please log in to view this image Sunday 10th March 1pm Premier League Villa Park No injury news yet, but it seems like returns for Porro and Richarlison could be on the cards. Neither side has any suspensions. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Vicario; Emerson, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Bentancur; Kulusevski, Maddison, Werner; Son. Subs: Austin, Dragusin, Davies, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso, Johnson, Werner, Scarlett. League form: DWDWLW. Villa: Martinez; Cash, Konza, Lenglet, Moreno; Bailey, McGinn, Luiz, Ramsey; Tielemans; Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Kesler-Hayden, Chambers, Torres, Digne, Iroegbunam, Diaby, Zaniolo, Rogers. League form: LWLWWW. Ref: Chris Kavanagh. VAR: Tim Robinson. TV: Sky Sports. How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up?
This is the first game this season where the pressure is on Spurs (and will remain so until the season is done) . A loss in this one, and finishing in the PL top 4 is probably gone. Therefore a win is what matters, with "pragma over dogma" being the call (the result first, argue over the performance after) .
But they have managed to lose at home to Newcastle and Utd since the turn of the year (and Chelsea in the FA Cup)
Villa have 6 of their starting XI for their last PL game, in the starting XI for their EL2 tie at Ajax. Emery is trying to balance a win in this one with the game on sunday.
With the following ideally to wind up and/or kick the living f*ck out of Cash Mackay Roberts Romero Lamela Ginola Gazza And Joe Jordan to reinforce the message!
0-0 at FT and Konsa was sent off, so while I expect they'll be fine in the second leg, the tie does still hang in the balance. Could make all the difference for us.
Very impressed with Ange's comments ahead of this game. Exactly what you want to hear from the manager and therefore exactly what we've lacked for years.
The general gist is that getting CL football by finishing 4th (or 5th) is meaningless unless it leads to progress, otherwise it's just a nice distraction. He would rather finish 4th in the context of fighting for the title than as a goal in and of itself. In other words, it is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low.
The words of the big man himself were ringing through my ears when Ange was saying that. He really gets it.
I really like that and agree with it. Too many times Spurs have finished 4th and it’s been celebrated like a trophy. Yes it’s nice to finish in the CL spots and shows the club have had a good season but it’s not and should never be the end goal.
There's moments where it absolutely should have been, most obviously when Harry Redknapp first got us into the CL (and, irritatingly, Conte doing so probably deserved to be at the time too) but there was definitely a point under Poch where it felt like we were settling for it, most obviously in the 2018 season when we really should have been using it as a catalyst for a rebuild
Spurs have finished PL 4th four times. Two of them were rightly celebrated because they represented on-pitch progress from prior meh. One was deemed utter failure by some (including myself) , and ultimately cost the manager his job. One was a warning sign to a manager that he may be on thin ice (and it cracked not long after) .
