Adebayor - this is a worse score than you've ever had before
Those looking for Premier League Odds last week-end would have made a lot of money had they picked Swansea, Southampton, Reading, West Brom, Norwich and Sunderland in an accumulator. Any one of these surprising results must have upset a few coupons and pleased the bookies.
Spurs fans had more important things on their mind before and after the awful Saturday lunch-time experience at The Emirates Stadium.
I won't dwell on the events for too long, but I did pose the question in my match reportwho was to blame for losing two consecutive games to Arsenal 5-2? The resolute answer from readers regarding Saturday's game was Emmanuel Adebayor for his rash challenge on Arsenal's star player Corzola. Adebayor scored a low 3.6 out of 10 for his overall performance, which is easily the worst mark he has received from Spurs fans since his career at Tottenham started last September.
Adebayor didn't score too highly (4.7) in the previous game at The Emirates either last February, but he wasn't alone there in a game where Brad Friedel was Spurs "least worse player". In Saturday's game, Adebayor scored even less than Clint Dempsey (4.9), and another ex-Arsenal player William Gallas, who seems to have taken most of the flack for the goals conceded by Spurs. Naughton and Vertonghen did not escape criticism either.
There was an interesting piece on last night's "Monday Night Football" on Sky TV, where Gary Neville gave an analysis on Spurs' defending in their last two games. Neville pointed out that in both our last two games against Man City and Arsenal, the attacks targeted our left side, where Gareth Bale was found wanting regarding his ability, desire and commitment towards helping his left back (My comments, not those of Mr. Neville). Some 46% of City's attacks and 50% of Arsenal's attacks came down our left flank.
I mentioned this in my City report, and have always said that Lennon tracks back better than Bale. AVB even tried Bale at left back in the QPR game, but soon learnt the error of that decision! Let's hope that opposition teams don't learn too much from Gary Neville's punditry. Mind you, the truth is that without Benoit Assou-Ekotto, and an in-form Kyle Walker, we've been all too vulnerable on both flanks too often.
For the second consecutive game and for the third time in his last four matches Sandro was your Spurs man of the match. He doesn't get the accolade for being "least worse" either, but for being by far and away our best player on the day. Sandro is maintaining a consistent level, and currently sits third behind Vertonghen and Dembele in the continuing assessments for Spurs Player of the Season.
· See this week's Spursometer in full.
Results 17-19.11.12
Arsenal 5-2 Spurs
Liverpool 3-0 Wigan
Man City 5-0 A. Villa
Newcastle 1-2 Swansea
QPR 1-3 S'hampton
Reading 2-1 Everton
West Brom 2-1 Chelsea
Norwich 1-0 Man Utd
Fulham 1-3 S'derland
West Ham 1-1 Stoke
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 12 8 4 0 25-10 15 28
2. Man Utd 12 9 0 3 29-17 12 27
3. Chelsea 12 7 3 2 24-13 11 24
4. West Brom 12 7 2 3 19-13 6 23
5. Everton 12 5 5 2 22-16 6 20
6. Arsenal 12 5 4 3 23-13 10 19
7. West Ham 12 5 4 3 15-12 3 19
8. Spurs 12 5 2 5 20-21 -1 17
9. Fulham 12 4 4 4 25-22 3 16
10. Swansea 12 4 4 4 18-16 2 16
11. Liverpool 12 3 6 3 17-16 1 15
12. Newcastle 12 3 5 4 13-17 -4 14
13. Norwich 12 3 5 4 9-18 -9 14
14. Stoke 12 2 7 3 10-11 -1 13
15. S'derland 11 2 6 3 10-12 -2 12
16. Wigan 12 3 2 7 12-21 -9 11
17. Reading 11 1 6 4 14-19 -5 9
18. A. Villa 12 2 3 7 10-22 -12 9
19. S'hampton 12 2 2 8 18-30 -12 8
20. QPR 12 0 4 8 9-23 -14 4
