With City coming away with a lucky lucky draw the other day, I can't help thinking that this title race is going to go to the wire. Tottenham are in the middle of it and the results against Spurs will decide the title race as Tottenham have yet to play Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool. If you take a look below we have City on the 20 April, Arsenal on the 27th April and Liverpool on the 4th May. The results here will in fact decide who will win the title between these teams.
Spurs played well against Villa. Probably the best they have played all season so they are coming good at the right time. On saying that losing 2 matches in 11 games isn't exactly bad form but we have not been playing well. The reason for this is coming up against teams that park the bus which is half the league. We seem to have no problem playing against teams that attack us. I would have much more confidence with Spurs playing Arsenal , Liverpool or City than say West Ham away who will put 11 men in front of goal and go on the counter for the afternoon and hopefully nick a goal. West Ham, Wolves and Everton did it to Spurs already. But on the otherhand , City , Liverpool and Arsenal could not beat us. We have no lost against a top 6 club as of yet this season which just goes to show that we can handle an attacking team far better than a team that sits back. Ange is going to have to look at this next season as teams are seeing Spurs as a club where a draw would be a good result. Take even Aston Villa. Battling for 4th place. They decided to play a back 5 against us. This is the team in 4th place at the moment so it just goes to show.
Spurs beat Villa by 4 goals to nil and the 2 injury time goals did not inflate the result. In fact it could have been more. Emery made a balls of his team tactics and maybe this is why the big clubs are weary to give him a top job again. They rarely play 5 at the back and even with 5 there , Spurs were relentless. With a game in hand it puts Tottenham in the driving seat and it is exciting to see how we will fair against the the 3 clubs battling it out for the title. Maybe if we beat Arsenal and Liverpool , that will do us fine. What do you think? 2 out of 3 won't be bad and considering how Liverpool whinged and moaned and sent letters to PGMOl over a replay then I think it is right that Spurs batter them to dent their title hopes for being whingy bastards. The Hard Done By Cup we shall call it. Between Arsenal and Liverpool both are insufferable.
Anyway back to Spurs. VDV went off injured last weekend but it looks to be only a precaution. Dragusin took his place. He had only played 11 minutes this year so it was good to get the Romanian minutes on the pitch as I would see he was beginning to wonder whether he made the right choice over Bayern and Tottenham. Dragusin will get plenty of minutes next year but it was good to see him do well in that game. The 11 minutes we saw of him before hand were a bit dodgy , leaving passes short and nearly giving away a peno but this game he was calm and relaxed and did his job well. The Centre Half position is vital under Angeball as they push right up to the half way line and need speed to sweep up anything coming their way.
Sarr replaced Bantancur against Villa and he had a great game against Villa with a world class cross to Maddison for the first goal. We missed Sarr's injury but I really think he staked a claim on that number 6 position now and his high energy and running really made us tick. Not only that but he makes players around him such as Bissouma and Sarr better. Sarr tends to drift right giving Porro space to run inside and go forward and at some stages on Sunday it looked like the Spanish wing back was playiing Centre Forward.
Udogee again had a great game and our defence is really playing well. The attack was now the problem coming into Villa as they were not hitting the target but Son, Johnson, Wernerand Kulusevski all did the job. Kulusevski being the quietest but still manageing two assists. Brennan Johnson got a much deserved start again and with the pressure off him abit he is beginning to be the player we had hoped he would be. For a player that is having a "rocky" start , he is getting alot of goals and assists.
Spurs have Fulham at the weekend at 5.30, the same time as Ireland vs Scotland in the rugby so there will not be a pub in the country that will have the Spurs game on which is a pain because I would actually watch the football over the egg chasing. Anyhow Fulham are not a bad team but I do expect a victory here and a really convincing one. Spurs have to win these 4 games against Fulham , Luton , West Ham and Notts Forest before we play the big boys to secure 4th place. Villa have an easier run in in theory but Villa do tend to lose their shit in pressure games so its all to play for. Who knows? If we end up beating the 3 big boys we could end up finishing higher than 4th. Anything could happen in football. You just never know.