So what's Linneker saying about our march up the table? He's wrong. Yes 13th sounds about right but WH had good chances yesterday. If they don't take them then they deserve 13th.
Massive , massive win, and AVB (and me ) got it massively right about playing Lloris. Had he been able to play in some of the earlier games I think we'd be top 4 by now, but as it is I'll settle for our first clean sheet in the Prem this season, and Lloris' excellent record of one goal conceded in 3, a goal he was not at fault with. Well done AVB, well done Spurs, and oh for the umpteenth, umpteenth,umpteenth, umpteenth, umpteenth, umpteenth time we didn't let a lead slip.
My player summary: Lloris - putting aside whether it was right to drop Brad, Hugo did really well - one slip which could have been expensive, but commanding his area and demonstrated his strength off his line. Certainly an improvement on the nervous performance in Greece. Walker - continues to concern me both defensively and also in his decision-making when going forward. Too often chose wrong options or misplaced passes. Gallas - superb performance. Calm and assured - pure class - although not often seriously challenged. Caulker - excellent. Right place at the right time in defence and attack. Verts - another commanding performance at LB. Links well with Bale and adds an extra dimension. Bale - good in parts, but not consistently involved enough. And another 'dive' of sorts doesn't add to his performance. Dembele - assured and graceful movement, linking up well with Sandro, but not influencing the game as much as I expected. Sandro - excellent performance. Breaking up play and getting forward into some great areas. Lennon - another top performance and my player of the season so far. Back to his very best - AND scoring!! Dempsey - very disappointing. Largely anonymous and no real energy. Actually wondered at times if he was injured. Defoe - worked hard and some good efforts, but had one of his (regular) blinkered days and missed some opportunities to get his teammates involved. Subs Ade - looks strong and immediately showed enthusiasm and great close control. Fantastic to have him back available. The Smile was back at the Lane!! Sigs - did well when he came on. Added the sharpness that Dempsey had been lacking and showed good link up with Ade. Townsend - not on long enough to rate. All in all, a decent enough performance and another win. But Villa were absolutely awful and it took a flukey deflection after an hour to break the deadlock. Up to that point we had had plenty of possession, but created the square of Jack S**t!! B- overall I would say.
agree with just about all of that, relayer. Villa looked awful. the table currently reads Reading Norwich and QPR at the bottom. - I think we'll see Villa dropping into that very soon. it must be awful being a Villa supporter.
You prat, you didn't get it right. You were hedging your bets on the logic in AVB's decision to omit Friedel, to the extent that another poster called your observation one of a "fairweather fan". Having just got back from the game, all I really want to do is have a sensible debate on the game, but so far, all I have seen is your infantile "umpteenth umpteenth" "I told you so" crap plastered over every current thread on this site.
As you say a flukey deflection which could have gone anywhere to break the deadlock. Not good. Let's hope that we can turn flukey deflections into convincing wins soon and very soon because we'll need to be on top form to beat Chelsea.
We deserved to win, AVB is doing brilliantly for us, and his and Lloris' critics have been proved wrong, and hopefully will continue to be so.
Link to the goals: http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/tottenham-2-aston-villa-0-goals-highlights/ Agree with Relayer's ratings. Bale and Walker had disappointing games again, which is becoming a concern. Hopefully we'll see Naughton back in contention after the international break and Townsend given another chance in the League Cup. See some competition for their places and get them to up their games.
Well we're above Arsenal and WBA, only behind Everton on GD and apparently all three teams have had "great starts" according to the media. I await hearing that we too have had a great start.
I'd rather we operated below the radar as long as possible - the press can't build us up for a fall if they aren't building us up to begin with.
No offence mate, but your comments about Lloris have been tiresome at best. And as one who countenanced sticking with Brad Friedel, I take exception to being regarded as a Lloris 'critic'. I have said on several occasions that getting Hugo at Spurs was a massive coup and long term will be a fantastic acquisition for the club. I just disagreed with how quickly he would settle in and that in the meantime we had a very well performing keeper. That is NOT a criticism of Lloris per se, although his performance in the EL was not without error. If you regard the decision to play him today as some sort of victory, then I am afraid you missed the point as far as I was concerned.
Well said VH, the praise that was being lavished on Everton by the commentator and pundit yesterday for the Wigan game absolutely astounded me, did I love it when Wigan scored and ultimately grabbed a point. If we finish above Arsenal, I'm confident we'll finish above Everton as well Arsenal are the big problem for me, not Everton or WBA.
On the fredidal/lloris situation, it was only last week we heard freidal won't be dropped even if he has a bad game, or that brads position was his to lose. Now, personally I want to see Lloris become our number 1, yet if we're going by form and previous performances then friedal didn't deserve to be dropped, so avb doesn't seem to be dealing with the situation with any real consistency, going by his comments. Anyhow, Lloris did show superb speed/reading of the game in coming off his line, and I think he will be a great keeper for us.
Agreed. Everton will ultimately fade and WBA won't be in the top 6 come Christmas time. Arsenal on the other hand have yet again lost quality players but this time have spent wisely, especially on Podolski and Santi Cazorla and will definitely be in or around the top 4 again.
You're right, because whatever was the correct decision to make, there were mixed messages coming from AVB on this one. At 3 o'clock today I felt it was a poor man-management decision and I am unsure of what message this sends out to the players. But, at the end of the day, the manager is paid well to win football matches and that involves making big decisions. He made a big decision, we won and kept a clean sheet and Lloris put in a competent performance.
Is this AVB moving Lloris to be our number 1? or is he giving Lloris a taster of all action, but will Revert back to Friedal? Luckily both keepers are experienced and aren't shy on the pitch so possibly AVB can get away with changing the keeper in various matches/ Ferguson done the same with De Gea and Lindergarrd, although it seems he has decided Lindergarrd is the more solid.
Hopefully we'll be able to do a bit more rotation when the players get back from the international break. I really hope to avoid the burnout that we've seen over the last couple of seasons.
