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Michael Oliver is a blind prick, but Rob Jones on VAR bottles that.
Slabhead very lucky to escape with a yellow. Never getting there.
 
I read the Spurs manager may be lured away.Really?Seems if you come to Tottenham these days your fate is sealed as proverbial loser. I wonder when that all started....and when/why? Money first result second? Can't win trophies with that attitude!
 
I am not sure we are going to finish in the top 5, but if we do and we want champions league we need them to turn it round and we want Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Villa to go further in their respective cups too.

After today, Spurs will have to beat Palace and Villa
to at least get PL 4th place back on track.
 
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Vital to whom ??
PL clubs that are financially well run should see the CL as "bonus money" , no ??

Vital to the UEFA coefficient table, as the two countries at the top of it at the end of the season get the extra CL spots.

England is currently third, behind Italy and Germany.
 
After today, Spurs will have to beat Palace and Villa
to at least get PL 4th place back on track.

This is the absolute minimum. Villa could well go into that game 5 points clear of us, even if we beat Palace. Drop points to Palace and lose to Villa, and I think top 4 is done and dusted for us. Our run-in is too tricky.
 
This is the absolute minimum. Villa could well go into that game 5 points clear of us, even if we beat Palace. Drop points to Palace and lose to Villa, and I think top 4 is done and dusted for us. Our run-in is too tricky.

this is where we need to hope and pray that those juggling multiple competitions struggle with squad rotation/injuries/the psychological battle come the business end of the season.

we’ve seen Arsenal struggle in the latter stages over the last 2 seasons, so there’s every possibility of others following suit.
 
this is where we need to hope and pray that those juggling multiple competitions struggle with squad rotation/injuries/the psychological battle come the business end of the season.

we’ve seen Arsenal struggle in the latter stages over the last 2 seasons, so there’s every possibility of others following suit.

I don't think we can catch the top 3 anymore. The gap is too big and all of them have hit decent form at a crucial time.

Reeling Villa in is our best hope, although they look much stronger than we do.

Ultimately what we're seeing now are the teething problems that occur once opposition sides have figured out how to play against us. We are struggling with this because unlike the teams we're trying to overtake (I.e. the top 3), we don't really have a player who can change the course of the game with a moment of brilliance. We don't even score against the run of play anymore, which is worrying (iirc Bmouth at home was the last time we did it). It seems that we only score when we're on top and only win when we play relatively well.

My head tells me we'll finish 5th at best. My heart hopes that Maddison and Bentancur kick into another gear for the run-in and we sneak 4th.

But Villa look strong and Ebening is vastly more experienced than Ange.
 
I don't think we can catch the top 3 anymore. The gap is too big and all of them have hit decent form at a crucial time.

Reeling Villa in is our best hope, although they look much stronger than we do.

Ultimately what we're seeing now are the teething problems that occur once opposition sides have figured out how to play against us. We are struggling with this because unlike the teams we're trying to overtake (I.e. the top 3), we don't really have a player who can change the course of the game with a moment of brilliance. We don't even score against the run of play anymore, which is worrying (iirc Bmouth at home was the last time we did it). It seems that we only score when we're on top and only win when we play relatively well.

My head tells me we'll finish 5th at best. My heart hopes that Maddison and Bentancur kick into another gear for the run-in and we sneak 4th.

But Villa look strong and Ebening is vastly more experienced than Ange.

agreed.
I wasn’t using Arsenal as a reason to finish top 3. That’s incredibly unlikely. It was just an example of how in the last 8 or so games of the season anything can happen.

hopefully, like you say, we can reel in Villa, should they any cracks begin to appear. Whilst our play may have been found out, and we’ve not got the depth we’d like, we’ve still got a great first XI, 1 game a week, and no one below us appears to be wanting to put up a fight for a CL spot.

there’s hope.

but fair play to Villa and Emery if they finish 4th. They’ve come a long way in the last few seasons.
 
We have one true playmaker in our squad

Maddison

Others might ‘do a job’ there

you can’t achieve much through the course of a season with just one playmaker at the club.

Big Ange will sink eventually

poor guy
 
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We have one true playmaker in our squad

Maddison

Others might ‘do a job’ there

you can’t achieve much through the course of a season with just one playmaker at the club.

Big Ange will sink eventually

poor guy

Bentancur is of a similar calibre but his injury record is really worrying and therefore can't be relied on. Maybe Bergvall is the long term solution to this problem.

The biggest issues from my perspective is that Son is now in quite a steady decline, Richarlison will score 15 tap-ins a season but not much else, and Kulusevski sadly isn't nearly as good as most of us (myself included) first assumed. He reminds me of Chadli in that regard. Capable of moments of sheer brilliance and will have games when he plays like prime Kaka, but will then go missing for half a dozen games.

The quality in the final third needs drastic improvement as we are now starting to pay the price for not even trying to replace Kane.

I'm pretty satisfied about other areas of the pitch and would only upgrade Bissouma. But none of Son, Richarlison, Kulu, Johnson, Werner, Solomon or Gil get into the top 3's starting XIs, and therein lies the real problem imo.
 
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I'm pretty satisfied about other areas of the pitch and would only upgrade Bissouma. But none of Son, Richarlison, Kulu, Johnson, Werner, Solomon or Gil get into the top 3's starting XIs, and therein lies the real problem imo.

I'm mostly in agreement about the other players, but you don't think Son would start ahead of Martinelli and Doku/Grealish?
 
But none of Son, Richarlison, Kulu, Johnson, Werner, Solomon or Gil get into the top 3's starting XIs, and therein lies the real problem imo.

Not sure about that call. Not even sure how you’ve come to that conclusion.

He’s probably the best LW in the league. Starts ahead of Martinelli, Gakpo/ Diaz and Doku/ Grealish all day long - and I’m pretty confident in saying all their own fans would agree too.
 
I'm mostly in agreement about the other players, but you don't think Son would start ahead of Martinelli and Doku/Grealish?

Even if the answer is yes, my point is that isn't going to be the case for much longer. He still has quality in spades but the ability side is visibly declining. We all hoped last season was a blip/Conte's poor management, but the yard or too of pace and few seconds of sharpness he was lacking last season are still absent this year.

He is no longer the game changer he once was, and is starting to show the signs of a player who has played 50-60 games a season for club and country for almost a decade, with remarkably few missed through injury.

I made this point back in the summer when we were debating selling Kane versus making him see out his contract: thanks to pissing Spurs circa 2019-2023 up a very poorly built wall, we are 5 years behind your project and twice that behind City and Liverpool. It will take a minimum 3-4 years until we are properly challenging for major trophies again, and by that time it doesn't matter how we slice it: Kane and Son will no longer be at the heart of the team (or any PL team for that matter).

So we need to plan for a future beyond Son. Next season he'll be a drop poorer, the season after that poorer still, as he slowly declines. A team supposedly on the up cannot rely on a veteran turning back the clock, no matter how much of a hero they are. The fact that we are continually linked with wide attackers suggests that Ange is thinking the same.
 
Not sure about that call. Not even sure how you’ve come to that conclusion.

He’s probably the best LW in the league. Starts ahead of Martinelli, Gakpo/ Diaz and Doku/ Grealish all day long - and I’m pretty confident in saying all their own fans would agree too.
I can see one set of fans who would strongly disagree with that belief

Mainly because they have the mentality of a toddler