So is Chadli our new Bentley? Best sell him quick then before the others find out. Wenger is looking for players I hear.
Not to mention that the Chadli 'foul' (read "being stronger than the opponent") was over a minute before the pen incident and Palace had the ball twice before they conceded the pen. One of the few times I agree with the MOTD pundits.
I'm leaving it for now haha, might choose a new signing or go for a non-player-related one. Actually I may have to do the latter as I seem to curse players!! I'll probably leave it until he cuts off the 'fro at least, unless I come up with a real cracker of a name. Which is somewhat unlikely. Although I was considering calling myself 'Sam the Eagle' and using a pic of Soldado's face as my avatar, don't want to curse him into a goal drought though!
Oh great. Didn't see the Monaco game but I'm glad that a player who the coaching staff say that about is a nailed-on starter by the looks of things. I mean even if Bale stays he won't be on the left, will he? So it'll be back to Siggy on the left once the penny drops that Chadli, despite being Belgian AND tall AND athletic And relatively quick is pretty crap and, at 24 or whatever, can't even be classed as "promising". Who put that YouTube video together that Baldini must have seen? I'm looking at you, Benny! That'll be another week's wages docked. (Not to be outdone Ade quickly starts working on a video highlights package of Taraabt). Seriously though - the ineffectiveness of Chadli's game at the weekend brings to mind players like Rasiak. Not kidding. Bentley never looked that bad. Not as bad as Gilberto. There you go - I've said something positive about him which I mean 100%. So far.
And one of his players...a certain Charlie **** head Adam nearly crippled. Bale putting out for the final 4 matches of the season and didn't even have a free kick given against him...the palace manager was just being a twatty bad loser...a kind of poor mans wenger
That game yesterday was full of barges and knocks that came just as the ball was released. I lost count of the number of times one of the new boys was welcomed to the EPL by being smacked into as soon as they released the ball. Having said that there was a foul or two yesterday that were given even though there seemed to be no contact. Can't remember specifics but the commentators didn't pick up on it. It seems that a lunge which doesn't make contact is now classed as a foul. When did that happen? To be fair Koscielny's second yellow fell into that category: put a foot out, made no contact and yet a foul is given and Danny Mills is saying on MOTD "I don't understand what he's thinking lunging in like that" with NO mention of the fact that there was no contact whatsoever and the Villa player fell to the ground totally unnecessarily. I mean - it's nice that it happened to Arsenal, obviously. But I really have to wonder what's going on when a total lack of contact doesn't even get MENTIONED any more.
Woodgate's debut for Factitious Madrid? A first half own goal and getting sent off after 65 minutes. It must've been a poor showing to pick up two bookings, given Factitious are the RFEF's blue-eyed boys.
To pick up 2 bookings though, he must have been involved in the play at some point in the game. On that basis, he can't compete with Chadli's incredible vanishing act against Monaco. By the way, don't know how widely known this is, but evidently for Belgium chadli plays in a midfield 3 <erm>
Hey! Not to worry! Apparently Chadli was very good yesterday: http://hereisthecity.com/2013/08/18/tottenham-hotspur-fans-react-on-twitter-to-nacer-chadlis-debut/ Very odd.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/253605/teams There was another when he was played just off Benteke....
Chad also played in goal against France according to one report, he's a useful squad player if that was right
Lloris - 8 - Nothing for 85 mins then showed why he's one of the best in Europe. Rose - 7 - Admittedly still not sure of him but had a good game. Verts - 7.5 - Class act as always, defended well and got the ball out nicely. Daws - 5.5 - Lot of passing went astray. Walker - 7.5 - Got up and down well, hopefully putting last seasons form behind him. Lennon - 6.5, not very effective though had a great work rate, especially in second half when tracking back. Dembele - 6.5 - Done nothing wrong but didn't have any "wow factors" either. Paulinho - 8 - Simple game yet was so effective. Won tackles, made great passes and just fitted in with ease. Arguably should've had a pen right before we were awarded one with Lennon. Chadli - 6.5 - Surprised at the criticism, thought he played quite well. Wasn't afraid of having a shot which is what I like, nearly scored with his header, perhaps a bit greedy but I get a bit frustrated with Spurs when we try and pass the ball in to the net, so having someone willing to have a crack and be a bit selfish is a breath of fresh air. Sigurdsson - 6.75 - Nearly scored, made some neat passes. Soldado - 7 - HE SCORED A PENALTY!!! Something we don't see here at Spurs, made a few nice flicks and has fantastic movement in the oppositions' penalty box. Subs: Capoue - 7.5. Very Sandro-esque, broke up 99% of Palace's play, slotted in very nicely. Very impressive cameo. Defoe - 5.5 - not enough time on the pitch but so unlucky he snatched at his shot after that great run. Kaboul - 10 - KABOUL'S BACK!!! KABOUL'S BLOODY BACK!!! Ok, so the 10 was OTT but seeing him back was amazing. Won all of his aerial duals with ease and never looked like he's had a year off of football. Team performance - 7 - By far the better side, looked solid at the back bar the last few mins where Palace were expected to bombard and therefore relied on Hugo, should've scored from chances with Chadli and Defoe plus some other half chances from Soldado and Gylfi. New signings showed signs of promise and baring in mind it's the first match of the season, away from home, I consider a win and a clean sheet a very good start
Really sorry but why all the criticism of Chadli? I thought he played quite well...fair enough that his final ball needs to be better thought out and his back heel was ill advised to say the least but overall I thought he did well...think the criticism is way off particularly comparing him to Bentley after his debut in a friendly....bentleys debut at whl was in a friendly where we won 5-1 ... he only played one other decent match for us! To me the person who deserves criticism is walker who I thought was constantly caught out of position and most if not all of palaces best moments came from attacking his side...great at going forward but positionally very poor in defence.
I preferred Corluka at right back if I'm honest. Always criticised for being slow but he was most times in the right place. Walker is far more dynamic and uses pace to make up for his poor positioning but I still prefer defenders to be good at defending with any other attributes coming second.
