Let Them Eat Europa
You’ve got to like our spirit. 2-0 down and it was looking very ominous and then we have a run at them. Well Defoe did
It was on a counter attack and found himself with the room the first half never offered and Defoe put it away with style to make it 2-1.
The game started off quite well with a ton of possession, neat passing but very little in the most important department,penetration.
Our rental man from this same City team,Adebayor, who has been part of the saviour group Friedel,Parker and Adebayor was sadly missed and there was little hold up play in the last third and our passes were mostly lateral and the Man City defence seemed packed and solid in the first half. But in the second something changed.We had less possession but more chances and that was because City themselves became more industrious after seeing that they could neutralize the super fast wing play of Tottenham. As they moved forward with Silva and Company so gaps began to develop in their midfield.That gave Defoe the room to run into space and eventually right past Hart and shot into the net to pull back the goal.
We did find ourselves 1-0 down after we put our faith more in the offside trap that secure mwhen Nasri found room between two on the back line as Silva picked him out witha pefectly weighted pass and the expletive deleted Nasri found it and put it away in the 56th minute.
Two minutes later Lescott somehow got it after a corner and the ball shuffled in. It was the defence not owning the ball for this one.The corner seemed innocuous and certainly on this high ball Friedel,seemed to be static as our defence seemed to ignore the threat as Lescott scored. 2-0 City.
There were some very iffy called by Howard Webb including a non call for a diabolical elbow by Lescott on Kaboul in the first half that begged a Red let alone a Yellow and most Tottenham fans were outraged that the insanely volatile Balotelli was allowed to stay on after his stamping of Parker.Truth is he had his back to Parker at the time and so we dont definitively know if it happened on purpose although most of us suspect that it was.
Defoe’s goal and then a brilliant one by Gareth Bale.It was a simple square ball from Lennon but Bale didn’t ask anything of anyone else he took aime and curved the ball with power around an airborne Hart with his outsretched arms that were well beaten by the brilliant strike for the 150 million pound man (they dont have enough oil in Manchester or Abu Dhabi that could buy the talented Welshmen!)
2-2 looked like a safe score especially until they brought on Balotelli and after some questionable calls he goes on stride in the area and Ledley just couldn’t do anything but foul him.This was the 94th minute. Balotelli is a crude individual a lot of the time but when it comes to going for goal,he is one of the best.ledley fouled him and Balotelli calmly scored from the spot. I mean he really is an anomaly but at times brilliant.
A few of us stayed at Scally’s to get some benefit from the Man U Arse game and while most of us would have prefererred Spurs winning and Man U and Arse drawing,after we lost it was I think anything is fine as long as the scum didn’t win.
I thought of all our glorious fans driving back down the M6 and M4 back to London from the City game and how much they needed something sweet.Sure the neutral media would all be about how Manchester beat North London etc but we are the only North London team in North London and we don’t care about that other not-noisy-anymore-group,the Arse say.Most of us hope they expire let alone draw or lose.They lost and I’m sure that inspired the faithful coming back from Manchester to start singing again.
Lets look to the positive…..the net result was that we are solidified in third and the also rans are struggling for Europa places. 
Our wing play
Well thought out preview on Soccernet…..
Man City
v
Tottenham
Premier League
8:30 EST, January 22, 2012
Etihad Stadium
The new year has brought new emotions to both Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Neither club has been in a title race for a long time. Spurs’ last push for glory was back in 1984-5 where a promising new year position was frittered as Everton surged clear. Manchester City must look back to 1976-7 for their last tilt, and Liverpool were champions that year.
City have been frontrunners since October, yet have hardly looked unsassailable in recent weeks. Spurs spent weeks playing down their part in the title race only for their winning of a game in hand against Everton to force them to admit that this might just be on. A disappointing draw with Wolves later and the playing down is back as a defence against hopes being raised too far.Roberto Mancini’s relief at City’s defeat of Wigan was tempered by the reaction to his unfortunate revival of his card-waving mime act. A man who does not change his ways too willingly would be best advised to cut out that foible as he has greater matters at hand. The lack of Vincent Kompany for a game against an attack of no little potency is a worry, as is the lack of a big-game performer in Yaya Toure. At least David Silva has been able to continue when it was feared that injury may keep him out for longer than the Carling Cup defeat to Liverpool. Harry Redknapp’s stated aim has always been a Champions League qualifying spot, a target no doubt shared by Tottenham’s management accountants. He will not wish to fritter away what was once an eight-point advantage on Chelsea, though Arsenal’s defeat at Swansea saw a gain on his North London rivals. A draw at City is the minimum requirement, as is some kind of vindication of a 1-5 home demolition. It is not just Arsenal seeking revenge for a Mancunian mauling. Despite their avalance of goals this season, Manchester City have had to accept that it is Spurs who have been the team playing the most regularly exciting football in the division. Whether Redknapp opts for balls-out 4-4-2 against City’s massed midfield will be just one of the tactical nuances to a game that may be accepting second billing to affairs at the Emirates Stadium yet just might be of far more importance to the destiny of the Premier League title. Manchester City player to watch: Edin Dzeko A goal against Wigan ended a significant period of drought, though his inexplicable intervention also prevented Sergio Aguero scoring one of the strikes of the season. “He scored this very important goal for us and I hope he continues it in the next game,” said Roberto Mancini, pointing to his likely selection of a player who scored four when these teams last met. Back then, he was the most in-form striker in the land, and Mancini needs him to be so again. Tottenham Hotspur player to watch: Luka Modric A cast back of the mind to August and a consideration of Modric then will recall that he was all set on leaving Tottenham, and looked Chelsea-bound. One of the key factors in City’s stroll to victory was Modric’s pallid display in a game it was later revealed he had asked not to play in. Reunified with Redknapp since, he continues to be probably his club’s most coveted player and last week’s goal against Wolves exhibited a rarely sighted scoring power. Key Battle: Stefan Savic v Jermain Defoe Both players are standing in for star names. Savic is yet to convince as a replacement for the inspiration of Kompany, and though Wigan were held at bay, the 22-year-old has shown rather too much of a naive side. Passes to team-mates, in particular goalkeeper Joe Hart, and a sense of awareness are yet to be honed. He may be thankful he is not facing Emmanuel Adebayor, ineligible as he is still a City player, but he will face a man with something to prove in Jermain Defoe. Here is a shop window for the peroxide poacher to show off himself to Fabio Capello ahead of Euro 2012, and perhaps one of those suitors he denies he wants to transfer to. Trivia: The seasons of title challenge mentioned above saw Sunday’s opponent in vastly different circumstances. Tottenham were relegated from the old First Division at the end of the 1976-7 season, having finished bottom. Manchester City spent the 1984-5 season struggling to get out of the old Second Division, and did so by finishing third, but only on goal difference from Portsmouth. Stats: Samir Nasri has created a scoring chance for team-mates every 24 minutes, a more regular rate than any other player. Either that shows off that he is worth more than a face value of some outwardly poor performances would suggest or that chance-creating statistics are not what they’re cracked up to be. Liverpool fans may agree there. Odds: A Tottenham win at 4.20 would seem a nice price to rule them back into the title race. City are on offer for a win at 1.83, while the draw, more use to the other Manchester club perhaps, is 3.75 at bet365.Prediction: City need the win badly, Spurs would accept a draw. The latter looks likely in view of the relative form of each.
from The Independent a great saturday article about Tottenham and the Arse
Spurs and Manchester City flick the power switch
Canny spending, sound management and expansive play are changing the pecking order in the north-west and north London
Sunday 22 January 2012
By long-standing tradition Arsenal supporters celebrate the day each season – St Totteringham’s Day – on which it becomes impossible for Tottenham to finish above them in the table. For Manchester United followers even to think about such a thing in relation to their own most local rivals would probably have been considered beneath them – where City have been found for the most of the past three decades, sometimes not even in the same League.
Yet as north London confronts Manchester this afternoon at the Emirates and the Etihad, evidence of changing times will be apparent in more than the names of the venues. Having not finished above Arsenal for 17 years (see graphs right), Spurs travel north sitting in third place, fully 10 points ahead of them. Meanwhile, a similar inversion is threatened in England’s third city. How has this come about? Essentially, in the transfer market.
To take the London rivals first, the simple fact is that Harry Redknapp has spent better than Arsène Wenger and the startling one is that in assembling what would be regarded as the two clubs’ strongest teams, Tottenham have spent less. When Redknapp succeeded Juande Ramos in October 2008, Spurs were bottom of the table with two points from eight games. Arsenal were fourth, where they stayed until the end of the season, by which time Redknapp had taken Spurs to eighth place and the Carling Cup final.
The gap between the teams was still 21 points, which Tottenham reduced to five the following year as they qualified for the Champions’ League and six last season, one place behind Arsenal in each case. Then an eventful close-season centering around key midfielders came to symbolise the two clubs’ financial philosophies and offer a hint about how this campaign might pan out. On the day in mid-June that Luka Modric made clear his desire to join Chelsea, the Spurs’ chairman Daniel Levy insisted “none of our key players will be sold this summer” and to widespread surprise he was able to stick to his guns.
The start of their season was still disrupted, contributing to heavy defeats by the two Manchester teams in the opening games, but by the end of the transfer window, Spurs had held on to Modric, signed Emmanuel Adebayor on loan, Brad Friedel for nothing and the Footballer of the Year Scott Parker, while showing a profit on transfer dealings of almost £15m into the bargain.
The Modric-Parker partnership of silk and steel in central midfield has worked perfectly, Friedel has taken over as competently as expected from the less predictable Heurelho Gomes and Adebayor has brought goals that were lacking from the strikers last season. In contrast, Arsenal’s fears of summertime blues materialised just after the season had started when in the space of nine days Cesc Fabregas finally went home to Barcelona and Samir Nasri made it clear that he would take the Manchester City shilling (or dirham). Having lost a third key midfielder in Jack Wilshere to injury, sold Emmanuel Eboué and not bought any replacements, Wenger was forced into an uncharacteristic spree, securing four players on the deadline day. The fees for Fabregas (£35m) and Nasri (£24m) meant Arsenal were again in profit but as a growing number of more critical supporters regularly note, League tables do not include those figures.
What they do show this morning is that Wenger’s team have lost seven games (including the derby at White Hart Lane) to Tottenham’s three, scored one fewer goal and conceded 10 more. They have suffered far worse from injuries, with the defence in particular badly affected, but of all the new signings Mikel Arteta has been the only unqualified success.
The most important target now for Arsenal is to catch not Spurs but their other main London rivals Chelsea, who currently hold the critical fourth position that brings a Champions’ League place. When Wenger talks of the club’s achievements during his 15-and-a-half years, he does not mention having been above Tottenham every single season but points proudly to an unbroken run of 14 successive Champions’ League campaigns. That is what is at stake now.
In Manchester the stakes are both more and less parochial, for unless Spurs and Arsenal bring off an unexpected double this afternoon, City’s quality and United’s experience would appear to remain the defining factors in the championship chase. The sort of experience that United and their manager have built up over the years cannot be bought. Quality can, however, and City have purchased it by the bucket-load. Yet if there is a surprise in comparing the strongest XIs of the two clubs, it is that United’s is less than £30m cheaper, so that at £158m that team cost three times as much as Tottenham’s and almost two and a half times as much as Arsenal’s.
Handing over huge sums for players like Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov before City’s fairy godfathers arrived, United were always bold spenders, living up to the tradition of a club who have broken the British transfer record more times than any other. The only change in philosophy has been to go in for younger players, and that may cost them in the short-term. They lead City by a vast distance in turnover and the ratio of income to wages and are better placed to deal with Financial Fair Play. But those figures will not influence which club are crowned champions in four months’ time.
Manchester City v Spurs is on Sky Sports 1 at 1pm
Danger man: Ferguson wary of the one who got away
Manchester United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson is hoping that Robin van Persie, whom he once considered signing, does not further undermine the champions’ attempt to retain their title when United visit Arsenal this afternoon. Ferguson has recalled going to see a young Van Persie play for Feyenoord reserves: “He either got sent off or walked off, I can’t remember. We just left it alone at the time but he has turned out to be a fantastic player. We weren’t worried about his disciplinary problem, I think Arsenal were closer to the situation than we were at the time.”
The Dutch striker has scored 18 goals in 21 League games this season, emerging as the type of outstanding forward who Ferguson says makes a difference; a category into which he also puts Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Silva for their respective clubs.
McLugan says
January 19, 2012
2:55 pm
I would like to thank the Georgetown for opening their doors early for Spurs Canada !!!