I think I have already answered most of this. Spurs have been through a period recently post Redknapp where we played some very negative stuff and our fans made their feelings very clear. We are now back on the road that we want to be on. I understand if you are saying I don't like the way we played and I want it to change, but you appear to be saying I don't like the we played but we won so I'll take it. The irony is when Ramos led Spurs 'parked the bus' Mourinho's words, and won I was still not happy with the way Ramos played and of course he didn't last long after did he. If Spurs started the negative stuff I would start to lose interest, I do not HAVE to watch football it's a choice I make.
The ref had a good game? Well if you want to claim that then fair enough, I'm not going to go through every decision but it was a clear shirt tug that he missed on Kane in the box which should've been a penalty. We can debate about the other decisions but there's no argument about that. Defensive mistakes happen in games, you guys made mistakes too. Particularly in the second half when Lamela was free at the back post on the shirt tug corner and when Kane got past Cahill to get his shot in that was blocked by Terry. Chelsea did defend well but there are still always going to be errors that can be punished. The two goals you scored were due to the deflections wrong footing the 'keeper, it could've happened to either side. Lloris made a couple of good saves but it wasn't a game of many chances. Terry's was probably the best chance and he fluffed it, it was going straight at 2 defenders and the 'keeper until it deflected in. After that the best chance was probably Kane's which was blocked by Terry. It was a great piece of defending from Terry but if we'd received the same kind of luck you had it would've gone in off Terry. Your second goal was extremely fortunate it's not going in and I'm not sure Ramires(?) was going to get near it either. This is why I, and others, believe it was a close game there simply wasn't much in it other than the deflections. Take them out of it and give us a penalty and potentially we're talking about a comfortable win for Spurs. Saying you guys parked the bus is normal. People tend not to be very keen to give credit to rivals, especially when they beat you in a final so I don't see why there's surprise. Look at the reaction when we beat you, plenty of your fans did it down talking about how your players were complacent and not up for it. Also look where the phrase came from, I doubt your fans were all praising an excellent defensive performance from Spurs, your manager certainly didn't.
I thought we were ok in the first half but lost our way a little in the second. The ref was so-so. It was galling to concede the goals in the way we did but we didn't do nearly enough to threaten the Chelsea goal in any case, partly due to us not being at our best and partly because Chelsea constricted the play and played the way they do in nearly all the big games. I agree with others when they say that its perhaps not a viable option for us to do that yet as to be that defensively organised takes a lot of dedicated training, and we're probably better served playing with the high, fast pressing that Pochettino likes right now. I feel we took our foot off the gas a little in that respect yesterday and as a result were a little half-baked and that may have cost us too. Lets concentrate on perfecting that way of playing first, then maybe think about a plan B. Fair play to Mourinho though for knowing how to adapt to beat a Spurs team who gave him a thorough going over a couple of months back. He's a winner when all is said and done and there is a lot to be said for that. I'm proud of our young team, that starting XI is the one I've been wanting to see for weeks and although it didn't quite click for them yesterday I think there is the basis there for a successful team in the future. It was great to see young English players and Academy graduates wear the Spurs colours in a Cup Final. Pochettino needs to keep the team motivated for the rest of the season now so we can push as high up the table as possible, if he can do that and the performances in the League don't drop off then I think we will be able to call this season, which has been one of great change in so many ways, a success, and move onto better things in the future.
Admittedly, our defending was not as sharp as it should have been for the first goal. But, it still took a lucky deflection to get it into our net. In a nutshell, we hit the bar with your keeper nowhere - you got two lucky deflections that both went in. On another day, the luck might have been ours, but yesterday it was all yours.
If Bentaleb had put his hand into Costa's face experience tells us that Costa would have fallen to the ground and rolled over a few times clutching his face. Experience also tells us the the ref would have had no hesitation pulling out his red card and sending Bentaleb off. Later he books Dier for not a foul to put pressure on him as he was dealing very well with Costa. I fear that this will continue to happen until referees fear our manager more than our opponents manager but, because our manager is quiet and polite, this may never happen.
How often to shirt pulls get given as pens though? Rightly or wrongly it's almost a given they wont be. Nothing unique to this game and something we'd all like to see stopped. As I say, Dier could have been sent off (it would have been soft IMO but still), repeated fouls on Hazard and Willian that mostly went unpunished in terms of cards, all little things that grate fans. Problem being, when you're 2-0 down and trying to get back in a game, all little decisions against you get blown out of proportion. This was not a game decided by the ref by any stretch of the imagination. Luck always will play a part in football but I think whilst you played well to a point you were more at fault for the loss than our tactics, the ref or the physicality of the game. As I say, the defending for the corner was one of the worst I've seen all year. 3 men near post and your own player flicks it into the danger area under no pressure. Then it's allowed to bobble with no real challenge. If that's the other end, Terry, Ivanovic or Cahill would be throwing themselves at it. That's why despite there being a deflection, you make your own luck to a point. No plan B, keeping Walker on and Thursdays exertions also played a part IMO.
Keeper nowhere? Watch it again. He's left it cos he thinks it's going over. Few inches lower Cech tips over the bar easily. The two deflections were both shots close to the goal so always the chance of that. It's not as if we've hit 40 yard hit n hopes that have nicked off a player and deceived the keeper (Didn't Rose get one of these for you last week??)
Bit of a stretch there, Cechs hand was directly beneath the bar, would almost certainly have gotten a hand to it.....if it had been on target (that requires skill, not luck).
Cech would have saved it if it had been on target i think. However i'm not sure how much skill he showed, it was a misjudgement slightly. He would not have purposely allowed the ball to hit his crossbar with the unknown of where it would go and to whom. If he had judged it perfectly he would have tipped it clean over imo
Agreed. I think Cech misread it and thought it was going over. Almost zero chance of it being a goal though as he had it well covered.
I think plenty of people have said this already but ultimately when you're in a final it's only about winning. If you win with style all the better. Week in week out league football is different as there isn't the same reward for winning a one off game as there is a cup final so teams may well play with less fear or reserve etc. Our tactics were to play on the counter evidently but it was hardly a 'park the bus' display. Ultimately we knew we had to score which is different to a team say playing for a nil nil when playing a 'top' side. I also called it before the match that we'd probably play very tight for the first hour and leave Spurs to tire (given you'd played twice since us and in Europe) and pick you off at the end. Ultimately we were 2-0 up by that point so was moot. In all seriousness, I don't suppose you actually watch us most weeks and generally I'm happy with the way we play. Could always be more 'exciting' but winning is a big compensator and ultimately we have scored 15 more goals than Spurs this year in the league alone. Not many boring sides win 5-0 at Swansea or put 6 past Arsenal.
I've seen it several times. No way is he going to risk leaving it if he thinks there's a chance of it hitting the bar - it could easily have deflected in from there. If it had been going in, no way was he going to save it...
6 inches lower, he may still have thought it was going over - clearly misread the flight. If he thinks it's going over he's not going to save it.
We all see it how we want, I guess, but I was curious about your claims of Dier's fouling and checked. He only has one foul against him so I'm guessing you think those repeated fouls went totally unpunished. Ramires committed 5 fouls and didn't get a card which is fortunate by most standards. Cahill also pulled one of our players back when we were breaking which was a clear booking that went unpunished because we managed to play on. It could've been a second booking that he picked up later for yet another foul. I don't like to see players sent off though so I'd have thought it would've been harsh. Shirt tugs are rarely called in general but this one was blatant as he was holding Kane's shirt out for all to see and Kane's shirt was clearly stretched by it. The ref's only excuse can be that he thought they were swapping shirts early. Pretty sure it was a freekick that Terry scored from and what threw the players was that they were all ready to defend the goal and only Zouma attacked it. Quite clever really but it needed a little bit of luck with a poor header(as you say) and then deflecting off Dier(I think) and Zouma to drop for Terry. It was a bit of a mess from our point of view though, you're right. The same could be said for the foul on Kane early on(think it was the one Eriksen hit the bar from) where there were about 6 Chelsea players back yet Kane was able to go past 2 or 3 without having to try particularly hard. I know Kane's good but he wasn't running very fast and you guys made him look like Messi before he got fouled. As I said before, no matter how well you defend there are still going to be mistakes and calling out ours for the first goal doesn't make it not lucky that the ball was going straight to the 'keeper before the deflection. You're arguing pretty much the samething about Cech being able to save the freekick that hit the bar, in that it's not unlucky to hit the bar as the 'keeper would've saved it anyway(I agree for what it's worth). I don't think it was a game that was decided by the ref either. We might not have scored the penalty even if we'd got it. My point is that it was a blatant penalty that got missed. The game was decided by 2 goals, both deflections that fooled the 'keeper. Other than those two incidents I thought the game was evenly matched, which I guess is where we're going to disagreee again. I didn't think we played badly and I don't get this talk about not having a plan B. I thought our plan B was pretty clear, throw some more attackers on and get the ball into the box. Chelsea have always been very good at defending in those situations but there's only so many ways you can attack when the opposition has a good lead and doesn't need to attack. The other option was just to continue taking long shots and hoping 2 get struck well enough to beat the 'keeper. Personally I'm pleased with how we played because Chelsea are obviously the better side, one look at the table would tell you that, and as you say, there were other factors like having a game in Italy 3 days before that were against us. I thought we had lots of energy despite this, attacked a lot and were the better side in midfield. We just couldn't get the final ball right and were punished by 2 goals that I will always think were lucky.
I actually agree that I think it was a pretty even game. I would have been happy to get in at half time at 0-0 as I think you looked more likely in the first half. After the goal though I think we were relatively comfortable and even more so after the second of course. Not sure about the plan B, you got more attackers on but it was still mostly being passed around the midfield with not a lot being created (save the Kane chance that Terry blocked). Though you brought on Soldardo and Lamela who frankly are both a waste of space IMO so was always going to be tough to really change things given your bench. Re Dier, again I think it would have been harsh but I'm sure he was on a booking when he was late on a challenge on Costa just before half time. He knew he could be in trouble cos he straight away held his hands up in that guilty way players do. Ref seemingly missed it though as he didn't even blow for a free kick. What would Kane fetch at the moment? He's been a revelation.
