To fully understand why we were under the cosh yesterday you have to look at a lot of things...
Spurs were at home on the first day of the season, in the very fist game of the season against the team who they beat for a Champions League place and againsta team who they had beat 12 times out of the last 13. They were also up against a team that hasn't had much time to play together or even train together.
So the idea for Spurs was to start fast. The crowd make a lot of noise. Everyone wants to beat City now. Everyone in the ground is up for it, which understandably gives Spurs a huge momentum lift.
They gave our players no time on the ball, and when they had the ball, more often than not they got it out wide and hit Crouch. This in itself causes problems because of how tall he is. Everything suddenly looks last ditch as we battle to get on the end of his knockdowns before a Spurs player does. It's very difficult to show compusre and retain possession when the game is at such a tempo and the atmosphere is so intense. We actually did really well in this respect.
Then Joe Hart has to make some exceptional saves. 1st from a Defoe shot, after a knockdown from Crouch (which we actually defended ok). Then he makes two great saves from Huddlestone and Ekotto. 9 times out of 10 those shots miss by miles. Huddlestones technique was fantastic, but 9 times out of 10, shots from that distance don't even register. The very fact that those shots both almost produced goals only hightens the atmosphere, and in turn it makes our job of not conceding, even harder.
Now the only real chance in the first half where we were majorly at fault was the Defoe 1 on 1. Kompany and Toure both got caught, and there was no pressure on Huddlestone who played a quality long ball. Maybe Richards could have done better with Bale's shot that hit the post...
In the 2nd half, we performed much better and we should have scored with SWP. From there on, we controlled the game, and after about 20 minutes of the 2nd half possession was something like 63% - 37% in our favour. This impressed me, because it's an area where we'ved struggled in the past. We managed to silence the crowd and we carved out 1 or 2 decent chances. The whole pattern of play changes, because Spurs no longer have the momentum. Bale still had a good chance to win it, and Kompany made a great block late on, but make no mistake, we were the better team in the 2nd half.
Toure looked much more comfortable, Barry looked good. Silva looked decent, and we looked a lot more composed. To me, that's a sign of things to come. We controlled the game for 45 minutes away from home against a top 4 side. Not many teams are going to start like Spurs did, and we'll be able to get a grip on a lot of games much earlier. I saw enough in the 2nd half to see that we're a better side than last season, and we've also got Balotelli and probably Milner to come in, aswell as having a fully fit and co-ordinated midfield, which will probably take a few weeks to fit together.
I honestly don't understand what was underwhelming about yesterday. We took a point from White Hart Lane, against a team who have won their last 8 there. They started very similar against Chelsea last season and could have been 4 or 5 up by half time. It's normal for Spurs to start like that against the top sides. All you can do is hold out and take the sting out the game. We did that and i'm pleased. Underwhelmed didn't even enter my mind.
