The Tottenham Thread 12/13

[THFC6061]

Spurs have already set a new Premier League club record for away goals scored this season going into our last away game of the season at Stoke City tomorrow...

...Spurs have also set a new club PL away points record (31 ahead of the Stoke game) and a new away goal difference record (+8 ahead of the Stoke game).

 

[Crouchinho]

Spurs have already set a new Premier League club record for away goals scored this season going into our last away game of the season at Stoke City tomorrow...

...Spurs have also set a new club PL away points record (31 ahead of the Stoke game) and a new away goal difference record (+8 ahead of the Stoke game).

That's fantastic, very pleased with our away form this season. Hansen and Lawro used to take the piss out of us on the road being a soft touch but we're getting better.

Stoke away won't be easy, 80 minutes of rugby and an extra 10 minutes of football tomorrow

 

[The 49ers]

Interesting mini-Table featuring games between the Top Five Premier League teams this season...

Spurs averaged two goals per game in these matches (all 16 came from out of the blue?).

Shame our defence was such crap though.

Oh... and Arsenal are officially Big Game Bottlers.

Last season we would have had only 5 points in this table as well haha. Our improvement in these games has been impressive. 9 our conceded goals came in 2 games against Arsenal and Chelsea, the Arsenal game because Adebayor was red carded and the Chelsea game we were really ravaged by injuries. We haven't lost any of these games when Dembele started, interestingly. The 4 games he has started we got 3 wins and 1 draw.

I'm sorry but being down to 10men is no excuse for the way your team collapsed for the Arsenal game. Every team has injuries, so that's no excuse either. Spurs players still have a tendency to bottle it. Let's face it,since January bar the chelsea game,average spurs performances have been masked by Gareth Bale-outs. You don't score enough goals and you concede like a midtable team.

 

[mancity1]

Interesting mini-Table featuring games between the Top Five Premier League teams this season...

Spurs averaged two goals per game in these matches (all 16 came from out of the blue?).

Shame our defence was such crap though.

Oh... and Arsenal are officially Big Game Bottlers.

Last season we would have had only 5 points in this table as well haha. Our improvement in these games has been impressive. 9 our conceded goals came in 2 games against Arsenal and Chelsea, the Arsenal game because Adebayor was red carded and the Chelsea game we were really ravaged by injuries. We haven't lost any of these games when Dembele started, interestingly. The 4 games he has started we got 3 wins and 1 draw.

I'm sorry but being down to 10men is no excuse for the way your team collapsed for the Arsenal game. Every team has injuries, so that's no excuse either. Spurs players still have a tendency to bottle it. Let's face it,since January bar the chelsea game,average spurs performances have been masked by Gareth Bale-outs. You don't score enough goals and you concede like a midtable team.

Without Bale next season Spurs will struggle to match their efforts of this season.

 

[THFC6061]

Without Bale next season Spurs will struggle to match their efforts of this season.

Just as well that Bale will still be with us then.

 

[mancity1]

Without Bale next season Spurs will struggle to match their efforts of this season.

Just as well that Bale will still be with us then.

Transfer window hasn't got into swing yet 6061.

Most pundits are saying RM is cactus and they may be right , they may not be.

Just as many are saying Bale is going even if Spurs finish fourth and again they may turn out to be wrong but I would be very surprised if you were to hold to him.

Levy realises through the Modric saga amongst others its pointless hanging on to players who want to play for bigger more successful clubs than you can ever hope to be under him and when they come in for them its inevitable they will leave.

Right know while he is in vogue is the perfect time to off load him.

You would be foolish if a Bayern , Real , Barca , PSG or even City came in for him big time to do otherwise.

You never say never in football 6061.

As far as Bale goes if and I stress if he wants club trophies and play in Chump League finals etc and I think he does , he has to leave Spurs for with due respect 6061 you will never be seriously challenging for titles unless you have a huge investment pool like some of the other sides have.

With the money you can get for him while he is it will be better he leaves you now than later.

It makes sense you off load him now.

Unfortunately your best players will always be targets for the super rich clubs and PSG are the latest to join the ranks.

 

[THFC6061]

AVB ON STOKE CITY:

Andre Villas-Boas isn’t looking beyond trying to win our final two matches of the season.

That starts with the always-testing trip to Stoke on Sunday and the finale against Sunderland at the Lane on Sunday week, May 19.

Wednesday’s draw at Chelsea left us fifth in the Premier League, just a point behind Arsenal in fourth and three adrift of the Blues in third.

Andre believes there will still be twists and turns in the final lap of the campaign, but is only focusing on what we have to do.

“The only thing that hasn’t changed is that we have to do our jobs, we would always have to win our remaining fixtures,” said Andre. ”We can only focus on trying to get six points from the next two games and see if we are rewarded for all our effort.

“The players have been good (after the Chelsea game). They’ve had a couple of recovery sessions and will now prepare for the game. Once again, they have put everything forward, showed great commitment. The 2-2 draw at Chelsea wasn’t what we wanted ideally, we wanted to win, but it keeps us in the frame.

“Stoke is now a totally different game to Chelsea. It’s a game of a specific nature and we have to adapt and make sure we’re ready.”

 

[GHoddle]

Without Bale next season Spurs will struggle to match their efforts of this season.

Just as well that Bale will still be with us then.

Transfer window hasn't got into swing yet 6061.

Most pundits are saying RM is cactus and they may be right , they may not be.

Just as many are saying Bale is going even if Spurs finish fourth and again they may turn out to be wrong but I would be very surprised if you were to hold to him.

Levy realises through the Modric saga amongst others its pointless hanging on to players who want to play for bigger more successful clubs than you can ever hope to be under him and when they come in for them its inevitable they will leave.

Right know while he is in vogue is the perfect time to off load him.

You would be foolish if a Bayern , Real , Barca , PSG or even City came in for him big time to do otherwise.

You never say never in football 6061.

As far as Bale goes if and I stress if he wants club trophies and play in Chump League finals etc and I think he does , he has to leave Spurs for with due respect 6061 you will never be seriously challenging for titles unless you have a huge investment pool like some of the other sides have.

With the money you can get for him while he is it will be better he leaves you now than later.

It makes sense you off load him now.

Unfortunately your best players will always be targets for the super rich clubs and PSG are the latest to join the ranks.

We'll see, I'd be surprised if Bale leaves this summer regardless of where we finish. You never know of course but I'd be pretty surprised.

 

[THFC6061]

Very impressive away win at Stoke yesterday.

10 away wins this season for Spurs is nothing short of amazing.

Next up is Sunderland at home...

Tottenham Hotspur host Sunderland, who were the first club outside the original 12 members to join the Football League, at White Hart Lane in the 38th round of Premier League matches on Sunday 19th May 2013, KO 16:00.

Spurs are currently in 4th place in the table on 69 points, while Sunderland are in 17th place with 39 points. This will be the 114th time the two clubs have met.

The first meeting came at Northumberland Park in March 1898 when Spurs were playing in the Southern League in a friendly which Sunderland won 2-0.

A second meeting followed within the year when Spurs beat Sunderland 2-1 in the old second round (today's fourth round) of the FA Cup in February 1899.

Tottenham's first visit to Sunderland came during a mini tour of the North-East to celebrate the turn of the new Century with Spurs winning the friendly match 3-1 on 2nd January 1900.

The first Football League meetings between the two clubs saw Sunderland win at home 3-1 in September 1909 and Spurs having a comprehensive win in the return fixture at White Hart Lane 5-1.

Tottenham Hotspur's all-time record attendance of 75,038 at White Hart Lane came in an FA Cup 6th round match against Sunderland in March 1938. Sundeland won the game 1-0. This was the only FA Cup match Sunderland have won out of the 7 played so far with Spurs winning five and one game drawn.

The only two League matches ever played outside the Top Flight came during 1977-78 when Spurs won at Roker Park 2-1 but lost the return Division Two match at the Lane 3-2.

The clubs first met in the Football League Cup in November 1984 with Spurs drawing 0-0 away but Sunderland winning the replay at the Lane 2-1.
The three matches in the competition have resulted in a win each and one game drawn.

Since Sunderland joined the Premier League in season 1996-97, no further domestic cup ties have been played between the two clubs.

Spurs have a good record during the Premier League Era with 14 wins to Sunderland's 5 and the remaining 4 games drawn. Spurs have taken an average of 2 points off Sunderland in the 23 matches played so far.

The 2011-12 fixture at White Hart Lane ended in a 1-1 draw with Rafael van der Vaart putting Spurs ahead in the second half only for Sunderland's Asamoah Gyan to equalise three minutes later. The match at Sunderland resulted in a 2-1 win for Spurs with Asamoah Gyan putting the Black Cats ahead after 11 minutes before Michael Dawson's equaliser just before half-time. Niko Kranjcar scored the winner for Spurs in the 57th minute.

Last season's match at White Hart Lane in December resulted in a 1-0 win for Spurs with substitute striker Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring the winner with just over an hour of the match played. The three points won put Spurs in third place in the table for the first time during 2011-12. The match at Sunderland in April 2012 was a goalless draw which produced very few chances for either team.

In August 2012, Tottenham's full-back Danny Rose went to Sunderland for a season's loan and will not be able to play in the match on Sunday. The match at the Stadium of Light in December 2012 was won by Tottenham 2-1. John O'Shea opened the scoring for the Black Cats five minutes before half-time. Carlos Cuellar headed an own goal three minutes into the second half to even the game and Aaron Lennon scored the winner three minutes later for Spurs.

Overall, Spurs have the upper hand over Sunderland with 46 wins to 38 and 29 of the 113 matches played so far drawn.

They Played for Spurs & Sunderland...

Ben Alnwick
Darren Bent
Ted Birnie (Spurs player, Sunderland trainer & coach)
Ivor Broadis
Fraizer Campbell
Graham Carr (scout with both clubs)
Jim Chalmers
Pascal Chimbonda
Ernie Coquet
John Curtis
Calum Davenport
Jimmy Delvin
Márton Fülöp
Phil Gray
Jim Hartley
Alan Hutton
Joe Knowles
Steed Malbranque
Fred Mearns
Bobby Mimms
Bill Murray
George Payne
Andy Reid
Danny Rose
Louis Saha
Jimmy Seed
Paul Stewart
Teemu Tainio
Chris Waddle
Jack Whitbourne

 

[Matty]

It's out of Spurs hands. All they can do is beat Sunderland on Sunday and hope. Chelsea are safe as, due to goal difference, it's take a miracle for Spurs to catch them. Arsenal have Wigan at the Emirates, and Newcastle at St James' Park. I can't see them not beating Wigan, there's no way they put in anything like the performance they did on Saturday. Then it's a trip to Newcastle, who are safe, having nothing to play for, and have been woeful this season. If Arsenal need to beat Newcastle to secure Champion's League football, and I believe they will need to do that as Spurs will beat Sunderland, the I think they'll do it. It's 5th place and the Europa League for Spurs as far as I can see.