It is interesting to draw the similarities between our away game at Charlton in December, and our present form. Spurs had approached the game in a high state of confidence, and had hopes of going second in the league. There were schoolboy errors in defence, including one early ricket by Dean Richards. We missed the suspended Steffen Freund, and Sergei Rebrov had a start, but played a pretty ineffective role. Charlton exploited our lack of pace to thoroughly deserve their win.
Pos P W D L F -A GD Pts
8 Charlton 29 9 11 9 33 34 -1 38
9 Spurs 29 11 5 13 39 44 -5 38
Charlton stand above us in the league and (see Brian's stats) are one of those teams against whom we ought to have a better record.
Charlton's last 6 Premiership games:-
Charlton 1 0 Derby
M'brough 0 0 Charlton
Charlton 0 2 Man United
Leeds 0 0 Charlton
Charlton 2 1 Chelsea
Leicester 1 1 Charlton
Spurs last 6 Premiership games:-
Spurs 1 3 Newcastle
Derby 1 0 Spurs
Spurs 2 1 Leicester
Spurs 2 1 Sunderland
Man Utd 4 0 Spurs
Chelsea 4 0 Spurs
Charlton have a number of players returning to fitness,and will field a very competitive
team that will make it very tough for Spurs to get back to winning ways. Charlton have only lost to Manchester United in recent games, and significantly did achieve a league double over Chelsea.
At the time of writing, it is one year to the day since Spurs sacked "The Predecessor", and of course, Glenn took over shortly after that. He would not choose to be judged as yet, but three consecutive 4-0 defeats, plus that failure at Cardiff make it absolutely vital that we get all three points on Monday night, to restore some pride, and, if we can ensure safety, perhaps play some more relaxed football for the rest of the season. Apparently, all three substitutions at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night were forced - not tactical. This disturbs me, as I thought that Glenn had recognised Dean Richards was not playing up to scratch. (Well,of course he did, because he was not full fit, but I hope you know what I mean) I also fear that Spurs are hiding injuries, and struggling to field a fully fit side.
Predictions? Whilst not confident, I have to go for a 2-1 to Spurs. Together with the Leicester game on the last day of the season, this is one of my banker wins to keep us up!
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