No, it turned out early in the season that there was at least one club who were not buying into the Narrative (TM) about how great Citeh were after 10 gsmes. Perhaps if the rest of the PL had done similar this season then a similar deflation may have occurred.
Very much so. You are really missing the width and speed that Walker and Rose gave you last year, it's a shame really because with the slightly bigger pitch at Wembley they could have been devastating for you with the same form this year.
Don't get me wrong, Davies has been really solid almost all season and, unlike his (now) back-up, is a consummate professional. But he, like Trippier, tends to slow the game down somewhat and allow the opposition to regroup. Walker and Rose bombing down the flanks caused panic and stretched defenses, leaving gaps for Alli and co. to exploit. The fact that we are still being linked with pacy wide players (Sessegnon, Zaha and Martial for example) despite adding Moura (who is one talented guy - v. excited to see him in action next season) suggests that Poch isn't satisfied with our current options.
We knew our short comings and they were again confirmed tonight but like others have said it' how we respond that matters. If we respond like we did after the last defeat to city we will be fine. We are 7 points clear of Chelsea and 13 of Arsenal (who have a game in hand). There are 5 matches left. 9 points mean Chelsea can not catch us, 6 for arsenal and that' if they win all their games. Brighton away Watford home West Brom away Toon home Leicester home If we do not get 9 points from those 5 games then we do not deserve CL. I personally would have chewed my right nut of for this situation at the beginning of the season...next to no one thought we'd come top 4 ... Wembley was a hoodoo etc....We have had 1 loss in 14 games in the premier league. We clawed our way from 7th to 4th. We gained 14 points on both Arsenal and Chelsea in the last 14 matches. Players like Sanchez, Aurier, Moura will all know and understand the league next season. We are in good shape...unfortunately so are the Manchester clubs and Liverpool but there's the challenge for the club.
****ing horseshit eh, lads?! Lloris is doing my nut now, third **** up in as many games and about his sixth overall this season. Deserves to be dropped, though I don't think Poch will do it. Reminding me of the scenario we had with Robbo all those years back. Lucas finally got a run out and surprise, surprise, he showed more in his 20 mins than most in the whole game. We've gotta find a way to get him in the XI because he's a real classy player, personally I'd lean towards dropping Alli deeper and having Lucas partner Eriksen and Son in the three behind Kane. Biggest plus though was Jan. If he didn't already, he's absolutely cemented it now, 100% our POTS, he's blown the competition out the water in recent weeks. When Levy sits down in the summer and looks at who deserves a new contract, he should be first, second and third in line. Without him we'd have conceded 5+ today. He was immense and was singlehandedly dealing with City at times, it was actually embarrassing at how much he was having to do to cover his defence and DMs. No shame in losing to this City side but it's really frustrating that we failed to learn anything from our ealier loss against them, nor taking any ideas from the way Pool and Utd dealt with them.
When you pressed them for the first 15 minutes of the second half and stopped them playing out from the back and through midfield, you were in control of the game. But that was only time you did it. Shame because they have been shown to be beatable if other teams are able to play their game against them for long enough periods. City have weaknesses but teams have to be able to play on those weaknesses for sustained periods in games, capitalise by scoring and knock them out of their stride. Liverpool and Utd had good spells against them and really took advantage (although they did so in different ways). Spurs never played the pressing game for long enough as well as making some defensive errors by consistently allowing City forwards to run in behind the central defenders.
Over the last few seasons you, Arsenal and City have been very consistent for top 4 and I don't see that changing next season (Arsenal may need a new manager ). Ourselves, Liverpool and Chelsea have been poor and can not really be considered "top 4" teams at the moment, more top 4 contenders. If I supported Spurs right now I would be looking up for next season, not worrying about dropping down.
At the beginning of the season I hoped for Top 4, getting out of The Group of Death in the CL and having a real go in a cup domestically. Playing at Wembley was obviously going to be a real problem given our performance at WHL in the final season and a real **** record at Wembley. If we win next Saturday and secure CL for next season, it's been a good season before a possible cup final. Given how long it took us to get to grips with Wembley, it's a very good season. After the Chelsea, Swansea, Burnley and WBA games at that soulless stadium, we've done well to get to where we have. I was at all of them and feared finishing mid-table.
Liverpool and city are looking great going forward...if they sort their defences out they could well battle it out for the title. United are back in the top four but Jose may well decide to throw his toys out as he has sometimes done in the past...if he doesn't then united will get stronger if not more pleasing on the eye. Arsenàl and Chelsea can't decide what they need to do so have wasted a league season (although both could still win a trophy) If we strengthen the team correctly we could well be in the mix again next season. For spurs to get a 3rd season in the top 4 vome May would be remarkable. Only United, Chelsea, City, Arsenal and Liverpool have done this previously. And I think omly 4 other clubs have played in the CL group stages in premier leaueL times .... Leicester, Leeds (2000/01), Newcastle 1997 ish 2003 ish and Blackburn 1995/96...Everton did qualify for the knock out round but didn't get through. I want us to win a trophy more than top 4 but no top 4 for us and we lose players and money which we simply can not afford to do do I will be happy ish with a top 4 finish this season.
Totally agree on Jan, apart from his performance today. He had some really good moments as usual but he needs to marshall the defence better, Davinson's young and needs guidance. We lacked sharpness today and if you're sloppy against City, they'll punish you. It was a poor performance made to look worse by a great side that played very well(although defensively they looked dodgy. I love Lamela, I really do but today really underlined the problem with him. No end product. None. He wasn't the worst today but the rest have all come up with important contributions this season, Lamela just doesn't cut it. We would have been better off playing Wanyama and pushing Dier into a back 3. FA Cup needs to be the priority now. Rest all the key players against Brighton and make sure they're ready for the weekend.
Deflated Because we let ourselves down Maybe it's the kick up the backside we need before our next set of fixtures it'll give Poch's head a wobble too, we really need to beat Brighton and United
We need to put out a strong team at Brighton, they have won most of their points at home. It's a funny little stadium, not too high because the planners would not let them destroy the Sussex down-land landscape, so we should expect a quite intense atmosphere. I'm hoping to be there. Anyone going be sure to try a pint of Harveys Best. One of the finest beers in the country brewed just up the road in Lewes.
Well, that was ****, wasn't it? Really sloppy midfield performance and the defence was easily undone by Fernandinho's apparent hate, long balls. Their pace and our failure to close down their midfielders or deal with fairly simple passes over the top was a bad combination. Trippier got isolated so easily early on, as there was no cover in front of him and Sanchez was overloaded in the middle. Dier should've dropped deeper or Lamela should've shielded him more, but they shifted Sane to the other wing and solved it for us. Weird. Really not impressed by the kick-off time. The atmosphere was quite toxic at times. I dread to think what it would be like if they picked a match with more of an edge to it, which is pretty likely to happen. Does anyone want to end up like La Liga, where all of the games are on at different times and there's an 8.45pm Sunday kick-off? It's getting ridiculous. Very off putting.
Does anyone else think that Kane's still not fit? He seems to have been rushed back from injury and he doesn't look right. Might be a good idea to "rest" him for the Brighton game, at least.
The thought of having Rose and Aurier in the same starting 11 doesn’t fill me with much confidence. We always look out of sorts and wasteful in attack. But I guess we don’t have much of a choice with the cup semi at the weekend. I’d actually be tempted to rest Kane for this one so he’s fresh as he can be for the cup game. He was non existent yesterday, and perhaps a fit, dynamic front 4 including Moura could give us something a bit different and make us less predictable.
