Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea

If there's any consolation to be had tonight: spare a thought for Orient fans. 112 consecutive years in the Football League and they now face relegation plus a possible winding-up order and liquidation of assets unless there is a dramatic turnaround sharpish. From League 1 play-off final to nothingness in less than 3 years. When it rains, it well and truly ****s on you.

 

Too true CK it's about time the league and prem paid more attention to these people that take over our clubs just to use them as a play thing or a cash cow before tossing them aside and going to **** up something else

 

Cheer up everyone

 

I ****ing love the bloke but I can't help but put 90% of the blame for our loss today on Poch. The two stupid lunges by Toby and Son (even though Moses dived apparently, it was still silly to dive in) were obviously costly and the ref was atrocious but I think we could've been so much better if Poch hadn't taken silly risks with the selection.

Was a great day out (result aside of course), got sun burnt in the pub garden and then sitting row 1 in Wembley meant I was right in the sun again for most of the game, so safe to say my head is on fire right now! But we had a laugh, we drank in The Torch pre-match, aside from obvious chants, it was a great moment when everyone in and outside the pub chanted "Beers up, for Ehiogu! Beers up, for Ehiogu!" and then followed by "he's one of our own", easily 300+ fans all saluting the great man. A shame we didn't do him justice today though.

As for the game itself, going back to Poch's selection, having Son as LWB just made 0 sense whatsoever when Ben Davies was fit and even though I think Tripps is a great RB, in a Semi Final match against Chelsea, Walker just has to start. Tripps in fairness didn't do much wrong but I felt Walker's pace would've made Alonso **** himself again like he did at WHL and therefore would've made him much more reserved about bombing forward as much as he did, ironically when Kyle came on I don't think Alonso ventured much into our half from then on.

We had so much possession but done very little with it, it felt a very un-spurs-like performance for most periods, in the chances we did create, we scored two goals! So I'm not sure why were dilly-dallying on the ball for too long in periods. Chelsea didn't create much either, they had a penalty and freekick which they scored from and then only about three other shots in the match with two being converted... That's the clinical level we need to be at.

****ing gutting to lose yet another semi final, especially knowing we could/ would have been better with a fully strength side.

I'm hoping this loss lights a fire in the lads, hopefully Palace and especially Arsenal will now feel the wrath of a pissed off Spurs. Equally I'm also hoping the win for Chelsea puts them in party mode and causes a couple of slip ups in the Prem. We can only dream, eh?

 

It's interesting to read about the penalty because I sat directly behind the linesman so had the same view as him. For me it was a penalty. Talking at half time to the people around me and it was agreed it was a poor challenge and a definite pen. Guess it sometimes depend on what view you have at the time.

 

TV replays showed that there was no contact whatsoever. There was one in particular that showed it as a blatant dive, but it was only shown the once and was not shown in the experts decision that it was a penalty. A BBC technician is probably out of a job now for not keeping to the narrative.
EDIT. I didn't think it was a penalty when I saw it real time either.

 

When I first saw it it looked like a pen. One of the reasons the dive happened was I think Moses couldn't believe the opportunity given to him to get a pen and nearly fluffed his lines. But there was a camera angle immediately available that showed it to be a dive, and anyone reviewing it would have seen that in a few seconds. How long can the result of important occasions be left to the whim of the officials who get a limited view? I don't even blame the ref for that one (I blame him for all the other wrong decisions) because as OS said, it did look like a pen from the line, but the right decision was available had the system been there to allow it to be used.

 

Ridiculous challenge but it didn't touch Moses. He saw Son coming and lay down. Nobody seems to see it as diving anymore. Maybe the law is now that if it could have been a foul then it's a free kick?

It was a terrible mistake. I heard Davies wasn't fit enough to play the whole game. It's gutting that the lack of Davies and Rose saw us lose at their place as well.

 

Me neither. Looked a dive. He went down quicker than one of my mate's ex-wives. She didn't need touching either!

 

Son's attempted tackle was reckless as he slid across Moses' path with no realistic chance of getting the ball fairly.
But Moses seemed to avoid contact before going down theatrically.
I don't think there needs to be contact for it to be a foul. If Moses goes to ground off balance in legitimately avoiding contact, then it's a foul.
But the way he went down suggested it was a dive.
I'm just not sure how an official could call it as a dive though when you look at the way Son lunged across his path.

 

Yeah, I was on the other side and it was hard to say. The action looked like a foul from Son but the action from Moses looked a dive. Maybe a dive but wouldn't be surprised if Alli would've done the same, it's not a big deal to me.

Alonso was a bit lucky to stay on the pitch, I felt and the ref failed to deal with their constant fouling but there we go.

Tough day but one I don't feel too bad about. We started a bit nervey but we got to grips with the game and dominated. It just so happened that they cleaned up with all their chances, plus a fairly non-chance at the end. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.

People will say we needed to win a trophy this season but we've proved our point, we're up there as the best in the league. If you'd offered me the choice between a trophy and keeping the team together I'd take the latter in a heartbeat. If we can keep them together the trophies are on the horizon regardless. I hope we put in a good final 6 and show how good we are.

COYS

 

Picking a really unexpected lineup makes the manager look like a genius when it works--as it did a number of times this year. But looking at how we played, I think we looked fairly good in their end. But we gave up four goals in one game to a team we'd given up one goal in two games to earlier this year. We defended as if 3/4 first choices at the back were missing. So you'd have to say the lineup was not a good idea, especially as "never change a winning game" is my broken record. As to calls: I was yelling at the screen, but in a game like this I don't really trust my judgement. And I'm nearsighted, in addition to being Spurs-sighted.

Well, we have more chances to win really big games this year. As many as six and no fewer than three, I think. Let's hope we take advantage of it. I had a hunch this game might not have the effect on the title race most expected. Let's hope that hunch was correct.

 

On the plus side I stuck a fiver on the 3'oclocks and got £120 back

 

Alot of positive takes on the game..but i think we messed up, we cant always be inching closer and learning for next time, we do need to win something before players get impatient(even though ironically it's their own fault).

Let's hope the boys are hurting and want to prove a point. Like Brian said, we have to beat Palace for so many reasons.

 

I don't dislike Chelsea....it's the bastards that "play" for them!

Perhaps they will do a Barcelona.Barca used all their luck up against PSG and ran out of it against Juventus...........choke on the league,Chelsea!

 

thought yous outplayed them all game unlucky

 

I agree with you but swings and roundabouts. Conceivably this time around a year ago you arguably should have had 4 red cards but the ref let a lot go in your favour just as Atkinson did in ours yesterday.

Pochettino ballsed up the team selection and your players just didn't deliver. On paper it's a game you should have won and the experience of playing at Wembley should have counted in your favour.

Portsmouth 2010 can happen and they were highly motivated but IMO of all the SF you've lost yesterday was by far the most winnable.

 

More possession doesn't mean outplayed. This season of all seasons were starting to see having more possession does not equate to being dominant. For all of Spurs possession in terms of chances on goal it was relatively even. Neither keeper had a lot to do bar pick the ball out of their respective nets.

 

Yes, we dominated play and should have done far better. However, it's never easy when you're constantly chasing the game.

We gifted them the first two goals. Lloris failed to cover his side of the goal properly for the first, and Son diving in two footed on Moses, who was looking for an opportunity to fall over, was plain stupid.

The third, we gave Hazard too much time and space and should have closed him down quicker, imo. The last goal, nobody was stopping that! Although Matic could probably hit that 100 times and 99 would go into row Z.

Just wasn't meant to be....again!...

 

I agree, we caused our own problems and that was our main downfall.
Chelsea didn't look like scoring and didn't need to get out of about 2nd gear for the entire game because we gave them everything on a plate. Just not gonna beat teams like Chelsea if you shoot yourself in the foot.

...and you have a referee who books one 2 of your players for 1 foul each, but doesn't book theirs for 5,6, or 7 consistent fouls. Yellow cards change the dynamics of the game. It allowed David Luiz to get MOTM!

The fact remains that we are controlling games and playing the best football in the league at the moment. Our next 6 league matches aren't going to be cup semi's at wembley. Just gotta keep playing like we are, and who knows.. Chelsea may slip up. Football's a funny old game.

COYS