Manchester United v Spurs preview

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 23rd, 2010

So later we take on Manchester United at Old Trafford. What’s the first thing to do? Yes, see who the referee is. Thankfully it isn’t Howard Webb, but Andre Marriner instead. Whether the latter will go down in the memories of Spurs fans as being a United fan is yet to be seen.

Team news-wise it’s looking better with Wilson Palacios back after his suspension. Also Ledley King and Jermaine Jenas could be available too.

The biggest news is that Aaron Lennon could be involved. Must say the prospect of having Gareth Bale down the left wing and Lennon down the right is mouth watering.

Even though we’ve won our last two games, I think Palacios will come in and strengthen the midfield, partnering Tom Huddlestone. Luka Modric I’m guessing would then move out to the right, where I don’t think he’s as effective.

I do wonder if there’ll be any changes upfront as Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko haven’t scored in open play for a month. Eidur Gudjohnsen could come in and play deeper.

Of course, it’s always tough at Old Trafford, however, over the years we’ve threatened to get a good result there. Sadly though, there always seems something, or should that be someone, who always tips the balance in United’s favour. I think we’re due a result there, and now is a good time to get it.

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Spurs 2-1 Chelsea

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 17th, 2010

In the space of a few days, Spurs have beaten not only beaten third place Arsenal 2-1, they’ve today beaten Chelsea 2-1. Fantastic!

Chelsea’s performance today was quite shocking, they looked like what they are, a team of over-the-hill players. Sure, they threatened, but Spurs were more than a match for them with a work-rate that a Premiership winning side would be proud of.

Michael Dawson was his usual self, dominating whatever or whoever came into his path – how come he isn’t first choice for England at centre-half I’ll never know! But the whole defence and midfield stood firm, making sure Chelsea had no time and space to create chances.

Once again Gareth Bale raided down the left hand side of midfield and got behind their right-back Paulo Ferreira on several occasions, one time it looked like we should have been given a penalty when the Welshman was brought down, however, it wasn’t long until we got a penalty after John Terry handballed a David Bentley cross. Jermain Defoe didn’t miss this time!

Just before half time Bale not only charged by Ferreira, he scored after cutting inside on to his right foot and firing into Petr Cech’s near post. It was such a fantastic goal, and just shows how Bale is getting better and better.

In the second half we had plenty of chances to go even further ahead, for example Defoe through on goal but couldn’t find a way passed Cech. Bale too one-on-one with Cech, but he fired wide. Same too for Roman Pavlyuchenko, but again wide. No joy!

Even after Chelsea were down to ten men following John Terry’s red card, they still looked like they could conjure up a goal, and they did after Frank Lampard tapped home a Michael Ballack cross, thankfully it was late too late and Spurs got back to where they belong, fourth place!

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Spurs v Chelsea preview

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 17th, 2010

After a fantastic win on Wednesday against Arsenal, this afternoon Chelsea are the visitors to White Hart Lane.

Currently we’re 5th in the Premier League, two points behind Manchester City, with a game in hand, who at the moment of writing, are playing at home against rivals Manchester United. Hopefully, United will pull off a win, as we need City to drop points.

Chelsea being the top of the league will be tough opponents, as we’ve seen in the past, however, we know we can beat them.

Sadly there’ll be no Niko Kranjcar, who is out for the rest of the season with an ankle ligament injury. Vedran Corluka and Jermain Jenas are still out. Wilson Palacios is still suspended, but thankfully this will be his last game.

There’s question marks whether Ledley King will play due to his long standing injury problems, Harry Redknapp says the defender is a ‘possibilty’ to play, let’s hope so, as he was just sublime against Arsenal.

Aaron Lennon won’t play but it’s wonderful to hear he’s back in full training. He’d give the team such a boost if he was available for the rest of the games.

I’m guessing Younes Kaboul will continue at right-back due to Corluka’s injury. I have to admit, he was pretty solid against Arsenal, although for some unknown reason they didn’t really try to test him.

I doubt there’ll be too many changes all in all, afterall, you don’t change a winning team. I do wonder what will happen upfront, as Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko didn’t really combine very well. So perhaps Peter Crouch will come in or Eidur Gudjohnsen will face his former club?

For sure it’ll be another big test for us, but like I said prior to the Arsenal game, we’ve got good form at home, so let’s hope we can pull off another exciting victory!

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Danny Rose goal against Arsenal

Posted by Stevio in Videos on April 15th, 2010

“Oh what a goal… it’s Danny Rose on his Premier League debut with a memorable strike… can you believe it?” I certainly can and just want to watch it over and over. So special.

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Spurs 2-1 Arsenal

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 14th, 2010

So happy that Spurs managed to pull off an outstanding 2-1 win over Arsenal. Sure, it was a tough game with Arsenal having lots of possession, but for most part of the game, they failed to break Spurs down.

The opening goal was just fantastic, Danny Rose got on the end of an Almunia clearance and volleyed home from 30-yards out. Admittedly, I was shocked to see it go in, but a good kind of shocked!

Rose was a surprise starter in place of David Bentley, but with goals like that, hopefully he’ll have more chances in the Spurs first team.

The second half started and soon after Gareth Bale had put us two-nil up. Jermain Defoe with a beauty of though ball found Bale in the penalty area, who just tucked the ball home. How Bale ended up in a striking position I’ll never know, but the Welshman is so full of running, you can expect him to appear anywhere on the pitch at any time!

Of course, even being 2-0 up the game was never over, especially against a side like Arsenal. They pressed and pressed and eventually got their goal through Bendtner, this despite some wonderful goalkeeping from Gomes.

Thankfully they failed to get the equaliser with Gomes and our defenders standing firm. Michael Dawson was his usual solid self after the disappointment of the weekend, also Ledley King was outstanding considering how long he’d been out injured.

All in all, a wonderful victory that puts the horrors of Sunday to the back of one’s memory.

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FA Cup semi loss and Arsenal preview

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 14th, 2010

Well it didn’t go too well on Sunday, did it? I’m still pretty ticked off over it. Sure we didn’t perform to our best, but we still should have won. We had so much possession, plenty of shots, as well as some quite good opportunities to score, but like games against Stoke and Wolves, we just can’t get the ball across the opposition’s goal line.

We can blame the pitch, which let’s face it certainly contributed to Portsmouth’s first goal, and we can blame the referee for ruling out clear goals and giving penalties when he shouldn’t, but the fact is we should have enough quality and know how that these decisions shouldn’t count as much.

So now our FA Cup dreams are over, we only have the little matter of hosting Arsenal tonight. It should be a good game, as it’s unlikely Arsenal will play ‘anti-football’ like Portsmouth, although with no Wilson Palacios due to him finally getting his yellow card on Sunday, and no Niko Kranjcar to injury, it’s going to be tough. Some good news though is that Ledley King could return.

Sol Campbell is likely to play against us, which always brings added ‘entertainment’.

We’ve got good form at home, and we really need to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointment, so let’s hope we can get a positive morale boosting victory tonight!

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FA Cup Semi-Final preview

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on April 11th, 2010

I’ve finally managed to fix the blog, as there was quite a few problems with it. All should be working fine now.

Ironically this comes on a pretty big day for Spurs – an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley!

A week ago I would have been confident, however, our performance at Sunderland was pretty poor. Of course, ‘freakish’ refereeing decisions and fluke goals didn’t help.

I’m hoping today’s referee Alan Wiley will have a good game and not make any silly decisions. It’s so irritating when referees don’t do their job properly – Howard Webb take note!

I’m really concerned over the injuries of late, the loss of Michael Dawson for example against Sunderland was huge. We need him! I also think Tom Huddlestone is a key player for us, with his ability to pass the ball around.

Sadly though, no Aaron Lennon for today’s game. It sounds like he’s on his way back though, just not yet. Yesterday whilst watching Chelsea beat Aston Villa in the other FA Cup semi-final, seeing Ashley Young reminded me of Lennon, of course, Lennon is far superior, but I so miss having him giving left-backs nightmares.

So will we win? Well Portsmouth have had a tough time with injuries too, but apparently they have few players returning from injury, so it’s difficult to say. We did beat them 2-0 at the Lane a few weeks back, so we should be confident of getting the win. Sadly, this is Spurs, and nothing is ever straight forward. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope we can make it to the Final!

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