even if it is Thursday night Channel 5*.
Spurs latest shambles saw them lose to Aston Villa, who they are now level with on points, just keeping ahead on goal difference, but it showed what a team that are coached can do.
Levy’s cure all of Champions League has gone now, as they lie seventh, nine points from fourth with just two league games to go, after this latest lacklustre defeat. A defeat born of incompetence, and a real lack of any coaching by the looks of things.
They did win the offsides though – just getting ready for Brendan Rodgers to be announced with that one – with nine of them. NINE.
After the game the Villa player Ashley Young was asked how they managed that and he replied it was coached into them. Well it wasn’t just that, they were helped by Son repeatedly getting himself offside and not learning after… well let’s be generous and say the second time.
People were insistent that Conte could do nothing with the players at his disposal. It wasn’t his fault, they were uncoachable. Even though they said he was a “top coach” he couldn’t coach a group that of late had regularly finished in the top four to do it again, even though he seemed to do it last season.
Yet, we have the Villa manager who took over the club when they were just outside the relegation zone and since then have the third best record in the league. He’s managed to coach the likes of Young and Mings, who can’t even get in the England team these days. While Spurs have a World Cup winning centre back who can’t go a game without gifting the opposition a goal.
One’s been coached. The other hasn’t.
Villa’s opener started with yet another diving in rash, needless challenge from Romero, halfway in the Spurs’ half. From there he ambled into the box, while Villa raced. Where yet again completely outnumbered by white shirts the opposition got their cross in to their own player who got his shot away to score. Six white shirts, three, maybe four claret and blue.
The thing with that coaching for Villa, it was there to be exploited. A ball over the top, a timed run and you’re through on goal to score. Spurs did the ball over the top, thy didn’t do the rest. Son repeatedly offside, Richarlison joining him. And when through on goal not actually scoring. The only time Son got the ball in the net was in the dying seconds, it would have rescued an undeserved point but as had happened throughout the game the lino’s flag went up after the fact.
I mean Son didn’t have to do much to beat the trap. But he failed time and time again. He has the pace to start his run later or deeper but no. While Villa stayed the same so did Son.
Those bits where Villa didn’t have the ball and Spurs weren’t offside saw Spurs again struggle to string one pass together. Hell, they weren’t even second to every second ball.
Later in the second half and Romero was at it again. Another wild dive in and Villa get a free kick, almost central just outside the D. The resultant kick was probably closer to Forster than the post but the giant keeper flapped his big mitt weakly at it. Honestly think Hugo could have done better there.
Mason had made changes before that second one went it and Bissouma and Kulusevski made more of an impact than either Skipp or Richarlison had managed. But it still didn’t bring anything bar the odd near miss.
It took the Villa keeper to gift Spurs the opportunity to steal something from the game. It was knocking on the 90th minute when he took out Kane and got nowhere near the ball he claimed to have touched. The World Cup winning keeper went the way that Kane goes with his pens but Kane went the exact opposite way.
Kane’s 27 goal in the league, which saw him join Salah for the most matches scored in during a Premier League season 24. Which is another sad indictment of Spurs. You have Harry Kane, he has all these goals, yet he’s only scored more than once in three games.
For seven added minutes there was hope. Hope extinguished when Son was flagged offside the very last time the first time he actually got the ball in the net.
After such a horrid game, with Poch then pretty much being installed as the Chelsea manager – he’s dead to me, I mean he makes all that noise about never managing Barca then this – it was only left for Levy to announce Mason or Brendan Rodgers as permanent manager.
The following day De Zerbi is celebrating wildly stuffing the Gooner’s title chance and people finally want him but why would he want Spurs?
At Brighton he has a team that plays for him. Spurs players never seem to play for a manager after the honeymoon. At Brighton they don’t need much to improve, so can start next season as they finished this. At Spurs there’s a massive overhaul required, one that’ll take time for players to bed in, if it actually happens. At Brighton he has a damn good recruitment team that picks up players, young players, that no one has looked at. At Spurs people just buy players for buying’s sake, there’s no rhyme nor reason, a DoF that wanted just Juve players, desperately wanting to buy more and more wide forwards when the club was screaming for defenders and creative midfielders. At Brighton he doesn’t have Levy.
But there’s the stadium they say. A stadium that’s been soulless. Big and full but at the same time empty.
*I know the Europa League isn’t on channel 5 anymore.