baby blue.
I tweeted and posted just under a bit back that the nightmare scenario of Spurs midfield being reduced to Pinaar, Krancjar and Jenas could be upon us.
Well thanks to ‘Arry having what looks like more than one eye on the midweek trip to Milan, Lennon was only on the bench along with that there was a late arrival back from Honduras by Palacios, so welcome the strength in depth of the Spurs squad.
Doesn’t really look all that strong or deep when they’re all lumped in together.
Amongst that was also Sandro, yet again getting the shitty end of the stick. If he’s not getting taken off after a red card, he’s starting next to Palacios when two defensive midfielders were not required and then placed within the weakest looking surroundings on a trip to Sunderland, where many teams don’t win and Spurs hadn’t in a decade. Hopefully at some point Sandro will get a game with a decent side around him soon.
Added to that to make matters even worse they were all kitted out in that baby blue monstrosity of a kit.
And lo it came to pass exactly how you would expect.
After an initial chance to open the scoring, nice ball by Defoe from wide to Jenas who ballooned it as he seemed more bothered by the possibility of a tackle coming in than scoring, though bottling it there he had better excuse than with his pathetic free-kick later on. What followed for most of the first half was a lacklustre, gutless, shambles of a performance, in which Sunderland were given all the time and space they required, especially in the middle of the park even though Spurs were narrow.
No surprise when Sunderland got the opener. Gallas received a bit of stick from some muppets about being off the park to change his boots. If he has to change them, he has to change them, no point slipping over at an inappropriate moment. Ball was down the other end so no problem, reorganise, move Corluka in and drop someone back to cover for him, maybe someone with 150 league games for the club could have figured it. But no, Corluka is caught between two stools, Richardson is given plenty of room and time to find Gyan, nice take down and turn and good shot, as Dawson was left marking two and marked neither.
Still wish we’d have gone for the Ghanaian, yes he might not be in the very top level of strikers but at £13m he’d have been worth a try. Saying that with the level of service both Defoe and Pavlyuchenko had he’d have been struggling. The pair did a lot of work but most of it was wide of the danger area.
Just before half-time, great time to score they keep telling us, turned out to be after such an inept half. A goal from a set-piece as well, don’t get many of them. The two blamed for Sunderland’s as Dawson heads down and Gallas runs across the ‘keeper taking his eyes completely off the ball as it goes between his legs.
Second half was much like we’ve seen before from Spurs after similar first halves, ‘Arry gives ’em a rocket and they actually show some fight. encouraging that Sandro especially came on in the second 45, culminating in him running into the space that Corluka pointed out to him and then played the ball into behind the Sunderland full-back. Decent cross, nothing exceptional, headed away by Bramble just perfectly for Kranjcar to apply another brilliant finish. Two games from the Croat two brilliant winners, after his ineptness in the limited appearances earlier in the season he looked to be on his way and no great loss, six points later thank god he stayed.
Another, in the end, battling, gritty victory, above Chelski, two points behind Citeh with a game in hand and pissing on Steve Bruce’s chips, a nightmare with a happy ending…