From Wolves to the Rossoneri

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on March 9th, 2011

Not long to go before tonight’s big match at the Lane. AC Milan are coming hoping to overturn their 1st leg defeat.

We’re 1-0 up thanks to Peter Crouch’s goal at the San Siro, but even still, it’s only a slender lead, therefore it certainly is all to play for.

Throughout our Champions’ League campaign I’ve always thought it’s best to just enjoy it and not expect too much, but due to our recent performances, I’ve got to admit to feeling rather anxious about tonight’s game.

We lost 3-1 at Blackpool, and then on Sunday drew 3-3 at Wolves. Unlike our trip at the ‘seaside’, we finally found our shooting boots and scored three fantastic strikes through Defoe (2) and Pavlyuchenko, but still our defence was about as solid as jelly.

I really don’t know what the problem is with the defence, whether it’s Gomes, who’s not commanding enough in his area, the centre-halves who aren’t shackling opposing strikers, or the full-backs who aren’t stopping crosses. Whatever the problem is, I just hope we defend better tonight!

The good thing about the Wolves game was Gareth Bale’s return, instantly he came on and ran with the ball, causing havoc in the Wolves defence. He even made a few chances which could have secured the win, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.

It’s looking unlikely that we’ll see Bale start tonight, but sounds like Rafael van der Vaart could following a spell out with a calf injury. If so, I’d be expecting the Dutchman and Peter Crouch playing upfront.

Vedran Corluka, who was on the bench at Wolves, is surprisingly fit, I suspect he’ll play, as Alan Hutton isn’t having the best of times of it of all, especially after conceding a needless penalty at Wolves.

Aaron Lennon and Wilson Palacios will I’m sure return to the first-team after being substitutes at Wolves, the question is where Luka Modric will play, as Harry could keep the Croatian on the left and stick with the impressive Sandro in the centre. Steven Pienaar would of course miss out, but he hasn’t set the world alight with his performances since joining Spurs.

Milan, who won 1-0 at Juventus at the weekend, will be without the suspended Gennaro Gattuso, also missing are injured duo Andrea Pirlo and Massimo Ambrosini. They still have the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho among other big name players, so it won’t be an easy task keep the Italians at bay.

It does sound like Harry intends to attack Milan, which as some say is the best form of defence, and considering our defence, it’s probably a good idea, but whatever happens, it looks like we’re in for another memorable night! COYS!

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Spurs beat Bolton, Manchester City next

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on May 5th, 2010

Following weekend victories for Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, it is now set us up for an exciting game tonight, where if Spurs win at City’s Eastlands stadium, we’ll wrap up fourth position in the Premiership.

At one point, City were losing to Aston Villa after John Carew scored but unfortunately for Spurs they came back and beat Villa 3-1.

Spurs on the other hand beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 with a stunning long range effort from Tom Huddlestone. The victory was deserved, even though Bolton didn’t have much to play for, they kept trying and thankfully didn’t come up with anything.

I would dearly love Spurs to get a win at City tonight, although, this being Spurs it is never simple. Anyone remembering what happened at West Ham a few years ago knows full well anything can happen. I just hope Spurs have employed a food taster for pre-match meals.

The referee tonight is Steve Bennett, who interestingly has only referred just two Spurs games all season. Wonder why that is.

From Harry Redknapp’s comments earlier, it sounds like it’s going to be a pretty open game, and they have some fine quality players with Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Craig Bellamy. The aforementioned are suspect temperament-wise but one cannot doubt their ability, and recently City have scored quite a few goals.

Interesting that ex-Spurs ‘keeper Marton Fulop will be in goal for City, he of course conceded a goal a minute after he came on as substitute for Sunderland when they visited the Lane earlier in the season.

The big question for us is who will be in goal for Spurs? Heurelho Gomes has a groin problem and we really need him, as there’s question marks surrounding Ben Alnwick. Also, as always, we have doubts over Ledley King, who played at the weekend.

I’m guessing if Harry is expecting an open game then he’ll stick with Luka Modric and Huddlestone in the centre of midfield. As we saw against Old Trafford a few weeks back, Wilson Palacios came back from suspension and didn’t play too well. So I’m expecting an unchanged team apart from the possibility of Gomes and King being out.

So what will happen? We do have a good record up at City, but with their influx of cash and better quality players, they’ve certainly improved. I’m sure they remember their defeat at White Hart Lane, which was their former manager Mark Hughes’ last game in charge, so perhaps they’ll be after blood.

I do have a feeling that we can get three points at City, but we’ve got to keep our heads. We’ve also got to start being more clinical, as tonight if we don’t, it could be costly.

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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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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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Crazy, crazy, Tottenham Hotspur

Posted by Stevio in Tottenham Hotspur on January 22nd, 2009

I’m just about recovered from Wednesday night. What a crazy night.

Spurs were 3-0 down and headed out of the League Cup until two minutes from the end of the extra time when Pavlyuchenko and Defoe popped up to secure a 6-4 aggregate win.

Now we have a final at Wembley to look forward to, with Manchester United our opponents. No doubt we’ll be the underdogs.

Before that we got a decent 1-1 result at home against Portsmouth, which puts us in 16th position in the Premiership. Problem is there’s another four teams on the same 21 points as us, one of them being bottom placed West Brom. We’re still very clearly in a precarious position.

Some positive news this week was Wilson Palacios making the move from Wigan Athletic to White Hart Lane. Admittedly I haven’t seen much of 24 year-old Honduran and so can’t say if he’s worth the reported £12m fee. He’s seems very highly-rated and did look decent when he played against us a few weeks ago, I just wonder about his disciplinary record, as he seems to get booked every game.

With just over a week to go of the transfer window left, it’ll be interesting to see if there’ll be any further signings. Two leaving appear to be veteran Cesar Sanchez and Hossam Ghaly, who look set to join Valencia and Al-Nasr respectively.

This weekend Spurs travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in the FA Cup. It appears that we’ll be fielding a below strength side. Admittedly I find this disappointing, however, with a game at home against Stoke three days later, I can understand it. I just hope whatever team is put out that they put in a good performance.

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