Bale was called out for his diving (which was far less frequent than many that we could name), but he got his comeuppance as once he had the reputation he couldn't get a decision even when he was completely taken out.
i'm sure there were some calling for his diving. I do also remember reading from people who defended his diving - anticipating the tackle so that he didnt get a broken ankle as he had a serious injury before, running at full speed a slight nudge will knock you over from others too (the typical thing you hear from all fans from all teams XD) You are right though, his reputation preceded after a few and some refs didn't give anything.
This is the part that makes no sense to me about referees in this country. Bale gets a reputation for diving, referees never give him anything. Beckham, Scholes, Ronaldo, Young, Gerrard, Owen, Sturridge, Suarez, Sterling, Van Persie, Drogba, Robben, Lampard, Vardy, Mahrez, Shearer and countless others get reputations for diving, referees give them the benefit of the doubt every single time.
Could be time for a "Dive watch" article (which commentators say so live, which "pundits" say so in post-match TV etc) .
How times have changed. Chelsea have paid £500,000 for a 15 year old. Graham Rix never paid that much for them when he was there.
Isn't that close to the amount they paid their former youth players to keep quiet about Eddie Heath and Allan McGrath?
As others have suggested, we're probably not the club to level this accusation at. Charlie Adam gets a worse reception at WHL than any other current player, including obvious rivals. Barton and Shawcross haven't done anything close to Adam's antics against us. They've had plenty of criticism on here, though.
As if relegation and a 4-0 loss weren't bad enough, Real Madrid also substantially took the piss out of Tony Adams on Saturday: Waiter or croupier? I'm not sure I'd give him a job as either, to be honest.
The first paragraph says it all. That hasn't been a title race. Chelsea looked as if they might bottle it when they dropped 6 points in three weeks, but they didn't. Spurs haven't had anything to bottle. Spurs have done as well as can be expected to chase down a team with a massive lead who are still winning most weeks.
Our last 20 league games has seen 16 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws. Chelsea's last 20 has been 15 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws. We've done very well, but you can't close the gap on a team that barely ever drops points. Arsenal's run has been 10 wins, 8 losses and 2 draws. They've lost more games than Spurs and Chelsea combined during that time.
Brilliant article and nice to read a piece from a journalist that says it like it is. The only thing that worries me is that Pochettino, in his mind, imagines more of a title race than there actually is. I believe that we saw this last season when we threw the Dortmund game to focus on the league - despite screwing up against both West Ham and Arsenal in the games prior to it, two missed opportunities to go top. Leicester had established a 5 point lead at the top before we'd kicked a ball against Dortmund. I think we saw it this season too with the FAC semi final. I can't think of any other explanation for some of Poch's tactical choices other than a vaguely understandable albeit naive belief that Chelsea would slip up. It is as if he watched them lose at OT and thought to himself 'they'll drop more points in the league if we keep applying the pressure'. Well guess what, they didn't. And we began to realise, as we did at more or less the same stage last season, that the pressure just wasn't worth it. I mentioned at HT against the Gooners that our performance - whilst really solid and disciplined - lacked the 'oomph' that we were all expecting. The atmosphere around the stadium was a bit weird - as if we had all been holding our breath for Chelsea to drop points at Goodison, but it hadn't happened. And so we kicked off against the scum knowing deep down that all we were playing for was NL bragging rights. Wasn't until the second half that we really got going. Don't get me wrong, I love Poch for his raw ambition and sheer determination to have this club believe it can achieve incredible things, but tbh if I was the manager of Tottenham, I would: A) Employ Sissoko as a dishwasher in the staff canteen B) Sit down with my team on the 22nd of April and say: look lads, we've done amazing things this year. But look at them. They have a 7 point advantage and a far, far easier run-in than ourselves. The title is closer to our grasp than last year, but is still agonisingly out of reach. Let's go full throttle in the semi-final: they're the only team remaining who are good enough to beat us. Whatever happens in the league happens. Let's focus on top 4 and a trophy. It's been too long since a captain of Tottenham Hotspur got his hands on some silver.
I think that the atmosphere was damaged by the fact that Arsenal were so ****, honestly. Everyone was expecting both sides to be really up for it and to have the usual NLD competitiveness and fire. We got a fairly comfortable win and a white flag from the opposition. It was nice to win, but it wasn't the battle that many had predicted. I agree with the rest of your post, though. Pochettino's got a lot right since joining, but he's made a few big mistakes. The Chelsea semi-final lineup was a massive one, for me. Beat them and you never know what it could do to their morale. Picking Son at left wingback just handed it to them, unfortunately. Big boost for their confidence, as if it needed it.
Hmmmm.... I wouldn't say Spurs bottled it but it did feel like this was a typical spurs opportunity lost. You guys had finally pulled us back in and even if you weren't going to reel us back in you were going to give it a bloody good try and push us to the end. From being no where in the race (10 points behind) you were looking imperious going into the FA cup semi. You were playing attractive football, you were smashing teams apart at White Hart Lane and even though you were 'Struggling' (last minute goals against swans and a eriksen special against palace) you were winning your away games and still creating loads. Chelsea were wobbling. Still winning but not totally convincingly (no clean sheets in like 10 until against everton) and after the Palace loss, you could sense Conte was worried in the United match. Like in the spurs match he froze when he should have been changing things up and he wasn't the same animated self that he normally is (maybe he was ill like supposedly the rest of the team). Even i was worried that i put a hedging bet on Spurs to win the league First up you lose the FA semi which might have played a part but its one of those games, between us that they are always pretty tight and theres no one team dominating another (in terms of chances) So up against West Ham which you knew would be a hard game in terms of the rivalry, but you were in good form and West Ham are pretty poor this season with only 1 real threat in lanzini. You should be expecting to beat them but even if you don't at least dominate them. You didn't (fortunately for us) and you didn't even batter their goal even when you went behind. Obviously everyone is entitled to days off (we were shocking at United, didn't make a scratch on them but they are a top 6 side and we lost to palace even though we absolutely battered them) but it was just the lack of fight back when falling 1 down. That lack of a ideas to come back against West Ham in a pivotal game that would have put massive pressure on us as the gap would have been 1 point was the most "spursy" thing about it. Who knows what would have happened if the lead went down to 1 point as we all know pressure breaks some players. It happened to Conte as a player and from being elected champions to then potentially bottling the a giant lead as well as only being 1 point ahead to a team who didn't look like dropping any points would have been something to really play on the players minds as they know 1 or 2 more mistakes could cost them. All in all though you made a good fist of it and an achievement even make a 'Title' race of it when no one was expecting it, not the least from Spurs anyway
You lost my interest after "Hmmmm". Up to then it was good......well, not good, as such but it was long. Long......yes, very, very long.
West Ham had finally found a decent defensive set up and Dembele wasn't fit to start, while Winks is out for the season. It meant that we lacked creativity and the ability to beat a man in the middle of the park, while we lacked the pace to get in behind their slow back three. Our bench options were also pretty poor in terms of versatility, as we lacked any real impact players or those that could offer something different. Pochettino tried to change the system, but that played into their hands, in my opinion. Going with two up front just lead to us being more direct and they were happy to soak that up all day. Fonte, Reid and Collins were never going to be bothered by balls being played into the box.
I'm could die while reading something that long. Mostly from self-induced wounds but the point still stands.
