is a workman and they are his tools ….?!
Morning folks
Just enjoying the win yesterday and the result.
WW, would disagree to a degree re Liverpool in particular, for two reasons, 1st half they were pretty average and on the back foot, but to their credit they turned it round in the second half and they did show some fight and passion and were very good in the 2nd half , but City were excellent throughout.
But I will say City should’ve been home and dry as Milner should’ve been off the pitch but for the ref, where was VAR? but then again just like Man U, Liverpool get the rub of the green most times.
I do think we will be in and around top 5 this season, looking at it everybody is dropping points.
W/Ham, Leicester, ManU, even City have all dropped points lately, but if we improve and certainly build on our defense and we start scoring again, things could be positive, but as usual the internationals come around at the wrong time.
Can’t argue with the result, and I thought the performance was better overall.
I still think we have lingering issues, and too many problems to really challenge for the CL places, but I feel this sort of performance is what we should aspire to every week.
We’ll potentially struggle against the better teams but we should be coasting against “middle of the road” teams like Villa more often than not.
That’s about how I see it at the moment, BS.