Credit where credit is due
The people have spoken (well 242 Spurs Odyssey voters anyway), and Emmanuel Adebayor has been voted our man of the match for the first time this season, with a final score of 7.3 out of 10. It's the first 7+ score he's managed since playing against one of his old team (Man City ) in November.
Taken as an average over the course of the season, Adebayor's grades have been quite appalling (averaging 5.5), but credit where credit is due, and those who voted have recognised that Adebayor did have a very good game on Sunday. It was the first time he had been voted man of the match since the 5-0 drubbing of Newcastle in February last year.
Those who offered comments weren't wrong when they said:-
"Adebayor's best game for ages - which makes his recent performances the more shocking in contrast"
"Ade put in a shift today and at last showed some of the form that he had last season"
"MOTM - Adebayor, best game for us this season, finally working hard and playing with confidence"
"Did someone spike Ade's pre-match drink? That's the best he's played all season - why couldn't he have played like that before now?!!"
Respect also to Gylfi Sigurdsson who was not far behind Adebayor in the voting.
Referee Andre Marriner drew more comments that usual, and was graded poorly with a mark of 4.5. To paraphrase, he was accused of being pro-Everton, allowing them to get away with some rough stuff (including Jagielka holding down Vertonghen for Everton's equaliser). The mark is for the team of officials too, and both assistants were not exempt from criticism.
In the three years since I've been collating referees' grades, Mr Marriner has been in chage of us 11 times, and averages just over 6 out of 10, but he was the man who awarded Frank Lampard a goal, when Gomes just about managed to stop the ball on the line at Stamford Bridge two years ago. (Chelsea 2 Spurs 1 - 30.04.11).
As for our chances of actually making Champions League this season, I've seen various postings about possible points tallies and predictions of possible results involving the contenders, but we'll just have to take each round of games as they come, and hope that on the last day we are still in the running. I'm sorry I can't be more optimistic now, but realism has struck!
I'll keep the faith though, and shout COME ON YOU SPURS at the top of my voice all the way to May 19th.
This week's Spursometer in full
Results 06-08.04.13
Reading 0-2 S'hampton
Norwich 2-2 Swansea
Stoke 1-3 A. Villa
West Brom 1-2 Arsenal
Liverpool 0-0 West Ham
Spurs 2-2 Everton
Chelsea 2-1 S'derland
Newcastle 1-0 Fulham
QPR 1-1 Wigan
Man Utd 1-2 Man City
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man Utd 31 25 2 4 71-33 38 77
2. Man City 31 19 8 4 57-27 30 65
3. Chelsea 31 17 7 7 61-33 28 58
4. Spurs 32 17 7 8 55-40 15 58
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5. Arsenal 31 16 8 7 61-34 27 56
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6. Everton 31 13 13 5 49-37 12 52
7. Liverpool 32 13 10 9 59-40 19 49
8. West Brom 32 13 5 14 42-43 -1 44
9. Swansea 32 10 11 11 43-42 1 41
10. Fulham 31 10 9 12 43-47 -4 39
11. S'hampton 32 9 10 13 46-53 -7 37
12. West Ham 31 10 7 14 35-44 -9 37
13. Newcastle 32 10 6 16 42-56 -14 36
14. Norwich 32 7 14 11 30-49 -19 35
15. Stoke 32 7 13 12 28-39 -11 34
16. A. Villa 32 8 9 15 35-59 -24 33
17. S'derland 32 7 10 15 34-45 -11 31
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18. Wigan 31 8 7 16 37-57 -20 31
19. QPR 32 4 12 16 29-52 -23 24
20. Reading 32 5 8 19 36-63 -27 23
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