Tottenham Hotspur have the weekend off this time around, and therefore have longer to recover and bounce back from the FA Cup nightmare that was Middlesbrough earlier in the week. The question is, can we put recent poorer form behind us as we host struggling Everton at White Hart Lane on Monday evening and register back to back Premier League victories once again.
The game is almost set up as a must win in the battle for the European places this year, as after previous slip ups in what should’ve been very winnable games for us, whilst we still have a couple of games in hand on West Ham United, we need the three points to keep pace with North London rivals Arsenal and keep ourselves ahead of those below us in the table who will fancy their chances of a late surge as the 2021/22 campaign edges to a close.
In terms of injuries and selection problems, it’s pretty much a case of how we were when it comes to Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga, although we might see bench returns for Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Moura depending on how the next few days go.
With Everton languishing in 17th place and sitting a single point ahead of the relegation places, everything on paper should point to a comfortable three points for Spurs – but as this season has reminded us, we rarely do things the simple way.
TQ2Spurs – in theory, I agree. The redevelopment of the area around the stadium should have no bearing on football operations.
But when Levy was forced into making a mea culpa a few months ago, he mentioned “losing track of priorities”, and I thought that was telling.
If both things are managed separately and trusted to different teams, there is no reason to think the 2 are mutually exclusive.
But if the same people are in charge of nbboth, there are only so many hours in a day and these people will become the weak links inthe chain. One can only guess whether that’s where it went wrong with the stadium, but it’s got to be a concern going forward, for any future development.
Hi BS………I’ve always assumed that employing Paratici in the title of Managing Director of Football Operations is specifically to allow Levy to step back from day to day involvement of this side of the organisation so he can concentrate on the remaining part of the Northumberland Park development project which is still sizeable.
Put aside the fact that PAratici hasn’t really demionstrated his added value yet, I question the fact that DL is going to be able to stay out of transfer dealings.
I’d like to be proven wrong but DL is too much of a control freak to ever let go completely.
lol TQ …. I think I could get used to it!
I thought we deserved more than a point in the WSL. But it’s certainly a big improvement on last season.
Yes Geof, it has been a similar pattern for most of the season now, we have dominated the play in every game against lower opposition but we just can’t score goals. If I’m honest, I haven’t been very impressed with Kiyah Simon, she came with a decent reputation as a striker but hasn’t looked that dangerous in front of goal however, she does work hard for the team.
We could have moved into second place in the league with a win, this in itself would have been a tremendous achievement, I just hope the board recognise the potential to do well in the women’s game with comparatively small investment to improve the quality in our squad compared to the mens game. Viewing figures published in the UK recently show a huge growth in the number of people watching all womens sports which are getting more and more prime channel airtime.
Geof – time probably won’t tell, with regards to Bentancur.
Considering Bentacur has mostly played defensive midfielder in his career, and tallied 4 goals and 21 assists en 246 career club games, I think it’s fair to conclude that chance creation probably isn’t what Bentacur is usually trusted to do in teams.
His stats for Uruguay don’t really tell a different story either (1 goal and 2 assists in 47 games).
I suppose there is more to creating chances than merely looking comfortable on the ball.
Hi folks re Bentancour, I think HT sort of nailed his position sometime ago when he referenced the difference between Ericsson and Moderic, I feel Bentancur is perhaps more towards the latter, almost a “supplier to the playmaker” I think that’s sort of how HT put it at the time, but for me sort sums up where Bentancur is.
So for me we still need that industrious passing, free kick taking, shots from 18yrd box player.
Just my thoughts, but I do feel from the little I’ve seen so far that Bentancur is a step in the right direction and would like to see how the mid field would look with both him and Skippy playing.
Re tonite, hoping big style for a massive win, not a fan of “Frank” nor really Everton either, they’ve never been relegated in my time and its about time they had a wee taste of life in a lower league.
The only benefit is that it’s a bit easier to get to an away game for me there.
Hi all
Can’t watch the game tonight so we are bound to win . However will be checking my silent mobile for hopefully positive result .
I feel that the 2 new additions are a good step in the right direction with hopefully Skipp returning soon could set us up for an unrealistic league position .
BS little chance Levy will keep his nose out of the transfer trough in the Summer . No doubt he will leave all dealings to the final day !!!
Why employ people to do jobs and then interfere ?
Allan- great question. None of us know, and it makes no sense to any of us…
Oh Nooooo! We still have Doherty playing and Emerson and Winks on the bench.
What is the matter with this club? Why no Paskotsi or Devine?
What is the point of constantly playing these miserable failures.
We must give youngsters some hope. We only have White (who never gets a chance like the pathetic 90 seconds that Scarlett gets)
I do find Tottenham Hotspur a very sad club at the moment. After all these years, we are pretty grim to say the least. Roll on the summer.
What is the point of having an academy?
Ho ho ho. I knew it. I had a good ole moan and then we won. But, oh dear, Everton were very poor.
Thanks to Son and Kane yet again. Lots of workmanlike from the others although Bentancur looks promising.
Our next best scorer is someone called Own Goal.
Good to see Dele given a warm reception but he did look lost and must be wondering what he is doing with Everton. What happened to that exciting young player we once had?
Well on to Man Utd. If we can beat them our season is back on track.
I am fed up . Every match I have not seen we have won and matches I have seen we play very poorly and lose .
However there seem to be some good reports ref Doherty .
In some of the recent matches I have watched he appears to have had some impact on the game and improved slightly .
Has he really improved that much last night or were Everton so poor that he had ample space in which to work ?
I thought Kulusevski was outstanding last night. Another 2 assists.
Doherty is finding a bit of form too.
Shame for Sessegnon, who is so injury-prone. As soon as he starts playing better, he gets injured.
Dele, thanks for the memories, but it’s more of the same at Everton. You’re someone else’s problem now.
PS Allan you’re not allowed to watch Spurs games any more!
Loved the game, obviously 5-0.
But Doh stood out again, played very well, Kulu, great signing, bringing the player we signed from Wolves out of him, a great partnership in the making there.
Bentacur, he is beginning to look like the player we are/have been missing, battled, didn’t get knocked over easily, wanted the ball, knew what he was going to do with it, great passing ability.
For me mom was between Doh and Bents, Bents just got it as far as I was concerned..