JK's Preview: Wigan (Away)

Author: John Kelly

Yes please!

I wonder if it’s like this for fans of other clubs. Doesn’t it seem as if players who don’t usually score goals tend to score against Spurs?

I remember thinking that thought for the first time in 2006 when Cluade Makelele put Chelsea one-up with an outstanding volley at White Hart Lane. It was one of only two goals he scored for the club (the other was a rebound from a penalty he took against Charlton).

That day ended happily, but there have been numerable other examples of infrequent scorers scoring against Spurs. Last November, Ben Watson became the first English player to score a goal for Wigan in 2012. It helped to inflict on Andre Villas-Boas’ side back-to-back home league defeats for the first time in over four years.

It all added to the unpredictable landscape of this fixture. Since Wigan Athletic entered the Premier League the sides have played each other 16 times (including one game in the FA Cup) and Spurs have won exactly half of them.

Wigan rolled out the red carpet twice during the 2009-10 Champions League qualifying season -- losing 9-1 at the Lane and 3-0 at home -- before whipping it out from under them the following August. That result was one of three one-nil wins against Spurs since 2009. Buried in there also was a nil-all draw and on each occasion they were comfortable.   

There’s a nice symmetry to what the clubs want over the next five games: both would see moving up precisely one place in the league between now and Sunday 19 May as a successful season. Wigan’s challenge is beginning to look a bit more daunting as a couple of sides drag themselves further away from the relegation zone. Their predicted late-season surge has yet to materialise. Indeed, reaching the FA Cup final might be exactly what they didn’t need. If they lose to Manchester City, as seems probable, they have two games in six days in which to preserve their top-flight status. By the time they play Aston Villa -- in what, for now at least, looks like a relegation showdown -- it might be too late.

Last season they went on an unlikely run that saw win their final three games, send Blackburn Rovers down and put the cap on Wolves’ miserable season.

So to the stats. Wigan have conceded more goals at home than any other team in the league; only Manchester United have scored more than Spurs on the road. No team has lost more league games at home than Wigan (eight – shared with Aston Villa); only Manchester United have won more league games away from home than Spurs. There is a compelling case to be made for a win for the Lilywhites... but then it seemed improbable that Wigan would shut out their opponents on those four occasions we’ve mentioned.

First hope: that Tom Huddlestone plays from the start instead of Scottie Parker. The latter is an absolute favourite but he tends to play in front of teams, apart from those times he scurries forward like a mouse heading for the corner of the kitchen floor with no escape route. Huddlestone has the precision to turn Wigan’s wing-backs the wrong way. That pass to Gareth Bale for the third goal last weekend was sumptuously timed and marvellously executed, even if it didn’t get a whole lot of appreciation.

Second hope: no more Emmanuel Adebayor. It’s been said here before that if you’re a former Arsenal player you better exhaust yourself with the effort you give. I’ve no problem with William Gallas; it’s clear he cares, but his pace and positional sense are on the slide and have been for a while. There is no way back for Adebayor at Spurs. He has played well in one game this season – against Everton at home – and that’s been it. Despite the words of encouragement from Villas-Boas, one of Spurs’ biggest challenges over the summer will be how to get rid of him. I’d take him leaving on a free just to have him off the wage bill. And that has nothing to do with his links to Arsenal; it has everything to do with his lack of honesty and effort.

Wigan have won just once at home against Spurs in seven games since 2005. The latter are coming off one of their best results of the season, Wigan one of their worst. Aaron Lennon may also start but, but... let’s just hope there’s not another unlikely home scorer on Saturday.

Very tentative prediction: 1-2  

Follow John Kelly on Twitter @JKelly1882

Follow Hot Shot Hotspur on Twitter @hotshothotspur

SPURS 3-1 Man City - Thoughts on a good day all round!

Mondays just aren't as bad when they follow Sundays like that!

An enormous three points or us, and an enormous 2 points dropped by Chelski. A good day all round.

I thought we started well against City, and we looked well capable of scoring early on. The problem with City is that they have players that can hurt you out of nowhere, and so it happened. One piece of magic, and it was a piece of magic, and we found ourselves behind. To be honest, I was busy praising Vertonghen's defending, when all of a sudden Tevez gave him the run around and then confused both Parker and BAE with a ridiculously good pass to Milner, who fired it across to Nasri to place home. FUCK.

1-0 down.

Not very happy, but given our bright start, I was still willing to believe we could turn it round. But as it happened, once they took the lead, we started to look very average. There was zero creativity in our play, in fact there was barely any passing. I love Scott Parker, I think he's a top pro, and he's got a great attitude, but he's just too limited for the very top level of football. The thing is, Dembele was doing too much of Parker's job as it was, and we certainly didn't need two defensive midfielders at 1-0 down. I know I always mention him, but we've missed Sandro big-time this season.

Anyway, the game was crying out for Tom Huddlestone, and personally, I was crying out for him to be brought on at half-time. Obviously AVB had a slightly different plan, and considering the result, I think I'd look foolish if I criticised his decision here. The main thing is that he brought the Hudd on, along with Holtby and Defoe, and there's no doubt that the subs changed the game. 

Adebayor was once again awful, and despite my mixed feeling on Defoe, it was blindingly obvious that the switch had to happen. Adebayor doesn't scare defenders, he's as predictable a striker as they come. Admittedly he's a very talented footballer, and when he's on top form his predictability doesn't seem to matter, but I can't understand why anyone thinks he might play to his potential, when it's obvious he doesn't give a toss about the result. Now maybe this is a simplistic way of assessing his performance but the lad was subbed off in the 71st minute when we were 1-0 down, and 11 minutes later, we were 3-1 up.

We know what we're going to get from JD too, but at least it'll involve pace and shots on goal, and lucky for us he delivered yesterday, scoring an absolute peach to put us 2-1 up. Obviously I was delighted with Defoe's performance, just like everyone else, but it amazes me how fans can be fooled again and again. Defoe is a great player to have in our squad, but he's not the to striker that we so desperately need to move to the next level, and sadly he never will be. He's proved how one dimensional is on countless occasions, yet everytime he scores, a large portion of the fans praise him to a point that I think convinces the club that we don't need a new frontman. Don't get me wrong here, I love Defoe (he's a yiddo), and there are plenty of occasions where you need someone to just close their eyes and put their foot through the ball, but a top-class striker needs more than that in their locker (almost typed ars*nal there). I'd love to keep Defoe at the club, but we need someone else to be the main man.

Holtby also played well, but it was the Hudd who changed the direction of the game. His range of passing was exactly what the doctor ordered, and his introduction finally allowed us to mix our play up and not allow City to read us so easily. His pass for Bale's goal was sublime. Speaking of the boy Bale, it was a huge relief to have him back in the team, and as is now expected he was our man of the match, well, in my humble opinion at least. Regardless of the contributions of Huddlestone and Defoe, it was still the Welshman who stole the show with a lovely outside of the boot ball for Deuce Dempsey's equalising goal, and a sweet little dink to seal the win and get himself on the score sheet.

Until the 60th minute and Hudd's introduction, I didn't see us getting even a point, but what a fantastic win in the end! Ecstasy really, along with a huge amount of relief, because after all, we seriously needed 3 points!

After the game, AVB said,

"I must praise the team for their fighting spirit and it was great to see them turn it around in the second half because the first half was not to our level."

"We improved dramatically and the players were fantastic to get this result. It comes down to the character of the players. All three that came on showed that desire and ambition to help the team, and in the end we were able to punish them." 

Football wasn't over for the day though, and despite my giddiness, I managed to stay still long enough to watch Chelski take on Liverpool at Anfield. I was quietly confident that Liverpool might do us a favour, and so eventually it proved. I'm not going to talk much about Suarez and everything the little rat-faced bastard got up to yesterday. He's an absolute scumbag, and he certainly deserves to be banned for the rest of the season in my view, but he did us some favour in injury time yesterday evening, and that's all we needed him for!

So...a fantastic Sunday all round, making for a not-so-gloomy Monday!

We now sit just a point behind Chelski, same games played, and two points behind Ars*nal, having played a game less. In other words, our fate is still in our hands, and I reckon confidence his that bit higher after taking out City. Next weekend we have a tough game away at Wigan, but Ars*nal play Man United, so all going well, I don't think a  6 point weekend is out of the question!

So here's to that! 

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter @hotshothotspur

Preview: Everton (Home)

Let's hope he's got something up his sleeve

Evening all.

Huge HUGE match tomorrow. It's a must-win for both sides and with so much at stake, I have no idea what the result is going to be.

John Cena vs The Rock for the WWE Title, I know you're pumped.

But, and you may not know this, there's actually another important clash tomorrow. Everton visit the Lane at the odd time of 14.05, and Spurs desperately need to take all 3 points. Now, considering we made Basel look like Barcelona on Thursday night (nothing to do with the colour of their kits), and we're now missing two of our most influential players, I think it's safe to say that it's not going to be easy.

Remember, Everton still have an outside chance of finishing in the top four, and realistically, only a win tomorrow can keep that chance alive. Looking at our recent performances, I reckon they'll fancy themselves.

Okay, some team news.

Obviously the main story from our point of view is that Bale and Lennon will miss out thanks to the injuries they picked up on Thursday night. Lennon has arguably been in the form of his career this season, and we never look as threatening without him. His lung-busting runs to get back and help out in defence will also be sorely missed. Bale's influence is so obvious that it doesn't even need to be mentioned.

Defoe is still out so it will be Adebayor up front again. I know, I know, I have no idea where the goals are going to come from either, but they just better come, because if we don't win tomorrow, a top four finish is going to seem a long way away. Siggy got himself on the score-sheet again against Basel, maybe he's the man for the job tomorrow.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's time for the big dawg to step up.

It's Deuce Dempsey baby!

Probably not though, he's done nothing since joining the club to give me any confidence.

Vertonghen again?

Christ we're desperate.

By the way, Verts was absolutely awful on Thursday night? Very strange, anyone have any explanation for the sudden meltdown?

Anywho, the good news (there's always some) is that Everton will be missing a couple of key players too. Fellaini and Pienaar are both suspended. Fellaini's the heartbeat of this Everton team, so his absence is a major plus. They'll basically be relying on Jelavic to score, and personally I don't rate him at all.

As usual, I'll give you the team I'd go with if I was in AVB's shoes. Oh to be those shoes, what an attractive man he is. Ehhh, oh yes, as I was saying, here's my team. I don't like it, I mean I REALLY don't like it, but I think it's the best we have available.

Hugo

Walker  Verts  Daws  BAE

Holtby  Parker  Dembele  Siggy

Deuce

  Adebayor

I think AVB will do things a little differently. He could start Demebele on the right again? He'll almost definitely have Naughton in ahead of Benny. He could actually put Dempsey on the wing, and have Siggy behind Defoe, as he's picked up a few goals recently. I'm weirdly excited and highly nervous to see the team-sheet tomorrow.

What else? Nothing really, so I guess I'll wrap it up there.

Prediction: Cena will definitely win, The Rock's about 84. Oh and I reckon 1-1 in the footy. Crap result for both teams, I sincerely hope I'm wrong. 

Follow me on Twitter @hotshothotspur

Oh and leave me a comment below if you think I'm a prick or a sex-god or whatever.

COYS!

SPURS 2-2 Basel - Thoughts on a nightmarish night

Last night was thoroughly disappointing. 

First there was my 5-a-side game.

The teams were totally unfair. It was obvious before we began. The prick picking them selected the four fittest players, plus himself of course, on one side, and the five fattest and slowest players on the other. Which is actually doubly awful, because not only do you know that you're going to get hammered, but it's also clear that you're considered one of the slow fatties.

And we had to wear the bibs.

What a load of cock.

And then what was meant to be the good news, getting home in time to see the Spurs game, turned out to be even worse news. 

2-2 is a pretty poor result. But the disappointment goes far beyond that. Firstly, Basel were the better team. They were playing in the same colours as Barcelona, and at times we made them look like Messi and Co. We're a team trying to finish in the top 4 in the Premier League, it's unacceptable to be outplayed by Basel. All the talk about how good Basel's form was going into the game, how they've knocked out big opposition in the past, and that we shouldn't take them lightly is a load of balls, in my opinion. It's still Basel. We should be winning comfortably. 

But the disappointment doesn't stop there. We've lost the boy Bale at the worst possible time. The Welshman was stretchered off in stoppage time after he went down with a nasty looking ankle injury. AVB was optimistic about his recovery time after the match, but he's bound to miss at least a few games, and considering are upcoming fixtures, I think the fans have every reason to be panicked.

"Gareth will definitely play again this season. We will know better (on Friday) but I’m pretty confident...From the medical department’s first analysis, everything is positive. It shouldn’t be as bad as it looks because Gareth has torn that ligament before and there’s nothing to tear now.”

The swelling has gone down enough today for the lad to have a scan today, so fingers crossed. I'm fully aware the we're not a one-team, but we sorely need him. Embarrassingly, he's our only decent attacking threat right now.

Aaaand the disappointments continue. Lennon went off injured too. AVB suggested that he could still play against Everton this weekend, but at the moment he's a doubt. Gallas also picked up an injury, but I don't give a shit about that. Personally, I'd love to see the back of both Gallas and Adebayor. Gallas needs to retire, he's a complete liability, Adebayor has been pathetic this season, but most importantly, neither of them give a toss about the shirt. Now, I know there's not much loyalty and passion left among Premier League footballers, but the problem with these two ex-gooners is that their antipathy shows clearly in their performances. Gallas even left the pitch last night when he knew AVB had no substitutes remaining. Imagine Ledley King doing that? 

I'm not going to go into the goals, or our ridiculously ropy defence, or Parker's miss or how he's just not up to this standard, cause you know all that, you saw it yourselves, with your poor, poor eyes. What I will say is that the last big disappointment for me was Vertonghen's inexplicably shocking performance. With that clown Billy beside him, and our two dodgy full-backs (Naughton is an appalling player, and if you think otherwise, you're wrong), he needed to have another big game. But he was all over the place, and we suffered.

All the disappointments aside, we're miraculously still in the tie, and despite that atrocious display, I reckon we'll do slightly better over there, and sneak through. I'm sticking with my original point, it's Basel for Christ's sake.

Anyway, that's next week. First, we have what should be a far tougher game against Everton on Sunday at the odd time of 14.05. Joy. 

I'm gonna leave that 'til my match preview tomorrow and by then we should have updates on injuries and whatever.

Still pissed off.

Follow me on Twitter @hotshothotspur, and let us know what you thought in the comments below.

UPDATE: Bale, Lennon and Gallas all likely to return within two weeks following scans. Better news than expected, well apart from Gallas, I was hoping he'd be out for the season.

Preview: Basle (Home)

Author: John Kelly

The Christian Gross Derby

My mate 'big John' has joined the Hot Shot Hotspur team, at least for this week. Here's his preview of tonight's first-leg vs Basle. Take it away JK:

  

Once upon a time, not that long ago, when Tottenham Hotspur had a problem that needed solving, they turned to Switzerland.

Around the time when Spurs could go through a whole summer and only sign Allan Nielsen or Paolo Tramezzani, there was one winter when Alan Sugar took out the chequebook and flashed it around with all the reckless promiscuity of an 18-year-old whose father’d given him unlimited use of his gold credit card to celebrate his birthday in a stripclub.

Those days of Spurs never signing anyone were particularly frustrating because the only access to any transfer news was through clubcall -- when a minute on the line cost roughly the same as the annual GDP of Botswana -- or through The Sun or The Mirror who, when they decided everything else was too outrageous a lie, constantly fell back on the rumour that Matt le Tissier was on the way to White Hart Lane. I spent all of the summer of 1996 saving my pocket money to get his name printed on the back of my Spurs shirt. I had enough for ‘Le Tissie’ before I finally accepted it wasn’t going to happen, but by then a summer that could’ve been spent experimenting with how many Desperate Dan bars it was possible to chew at the same time was ruined.

The other way to get news of potential transfers was through page 220 on teletext. Through that summer of ’96, both twos, the zero, and the up and down buttons were almost worn away, so you had to press down on them really hard. I reckon I checked page 220 that summer approximately 9,000 times. No exaggeration.

When the day came -- well after Euro 96 was over -- and the second or third line on the page divulged we’d signed Nielsen for £1.65million, I think I had a spasm over the couch in a way I hadn’t done since Jurgen Klinsmann scored the winner at Anfield in the 1994/95 FA Cup quarter-final. I’d taped most of Euro 96 and pored through everything until I found about 25 seconds of highlights of a Denmark game. Little did I know I’d have my second next subsequent spasm at 4.48pm on Sunday 21 March 1999 and the two events would be cosmically linked.  

The in-between spasm of excitement happened when we signed Ramon Vega. It was almost too much. We’d already brought in John Scales (slid along the front hall and smashed into the door when that was confirmed) and Steffen Iversen (told everyone in school to put all their Post Office savings on Spurs winning the league) who’d just given Franco Baresi the runaround at the San Siro.

And then Vega only went and scored on his debut against Manchester United! Sadly, though, apart from that 1999 League Cup final, that was as good as it got. And it’d gotten a whole lot worse in the meantime.

Christian Gross. Holding that tube ticket, as if to symbolise Swiss efficiency, durability and reliance. He did sign Klinsmann again but was gone within a year and took over at tonight’s opponents Basel where he actually did very well.

It made sense, though, to look to our neutral cousin to sort things out for us. The Swiss do things properly. They’ve the best public transport system in the world. Everything is integrated: when you get there you buy one ticket that allows you access to pretty much anything. Trains and buses leave when they’re supposed to.  

They have a resilient economy when everyone else’s has collapsed. They have nice food and wine. They have Martina Hingis. Roger Federer. Emmental. Swatch. Multi-linguists. The League of Nations and the Geneva Conventions. Mountains, lakes, everything squared and on time.

Thankfully, though, their football clubs aren’t quite as renowned.

They’ve never won a UEFA or European Cup but have accumulated more recent experience than Spurs in both competitions.

They’ve shown they can be dangerous. Young Boys proved that in 2010 when they went 3-0 up in that qualifying tie. Basel knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League 10 years ago and Manchester United last season. The two players who scored in that 2-1 win against Alex Ferguson’s side are proven goalscorers. Between them, Marco Streller and Alexander Frei have scored 54 goals for their country.

At the weekend they defeated Luzern 4-0 and sit top of the Swiss Super League.

In many ways it’s an extraordinary achievement that André Villas-Boas has Spurs third in the league after more than three-quarters of a season during which no striker has fired with any consistency. The only player who has shown any form, however fleeting, is Jermain Defoe and he again misses out. Emmanuel Adebayor has been awful, while Clint Dempsey hasn’t delivered enough.

That means the focus is, yet again, on the number 11. He has shown so far the responsibility doesn’t faze him. And if he’s on form Thursday night then hopefully there won’t be another problem to be solved in Switzerland.  

Prediction: Spurs 3-1 Basel

Make sure to follow John Kelly on Twitter @JKelly1882

Swansea 1-2 SPURS - Back to winning ways?

Evening Spurs family, and a very happy Easter to all those tucking into their various chocolate treats!

Those of us celebrating Passover have a bit longer to wait, but we'll be taunting you bastards with our untouched eggs in a few days time. Wankers. 

I'm not bitter at all though.

Spurs. I'm meant to be taking about Spurs.

Well we needed 3 points as badly as I need a beer and an Easter egg. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's been a tough week. Have you ever tried to source kosher food in Ireland? It's sort of like trying to score with Adebayor up front. Possible, but you've got to be inventive. 

Which brings me right back around to yesterday's game. From our point of you, it was the tale of two beautiful goals, both produced by a Bale-Vertonghen combination. You can watch SuperJan's opener here, and Bale's ridiculous strike to put us two up here.

All teams have their best players, and ours having been putting in huge shifts week in week out to compensate for our weaknesses elsewhere. Yesterday we saw another masterclass from the boy Bale. Not only did he set up the first with a perfect lobbed through-ball and score a stunning second with the outside of his left boot, he then saved us from disaster right at the end by racing back to stop a last minute equaliser with a brilliant block. That's what I mean by huge shifts. Gareth compensated for our weaknesses at the back by going beyond the call of duty to defend like a centre-back, and similarly Verts made up for our lack of fire-power up front by charging forward and finishing like a top-class striker.

Dynamic duo - SuperJan and the Welsh Wonder

These boys want this as much as we want this. And as a fan, that's what I want to see. 

At times though, our weaknesses still shine through, and in typical Tottenham fashion, we gave them a soft goal, and shat ourselves for the last 20 minutes. Will we ever get rid of that? I'm not sure, and in some ways I'd miss it. It's just so...Spurs.You can see Michu's header here. (Random links, I know) And yes I'd swap any of our strikers for Michu in a heartbeat.

Before the game, all the Twitter talk was about Lloris. I have to admit, I thought it was nonsense, and to be fair lots of it was. But I was shocked to find out he was genuinely out. I knew Friedel would be more than capable of stepping up to the plate though, and I was appalled with the amount of Spurs fans online giving him stick. He's still top-class.

After the game, AVB had this to say.

 "I'm pleased we are back on track. The win was extremely important for us, particularly at a difficult ground against a team who plays well. It was never going to be easy. At half-time we spoke about getting the third goal to put the game beyond any doubt. We couldn't and Swansea did ever so well to come back into the game."

"It was a decisive moment for us to win because it showed the determination of the team and the winning mentality which allowed us to hold on to a great away win and put us back into third position. I am surrounded by top-quality players with ambition. What happened last season and the fact these players weren't present in the Champions' League, even though they deserved to be because of their League position, gives them great ambition to achieve it this season."

"It gives me and my staff great belief. We showed a winning mentality to take this game through to the end and hold on for three points. It's been a good day, but it shifts very quickly. We were in that position last week and it has changed again this week. With the teams so close everyone has to make sure they get the points or one team gets one over you."

"This victory means nothing. If it is to mean something then we have to be competent and try to gather the most amount of points. We still have important fixtures against Man City, Chelsea and Everton who are playing for the same objectives."

I like how he popped winning mentality in there. If we say it enough, maybe we'll be believe it, and ultimately have it. He also complimented Bale loads, but I think I've already copy and pasted enough. 

So, 3 points required. 3 points achieved.

Next up, Basle in the Europa League. I actually think we'll float past them fairly easily. It would of course be wonderful to build a big lead in the first-leg so that we're a little less distracted when Everton come to the Lane next weekend. Everton are actually creeping up on the top four themselves, and will probably fancy getting something from us, but considering we've got Chelski and City coming up, we can't afford anything less than 3 points. It's that shit your pants time of year folks.

Anyway, 'til next time...

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter @hotshothotspur - Spread the word!!