Sandro - The Beast
Spurs' star Brazilian defensive midfielder Sandro Ranieri Guimaraes Cordeiro was your man of the match in Sunday's 2-1 win at Southampton, with an outstanding mark of 7.6/10, beating the next man Aaron Lennon by a considerable 0.4 margin.
Sandro shares one of his names (Guimaraes) with the name of a Portuguese town which this year is sharing the title of European City of Culture, with Maribor, where we played last Thursday night.
There is plenty of culture about Sandro of course, and when I saw him hobbling off the Maribor pitch with an ice-pack firmly wrapped around his leg, I was concerned he might not make it for the Southampton game. Sandro has the heart of a lion of course, and as our only available decent defensive midfielder, he was very much needed for the game at St. Mary's.
One of our voters this week described Sandro as a beast, clearly inspired by his superb block, literally with his face in the closing stages when Spurs were put under some pressure by the struggling Saints. Another contributor wondered why the rest of the team could not show the same drive and grit as Sandro, Vertonghen and Lennon. That remark was perhaps unfair, particularly on William Gallas who also made many great defensive interceptions.
Sandro got straight back to his feet after that full-face block, and I received a comment that "you get the feeling he'd rather roundhouse-kick his granny in the head than lose the game"
Sandro is currently one of the top ten most successful tacklers in the Premier league, and when we start to play top teams again (Man City and Arsenal coming up in November), we need Mousa Dembele beside him again. Dembele was the second most successful tackler in the whole of last season. (Statistics courtesy of EPL Index
Both Sandro and Dembele have great abilities when it comes to both ground tackles and headed interceptions. Scott Parker will be a great asset to the squad when he is fit, but will surely come after Sandro and Dembele in the midfield pecking order. As for Jake Livermore, I am afraid the voters were not impressed with his efforts against Saints, and he is just one of those players yet to win over the masses. (Dempsey and Sigurdsson are two others)
There was plenty of disappointment about Spurs' second half performance on Sunday, and there is still plenty of negativity about the team's playing style generally. However, we have won five of our last six Premier League games, and are level with Manchester United as one of the top two form teams over those last 6 games. Those games include the Spurs win at Old Trafford! Oh, and erm, we are back in the top four!
· This week's "Spursometer" in full
Results 27-28.10.12
A. villa 1-1 Norwich
Arsenal 1-0 QPR
Reading 3-3 Fulham
Stoke 0-0 S'derland
Wigan 2-1 West Ham
Man City 1-0 Swansea
Everton 2-2 Liverpool
Newcastle 2-1 West Brom
S'hampton 1-2 Spurs
Chelsea 2-3 Man Utd
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Chelsea 9 7 1 1 21-9 12 22
2. Man Utd 9 7 0 2 24-13 11 21
3. Man City 9 6 3 0 18-9 9 21
4. Spurs 9 5 2 2 17-13 4 17
5. Everton 9 4 4 1 17-11 6 16
6. Arsenal 9 4 3 2 14-6 8 15
7. Fulham 9 4 2 3 19-14 5 14
8. West Brom 9 4 2 3 13-11 2 14
9. West Ham 9 4 2 3 13-11 2 14
10. Newcastle 9 3 4 2 11-13 -2 13
11. Swansea 9 3 2 4 14-13 1 11
12. Liverpool 9 2 4 3 12-14 -2 10
13. Stoke 9 1 6 2 8-9 -1 9
14. S'derland 8 1 6 1 6-8 -2 9
15. Wigan 9 2 2 5 10-16 -6 8
16. Norwich 9 1 4 4 7-18 -11 7
17. A. Villa 9 1 3 5 7-14 -7 6
18. Reading 8 0 4 4 11-17 -6 4
19. S'hampton 9 1 1 7 14-26 -12 4
20. QPR 9 0 3 6 7-18 -11 3
