Premier League December 28-30 2015

Monday 28th December

Norwich v Aston Villa 15:00
West Brom v Newcastle 15:00
Everton v Stoke 15:00
Crystal Palace v Swansea 15:00
Watford v Swansea 15:00
Arsenal v Bournemouth 17:30
Man Utd v Chelsea 17:30 BT
West Ham v Southampton 17:30

Tuesday 29th December

Leicester v Man City 19:45 BT

Wednesday 30th December

Sunderland v Liverpool 19:45 SKY

Spurs winning.

Villa losing.

Ighalo

McClaren is actually getting worse

Early on we were losing while trying to play a passing game, he bottled that and decided to go direct, and still we lose.

Newcastle are the new Villa - play shit against everyone then beat us.

Villa are the new Derby.

Chelsea the new Newcastle?

Getting good results against Liverpool isn't anything new or special.

Hazard is utter shit this year. Play acting little twat as well.

Whilst there is still plenty of time for things to wrong in the second half of the season, it is absolutely bonkers to consider Spurs had the 4th worst defensive record in the league last year - conceding 58 in total - and within less than 6 months have now conceded the fewest at the halfway stage (15 in 19 games).

That doesn't even take into account the +18 Goal difference which until City play is the best in the league (3rd most goals scored). The old saying is that strikers win your games, but a strong defence wins you titles. That's by far the most pleasing thing about what Pochettino has done on the pitch, shored up a team that has been so Spursy for so long, and has done it without resorting to 10 men behind the ball park the bus nonsense. Today wasn't perhaps the best example of defensive brilliance as we rode our luck at times, but those types of games are becoming rarer and rarer.

As mentioned, it's never safe to get too hopeful or excited as a Spurs fan as it could easily all crumble to dust as the Gooners watch on laughing, but at this stage to be in 3rd and with such a reliable backline is not what anyone was expecting after the first winless 4 games and what appeared to be a bungled transfer window.

City V Leicester will now be even more intriguing, particularly as we play Leicester in January.

Grazed my shin because I tripped over a row of seats celebrating Son's goal in the away end... WORTH IT. (Ouch!)

Quite an entertaining game today.

Spurs bossed 1st 40 mins, wing backs ridiculously high and wide and it made loads of space for them in the middle.

Ighalo making a goal out of nothing - 30 LEAGUE GOALS IN 2015 - NO PENS !!!

Good second half from us, loads of incidents overall.

Alli (excellent player) tackle on 4 mins looked possible red.

Britos tackle in 2nd half on touchline, possible red.

Couple of Spurs on twitter saying Ighalo red but yellow was right for flailing arm as dangerous play rather than violent conduct.

Ake red card looked very harsh live but enough neutral pundits said red to make me think it probably was - Poch says orange !

Bizarrely we were better with 10 but we're probably used to it as Jurado has played most games.

Spurs 1st half, Arsenal 2nd half and City away the only times we haven't looked like competing.

So much wrong with our team on paper, 4-4-2 in an era where few EPL teams use it, attacking midfielders in the wide positions (feel sympathy with Abdi but less for Jurado who has been shit) and a lack of reliable replacements for starting XI but a great year and can't see us going down.

I started watching Watford more and more to understand how they are making this work, and came to the conclusion that it is not really a true old school 4-4-2 that Watford employ, the midfield is quite narrow and the width comes from the full backs.

Deeney is basically a new Heskey - this is meant to be a complement, but he's rarely playing up against the opposite CB's, always drops into the whole to flick things on for Ighalo running behind.
Consider it a compliment that Pochettino actually changed his system to a 3-4-2-1 Dier as a sweeper to counteract Ighalo and Deeney, obviously he didn't fancy our cultured Belgian CB's up against them in a individual physical battle.

The ref made a rod for his own back with the Alli on Capouè tackle, got the ball but follow through cased a reaction.

There can be no arguments with Ake's red.

LAMELA just a shame we can't get him and Eriksen playing well at the same time.

There's no way to play old school 4-4-2 in modern football and succeed on top level. The only way is to do it Atletico Madrid way - narrow midfield, centre forwards aften dropping in front of opposing CM/DMs when not in possession, full back providing width, willingness to give opposition the ball and a lot of pace upfront.

That's what Watford is doing and Leicester is very similar too. They play proper wingers in their system, but they have them on their weak foot, so naturally they are playing narrower.

That's also how Villarreal is playing in Primera Division, they are only 4-4-2 team among TOP 10 teams there.

stinger wrote:There's no way to play old school 4-4-2 in modern football and succeed on top level. The only way is to do it Atletico Madrid way - narrow midfield, centre forwards aften dropping in front of opposing CM/DMs when not in possession, full back providing width, willingness to give opposition the ball and a lot of pace upfront.

That's what Watford is doing and Leicester is very similar too. They play proper wingers in their system, but they have them on their weak foot, so naturally they are playing narrower.

That's also how Villarreal is playing in Primera Division, they are only 4-4-2 team among TOP 10 teams there.

The Media should stop giving the impression that it's the re-birth of the "Big man, little man, chalk on boots wingers" 4-4-2.

stinger wrote:There's no way to play old school 4-4-2 in modern football and succeed on top level. The only way is to do it Atletico Madrid way - narrow midfield, centre forwards aften dropping in front of opposing CM/DMs when not in possession, full back providing width, willingness to give opposition the ball and a lot of pace upfront.

That's what Watford is doing and Leicester is very similar too. They play proper wingers in their system, but they have them on their weak foot, so naturally they are playing narrower.

That's also how Villarreal is playing in Primera Division, they are only 4-4-2 team among TOP 10 teams there.

Well said

Think City will win tonight - Leicester looked tired against us and City have the squad to rotate. There's no way Vardy can start every game with his injury as well.

With the way Spurs are going it looks like United and Liverpool are going to have to rely on a total Leicester capitulation to finish top 4.

I don't know what Liverpool will turn up this week but we should be getting minimum 4 points from Sunderland and West Ham. Probably 6 if we mean business.

January will show us how much ambition our owners have.

You're current owners proved their ambitions enough during recent years, hiring Klopp was another example of it.

January is a poor moment to make a revolution, especially now when buying top players from mid-level and low-level Premier League clubs is more difficult than ever.

I would expect Klopp knows it and there won't be too many changes, maybe you will get additional 1-2 squad players and that's it.

Its still very early for him to make bigger changes.

West Ham Liverpool should be interesting. Payet, Moses and Reid back from injury.

It's a travesty that Quinn continues to be allowed to commentate on Sunderland games

Poor performance from us - don't look like scoring against one of the worst teams in the league.

Without Sturridge we won't finish higher than 6th or 7th unless we seriously strengthen in this window but it's ok because we're in 'transition' for the 6th year running.

christmasborocooper wrote:It's a travesty that Quinn continues to be allowed to commentate on Sunderland games

An absolute travesty. He's a complete joke

1-0 Benteke again. We are Villa