double.
Ange’s Spurs avoided Ipswich doing the double over them this season, thanks to a 4-1 victory, which owed as much to The Tractor Boy’s inability to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo, to win their third straight Premier League game.
Ipswich have won only three games all season in the league, Spurs managed to avoid being the only team to lose both home and away to them, though that could have been their fate if Ipswich could score in the first six minutes of their home game.
Six minutes in and Ipswich could have been three up. Should have been three up. Even with Spurs having the kick-off, Ipswich had the first shot within half a minute of the whistle. Another chance came after 2 minutes and by the sixth minute they’d had three glorious chances to get on the scoresheet.
Ange had made the decision with the players available to play two of them out of position in the centre of defence, with Gray on the right and Danso on the left. If he’d swapped them, then it would just be Gray as per usual out of position, but no.
He was also playing Tel up front again and again the youngster was showing that he’s not a number 9. There was a good case for putting him on the left and putting Scarlett up top. This would mean dropping the skipper but Son hadn’t exactly set the world on fire recently, looking a bit shot. Slow and dithering, where once he was so quick and sharp.
Luckily Sonny was a bit quicker and sharper just after a quarter hour in. Gray intercepted the ball, then launched it down field to Son – thankfully cutting out all the fannying about at the back – a step over in the box, got him that bit of space on his defender as he went to the byline then with a bit of pace smacked the ball across the face of goal, where Johnson was waiting to tap in his 8th league goal of the season.
It’s what they miss when Johnson doesn’t play, that winger to winger goal. Kulusevski is never there when he’s stationed on the right, never in the right place.
It was almost was, rinse, repeat, eight minutes later. This time though, Bentancur played Sonny down the wing, he cut inside this time and with plenty of space found Johnson in the box for him to side foot in his 9th.
This was Spurs’ fourth shot, meanwhile Ipswich were in double figures. Could they see it out to half-time without conceding at least one? Could they then survive Ange’s half-time team-talk? Well, they didn’t manage the first test. They held the two goal lead for just 10 minutes.
There was two Ipswich players in shot, one crossed the other received it and scored. There was six Spurs player, not including Vicario. Somehow they managed to end the half without conceding another, despite Ipswich’s shot total almost being twice that of Ange’s team.
Now that half-time talk. Well, the second half saw them have three whole shots. Luckily for them two of them ended up in goals. But it took the introduction of Maddison to help spark it and before that it was the usual Angerubbish. He came on with Porro for Udogie and Johnson. Not a surprise with the latter two just returning from injury.
They should have had a penalty when Danso was barged in the box chasing for the goal, with the Ipswich playing paying no attention to said ball, having no interest in it at all, just eyes for Danso and taking him out. Real NFL block.
But they could have been level before reopening the two goal lead. Again they got lucky as the Ipswich player never got onside before scoring. After taking the ball from Spence, who was now on the left, Maddison danced through a number of Ipswich players in their box, before laying off back to Spence, who thanks to a deflection got his first goal for the club.
That was in the final quarter, not long after Scarlett, who came on for Tel, with Odobert replacing Son, headed on a ball, while facing the wrong way, Kulusevski got onto it, doing what he always does he cut inside and went for goal and actually scored. Finally did something in the match.
So they beat relegation fodder Ipswich and Angesexuals decide that it’s all because Ange has players back. yet, when they lost at home to Ipswich, to be the first team to lose to Ipswich in the league, the only first team player missing was van de Ven. This starting XI you would only rate 6 of the players as Ange’s first picks at the start of the season.
The excuses don’t work anymore… he’s still out of his depth and could have very easily have lost this game, lost it to a really embarrassing scoreline, if Ipswich weren’t so poor in front of goal.