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!

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