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 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-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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The good, the bad and the ugly

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on January 17th, 2009

It has been quite a while since my last post, since then things have improved, sadly even with a new manager installed, the results and the performances have not been good enough.

With 21 league games played this season, we’ve won 5, drawn 5, and lost 11, scoring 20 and conceding 26. We’re currently third from bottom in the relegation zone.

Something positive is that we’re still in all the cups, and all being well, we can at least look forward to a League Cup final.

The performance in our latest game – the defeat at Wigan Athletic – wasn’t our worst this season, however, it was far from our best.

Even though manager Harry Redknapp had made changes to compete with a physical Wigan side, many of our players failed to perform, most notably Gareth Bale.

In recent months there have been some positives, defender Michael Dawson has once again found his form and has been a rock at centre half, also Heurelho Gomes has overcome a spell of uncertainly to show that he’s more than a capable ‘keeper.

Upfront we’ve seen Darren Bent struggle despite scoring 12 goals this season, while fellow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko has improved of late with goals in the FA Cup and League Cup against Wigan and Burnley respectively.

Since the transfer window opened Jermain Defoe has returned to White Hart Lane in a big money move from Portsmouth. He scored 15 goals in 31 appearances for Pompey, fingers crossed he can keep the same 1 goal in 2 games ratio up at Spurs.

I have faith in Harry Redknapp to turn it around, however, the problems at Spurs are chronic, and I’m unsure whether the team’s problems can be solved in time to prevent relegation.

Harry needs to build a new team. The current one is so fragmented, sometimes it’s like watching a team of eleven strangers. You’d think after training and playing together the players would be able work together and know each other’s game – sadly not.

If it’s true that the club are splashing out tens of millions on players in a desperate bid to avoid relegation then I fear we may find out it’s a big mistake, as sadly I doubt a big turnover of players during this transfer window will save us from heading down into the Championship.

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Spurs duo extend stay

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on July 30th, 2008

Tottenham Hotspur duo Jermaine Jenas and Michael Dawson have both extended their stay at White Hart Lane until 2013.

Jenas told the club’s official website: “I’m delighted to have signed a new deal at the Club. These are exciting times with new players coming in so I was keen to commit myself to Spurs for another five years.

“We got a taste of success by winning the Carling Cup last season and I believe there is more to come. I definitely want to be part of a bright future for Tottenham Hotspur.”

Dawson added: “Spurs is a great place to be. I’ve been at the Club for three and a half years now and loved every minute of it. When I was offered a new deal I didn’t think twice about signing.

“The Club has progressed since I’ve been here. We won our first trophy in nine years and, hopefully, we’ll add some more silverware and finish a lot higher in the league next season.”

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Villa, Bolton and Newcastle in for Dawson?

Posted by Stevio in Rumours on June 4th, 2008

According to The Sun, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United are interested in central defender Michael Dawson.

A fee of £4m has been mentioned.

It would be sad to see the 24-year-old leave, especially after he showed early promise.

Granted, of late he doesn’t seem the same defender, however, he’s still young and I can see him coming good in time.

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