SPURS 0-1 Foolham - Thoughts on a 3rd straight defeat

That smile hurts Martin

Well, amid all the St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Dublin's city centre, this blogger was relieved to find somewhere showing the game. I muscled my way into a comfy-ish spot right in front of the big screen, full of hope that I'd soon be toasting 3 points with green beer and a riverdance. As you know, this didn't happen. The 3 points that is, obviously there was still beer and dancing.

I'm not going to put any spin on it, this was a disastrous result. I said it was must-win in the preview, and I haven't changed my mind. Champions League football now seems a long way away. For me, the overriding feeling after the game was fear. Fear that we've blown it again.. And when I was told that boos rung around the Lane at full-time, I knew I wasn't the only one suffering from nerves. AVB remained calm after, saying,

"You can't hide from what has happened in the past at Spurs. We just have to make sure that we are able to fight against what was previously written. If we are able to find our form or confidence and win, then we can end the cycle that Spurs normally have. I am confident we will."

He was impressively unflustered, but I don't think his words will have changed many people's feelings. 

He went on to say,

“After our last two Premier League defeats in a row we went on an amazing run. I just hope that it shifts somewhere. We just have to wait for a game that enables us to build on our confidence.”

Maybe it's just me, and I promise I'm usually optimistic about these things, but I don't really see that game coming. I think the problem is that we don't have a particularly good team. Right now, I'd say we have 5 available players that are Champions League standard. They are Lloris, Vertonghen, Dembele, Bale and Lennon. And it's shown. We haven't put in a great deal of good team performances. We've relied far too heavily on the players listed above, and luckily they've put in some amazing shifts. We had a winning habit for a while there, and we couldn't help but score screamers and last minute winners. The problem with screamers and last minute winners is that they make you leave the stadium/pitch on an inflated high. You can't really assess the whole performance when you're still celebrating a goal.

But now we're in a losing habit. 3 losses in a row, including Inter last Thursday. Surely that means Bale's ridiculous run of one-man victories has come to an end. And if Bale doesn't score, I find myself really wondering where the goals are going to come from. Is it possible to qualify for the Champions League without one top-class striker? We actually created a few chances after going 1-0 down yesterday, but we simply had noone to finish them off. How Defoe didn't equalise in the last minute, I still don't know.

Look, I'm angry. I'm hungover. And ultimately I'm scared. 

So I'll cut it there, and hopefully I'll be back soon with a more coherent post.

Oh, and fuck you Berbatov.

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