It was their day in the sun, their cup final

and they deserved to win.

West ‘Am can be ‘appy, they beat Spurs, so they can now be relegated with a smile on their faces. Spurs can now concentrate on the only thing that seems to matter now, the Champions League.

That’ll be concentrate on playing in it this season, not in trying to be in it next season.

A non-Spurs acquaintance of mine say the opening bunch of fixtures for the league season and said if they play to their potential by the time Villa come round they should be top of the league with maximum points and about to face their toughest task with confidence. Six games in and funnily enough it hasn’t worked out quite that way, with 2 wins, 2 draws and this the second loss.

Yes certain things haven’t helped, here come the excuses, injuries to the central defenders being the main culprit. Who ever wanted to see a central partnership of Corluka and Bassong? No one, not even Corluka and Bassong. With Woodgate, long term, Ledley, here and there, Dawson, thanks to England and now Kaboul and Galls with hamstring and groin problems respectively this is all that’s left. OK they weren’t outstandingly atrocious against the spammers but they didn’t help either.

It doesn’t help either that we seem to week in week out bring the best out of the opposition ‘keeper. Why is it Green chose this particular game to not have a howler, there’s been a real cracker every fixture from him since the opening game of the World Cup, but not Saturday. No deer in the headlights, no throwing the ball in his own net, no paying the ball off his own defender for an own goal, none of it. Bloody typical.

But you look at the way the side ‘Arry put out went about things on Saturday and you’d think they just weren’t interested in the bread and butter job, it’s the big cake in midweek they only have eyes for. Also have to question some of ‘Arry’s choices, is he also spending too much time eyeing other fixtures.

The team at the weekend just didn’t work. Bale was wasted at fullback but there was no one to replace him at that position so he could be moved forward, it was screaming out for such a move, long before half-time. Bale is allowed to have a duff game after all he’s done, well not only this season but this calendar year. Many asking what would we be like without Bale, got their answer on Saturday. Lifeless, tepid, banal.

On the other side we’ve got the Lennon who turns out for England. Is something preying on his mind, cause he somewhat resembles the way Rooney is lost at the moment. The one time he actually did what he should as a winger, beat the fullback and got to the byline, he put in a great cross for Modric, only a good save prevented a goal. Someone needs to tell him more of that is required, less of the stopping and coming inside.

The middle of the park didn’t work, well it wouldn’t with you know who in there. Dear god ‘Arry sort it out, remember how well things went last season when you binned him, though wasn’t it September last year that he was back in the side and things went South, while Modric was injured. But then it’s September and things never go well in this specific month. Still in a five man midfield it’s just too easy for him to hide. Huddlestone also again disappeared, as he has done far too much since getting the big up after the first leg against Young Boys. Now if he’d have taken that gilt edged chance, or indeed found Crouch, well.

The pair were over run, a holding midfielder was needed, pretty much is always needed. Now I along with many was glad that Palacios was given a break but why wasn’t Sandro in there. Yes he’s new to the English game and played a little over the 90 minutes against the scum in the League Cup. But that was on Tuesday and with the fact he isn’t in the CL squad it means he would have a full week to recover and he was obviously fit enough to be on the bench. He should have been in there.

Crouch, well he had no service and was pretty much anonymous as well. ‘Arry’s substitutions, well, dos Santos did sod all, Pavlyuchenko didn’t do much more and Keane, well he’s got pals in the media who keep screaming that he should be brought on. You’d think being able to watch the games that they see quickly, when he does come, on why he’s been left on the bench. The Keane that returned from his boyhood club is not the one that Spurs sold to that club. His only goal coming really through a limp wrist. Oh for Defoe not to be another of those on the injury list.

Modric and van der Vaart, played their part, Hutton did OK and should hold onto the right-back role for now. But there’s just something missing in the side. You shouldn’t be losing to the winless bottom of the table spammers even with the players available, never mind them being the better side on the day. And after those opening 6 fixtures you shouldn’t be 7th with 8 points and only a +1 goal difference.


I see that not much is really being made about Steven Gerrard’s disgraceful elbow on Danny Welbeck. That’ll be England captain Steven Gerrard of course. The arm band is removed if you shag another players ex but is happily given to a player who has a history of such on field behaviour. And a history of getting away with it, how many times has Gerrard put in a two footed, career ending, lunging challenge or an elbow like Saturday only to get just a yellow. Add into that the number of dives over the years.

Something has to be done about him as well as refs who use the yellow as a get out clause for themselves. Again how many times do you see a ref giving a yellow when they haven’t seen the incident and how many times is the incident either a straight red or nothing, no middle ground, no get out clause. Birmingham on Saturday, Johnson and Rodallega, why were they both given a yellow, the former did nothing, the latter went with a head butt movement, neither should have got a yellow, it was nothing for Johnson and a red for the Wigan player.

But refs just hand out the yellow so that nothing can be done retrospectively, so that video evidence can'[t be used to prove how inept they were when they bottled it in the moment.

So Bruce can whinge about Gerrard quite rightly, but his and his players whinge about the scouse opening goal was pathetic. It’s time to make it that once the ref positions the ball at a free kick, that’s it, that’s the place where the free kick will take place. No picking it up to position it, no rolling it forward or back, as soon as the ball is touched it’s in play. So if the player picks it up to place it then intentional hand ball, yellow card. If they kick it, then that’s the free kick taken – as it was on Saturday by Turner.

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