better (hours) late than never, eh? really nervy second half for me once they'd scored, though to be fair, for all their frontfootedness (I'm saying it's a word), they didn't threaten much. It's been said that one area in which we've needed to improve in order to be real championship candidates is in our ability to see games out. But I can't quite work out whether this has been an example of improvement or lack thereof. job done in the end, but surely it should've been more comfortable than that, no? Walker was a bit crap and Tripp was worse, and we were really careless with the ball throughout much of it, but all in all, no major complaints. Winks could've come on sooner for my money, and Janssen's scorcher going in would've been really helpful in a couple ways. still, all 3 points and the Citeh/Liverpool draw make it a good Sunday in the end, yeah?
awful 2nd half. defense was pretty solid, they kept Long in check by stepping up on him all match long. but the midfield kept giving the ball away needlessly. fullbacks were bad. Trippier in particular was awful, several passes without pressure given right to Southampton. Davies was only slightly better. Eriksen was good for about 60 minutes. Son was mostly invisible after the early minutes. Winks and Janssen were both productive once on. Demeble wasn't even that good with the ball today, tbh. Waynama was excellent at stopping the ball, but then would give it right back. net positive, but sheesh, it was frustrating lots of heavy touches and heavy passes. there was a few times where I just wanted spurs to settle down and possess the ball, but they just would make a stupid pass or dribble too casually into traffic and get it taken away. probly sounds like I am unhappy, but considering no kane or rose available, good result is a good result. 9 pts clear of Arsenal as well also - they couldn't do the forum upgrade on a frickin Monday? or even later on Sunday? sheesh
Agree with Pook when he said Southampton never truly threatened for an equalizer. Felt the commentators were overstating things by saying we were holding on. That being said, Dele upfront played into Soton hands as he is neither a runner into the channels (Son) or a target the ball can stick to (Janssen).
I was thinking about starting a thread a doing a fictional pbp after the upgrade (and after the match ended). The one Alde mistake this year resulted in a goal. Says quite a bit about the Spurs defense. This. The commentators drove me nuts, specially saying how loud the Soton fans where. I'm thinking, "What are you hearing?" All I heard all match long was Spurs fans, even right after the Soton goal. This was one of those matches in which I think Spurs won because the fans were so positive. It was kinda like, "Soton scored...so what?! Coooome ooooooon yooooooou Spuuuuurs!"
I like that Dele plays as sort of a false 9. It forces the other team to decide whether they want to pull a DM, FB or CB to defend him which opens space for someone to run on to.
would like to have seen Janssen come in a bit sooner. he has become very valuable in holdup play late in matches recently. gets fouled deep in the offensive zone, another 30 seconds off the clock
yeah, I completely agree with that. I mentioned that I would've liked to have seen Winks on earlier, but I should've said the same for Janssen. not to make too big a deal of it, but that was a nice little 5-10 minute cameo from him - a whole lot more than just taking up 30 seconds to bring a sub on in the dying minutes. him doing that for 20-30 minutes longer would've taken a fair bit of pressure off - of me if not the team.
Our rearranged away fixture at Crystal Palace will be played Wednesday April 26th, which means we have a tough week of 3 London derbies with Chelski in the FA Cup on the 22nd and Wenger Inc. on the 30th at the Lane.
But the good news is that there aren't any "tough" matches until the semi finals which means that we should be able to cope without Kane.
I was out and about, and nervously checking my phone for updates at 2-1. Holding on to such a lead for a good chunk of the second half is definitely something Spurs fans are not used to. I read somewhere that Leicester's record from last year would only be good enough for 4th place today... we have stepped up, but so have Chelsea unfortunately. With no Europe to think about I am hopeful we can secure 2nd place and set a new points total record, even if catching Chelsea is unlikely.
Selhu I live in Vancouver, Canada now, but was born in Edmonton, North London. To give North Americans an idea of the lay of the land, Selhurst Park is one of the more difficult grounds to get to in London.