Tottenham Hotspur were looking to continue their run of decent results earlier today as we made the trip to Villa Park to face Aston Villa in our second tie of the 2019/20 campaign.
Having picked up all three points at White Hart Lane, victory today would see us genuinely put more recent poor form behind us, and make it three wins on the spin in the top flight and following our 3-2 victory, we’ve lifted ourselves up into fifth place in the Premier League table again.
It was far from an easy day though, Villa opened the scoring nine minutes in as Toby Alderweireld scored an own goal, but with the Belgian making up for his error to bring us level, we then took a little bit more control of the game and although Villa made it 2-2, when Son Heung-Min completed his brace deep into stoppage time, it was enough for us to take the win.
The game certainly had a few talking points, whether it be VAR again or the penalty itself, but can we make it four on the spin now?
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“Crawl Back Under Dark Rocks” – This Spurs Fan Has Had Enough Of The Negativity
Villa Park
Premier League
16/02/2020 3:00 pm
Attendance: 41874
Referee: Atkinson
| Aston Villa | Tottenham Hotspur | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alderweireld (og 9), Engels (53) | Alderweireld (27), Son Heung-Min (45+2, 90+4) | ||||||
| Reina | Lloris | ||||||
| Konsa | Aurier | ||||||
| Engels | Alderweireld | ||||||
| Hause | Sanchez | ||||||
| Guilbert | Davies | ||||||
| Drinkwater | 60 | Dier | 60 | ||||
| Douglas Luiz | Winks | ||||||
| Targett | Lucas Moura | ||||||
| El Ghazi | 70 | Alli | 83 | ||||
| Samatta | 83 | Bergwijn | 96 | ||||
| Grealish | Son Heung-Min | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Taylor | Vertonghen | 96 | |||||
| Nakamba | 60 | Lo Celso | 60 | ||||
| Hourihane | Gazzaniga | ||||||
| Trezeguet | 70 | Ndombele | |||||
| Baston | 83 | Skipp | |||||
| Nyland | Gedson Fernandes | 83 | |||||
| Elmohamady | Tanganga | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 18 | Goal attempts | 23 |
| 4 | On Target | 10 |
| 12 | Corners | 7 |
| 12 | Fouls | 10 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 55 | % | 45 |
Aurier comes under a lot of stick and I understand why. He does have faults that need to be worked on. But he also made some timely contributions in defence and attack last night. it should be recognised in my opinion.
I have to agree with HT’s comment in regard to Greaves and Son. Son has been nothing short of brilliant since he settled into the team. When he first arrived I did say that, being from SK, he will have limitless energy, be very quick and never give up. I didn’t expect he would be such a prolific scorer. What more do you want. All strikers miss far more goals than they score. That’s a reality that goes with the job.
I can’t help thinking that much of the criticism of players comes from supporters who have never played the game, have poor memories, or have little understanding of the game. Or perhaps they were so good that they never misplaced a pass, missed a tackle or failed to find the back of the net?
Being close to page two, I’m not sure what will happen with this post. I’d use the keyboard much more if the site was sorted!
Geofspurs….as I said to HT and his post regards Son, your post 12.26pm, spot on mate.
Am also in agreement with yourself regards Aurier, yes work to be done, but in truth who hasn’t. COYS
Wow …. no delay!!
There never is on the first post on page 2 Geof, it all goes downhill from there onwards! lol
When it comes to criticising players you need to ask two questions. First, is the players doing his best ? Second do we have anyone better to replace him with (bearing in mind with two games a week you need to rotate) ? If the answer to the first question is yes and the second no what do you think criticising the player is actually achieving ? you really don’t have anything constructive to say.
Allan…spot on there watching both, T20 ans Spurs, as I did, love it.
HT….To right, here we go for an excellent run in to the end, mind hearts a bit shaky lol!
JM’s squad/side is starting to look good, esp’ with effort all over the park by all players, never say die. COYS
Let’s go and take something off chelsea and let’s believe we can
Looks like s chance to over take Chelsea at the bridge. But we are so bad defensively will we just roll over as usuall.
Hi guys re your posts on Sonny. If he has a bad and scores 2 I’ll take that every day of the week. I hate to be Mr stats but when youre limiting teams to 4 or 5 chances in a game you must be doing something right. We have consistently done this lately I know we did a smash and grab against City but they only had 5 chances on target 1 of which was a pen. The improvement is there to see we are not vastly better just better and I think in Mourinho we now have a 2nd or 3rd tactic. Look at how/why he took Verts off last week he did similair with Dier earlier in the season. He is prepared to sacrifice the big name to get the result. I also think that getting rid of some players has also been a positive. We are not yet the cavalier free flowing Spurs I loved from years past but we are in parts starting to put some good football together and more importantly getting results which instills confidence and belief. What will we be like when HK10 returns. COYS.
We now have some very good rotation options in central and attacking midfield, and not too bad in defence, so I think we can cope with the number of games but the scheduling does add to the difficulty for us.
I’m in the draw camp for tonights game HT, that will keep Manu more at arms length but still leave us only needing a win on Saturday to overtake Chelsea.
Some good posts this thread. Yes sonny & dele missed a few chances each. yet we scored more than villa
… you could say in a five goals game spurs scored 4 goals !! 🙂
As we have all noticed, and I mentioned on here Jose has better tactical ability than poch ( remember a lot of games over 5.5 years we were all saying.. poch has no plan B or C.) So I now look forward to the way Jose sets us up to play the germans this week, and chaves at the weekend.
Gradually we are improving, and players are believing in Jose methods… COYS
Well personally I will criticise any player I feel warrants it…..as for the Grealish rubbish, it is possible to sign a left back, right back, and sign Grealish and he can actually play in midfield…..
TQ whilst I agree regarding central and attacking midfield – feel we are very short defensive wise – hopefully will be fully addressed in the summer. Poor result for us tonight unless we can win on Saturday – let’s wait and see what happens but I wanted a draw tonight but was not to be.
So will I Ossie. I have done so myself on here and I will do so in the future…
I’m talking about the non-stop slagging off of players that I often read, not constructive criticism or even a simple put down after a poor display.
And it’s not just the slagging off, it’s specifically about the forensic analyses that goes on about their every little move and/or errors. Or for their failure in not being “world class”. That’s right, I often read players being put down because a person thinks they are not ‘exactly world class’ and insinuating that they are ‘not really as good’ as some think and say they are… It’s laughable but bloody annoying too! I say save your nonsense throwaway appraisals for the opposition players, not the ones you are supposed to be supporting
I did specifically state that it was a certain type of criticism that I don’t like, not that there is criticism and there shouldn’t be any. I mentioned Sonny often being pulled up for being selfish and also not being solid enough as a defender. Even when he is scoring winning goals for us. This gets my goat. And this is after him running his heart out for the team and scoring a last minute winner. That is Sonny doing his job. Doing it for Spurs. A winner that could see us climb above Chelsea… If he wasn’t scoring goals and he wasn’t trying is darnest to score and create goals for his team and team-mates, then I wouldn’t be put out about it. But he definitely does try very hard in this and he does score plenty of goals. He has been all I thought he would be in Harry’s absence.
Even so, I have said myself a few times that I think he has under-performed recently. But I will balance that with: so what, he has still supplied the goods, still fone his job of scoring and creating goals. So what do I know? …. I do know that he’s not a defender!
It is just my opinion, that is all. It is my opinion on other peoples opinions that I fully accept they are fine to have but I happen not to like… 😉
As for Grealish, I’d love to see him at Spurs. I mean I wouldn’t say no to him if he were to join… If that then created a dilemma for our manager because he already has 25 left-sided attacking midfielders to choose from, then that ain’t my concern!
I thought we all approved of strength in depth. You know, like what proper football clubs do!
Hot Tottingham – So you spend a lot of money on a player you don’t need (Grealish) which means you don’t have that money to spend on a player you do (cover for Kane, a left sided defender). So you go into the next campaign with an unbalanced squad and you think that’s how to win things ? Strength in depth is two players for every position, not players you won’t use in some positions and no cover in others.
jod….in defense of HT here, I don’t think he meant “love to see Grealish here at all costs” he is saying I believe, as a lot of us are saying, Grealish would fit in the team but only at somebody else’s expense/place in squad thus allowing us to balance out in other positions that we all keep saying that is required, simple really Grealish only! instead of ?. COYS
Jod, that was just my tongue in cheek way of saying I like Grealish as a player…
The clue that I wasn’t really being serious, is that I exaggerated the amount of left-sided attacking mid’s that we already have. And that I insinuated that Spurs is NOT a proper football club without yet another attacking midfielder……
I also can’t really see a need for him at Spurs. And I don’t think we’ll see him at Spurs anyway… So, I agree with you.
Jod…. a decent post there, I agree, 2 top class players each position, and there are priorities in HK10 cover , RB, LCD (as jan looks out of it in summer TW).
As toby gradually declines Tanganga is already there. Lloris is the next problem.. keep gazza or new signing? Dier could well be sold, new replacement in summer, unless eric gets his health / form back.
Jod, i think the point with Grealish is that he would have been perfect for us 18 months ago when we could have signed him for a very reasonable fee. Eriksen was our only creative player and we needed someone to back him up/support him. But Levy put pay to that with his usual antics.