Ignore hm, Smithy. Just some little prick who's got nothing else to celebrate apart from the Spammers denting our already very slim title hope.
Only seen the highlights as I was out last night. It seems to me that the Spam did what other teams who've been successful against us have done, play us at our own game. High press, etc. They pushed us into making some bad mistakes defensively, one of which they scored from. I seem to remember Pool were pretty successful doing that to us too. Something we need to try and fix - pronto.
I think you are right that on paper we have the best starting 11. Our problem is squad depth - it shows when in the FA Cup Chelsea brought on the likes of Hazard and Costa from the bench. We really need to improve our squad (bench in particular) the likes of Sissoko and Janssen unfortunately haven't contributed enough. Injuries have also hurt us losing Kane twice to ligament injuries and I think we have really missed Danny Rose. Although I like Davies Rose creates more chances with his pace and would have been ideal for the game last night. You are right we only have ourselves to blame - but the only area we can blame ourselves is squad depth. This team and manager have given everything for the club I don't think they could have done anymore, it's just unfortunate Chelsea have been so consistent and impressive this season. Any other year I think it would have been a lot closer.
We lost the title at the start of the season, really, with all those draws. Chasing a team that didn't drop points much, it was too big a gap to make up. Someone at the time mentioned the problem, really, was that we were undefeated for a long time. We certainly seemed to play not to lose at that point, and the result was too many points lost due to draws. It's fair to say that we still can't win the biggest games, but also that this was not one of them, and that we made significant progress performing well under pressure. The run of games where we vaulted into second was unprecedented in recent club history.
Chelsea have had their losses, so yes, you're right. They turned draws into wins - we didn't. And that's the points difference.
Well our Twitter has become depressing and irritating in equal measure as it's currently flooded with comments from... * West Ham fans thinking that a win entitles them to make racist comments about our players * Arsenal fans, including a few of the ArsenalFanTV mob, thinking their laughter hides their tears from Sunday * Chelsea fans who either only know one word - bottle - or being very, very angry at us for some reason * Man Utd and Liverpool fans gloating because we keep daring to finish above their clubs every season It's funny how fans of the former Sky Four have such small club mentalities, isn't it?
In recent years Liverpool have sold Torres to Chelsea, Suarez to Barcelona and Sturridge to Citeh. It would take me a week to list all of the players Arsenal have had taken from them n the last decade. Van Rapist, Fabregas, Henry, Nasri, Adebayor, bored now. Yes, we've sold players but so does everyone else, except those whose economic model is 'finance no object'. Yes, we will sell players again. The difference is that we have a stronger team. We're not going to be so badly damaged by losing one player. Plus, we have a great stadium coming that's going to change things a lot, especially the American tie-in. Harry Kane is going to become a God in the States and it will bring in vast sums of endorsements and sponsorship. The same for Dele. Most importantly, we have Mauricio Pochettino. We have Victor Wanyama because we have him. We still have Hugo Lloris because we have him. I think we will attract players like Harry Maguire (John Stones successor in the England team) and James Ward-Prowse and MP will work with them to improve their games. Three years ago the opposition laughed at Walker and Rose. Nobody rated Dembele, Eriksen or Vertonghen that much. Nobody had heard of Kane, Dele, Dier. Maybe our greatest asset is our manager? I see us very much in the Atletico mould. Bucking the financial disparity and competing because of great management and growing all the time. Crucially, Mauricio Pochettino wants to build a legacy at Spurs. He has been given autonomy of the football side of the club. He's trusted on financial matters. He has an MBA in business management. Unlike nearly all of his competitors, he can keep his gob shut when needed on things like the stadium. Levy and he like and trust each other and we've kissed enough frogs to know a prince when we see one. If we keep him, the future's white......and he's no intention of going anywhere.
I agree RWAEB. I said something similar about the draws in response to Bodinki. It was the same last season too. We've had an amazing finish to this season. But Chelsea have been consistent for the whole campaign. Fair play to them. What will be interesting is their CL campaign next year that adds some extra games to their schedule. It certainly won't make their season any easier.
The last 10 minutes were incredibly frustrating as we seemed to get drawn into a game of football ping pong. West Ham will defend that all day! We had half chances but lacked a clinical edge, and you need that when the tactical game is going against you and the opposition are bang up for the game, as they were yesterday. Last night hurt but I'm still proud of the team and I think we're building a strong foundation here. I'm a little worried about departures in the summer but I'm sure that we'll make serious cash out of any leavers. We just need to invest wisely. Also Wembley could be tricky next year but surely we can prepare better for it in pre-season this time round, or something? This thread was a good read today btw, thanks all
I can't see many leaving.I believe they have a point to make....like winning a trophy or two.We are very much due!
All true, but it wasn't much different from the randomness of football, which is why you can never really predict a result. I don't think the "quality" of the chance that they scored from was much better than the one Kane hit the keeper on the foot with. On other days the keeper would simply not have been there, or the ball hits him and goes in anyway, or it bounces back to Alli or whatever. On their goal the ball bounced around and ended up falling at his feet, on other days it gets cleared or saved. Not complaining that's just what happens. The difference is that in most other matches we have been kind of spoiled by the quantity of chances we create, so that we don't have to worry about the golden chance not going in because there will always be more. West Ham had a golden chance and scored from it. I hope nobody overdoes the "choked" narrative because that is utterly and completely wrong.
Just watched the BT Sport Score panel reviewing the fallout of last night's game. Despite beinging made up of Savage, Sutton, McManamanamanaman and Jenas, all agreed Spurs had done well to chase as long and as hard as we have. The 'B' word was discussed and mocked as being ridiculous. An Everton fan was quoted saying that he dreams of his team bottling it and finishing second. The only problem is that nobody understood that we pay lower wages because we earn a fraction of the money of the clubs below us. I don't get why it's difficult, even for footballers.
