Heading for a showdown
So, at the end of week 21 of the Premier League season, having dropped two points at home to Wolves, we should not be surprised to know that we have lost ground on league leaders Manchester City who did manage to beat the bottom club, Wigan, by just one goal. We're heading for a showdown at The Etihad next Sunday on a big day when Man Utd will be at The Emirates to play Arsenal.
It was great fun to see Arsenal get beaten by Swansea, but we really have to focus on our own game, and whatever happens next week, keep our eyes on the prize of a top three and automatic champions League place for next season. That is well within our grasp. We'll have a better idea of our title hopes after the City game of course, but it could be one of the best times of the season to play them, with the Toure brothers in Africa, Kompany suspended, and maybe still one or two key players absent through injury. More of that in my match preview later in the week.
As for this week's game, the Spurs Odyssey survey attracted just under 200 votes. There were just a few rash and silly votes, where even man of the match Luka Modric was offered 1 out of 10, either by Arsenal trolls or ultra-disappointed Spurs fans, who just thought the whole team played poorly. The more I looked at it though, I just focused on our poor goals to shot ratio (43%), because we certainly did create enough chances to secure the game.
The score ratio area of the Spursometer has been our achilles heel all season, sitting well below the team's results in the other skill areas. The trouble of course is that we tend to play Adebayor as a lone striker, well supported by Van der Vaart, Bale et al, but often found in wide areas, unavailable for the crosses that the likes of Lennon, Walker, Bale and Assou-Ekotto are putting in. There were a few negative comments made about Adebayor after Saturday's game, such as "hit his wall"; "we need a new striker"; "flashy flicks when a simple lay-off would have been better"; even "Adebayor was awful, he won't be getting the 150k he wants". However, I'd still say that Adebayor's work ethic is excellent, and his game is about more than scoring. That said, he certainly didn't have his best game, and a couple of failed dummies upset me too.
I was more surprised by the diverse views expressed about Modric. For me he was by far and away our best player, but Walker's fine runs caught the eye of a lot of fans who are obviously prepared to accept his defensive frailties. For a long time whilst the survey was taking place, Walker was neck and neck with Luka, and he was only beaten by a couple of decimal points at the end.
Luka attracted comments such as "was everywhere - by far our MOTM, but he can't do it all"; "was the only one really that looked on top of his game"; to "Modric did not dominate the midfield (again) today. He needs to stop going missing and come deep to pick up from the defence". This last comment is made about the man who jointly with Brad Friedel made a goal-line save, that sadly was collected by Wolves scorer, Fletcher!
Finally, who do you think these comments are about?:-
1. "An excellent referee today. Made all the difference. Thank you Mr ......."
2. "Yet another inept referee, who shouldn't be a Premier League referee"
You guessed it didn't you? Both comments are about Saturday's referee Mike Jones. The first was after we beat Liverpool 4-0. Mr. Jones scored 8 out of 10 for that game. The second was about the Wolves game, for which he scored only 4.4. Well, they do say it's a game of opinions!
Results 14-16.01.12
A. Villa 1-1 Everton
Blackburn 3-1 Fulham
Chelsea 1-0 S'derland
Liverpool 0-0 Stoke
Man Utd 3-0 Bolton
Spurs 1-1 Wolves
West Brom 1-2 Norwich
Newcastle 1-0 QPR
Swansea 3-2 Arsenal
Wigan 0-1 Man City
Next week's games:-
Norwich v Chelsea
Everton v Blackburn
Fulham v Newcastle
QPR v Wigan
Stoke v West Brom
S'derland v Swansea
Wolves v A. Villa
Bolton v Liverpool
Man City v Spurs
Arsenal v Man Utd
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man City 21 16 3 2 57 16 41 51
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2 Man Utd 21 15 3 3 52 20 32 48
3 Spurs 21 14 4 3 39 21 18 46
4 Chelsea 21 12 4 5 40 25 15 40
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5 Arsenal 21 11 3 7 38 31 7 36
6 Newcastle 21 10 6 5 30 25 5 36
7 Liverpool 21 9 8 4 24 18 6 35
8 Stoke 21 8 6 7 22 31 -9 30
9 Norwich 21 7 7 7 32 36 -4 28
10 Swansea 21 6 8 7 23 25 -2 26
11 Everton 21 7 4 10 21 25 -4 25
12 S'derland 21 6 6 9 27 24 3 24
13 A. Villa 21 5 9 7 23 27 -4 24
14 Fulham 21 5 8 8 23 29 -6 23
15 West Brom 21 6 4 11 20 30 -10 22
16 Wolves 21 4 6 11 23 37 -14 18
17 Blackburn 21 4 5 12 32 44 -12 17
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18 QPR 21 4 5 12 18 35 -17 17
19 Bolton 21 5 1 15 25 46 -21 16
20 Wigan 21 3 6 12 18 42 -24 15
