Terrible today. The good thing is Kane continually fronting up for the cause when called upon (shame be upon the "seniors" ) .
Thought lamela took the corner that led to chadlis goal and that he put himself about...was way better than eriksen Thought capoue did well with mason ... to be honest he didnt do much defensively as villa humped it up to benteke...
Robbed is probably the wrong word, unless you can rob yourself. Benteke totally cost them the game by being an idiot. Winning games when playing badly is the sign of a good team, isn't it? Probably not!
A balanced studio lineup of an ex-Arsenal player, a bloke whose dad we sacked and an ex-player who couldn't get a game for us, as well as another ex-Arsenal player for the commentary. Who picks this ****e and why do we seem to consistently have to listen to either opposition players or bitter ****ers for every game?
What bothered me was that before the match Villa fancied their chances against us. We have to grow into a team which is respected. WBA also fancied their chances and won. I wanted 0-2 and collapsed like the rest of us until the 84th minute and if this sort of luck is our lifeline then we need help.
Didn't deserve anything from that, it was a total robbery and I feel sorry for Lambert who's trying to turn around the performances after a very difficult run. Some say it's good to win playing badly but I think that's nonsense, a good performance will see you win more often than not and leaves you better positioned for the future. Not much to praise about us today, pundits were hoisting Kane on their shoulders because he's young and English so they can overhype him today but other than the extra energy he added he didn't add much quality, the freekick was poor and very lucky to go in. Best of a bad bunch really. Mason was lucky not to be sent off really but after all the soft ones given against us this season it was nice to benefit from a poor decision that helped us when we really needed it. I thought the ref did really well though, the Mason and Benteke calls were nothing to do with him because he didn't see it and whilst he should've booked Soldado for shoving Benteke, he was far more consistent than any ref we've had this season. All game it was the same, players were allowed to use their bodies in defending so long as there wasn't a lot of contact, and players throwing themselves to the floor were ignored(there wasn't a lot of it). It would've been easy for the ref to lose control of the game in the second half or try to even things up as so many refs seem to do. I thought it was telling of the ref when Rose was getting pressured by a Villa player in their box and he stayed on his feet, he has a bit of reputation for getting booked for throwing himself to the ground and in other matches I'm sure you'd have seen a player do just that and appeal for a penalty(and probably get it). That's the way to stop diving, not be rewarding it like other refs do. ANywho, lots of work for Pochettino to do and he's got to use this as a catalyst to drop certain players. Ade has to make room for Kane, I'd bring in the more sold Davies for Rose, Stambouli/Dembele in for Capoue and I suspect Kaboul's second half improvement will be enough to save him but I'd give Fazio a try alongside Vertonghen.
Oh and well done the travelling fans, they were superb. They deserved the points even if none of our players did.
I'd say we were very unfortunate against Sunderland, deserved at least a draw against Newcastle and might've even shaded a point against City. I think we've had our share of bad luck so far so it's nice to get some good luck. We won't win many playing like we did today though. He reminds me of Beavis and Butthead. Beavis' hair and Butthead's face. Might be a bit cruel but I see it everytime I look at him. Turning into a great player for us though
I disagree with this completely. He might have had a booking, but he didn't headbutt Benteke or make a butting motion, he just got in his face. A booking might have been appropriate, but Souness just looked upset at the result, more than anything. Compare it to virtually anything that he did as a player or even as a manager and it was extremely tame. [video=youtube;ygVgxYa3mlo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVgxYa3mlo[/video]
Seriously . MP's biggest failings is that he has his favourites . If you are not one of them,you will not play . End of . Just my opinion .
I remember Kaboul doing nothing more than leaning his head into Tiote a few years back and getting a straight red, which he deserved. Mason definitely leaned his head in and that's been a red card for a number of years now. It's not often I sit there agreeing with Souness and Redknapp but I definitely do in this case and was saying it as soon as the first replay of the incident was shown. I'm not so sure. He's certainly tried to get players back into form by playing them regularly but lots of managers do that. Up until now Capoue and Rose have been mostly good and put in a great performance for every bad one. Kaboul and Adebayor have been the exceptions really but Fazio hasn't really impressed enough to force himself into the reckoning, unlike players like Chadli, Kane and Mason. Kane is obviously the one that's getting picked up on a lot in the media but that's been a bit more complicated too as we were only playing one striker in the league up until today and Kane had generally been playing in the cups in either the Eriksen or Chadli position that is a little deeper and playing off a striker. Adebayor has certainly been given too many chances this season and I won't defend Pochettino sticking by him but I think the others are totally understandable. After a performance like that though he really has to ring some changes, especially if those coming in impress midweek.
I have some real serious issues with some of this current bunch. We never look capable of keeping a clean sheet and we are never going to score enough to get us anywhere. As Graeme Souness rightly says, we do not play at a fast enough tempo for the PL. This "pressing game" is a joke. There was once when Vertonghen, passed square 3 bloody times rather than move the play forwards. Naughton and Rose are not good enough, Kaboul is all over the place in most games and Vertonghen is the worst professional we have had at the club in years. Cappoue is not good enough to lace Tommy Huddlestone's boots and I get more enthusiasm from watching paint dry than watching this current shower. And as for the manager, it wouldn't upset me in the slightest if he left tomorrow. The guy is so out of his depth, it is unbelievable. The goal we conceded today was a complete shambles. It highlighted Rose's weakness, Vertongehn backed off and then backed off again and Kaboul had his head up his arse. Meanwhile, up front Ade continue use to do **** all and our scruffy joke of a manager continues to pick him ahead of an in form striker. Never can a club have gone backwards as rapidly as we have done these past couple of years.
I thought that was the right choice in the circumstances, you can't close down a fast player like N'Zogbia when there's going to be a big space left behind you. Had he done so N'zogbia would've have had time to decide what he was going to do and could've knocked it either side of him Jan and left him for dead. For me the real cardinal sin was Capoue's pathetic marking as he was right with Weimann and then let him go when they reached the area. I'd expect even an 8 year old to know that the box is the most dangerous area of the pitch and that you should follow your man when tracking back into the area. There was lots of negatives today but that one really hurt because it was so ridiculous.
Go to 4 mins 20 sec [video=youtube;7mJKNFwAguI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mJKNFwAguI#t=259[/video]
