Christmas.
A couple of losses over the festive period used to signal the end of season party for Spurs but now we’re more than disappointed when they drop two points from a perfect twelve.
The only dropped points for Spurs over the Christmas holidays fixture pile up saw two gone against West Ham, in their cup final, after they parked the caravans in a display so lacking in any forward intent it would embarrass Jose Mourinho.
Burnley, Southampton then Swansea were seen off. Now while most of them defended a bit against Spurs West Ham went that extra mile. It really was a flat back nine, while Chicharito stood away from his team mates it almost reminded me of the little asides you used to get in the old Hancock’s Half Hour radio series where Tony would be off talking about something else with Alan Simpson. Chic being Hancock and Hugo Lloris being Simpson – Chicharito Of course this isn’t the first time I’ve regretted moving to this two bit club
– Hugo I didn’t think it was
.
Spurs looked leggy in the final game of the four and it wouldn’t surprise you if the weekend cup game saw a lot of new faces but was the team Pochettino picked right for this game and why did he stick with it for so long?
Sissoko played a deeper role but why was he on the field at all? His only function is running reasonably fast, it has no end product but it gets the ball away from the Spurs area. When you need to break down a packed defence, someone whose second touch is either a tackle or off their knee isn’t required. That he stayed on until well after the hour mark is even stranger than his starting place.
To add insult to injury it was Sissoko who flounced out of blocking the shot for the opening goal. Players that do that are worse than divers. Cheating the opposition is one thing, cheating your own side, something else.
Mike Dean thought Spurs were trying to cheat the number of appeals he turned down. Incorrectly. He wasn’t going to give anything after the criticism he got from Whinging Wenger – hey Arsene you wanna retrospectively change decisions, well we’ll have that Pires dive against Pompey that kept your unbeaten run going for a start.
How many times does Son need to have his foot hooked in the area. Well, he got his own back on the ref and on the cretins in the crowd – you know the usual type at that club, the ones that have a go at a player’s dead son. A cracker of a shot from Son, with a little help from Noble cheating his own side. Son, he scores important goals, equalisers and winners.
It was needed because Harry was crowded out and the rest of them kept repeating themselves ad nauseum, everything through the middle, no real width and nobody getting the the byline. What crosses that did come in were somewhat lacking in accuracy.
Certainly did the trick my picking him as my triple captain this week, was done before I knew he was ill. Two games in 2018 and not a goal scored yet. Though that ball for Dele’s goal against Swansea was worth something. And those two hat-tricks to finish off 2017, breaking records and topping charts, you can excuse him a little down time.
Some records there for Kane, breaking Shearer’s calendar year record in 6 fewer games, first player to score six hat-tricks in the Premier League in a year and only Shearer and Fowler ahead of him in the PL hat-trick list.
And so Spurs topped the Chrimbo league, four played 3 wins and a draw, 10 points along with City and Liverpool, with a better goal difference. Finished Burnley’s good run, stopped Swansea in their tracks after the new manager came in, and were really robbed by Moyes and his parked caravans…