Lucky Spurs take a point!

Okay, first things first. I'm not doing the player ratings as I'm in Venice and although I have watched the game, the stream wasn't the best.
And neither was Spurs performance! It's games like this that make you think, maybe this is our year! To get a point shows resilience but let's not look through too many rose tinted glasses, we were all over the place tonight.
I can't understand why Davies didn't start. For Wales he is used to playing in a back 3 and deserved to start ahead of Wimmer. After half an hour the system changed and poor old Dier didn't know what day of the week it was. Wimmer got worse and City simply pressed Spurs in Spurs style and at half time it was 0-0. Only Lloris and a couple of shocking misses kept it that way. Some of the passing in the first half was atrocious.

But half time came and Wimmer was hauled off, Son was on and Dier moved again. It was like schoolboy tactics at times. And then a ball over top found Dier asleep and what was Lloris doing? He got to the ball but somehow half headed it against Sane, possible handball, and it was 1-0 to City. And to be fair, deservedly so.
But Lloris decided he could go one better and deliver a much worse clanger. A cross came in, it was easy pickings and somehow he let the ball spill out. 2-0! If Lloris was Grobbelaar, I think a few questions might be asked!!! Totally shocking goalkeeping. Yet had he not been at his best in the first half, it could easily have been 4 or 5 nil.

Thankfully Walker delivered a peach of a cross and it was 3 goals in 9 minutes as Spurs somehow were back in the game, with Alli heading home.

And then the ref changed the game. Sterling went into the box, and having gone down already looking for penalties, stayed on his feet as Walker blatantly shoved him in the back. What Walker was thinking is anyone's guess but it was a blatant push, a blatant penalty and possibly a red card.

While an astonished Guardiola picked himself up off the floor, he turned round to see Kane flick a pass onto Son who made it 2-2.

I disturbed the refined Venice hotel and Spurs were heading for a point. How? Not sure. But it's a point that could be vital later in this season.

Injuries could also affect Spurs season. Toby went off as a precaution with a tight hamstring, Walker looked uncomfortable too. With Jan out for 10 weeks, the last thing we need are any more injuries. So a home FA cup tie to Wycombe could prove to be favourable to allow players to recover.

As ever, come on you Spurs , and for now- Ciao!!!

 

Jan is only out for 6 wks I've heard Matt. I agree with your blog. Walker was a very lucky lad. We got out of jail, but I took the 1 point before the match. Not long ago at 2 down spurs would've given up. Delete my MoM again. !!

 

Great Mattj!!! I live about 200 Km ( in Lombardy near Bergamo )... Venice is one of my favourite city; today i am very satisfied for the character of the Spurs: they never give up...a very good result! Have a nice holiday!!! Ciao!!!

 

T

Good news on Jan. 3 points were needed but in the end we take 1 happily.

 

Enjoy Venice Matt. Like you I'm away for my other half's 70th bash, so decided I'd not upset her and booked the restaurant for 6-30. What a good move.

No stress, a great Birthday meal, only to turn my phone on to " 2-2 and we were shite" from the kids.

Hugo has threatened this all season. He better make sure he's got it out of his system ffs.

Take the point, plus a super winner from Siggy and no victories around us, so far. Move on.

COYS

 

I totally agree about Walker but what could he do in that situation? He took a risk and luckily for us it paid off. We showed great carachter to come back from 2-0 against one of the best teams in the league despite the poor performance. Pochettino came out and said Toby wasn't a huge issue after the game. We have three should wins before that huge game at anfield and Swansea showed today how to beat them. Hopefully results tomorrow go our way.
As ever COYS

 

It's disappointing considering the form both sides have been in I thought we'd walk it.
But that's Spurs for ya when your comfortable of a result the team go missing.

To put the match in perspective we played sh;te, they played well, Lloris had a mare, we had a make shift defence, we were 2 down and managed a draw.

A point away to a top 4 rival is a good result in the grand scheme of things and that's 4 in total we've taken from the Citizens.

 

You think we would 'walk' a game away at Man City? I think your deluded my friend, you always post negative comments on here but that takes the biscuit. Man City make no mistake are a class team and it was never gonna be a walk in the park. And our team did not go missing. No team in history could play at their best every single game but our players fought hard and didn't give up! I was there a few years ago when we did go missing and got beat 6-0. That could have happened today but we showed character to put up a fight!

 

Totally agree Mick.

We have had a 7 game run where we only dropped 2 points and played Chelsea and Man City during that.

Stay positive and be realistic!

 

Since when a point at Etihad was a two point loss? How many wins did Spurs collected there as of late? Last year was the only win since 2010 (Crouch scored a winner and Zabaleta had a full head of hair). Come on... it was a massive game and the excellent result. And Walker did help it. Spurs played well under circumstances. They scored all 4 goals, while Citizens got only their chances and were unable to convert. The only truly bad result is that we now lost both CDs, as Toby joined Vert on injury list. COYS!!!

 

I was talking about based on the 'form' of both sides, did you not see City at Everton they were abysmal.
As for us we were sublime against Chelsea and West Brom so we were the form team going into the clash.

How's that delusional?

As for negative? if you think we played well its you that is deluded son. We managed to scrape a draw while playing badly which is a positive as I stated but doesn't mean we were great because we didn't get spanked 6-0. The draw came by the way of poor finishing from City, Awful refereeing, lady luck on our side as much as it did character.

Get real.

I was expecting having watched City of late them to be playing their 1/2s with their GK, Stones trying to take on our Attack on the edge of their box (thinking he's the second coming of Beckenbauer but more like Chiriches) and that our High press would smother and create havoc like it did at WHL earlier in the season.
As it goes our high press was non existent and it was our defence that was uncharacteristically out of sorts.
We lacked meaningful possession Wanyama and the Moose chased a lot of shadows, for long spells it didn't seem like Alli Erikson or Kane were even on the pitch, Walker and Rose were caught out of position a lot, Dier and Wimmer didn't look comfortable and Lloris had his worst ever game in a Spurs shirt.

That's what I saw. But as I said put in context an away point at a top 4 rival is a decent result. And 4 in total off them is good.

 

Greetings Matt from across the Adriatic.
I realise that seeing ugly things on a Saturday night in Manchester is pretty usual, but we really set a standard here, and still walked away with a result. I have seen Lloris and Wimmer get a lot of flack but it's unfair to blame individuals when the whole team didn't turn up.
I can see the ref's point of view - Sterling, one-on-one with the keeper, wasn't even likely to hit the target without a helping hand from Walker. I still remember the game at WHL when Rose got sent off, with the help of a number of vitual red cards held by City players, for a great tackle (red card later rescinded). What goes around comes around.
Great performance from Tom Carrol.

 

Relief is all i can say in my contribution to the above discussion. Why didnt we play four at the back for this one? Davies should have started the match and believe it or not, i would have liked to have seen out of favour Janssen up front with Kane to barge and outmuscle City defenders.....at least even if he didnt score, it would have given the home side something to think about. Thankfully though, we have Son... an impact player who has scored some very important goals previously. Anyway, Wycombe next and a chance to rest one or two players until the next league fixture! Keep believing....Coys!!!!

 

Good result from a team that looked out of sorts against a team that looked like they were coming back to their best.
Getting a point there is a good result for us, we cannot win every match we play......unfortunately !
Lloris was to blame for both goals, he knows it, but....he has saved us so many points in previous matches that can be forgiven.

 

We got a lucky draw against a flaky City team which is nothing like as formidable as the side we should have beaten in the corresponding fixture in 2011/12, when we also came back from two goals down, in case anyone's forgotten. Under Pochettino we seem to blow hot and cold just the same as under his predecessors, with one win in ten followed by six straight wins, great performances like Chelsea or WBA followed by duds like Villa or City, and still we don't end up with trophies. Will this year be any different? Who knows - we might just have another hot streak when it matters, but I'd be more convinced if we could only find some real consistency to go with the fitness (and the luck, of which Pochettino seems to have bucket-loads).

 

Felon I don't disagree, the spurs against Chelsea didn't show up and how we came away with a point is beyond me, we didn't/couldn't get into the game at all. But you have to give the home team some credit they were relentless and played some sublime football, they took us apart really. It was definately an off day for spurs but the fact we managed to somehow restrict their goals to 2 lloris errors when they could have had 6 or 7, and then manage to score 2 second half goals shows some fight from our players. Wanyama/dembele/Toby fought like animals to keep us in the game. Just a shame our attacking players couldn't get on the ball. After city's drubbing at Everton I personally was expecting them to put on a show in front of their home crowd so disagree that we should have walked it. But I get what your saying on recent form you'd have expected us to go and give them more of a game. Anyway it could be a huge point come the end of the season and it keeps City 3 points behind so let's hope we can pull our socks up and get back to winning ways

 

Was a tough run out for us yesterday , we were a bit off for some reason and they were really up for it and were by far the better side over the 90 mins but a bit like ourselves at times this season , and the other Mancs are making a habit of it as well , all the quality moves and good football ain't worth a sh1t if you don't score ... For all their good play and to be fair , there was plenty , it took 2 howlers from Hugo for them to score and as bad and all as we were I always felt there'd be a chance or 2 in it for us eventually because they're so chronic at the back .. Credit to them , after the way we outplayed them earlier in the season and their disaster against Everton , they came up with probably their best performance of the year for Pep .. last week's result against Everton was probably the worst thing that could have happened for us in hindsight ... We were all over the place at times and I wouldn't underestimate the loss of Vertonghen , it was so unlucky for him and came at such a bad time for everyone and then to cap it all Toby goes off clutching his thigh , nightmare scenario ... Then the Walker incident , unbelievable nondecesion from the officials , they must be the only people watching the game that didn't think it was a penalty and a red card , but they didn't and we got a huge break , and in fairness to everyone we made the most of it ... No wonder managers and fans alike are pulling their hair out with frustration with decisions like that , but hey it will go against us someday so we'll take it ... All in all it turned out to be a great result for us in what was our most difficult league game in a long long time ... A hughly difficult game where we haven't performed and got outplayed completely for long spells is out of the way and by hook or by crook we managed to scrape a point out of it , I'll take that any day ... Hopefully we,ll be back to or close to our best before the next one , and if we manage to take 6 points before we head to scouserpool then all will be well in our world again ....

It's such a mad , unpredictable game at times , all week we,re listening to and talking about how sh1t their keeper is and has been all season and how good ours is and the difference that makes to the team ... Low and behold , what happens , you couldn't make it up ... Ultimately , for all their domenance and good play , our keeper cost us the game .... Lol , Sh1t happens ..... C.O.Y.S ........

Enjoy the holiday Matt ...
Birthday wishes to your better half Bazz ...

 

firstly, not having seen the game only the BBC highlights, and their expert analysis? There is no mention of Sane's handball, as poor as Lloris's header is, (there's a good photo in the mail) the ball would have gone past him, so the chance came to him because of his hand.
As for the Walker incident, no doubt it was a penalty and a sending off, but having my first view of it on motd my first impression was Sterling was offside, now not having the technology BBC or sky have I've had to try fast forwarding and rewinding on my sky box and I'm now convinced he was offside,this wasn't reviewed by Lineker ancient co but Harry Kane's position for the second goal was? There's no doubt Spurs got away with one yesterday but how many times have we seen that happen to us, as ever COYS

 

Not sure you can give handball for their first goal....under the rules. It was ball to hand...and pretty difficult for the officials to spot.
For me...the ruling anywhere on the pitch should be simply...if you gain an advantage by keeping the ball...or from stopping the ball going to an opposition player. (in the penalty area exactly the same....but also if you stop the ball going into the net). .....deliberate or not should be removed.

Lloris had a shocker....but I think the first one is a tough call.....it didn't look like the ball would reach the area before the attacker...so he had to either go for it or retreat to his line (whereby he wouldn't really have been able to get an angle to make the goal smaller)....so I can see why he went for it. on another day he heads it over the attacker.
The second one....just a shocker.

Walker...it's a penalty and a red card......but for me he did what he had to do. last ditch effort to prevent a shot. you take the decision made. Fortunately it went for us.....BUT.....how they heck doesn't one of the officials see that. It's along the line for the linesman!?!? ....what else is he looking at????

for me it was a good point. the boys will know we should have lost....but they will get a huge amount from not doing so

 

Good point Guesty.....daylight robbery and some