Match Report: United, Liverpool, Forest & Wolves, what went wrong… or right? Newcastle (preview).

 

Match Report: United, Liverpool, Forest & Wolves, what went wrong… or right? Newcastle (preview).

First of all… happy Christmas to all (now that it has gone) … happy New Year to all… and have a good one. As for Spurs… get your act together!

After the Wolves game, I went straight back to my car, raised my head and arms to the Heavens, and shouted, “Thank God… for that magnificent point… we are honoured…”

Of course, I didn’t really… only in my head. Yes, I was being sarcastic. When one dreams of a point, it shows how far we’ve sunk. I am normally a very optimistic person… predicting wins instead of tragedies… but even I find it hard now to favour us. It all depends on how Spursy we are on the day.

In the United game, I predicted we would win 3-2, but I had my doubts… were we going to be Spursy or not?

To cut a long story short, we survived a Manchester United comeback and our own attempts at self-destruction to reach the Carabao Cup semi-final. If that game didn’t give us the jitters, then the Cup draw did. We face Liverpool… who just happened to be our next league game opponents.

For the United game, we did the Spursy thing of cruising at 3-0 with less than half an hour to go until Fraser Forster made two calamitous errors that opened the door to an unlikely United revival. United are struggling and are below us… Anyway, we live to fight another day in the League Cup. Next up…

… Liverpool.

My head was in the clouds over our beating of United and getting to the semi-finals… so foolishly, I predicted a 3-2 Spurs win. I know! Stupid or what… we are Spurs, after all.

Thanks to us, Liverpool went four points clear at the top of the Premier League, winning the game on our turf 3-6. Yes, they gave our team a merciless thrashing in front of our fans. At the end of the game, you could hear the booing and shouts of Levy and Ange out. And I am talking from outside of the stadium. I didn’t wait to observe the abuse close up… I made my way to my car as quickly as I could.

Looking at the Premier League table with all the teams having off days, except Liverpool, it will take a miracle to stop the bin dippers.

After that humiliation, we faced Forest away. Surely (and don’t call me Shirley), our luck would change, we all thought… A Christmas present from Santa… not a bit of it!

… Nottingham Forest

Forest Manager Nuno Espirito Santo called for Nottingham Forest to be realistic but said they must enjoy the moment after Anthony Elanga fired them ahead, who are now second in the Premier League.

Their winger struck for a third straight game as Forest beat us to clinch a fourth successive win in the top flight for the first time since 1995.

A further nail in our coffin is that Nuno lasted just four months as our manager. He was dismissed in November 2021.

Under his stewardship, Forest has scored more points in half the games than during last season's successful survival fight, underlining the rapid progress made under Nuno.

Levy thought Nuno wasn’t good enough… now they sit in second place 13 points above us. Whatever he did wrong at Tottenham is nothing compared to what Ange is doing wrong at Tottenham now… or should the finger be pointed at Levy as he was/ is ultimately in control… In fact, in the last 24 years, there has been only one trophy to show for it. Out of the two, who will have the last laugh at the end of the season? To be fair, most managers who leave Tottenham go on and win trophies… It is just Tottenham that they are unable to win trophies with.

Anyway… we left that disastrous trip… I say disastrous… but overall, we all had a good journey up. We found a reasonable parking spot (at the Rugby ground), went into their marquee for drinks and some football TV watching, and then moved on to the ground as thick fog descended. But as good supporters, we weren’t going to blame the fog on our failures… just Levy & Ange… The crowd was in a fine singing voice, singing songs about Levy with a few abusive words thrown in against Ange.

Another interesting point: looking around the City ground, they advertised all the trophies the team has won in its history. We show nothing. That is because it will probably remind Levy of his failures as an overseer of our team.

On the way home, we thought it couldn’t get any worse against the Wolves, and it didn’t because we got a magnificent point (I say, sarcastically!!).

… Wolves

Our performance under Ange Postecoglou has been difficult this season for our fans.

After a bewildering lack of defensive concentration, we went 1-0 down for the 15th Premier League home game in 2024, the most by a side in a single calendar year in the competition. We managed to claw it back to 2-1 and thought we were going to win it. Then, with three minutes to go, disaster struck, they equalised… That score stayed that way until the final whistle.

Next up will be Newcastle, and given how things have been going lately, I can see us getting slaughtered.

If we go back to this day (4^th) January 1987, we faced Arsenic in our 100^th North London derby. Sadly, the Dial squarers beat us 2-1. However, we finished above them at the end of the season and got to the FA Cup final.

Who do we blame? Ange’s rigid no-change policy (in defence) or Levy’s lack of funds? I blame Levy; sacking Ange will only result in another manager hitting the dust. At the beginning of the season, we could see how threadbare our squad was. Any injuries were going to result in what we are already receiving. Our squad was never going to challenge for the Premier League title this season seriously.

Until Levy gets real and realises that it is all about the team and not the other acts on his radar, nothing will change.

As for the league, apart from the bin dippers, it is a bit all over the place. We’ve got the Liverducks seemingly running away with it, while Forest is in second, Arsenic in third, Chelski in fourth, and City are struggling in sixth. We are 11th, with United and the Spammers in 13th and 14th, respectively. The way things are going, we could get a top-four spot and still win a trophy. Personally, I don’t think it is time for Levy to panic and sack Ange. Yes, put more money into the team funds… and bloody sort out this injury problem of ours. We are the worst in the league in terms of injuries. Something in training is going wrong.

Anyway, the transfer window is opening soon, and hopefully, our injured players will be back to full health; then, we just might have a chance to lift ourselves up and challenge for something. The good news is that we are still in all competitions (not the Premier League title, but maybe a fourth spot).

Happy New Year to all,

 

Glenn

 

Up the Spurs!

 

Glenn