"Referee gets one mark for finding his way to the ground - unfortunately"
That was the funniest and best comment I received in the survey after Saturday's game against Stoke. It referred, of course, to Lee Mason, who scored just 3.6 out of 10 for his efforts, thus obtaining the worst refereeing mark in a domestic game involving Spurs this season.
Other (publishable) comments include "Inconsistent and lenient for the visitors", "Puddled and poor to boot!" (not quite sure what that means!), and "Very poor, inconsistent, performance. Worst referee I've seen this season refereeing a Spurs EPL game". This last remark bears out my earlier comment.
Attitudes towards referees are not helped when a result goes against us, and Mr. Mason scored a decent 6.4 when we beat Southampton earlier this season, but scored a low 4 out of 10, when we were beaten 3-1 at Sunderland in April, 2010. At that time, Mr Mason had refereed Spurs five times, and awarded seven penalties in those games, five of which were against us. He's eased up in the only three games he's refereed Spurs since that Sunderland game. (Cheltenham 07.01.12, Southampton 28.10.12, Stoke 22.12.12)
Spurs' biggest area of concern is in goal-scoring. Defoe hasn't scored in his last three games, having scored 5 in his previous 4 games. He will be due a goal on Boxing Day at Villa Park.
Man of the match (for the eleventh time in 26 games) was Jan Vertonghen, and by a good margin. He scored 7.5 and Sandro and Lloris tied in second place on 6.9.
Thanks as always to all participants. I wish all readers (even Lee Mason!) a very Happy, joyful and peaceful Christmas.
· See this week's Spursometer in full.
Results 22-23.12.12
Wigan 0-1 Arsenal
Man City 1-0 Reading
Newcastle 1-0 QPR
S'hampton 0-1 S'derland
Spurs 0-0 Stoke
West Brom 2-1 Norwich
West Ham 1-2 Everton
Liverpool 4-0 Fulham
Swansea 1-1 Man Utd
Chelsea 8-0 A. Villa
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man Utd 18 14 1 3 44-25 19 43
2. Man City 18 11 6 1 34-15 19 39
3. Chelsea 17 9 5 3 36-17 19 32
4. Arsenal 18 8 6 4 32-18 14 30
5. Everton 18 7 9 2 30-22 8 30
6. Spurs 18 9 3 6 30-25 5 30
7. West Brom 18 9 3 6 26-22 4 30
8. Liverpool 18 6 7 5 27-23 4 25
9. Stoke 18 5 10 3 15-13 2 25
10. Norwich 18 6 7 5 20-27 -7 25
11. Swansea 18 6 6 6 27-23 4 24
12. West Ham 18 6 5 7 22-24 0 23
13. Fulham 18 5 5 8 28-33 -5 20
14. Newcastle 18 5 5 8 20-26 -6 20
15. S'derland 18 4 7 7 19-24 -5 19
16. A. Villa 18 4 6 8 15-32 -17 18
17. S'hampton 17 4 3 10 22-33 -11 15
18. Wigan 18 4 3 11 18-33 -15 15
19. QPR 18 1 7 10 15-31 -16 10
20. Reading 18 1 6 11 21-37 -16 9
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