Tucker from The Fighting Cock Forum examines whether we are able to take anything positive from a 5-1 home thrashing.
No silver linings
The worst thing about last night, as pointed out by another supporter, is that a 5-1 home drubbing isn’t even in the top three worst moments this season. I don’t think anyone is all that surprised by the result either.
![[IMG]](http://i57.tinypic.com/2dlt6rl.jpg)
City, are, let’s face it, unstoppable. Having scored more than 4 goals in 13 fixtures already this season, 68 goals scored in the league, over 100 goals scored in all competitions. The shaky away form of earlier in the season now replaced with confidence and a lethal attacking line up, in clinical form.
We can point to the gulf in spending between our two sides when querying why a club who only a few short years ago were languishing in the old division 2. Successions of sugar daddies have lifted them from their purgatory. I’m not bitter though, after all, we can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that UEFA’s financial fair play rules are keeping everything on a level playing field.
[authquoteleft text=”We can point to the gulf in spending between our two sides when querying why a club who only a few short years ago were languishing in the old division 2[/linequote]
The dominance City showed, was underlined by the fact they could have had a hat-full before they finally broke the deadlock, in only the 15th minute. We were always going to need some luck to get any kind of result. And unfortunately came up against a City side with officials firmly onside.
Michael Dawson, never at his best against tricky little strikers and fast incisive passing, could have been a hero, rather than a helpless victim at the hands of City’s assassin like strikers were it not for a linesman who, seemingly took his eye off the ball and let his imagination fill the gaps.
But even without the vengeful linesmans union holding grudges about smoke bombs City would still likely have blown us away. Danny Rose’s tackle early in the second half gave the same lino the chance to hammer another nail into our coffin, clean tackle or not, it was a naïve challenge that was always going to give Edin Dzeko the chance to make a song and dance.
Any one under the impression that City, and their players somehow show more class than their oil funded brethren at Stamford Bridge should review their assessment, only needing to look at the likes of Vincent Kompany, and David Silva who both urged the referee to dismiss our young left back. Holding up imaginary cards and surrounding the “w*nker in black.”
From that moment the game was over as a contest, a consolation goal from allegedly Napoli-bound Capoue, certainly did nothing to console me.
Neither did the knowledge that us haemorrhaging more points and more goals at home, somehow has a “silver lining” because Woolwich are no longer top of the league.
[linequote]Any one under the impression that City, and their players somehow show more class than their oil funded brethren at Stamford Bridge should review their assessment[/linequote]
Have we become so out of touch with any form of competitive participation in this league that we now have to resolve to celebrate small inconveniences for our parrot killing neighbours?
“Even failure will have in it an echo of glory.”
I’m pretty sure this isn’t the kind of echo Bill Nicholson had in mind. It’s not the first time Spurs losing has been an annoyance to Woolwich, or Chelsea or even West Ham. I can clearly remember when United needed to beat us to clinch the title from Woolwich at the end of the season. I remember seeing pictures of Spurs fans cheering United goals, and holding signs supporting them.
There may have been an element of me that was relieved when Woolwich were denied the title. But it wasn’t any solace from the fact that we were a mediocre side languishing in midtable. Today is January the 30th. None of the results in game week 23 of the Premier League are going to decide the title.
Spurs aren’t completely out of the mix up, still only sitting a few points behind the leaders, Spurs still have something to play for. I don’t think we will come close to City, and certainly won’t win the title, but we aren’t so far off the leaders that we can celebrate City knocking Woolwich off their perch.
Even if we had sneaked a win or a draw, City would still likely finish far and away above everyone else in this league. So there is no silver lining in this particular rain cloud. Especially from seeing a club like City dominate football. The world of football is full of what ifs, had City and Chelsea never whored themselves to Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, many apologists argue that Woolwich would have won many more trophies.
[authquoteright text=”Today is January the 30th. None of the results in game week 23 of the Premier League are going to decide the title[/linequote]
I would argue that we would have won our fair share too. Imagine if Chelsea had gone bust in 2004, or if City had never invested so heavily just as we were placing our fingertips onto the holy land of Champions League qualification. Two clubs, who have changed the landscape of European football unchecked over the course of the last decade.
How are they any different from Woolwich , who in the early parts of the 20th Century “convinced” the FA to bend the rules allowing them to move location, and then later “convinced” the FA to allow them promotion without merit. Changing the course of football history, not on the pitch, but in the boardrooms.
Just like City, and just like Chelsea. Surely we should loathe Chelsea and City almost as much as we do Woolwich. There is no glory for Spurs if Woolwich and Chelsea finish runners up to Man City. The only glory for Tottenham Hotspur will be if we give a good account of ourselves in the remaining 15 games of the league season, and go on a wonderful European run.
There is still plenty for us to play for, a trophy to be won, and glory to be chased. Rather than giving up on our own aims and celebrating the failure of others we should focus on the fact that we are still only 3 points behind Liverpool.
[author name=”Tucker” avatar=”https://www.thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/data/avatars/m/1/1580.jpg?1376331065″ tag=”Tucker[/linequote]
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7 Comments
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30/01/2014 @ 4:48 pm
Theres still a lot to play for,and from the reports I’ve read we were beginning to get back into it till the red card.I am a bit puzzled by people saying we should have defended not gone gong ho.Whats the point of defending when your losing 1 nil or 5-1 its still a loss.
30/01/2014 @ 5:29 pm
The truth hurts
But the mismanagement by Levy is embarrassing
Maybe he will actually do right by the team and get a stadium and sell
That will be the ultimate reward, instead of only investing in the summer and then being mad we miss Champions League
He has hit his ceiling
30/01/2014 @ 6:14 pm
Win 9, draw 3 and lose 3 from the final 15 games, and we should have a new PL record of 73 points ..and if that doesn’t ensure 4th this time around, then we may as well give up. Those results are not beyond us either. As long as we put this game behind us, and don’t capitulate as we did in the final third of the season (as we have at crucial times for the past two seasons) then it should be OK ..and all those pundits and independent experts who have tipped 4th to be between Liverpool and Utd should get egg on their faces.
But let’s face the facts. We’re suffering because we did not spend £100k wisely, and because AVB’s intransigence cost us important points at home. City played the game in a way we should be playing it. Swift incisive passing, great movement off the ball, cut-throat finishing, and a tendency to swarm all over the opposition (like Barca at their best) when they haven’t got the ball. Because that’s what the best teams do ..they don’t just pass well, they press high, get the ball back quickly, and don’t allow their opponents to get into any sort of passing or possession pattern/rhythm. City were greedy for the ball ..and that’s what we must emulate.
I’m not talking about the awful slow build-up possession (with two holding midfielders) which Spurs have often had at home before Tim took over, when we bored teams to death, achieving little in the final third before they bounced back with counters. I’m talking about the passing of a thousand cuts …slicing through teams relentlessly, pressing them hard and giving no quarter or respite. Was it just two seasons ago that we were playing the best football in the PL over the course of a few months? With Bale and Lennon on the flanks, supported by excellent full backs in Walker and BAE, and with Modric/Parker pulling the strings in the middle? THEN we needed a box striker! Soldado would have beautifully fitted the bill back then ..with the countless chances we created (yet were too often not taken by the likes of Defoe/Pav/Crouch etc)!
We cannot regain that ‘Spurs way’ with just one playmaker! We can’t do that with Ade (bless his new found heart) or a simple box striker in Soldado now either, waiting for his meal (instead of hunting for it), and we can’t do it with unbalanced flanks. Our midfield last night was steamrollered, despite an abundance of ‘midfielders’ playing. Eriksen can’t do it alone ..and was forced into too many mistakes. Dembele’s injury didn’t help matters, but he showed again that he’s not a creative kind of player, merely a strong runner who’s hard to dispossess. Great in the normal scheme of things, but he couldn’t connect with Eriksen, and that type of running/shielding game takes it out of you anyway, particularly in weather like that and with the City bees swarming all over you. Bentelab unfortunately showed clearly that he was out of his depth. I like the lad, and against lesser teams he’s showed promise ..but against them too he’s had more time on the ball and a clearer role. Last night he was not a defensive midfielder, a holding player or a creative player, simply a kid blown away by the whirlwind that was going on around him. Did we actually HAVE a DM last night?? We are supposed to have FOUR ..but even Capoue couldn’t fit into any set pattern (despite the welcome goal). Sig remains a dilemma. Not as naturally talented as Kranks was, he’s been given far more opportunities than the Croatian had. But again, Sig is no winger and he’s no playmaker. He’s certainly not a defensive attribute, so what is his role, and what was his role last night? The trouble with Spurs is that we’ve too many utility players ..guys who can drop into a position but are not masters of their craft there. Chadli and Holtby too fall into that category. Verts and Naughton inadvertently fell into it too when they had to go out of position to cover for Rose for most of the season (because wisely, some fool allowed BAE to go on loan, giving us no left back cover).
Having too many utility players, or players played out of position, will NOT get us top four.
We had fight last night, but we did have two big decisions (from the same linesman) go against us. We may well have still lost the game, yet it does grate that somehow, but for him, we might have nicked a point. On the upside we have Townsend, Paulinho, Sandro, Verts and Kaboul back now (although I thought one or two of them would have been ready for last night) so hopefully we can beat Hull and maintain that pressure on Liverpool and United. We’re around the games/points total we were at this stage in the past two seasons, and while a big question mark remains against all our utility players, and our youngsters, including Lamela, Tim can hopefully inspire this still excellent squad to a 9-3-3 finale ..barring any major injuries to KEY players!
30/01/2014 @ 6:31 pm
what a waste of time how long did this take to write, on the other hand i’m a fucking idiot for reading and replying to it!
30/01/2014 @ 7:11 pm
The truth hurts the media and pathetic glory hunting Man Shitteh fans
They needed:
A moron linesman making two colossal blunders
A corrupt ref failing to send off three Shitteh players (Toure for two bookings, indeed he was going to produce a second yellow until he saw who it was, the cunt, Aguero for cheating in trying to get Dawson sent off by running into him and then collapsing, and Fernandinho for deliberate handball on the line)
30/01/2014 @ 7:12 pm
I know it’s an insubstantial silver lining but Sherwood’s post-match interview was impressive. I’m not convinced he’s a tactical genius by any means, but he was honest, grown-up and open. If that had been Wenger, Ferguson, Mourinho or AVB there would have been a “we woz robbed” tirade against the referee and his assistant. “To be honest, Ray, we were up against it even with eleven men” was a classy response.
07/02/2014 @ 7:51 pm
The truth to these comments are that you can always blame some incidents on bad luck, but all clubs will get an amount of decisions going against them over a season and this season we have had some penalty decisions go in our favour, like Lloris at Old Trafford, and 2 or 3 of the penalties we have been awarded. Overall, though, we have not been good enough over the whole season, if you are relying on results to go your way at the last game of the season, it is going to be risky. I do think that Levy and Lewis have to share most of the blame, they are the ones in charge of our club and appoint and sack managers, they are the ones creating uncertainty over the stadium development, so boring it has been going on so long !