As I write this, I am seething at a whole year’s hard work undone by one result. Whichever result it is, argue amongst yourselves as I haven’t got the energy to argue after Sunday’s events in the local pub. My guess is the Liverpool away game Spurs had control of until they stupidly backpassed (practically into their own net). If they had won that one as the complexion of the game suggested, I wouldn’t be worrying about this afternoon so much.
This season has been a white hot pain in the…well, you get the picture.
 
Have Spurs improved at all? – Yes AND No. Impartiality is my speciality… 

NO:

Case and point – Spurs failed to finish above Arsenal’. A syndrome which has been enraging the blue and white half of North London for 18 years. Gets straight to the point doesn’t it. League position has reached a glass ceiling with Arsenal’s large…erm…a**e sitting on top of it for those 18 years. Not an improvement. Hence why any Spurs fan saying ‘Mind the Gap’ halfway through a season should be banned from wherever they uttered it. Two years in a row, Spurs fans including the level-headed amongst us have been made to look even sillier as a fanbase by counting chickens before they hatch. There has been no gap and if there was, Arsenal were the ones ahead by that gap.

For anyone sharpening a knife for anyone at the club, manager or player [or chairman], put it away. It’s not worth it and won’t turn back the clock. But if it mattered, I would blame one or two players for either letting a game slip away against Liverpool when we were up 2-1 or one who didn’t start scoring until it was too late. I could even attribute the lack of goals to not getting in a top striker but at the end of the day, it was about the players already on the pitch rather than the dream-inducing potential signings several hundred miles away from it. There have once again been games where Spurs have been in total control and still thrown away by the final whistle, and to opposition which weren’t exactly challenging Lloris until the one single counter attack gets lucky.

For two seasons in a row, Wigan have beaten Spurs 1-0 at home despite taking what is known in the UK as ‘a battering’. Although, it must be said Wigan are better than they used to be and it is a shame to see them go down to the Championship after the highs of winning a cup against all odds. I think their secret was Martinez – before each game against Spurs – playing them the 9-1 hammering they received at White Hart Lane on DVD to fire them all up.
The improvement has not been in the form of killing off games against less-favourited opposition.
Arsenal usually kill games off against the same opposition. The mentality issue still needs to be knocked out of this team a bit more before they can make a beneficial points gap and maintain it for the whole season, rather than let it slip two months before the end.
 

YES:

Spurs still gave it their best overall. They ended on their highest ever Premier League points tally and in Andre Villas Boas’ first season as manager, it’s at the least a sign that he knew what he was doing all along and should NEVER have been doubted. He didn’t deserve to be bombarded with reminders that his time at the managerial abbatoir known as Chelsea was not the best.
AVB has managed to get some kind of never-say-die mentality into the team and he has made more intelligent subs than duff ones to impact the game. The never-say-die mentality improvement came to fruition for me when Bale nicked a vital winner away to West Ham to make it 3-2 to Spurs in the dying seconds. Hugs all round for AVB and Bale who shared a man-love moment together.
Some games two years ago we would have lost 1-0 late on if the opposition played a defensive game we have managed to win 1-0 instead after peppering the goal with shots. 
Some of the football under his tactics and Steffen Freund’s system of ‘ARBEIT-ing’ has been nothing short of amazing to watch. The 4-0 win against Aston Villa on Boxing Day was just out of this world and the sign of a team who deserved better prizes at the end than they got for it.
A sense of team spirit and willingness from the players to take on AVB’s philosophy was vital to improvement. Chelsea didn’t ‘play ball’ and it showed. Spurs took straight to AVB’s methods and it showed.
Tie in a fourth-place finish, an away win against Man United (after nearly 20 years!) and you have what was on its own – a better-than-decent season. It’s a shame that today’s events have mutated it, making it look more terrible than it is. *Takes rose-tinted spectacles off to prevent eye-strain*
 
Generally, I think Spurs have improved because of the players being willing to take on the methods of a manager who won a treble in his first season at a previous club. You don’t win a treble by doing nothing with a team. I’m an AVB-liever and have been since he got here.
Removing all the fluff about trying to finish above those pesky red guys from down the road is all we as fans can do to numb this pain. Supporting the ‘English contingent’ in the Champions League regardless is a whole separate ball game, but I don’t tend to play that. As it really would be nothing but a play (false). Club rivalry conquers all. You only have to look at Yesterday for that. Until next season, Auf Wiedersehen.

David Villa I could take it or leave it purely because of his age although a player who still excites me at the prospect of seeing him in a Spurs shirt. I would take him because the alternative scares me, if we turn our noses up at Villa because he might not be great value for money at his age then we could end up with another Saha like signing and I for one have had just about enough of them.

A Spanish legend Villa from his days at Valencia where he was the main man for his country and his club and a player who would have walked into any team in the world. The rumors of Barcelona selling Villa to Spurs are really doing the rounds, with the Spanish press claiming a deal is done.

We will believe it when we see it, we have been here too many times before, most recently Damiao and Moutinho, the deal isn’t done until I see the above image, credit to whoever made it by the way because it wasn’t me I was too busy watching Celebrity Juice.

Just 2pts ahead of Arsenal so anything other than an Arsenal win will do the trick. Doesn’t look like we can count that much on Newcastle putting in much effort on Sunday so this is the one, anything other than a Wigan win will see them finally relegated but we all know they are capable of causing an upset as they play great football on their day and always give us a tricky ride.

The biggest game of the season for us and we aren’t even playing. Many haunting memories over the season of silly dropped points has meant that it’s gone to the wire and we are all too worried of that sickening feeling we are all to familiar with.

So it’s bound to be nail biting stuff, I can’t see Arsenal losing to be honest as we don’t get lucky like that but fingers crossed anyway and tonight Matthew I am a Wigan fan.

Predictions?

COYW!!!

Pardew today said:

I was only joking when I said I didn’t care about Arsenal result

I know people will have picked up on my comments about not caring about the result against Arsenal, which were of course a joke.

‘It is definitely not the case that I would be happy for us to lose 4-0 against Arsenal on Sunday. I simply want our players and fans to be able to enjoy the game without looking over their shoulders.

‘Even though we are now safe we will be putting in the same effort that we would for any other Premier League game.

‘Our last two results at St James’ Park – against Sunderland and Liverpool – have been nowhere near good enough, and Sunday gives us the chance to put that right.

‘We want to end the season on a positive, to finish in as high a position as possible and to give the fans something to cheer about on the final day of what has been a frustrating season.

‘Arsenal will be doing everything they can to try to achieve a Champions League spot and we won’t make it easy for them, make no mistake about that.’

So The Toon are safe and to be honest I don’t blame them for thinking like that just because we need them to win, but the professional thing to do would be for Pardew to put out his strongest team and try to end their season as high as possible.

Pardew backtracking to escape the wrath of The FA if he puts out a weaker team and loses? Or was he simply caught up in the euphoria of yesterday’s win against QPR which I can sort of understand?

For now however we remain Wigan fans before we turn to The Toon.

Once I saw Newcastle and Norwich win today I knew that was bad news for us as it appeared Arsenal would have a tough match against Newcastle on the final day but after their win today confirming their survival it looks as though Wigan may be our best bet as the only team left who need to win against Arsenal.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew confirmed my suspicions when I saw his post match comments basically saying he don’t give a sh*t now about the Arsenal match, a message that will surely filter through to his players. Pardew is likely to play a weaker team also now, I find it a bit surprising because he’s had a poor season and he could make it looks a bit more respectful with a higher league position but after the QPR win today he had this to say:

“I don’t really care if Arsenal win 4-0 [next weekend], If I’m honest, I’m sure Spurs will – but I only care that our fans enjoy themselves.”

Don’t expect any favours from The Toon next Sunday, I just hope their players and fans still want to win and don’t let that Pardew message filter through, I don’t really blame him for thinking like that as I am sure we would in their position but as the manager I don’t think he should say it aloud.

Come on Wigan!

Since the turn of the year we have only had the odd game where we really played out of our skin, we concede too many and don’t score enough which is why our goal difference is far worse than those above and around us and even Liverpool are better off in the goal difference department.

I really hope we can beat Chelsea but we will have to improve in our performance, we played like crap against Wigan, we played like sh*t against Man City up until the substitutions, to get played off the park at the weekend by a team who are pretty much safe in Southampton when we are trying to go for a CL place is not good enough and I am still haunted by the Fulham performance at home.

We can excuse a few bad performances but we have been playing poor for months and getting worse each week, the last time I remember us playing top drawer was against Inter in the Europa and we almost fluffed that up. We seem to lack ideas, we knock the ball around for fun at the back and midfield but that’s as good as it gets, we lack in the creative department big time and the striking department.

Modric and VDV leaving was a massive blow because we never replaced their creativity and quality, Dembele is just a trojan in the middle but we need a creator to get the balance right in my opinion. We never really go out there and batter teams 3 or 4 nil anymore, maybe once or twice a season whereas 3 or 4 years ago we were doing it 6 or 7 times a season. We struggle now against the lesser teams and even at WHL. We might be still in the hunt for 4th place but judging by our recent performances and our goal difference I would say we are fortunate to be there.

If we smash Chelsea then I will come back and all is forgiven and maybe we will get a result because it only seems to be the big games in which we turn up for. Silly points against poor teams at home have been dropped and could cost us yet again.

Even the most die hard blind loyal Spurs fan would have to admit that recently we have been playing like sh*t and I hope it improves and the players know what’s at stake.

Wigan are fighting for their lives and we all know how capable they become at this stage of the season, this really could be an end to end game.

After last week AVB has more fit players to select from, Defoe showed last week he is back with a bang, Bale managed to come through unharmed and Lennon is fit again after missing the last few games.

Starting XI

Tottenham

Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton; Dembele, Huddlestone, Parker; Dempsey, Defoe, Bale

Aaron Lennon is back on the bench – here are our subs – Friedel, Assou-Ekotto, Caulker, Carroll, Holtby, Lennon, Sigurdsson

There were a few shouts for a 3 man midfield and to include the Hudd after 2 fine sub appearances and it seems as though AVB has answered them shouts.

My reason for this is that although he does protect the back 4 very well against teams like Wigan I don’t think the back 4 should be under that much pressure anyway and against Everton and Manchester City I thought one man showed us what we have been missing and he now deserves a start…. The Hudd.

Tom Huddlestone is well overdue his haircut but in his last 2 sub appearances he has come on and given us what we lack, the eye for a killer pass, his vision to set up the equalizer against Everton and the perfect ball for Bale to score against City was something we had lacked. Nothing has frustrated me more in recent weeks to see the likes of Livermore come on, a player who I think is absolute turd and about as good as Jenas, but to see Hudd come on, a player who can actually do something was a breath of fresh air.

Huddlestone looks to have lost a bit more weight and if you be honest here do you get excited a little bit when he gets the ball? I do because he can do something with it, whether it’s hitting a scream or pinging a 30-yard pass to the feet of Lennon ,Defoe or Bale. Hudd gives us a different outlet that we have lacked, he has the imagination that’s been missing and personally I have missed him, Dembele does enough running around to do some of the dirty work we would lack from missing Parker but for me I think it’s time to show our intent against teams we expect to beat and start with a more offensive lineup and some of our more creative players. I do appreciate Wigan have beaten us  and can be very dangerous this time of year but there’s nothing more frustrating than watching a Spurs side lacking in ideas.

I’d like to keep Huddlestone happy because he does poses some strange talent that can memorize me at times and I don’t know why. Parker probably only has 1 decent season left and it would pain me to see Huddlestone in another shirt as I believe he can offer any team some quality with his range of pin-point passing and the exciting feeling you get when he lines up to strike a ball. I can’t explain it as I know sometimes he can be a pile of poo but I just couldn’t bare the thought of seeing him in a shirt other than Spurs.

Hudd for me at the weekend… who’s with me?

Twitter is full of bitter Liverpool fans demanding to know why Luis Suarez got a 10 match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend but in 2006 Jermain Defoe sunk his teeth into Javier Mascherano and escaped with only a yellow card.

Apart from the fact that Defoe isn’t an absolute helmet like Suarez who is a repeat offender when it comes to getting himself into trouble the reason Defoe wasn’t banned was because the referee saw the incident and booked him at the time, so the matter was dealt with on the pitch at the time. Back then the rules meant that if the referee saw an incident and decided to act or take no action then it could not be dealt with after the match by the FA. The rules have since changed and if Defoe had done that now he could have faced further action, so you could say he got lucky and benefited from the loophole that was back then.

Looks more like a kiss to me, probably trying to kiss the badge.

Suarez however, even if it had been 7 years ago was not seen by any officials and was therefore going to face the wrath of the FA all day long, there was no two ways about it. Suarez is a top player but unfortunately he is a twat and his repeat offending may have cost him a couple of extra games on his ban this time around. Defoe has also only ever done it once because he was a bit hungry at the time so leave him alone, whereas Suarez has previous for biting as he done it in Holland when playing for Ajax and also received a lengthy ban for that, this has proved he has not learned his lesson and like in the criminal courts if you repeat offend on the same crime then the punishment gets more harsh.

Deal with it, Defoe is a legend and a yido, Suarez is a silly little boy who never learns his lesson and will always be an annoying little rat like Craig Bellamy was, a great player but a pleb.

Hit me with your best shot you angry scousers I insulted your main man and now I fear your wrath.

Bale > Suarez

Arsenal and Chelsea were probably rubbing their hands together but then Clint Dempsey cancelled out Nasri’s opener to give us all hope that we could do to City what they done to us earlier on in the season. Tom Hudd coming off the bench was the substitution that made us click, Holtby also pulled his weight when he came on but it was Defoe who put us in the lead and showed why he is a top striker because it was a goal out of nothing which left Joe Hart plucking at thin air.

Then guess who stepped up and made sure  for once in a blue moon meant we could relax and not have to bite our nails for the final minutes, Gareth Bale with a lovely run to latch on to Hudds great through ball and then with a lovely dink to make Joe Hart look like a small boy.

We now have hope and confidence, it was a good performance and an even better one once AVB made his subs, we bossed the final 20mins and now we just have to keep it up. Great game to watch, I am still in love with Hugo Lloris and want his babies, the guy comes for everything and rarely does he make a wrong judgement.

COYS!

Tottenham vs Manchester City 3:1 HIGHLIGHTS by footballdaily1