Thursday, December 15, 2011

Man U won when they had to and Spurs lost the match they needed to lose.

In the interesting weekend events are highlighted by the final arrival of Wayne Rooney to the goal scoring charts and the baby cry from Spurs over their loss to Stoke City. Both teams are my favourite in the English Premier League and for different reasons.

Firstly and more importantly, Manchester United stood up to be counted and played a match they deserved to win on the balance of play. It could have been a result of a wake up call after the Red Devils found themselves booking a Europa League ticket when they had the opportunity of the real deal, the UEFA Champions League.

Barely a week after I tore their football behaviour to shreds, they picked themselves up, dusted off old form and scored a vital victory that even put neighbouring arch rivals off balance. Moneyed Manchester City came unstuck against a determined Chelsea and lost 1-2 on Monday night to keep United just 2 points behind them.

Victory for the Blues saw them climb to 3rd, replacing Tottenham Hotspur who lost a thriller at Stoke. Spurs are 4th on goal difference but they will be back and this is why.

For the few days before the next match, manager Harry Redknapp will be at pains to complement a good effort the team made and how the obvious blunders cost them an arm and a leg. He will tell the players they did a good job. That psychological massage has a sell-by date - the first half of the next match.

Spurs will feel like doubling their efforts to fend off committed teams and incompetent officials to make a statement about the Stoke match. The first 45 minutes of that match will show a resolute spirit of a wounded lion. Whether they will have anything to show for their sweat and blood, is another story.

The manager will get into that dressing room bellowing and barking at everyone about either failing to score half a dozen goals or just a single one for that matter. Either way, his point would be, ‘you think you have done enough, you think you are playing well. Do you think this is acceptable? Have you forgotten all your toil at Stoke City? What have you to show for it? Nothing! Nothing! You think I will accept this? No! Never! I want more and now.

This will be so regardless of the goals Spurs will have bagged by then. This line of thought will be the Spurs technical department strength and weapon. This makes Spurs more dangerous to play against. The problem will be the match officials who may want to prove a point. The referees may decide to compete with the inept officiating that was so embarrassing that the diplomatic Harry forgot his art of being a Mr Nice guy.

Let’s forget about bad jobs and talk about the good job Stoke did. City came in charged and with a particular game plan to make Spurs not to play. That killed all the flow Spurs would have. Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modric never arrived till half time. Aaron Lennon was isolated and that eliminated Emmanuel Adebayour. To note, Scott Parker contributed more to Stoke’s cause and he donated possession with his usual precision.

That aside, the usual suspect in long throw-ins, Delap, was benched and that was enough to fool Assou Ekotto to push balls out for throw-ins. In the first half alone, and from the same spot, there were over 5 dangerous throw-ins by Shotton. Two of those were fatal.

Many can say that Redknapp was fed his own medicine. He has always been a fan of Peter Crouch. He loves target men who have an eye for goal. Crouch did not have to do much, but in Gallas and Kaboul, you could see Harry’s fear in them. They had no solution to his threat. Etherington, being ex-Spurs, like many others, cherished punishing the former pay master.

As much as Spurs toiled in vain and were surely robbed in broad daylight and with so many people watching, and the officials erred big time, Stoke worked well for their victory. It is not like it came on a silver platter. They should be commended for the way they made Spurs not play football for a moment, that when they actually did, City had goals to show for their efforts.


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