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!
So here's to that!
COYS!
Follow me on Twitter @hotshothotspur
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