the Jermain Defoe “one day I may score my 100th goal” t-shirt.
‘Arry has to tell the striker he will never wear that undergarment ever again, followed by a quick clip round the lug hole for wearing it in the first place.
That sinking feeling though started well before Defoe’s finishing faltered. When Gallas sent a cross-field ball to van der Vaart, who controlled it perfectly and laid it into, the ever moving, Modric’s path, little Croat cut it back to Dawson on the edge of the box the defender opened his body and beautifully curled a shot onto the bar.
When a centre-back just misses with what an attempt that had it come from the likes of van der Vaart or Modric would have been purred about not just by Spurs fans you just know it’s gonna be one of them days.
So from then on through via van der Vaart and Modric’s near misses, Lennon hitting the post, Pavlyuchenko’s shots and all Defoe’s wasted chances to Bale’s excellent free-kick, palmed onto the bar. It was all action, a feast of football, that had a nil-nil draw written all over it.
Still it could have been worse, Carlton Cole should have scored just after 10 minutes in but fluffed it into Gomes, the ‘keeper making a couple of good saves later on but that was all he was really called to do all game.
That first goal, what would have happened if the Dawson shot had gone in? You feel floodgates would have opened. Defoe would have been able to lift up his shirt the result would have matched the swagger.
Swagger that’s one way to describe Modric, he was all over the place running rings around players trying to hack him own. Pretty much ran the first half with some help from van der Vaart. But the latter faded, still not fit, though again he was all over the place, dropping deep, some great touches. Pav’s introduction brought a new spark, ‘Arry had left the substitution too late but then should vdV have been given the match off to truly try and regain full fitness.
Bale is still working his way back into match fitness, so was somewhat subdued from the highlights of the season. His free kick was a great attempt and it’s one more game towards regaining that edge. Lennon hit the post, from which Defoe should have scored, some saying he was well defended by Bridge but numerous times he’d escaped the left-backs attention and was only let down by Corluka butchering the pass to him.
Lost count of how many time a nice subtle, well weighted ball between fullback and centre-back would have had Lennon straight through only for Corluka to hammer it out of play or pass it to a Spammer. It’s normally his strong suit the interplay with Lennon, here it was a complete clusterfuck.
To often during the game there was far too much pissing about around the box as Lennon, Bale, Modric and van der Vaart passed it between themselves while hanging back. When there were gaps opening up no one attempted an off the ball run into the box to give the others another option. A tad frustrating. Also when the ball was on the wing due to the fact there was only Defoe up front and in the box it resulted in the man on the ball dithering over what to do.
So the performance was there, the finishing certainly wasn’t and it’s another 2 points dropped, at home and to a relegation fodder side. Yes it’s a point gained on Citeh after their loss but if things had been done properly it wouldn’t be struggle to get past those above us in the table to make sure it’s not a one hit wonder Champions League wise.
As ‘Arry has been saying their all just letting ManUre win this title.