Spurs 6 Leicester 2 (flash, bang, wallop)

 

Spurs 6 Leicester 2 (flash, bang, wallop)

And that is exactly what happened on Saturday… Son walloped three in the back of the net to end his goal drought; as for "flash" & "bang," well, that was my car smashing into the back of another on the way to the Tottenham stadium. More on that later.

Yes, after our defeat against Sporting Lisbon, we needed a convincing win and a convincing win we got. As I sat in my car waiting for it to be taken away, I glanced at the line-up for the game and noticed that Son was on the substitute's bench (surprised but also delighted that Conte was going to change things). Kulusevski, Kane and Richarlison were upfront.

Had Conte finally dropped Son because of his failure to score? Or was there some other reason? Like his explanation, squad rotation?

Car Crash

Janette and I left my house on Saturday at about 11.30 am. I always leave early just in case of holdups, but we are also allowed into the stadium three hours before kick-off.

I was travelling on the Great Cambridge Road when the car in front of me rammed on his brakes… we weren't travelling that fast, however, that didn't stop me from going in the back of a Land Rover. My car's front was smashed in; his didn't have a dent. Nevertheless, Janette and I were badly shaken up. After exchanging details, I drove on until I noticed smoke from the engine. I quickly pulled over and called my insurance company. They assured me that somebody would be with me by 3 pm. Janette was desperate for the toilet and in shock… in fact, so was I, but we had to wait with the car.

The Insurance company tried to get me a hired car, but because it was a weekend and a long one (the Queen's funeral/ Bank holiday), they couldn't get me anything.

Finally, the tow truck turned up at 4.38. For some reason, I had it in my head that the kick-off was at 4.30, not 5.30, so I thought we would never make it (I panicked… it was Janette who reminded me that kick-off was in an hour. I phoned Uber, and they got me to the stadium by 5.10 pm. We were both still in the numb world).

One bit of amusement or not… Janette said, your programmes… you are going to miss out. I phoned Lisa at Tottenham, who arranged with Sharran (both are Spurs security) to get me two programmes. Janette commented, "I see you got your priorities right". Oh, we laughed! … or maybe not! A sense of humour does help in times of crisis.

While Janette popped off to the Ladies, I managed to get some food for both of us. We ate it in the lounge while the crowds sang the national anthem. Then Janette and I parted (as she had Mel's seat, he was still in Portugal). I sat next to her at halftime as there was a free spare seat.

The game.

I was still pretty shaky and shocked when I sat down for the game.

As I said earlier, Son ended his goal drought with a dazzling 13-minute hat-trick as we ruthlessly punished Leicester's latest defensive dismal show. If Brendan Roger's team keeps this sort of performance up, then I can see him being a casualty for the team's failures (i.e., sacked). Still, Mel reckons that they are too good to go down…

Conte decided to drop Son after a barren start to the season, but when he came on as a sub, he responded by curling two fantastic strikes and slotted home a late third.

We trailed to Youri Tielemans' early penalty but took advantage of Brendan's Rogers teams failures at set-pieces as Kane and Dier headed home from corners to turn the game around.

James Maddison's briefly drew Leicester level again, but Wilfried Ndidi's mistake allowed Rodrigo Bentancur to put us back in front before substitute Son put on his celebrated show.

Thoughts

That magnificent win continued our unbeaten start to the Premier League season as we climbed to second, level on points with leaders City, the richer half of Manchester.

Leicester remains at the foot of the table, still searching for their first win, despite having led in four of their seven matches. As I said earlier, if things don't improve for Roger's team, I can see there being another sacking this season. Yankee-Chelski and Bournemouth's manager have so far gone from the Premier League(sacked). It wasn't that long ago that the Foxes had won the League and FA Cup. Now they are looking at fighting relegation this early in the season.

Son became the first Tottenham player to score a Premier League hat-trick as a substitute. Even a flawed offside flag could not deny him the match ball, as VAR replays showed he was just onside.

Conte, the fans, we are pleased about seeing a record seventh successive win at our Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Onwards and upwards!

Five different players provided assists (Kulusevski (8 minutes), Perisic (21'minutes), Bentancur (73'minutes), Kane (84'minutes), and Højbjerg (86'minutes), with Ivan Perisic's dead-ball delivery complementing Dejan Kulusevski's crosses from open play, while Bentancur contributed his first goal for the club. On the subject of Perisic, I personally think that he should take the corners instead of Son.

Sanchez, again, conceded another penalty. This time his needless challenge on James Justin handed Leicester their early lead. Lloris saved the first penalty, however, Tielemans had to retake it as VAR spotted Hugo Lloris had moved off his line.

Leicester have now lost 4-2, 5-2 and 6-2 on the road this season, conceding a league-high 22 goals overall. They have kept just two clean sheets in 19 games, conceded 25 set-piece goals since the start of last season and dropped 11 points from winning positions this season alone.

This is Brendan Rodgers's longest-losing league run after six successive defeats. I am sure that the club's board has limits to their patience after just one point from seven games.

I must be honest, Leicester created many chances, however, once the introduction of Son, things quickly changed.

We are undefeated, third in the league after Woolwich thrashed Brentford 3-0 and City beat Wolves. Next up will be Woolwich… a true battle of north London to find out who is worthy and who are the dumbbells. Of course, if it is Tottenham, then we will look at it in a different context. And rightly so! After all, Woolwich-Dial Square (the original name of the sneak thieves) stole into the night and hitched up tents in north London after rejecting their Gun-ammunitions-factory home for greener pastures (they moved to North London in 1913). Anyway, I predict a 3-1 win at their crappy stadium when we meet up. And compared to our stadium, it ain't that good. No doubt built in desperation… and failed on many counts.

After the game, well, that was something... I haven't gone by train to Tottenham since the 90s. And things have changed, slightly, but changed (such as oyster cards and no train kiosks to purchase tickets… all done by machines now). 

So, yes, after the game, we stayed in the lounge for 30 minutes to let the crowd die down. On leaving the stadium, Janette and I made our way to the station (WHL) and queued. Once on the train, we went to Liverpool Street. From there to Paddington, then caught a national train to Didcot Parkway, where Martin, my son, and his girlfriend Charlotte picked us up. They then drove us to my house to pick some things up and then an hour's drive to Janette's house in Cheltenham. We got home at midnight. Then the nightmares started unfolding (bad dreams etc.).

It is another day (Sunday), but the memories are still there, along with the good victory we witnessed at the Tottenham stadium. Mixing everything up in our minds made one hell of a weekend. I suppose it could have been worse… we could have died… and then where would we have been? Yes, fucked… well and truly! But we are not; we live to fight another day. And so does our beloved Tottenham. And Janette had a great day at our magnificent arena… again with mixed emotions.

But I pay tribute to Janette for what she went through and coming out on the other side. They say, behind every great legend of a man (that is me…), a great Goddess of a woman is holding him up by his bootstraps! It gotta be true… I read it…

A former Prime Minster (Harold MacMillan) once said, "No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Then he is blessed indeed." Paraphrasing slightly. And indeed, I am blessed… I am still alive!

I also want to thank those in my WhatsApp group and at the stadium for their kind words.

COYS!

Glenn