Townsend makes Garth Crooks team of the week, but he wasn't your pick!
Many congratulations go to Andros Townsend, who was selected by the BBC's Garth Crooks for his Premier League team of the week, following last week-end's games. Andros has had a fantastic week, having a great say in Spurs' 5-0 win in Georgia last Thursday, before making his first Premier League start for Spurs against Swansea, and playing a crucial penalty-winning part in that game.
Then, to cap all that, Andros received a call-up from England manager Roy Hodgson for the full England squad for the upcoming games against Moldova and Ukraine. It's all happening at once for our 22 year old winger, who has taken 7 years to rise through the ranks.
I tweeted yesterday the web page which featured a September 2006 match report from a Spurs under-18 game in which I think we first saw a 15 year old Townsend on the wing for a Spurs team which faced a young Reading team, which included Gylfi Sigurdsson! (Spurs U-18s 2 Reading U-18s 2 - 30.09.2006) It is interesting to see who has made the grade, and who has fallen by the wayside out of the players featuring for both sides. Jake Livermore was another Spurs youngster that day.
Andros did have a great game on Sunday, and he has consistently been praised by this observer, who has had the privilege of watching many of his games in his gradual progress up the Spurs ladder. I went on record in the recently published World Soccer Football 2014 guide (IPC Media), as hoping that Townsend could make an impact with Spurs this season, and I sincerely hope that comes to fruition.
However, your votes have been counted following last Sunday's game, and whilst he scored a creditable 7.6, Andros did not quite make the Spurs Odyssey man of the match vote. That was shared by Hugo Lloris, Etienne Capoue, Paulinho, all of whom have had eye-catching starts to the season.
After the anti-climactic no-score draw at Old Trafford on Monday night, Spurs and Liverpool are already the only two teams in the Premier League with 100% records, after only two games. That status will be sorely tested on Sunday at The Emirates, when we face Arsenal in the earliest league match played between the two sides since August 1997, when we drew 0-0.
By then, maybe the Bale transfer saga will have concluded, with one or two new arrivals for Spurs still on the cards, as opposed to very little transfer activity at the other place.
· See this week's Spursometer in full
Results 24-26.08.13
Fulham 1-3 Arsenal
Everton 0-0 West Brom
Hull 1-0 Norwich
Newcastle 0-0 West Ham
S'hampton 1-1 S'derland
Stoke 2-1 C. Palace
A. Villa 0-1 Liverpool
Cardiff 3-2 Man City
Spurs 1-0 Swansea
Man Utd 0-0 Chelsea
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Chelsea 3 2 1 0 4-1 3 7
2. Liverpool 2 2 0 0 2-0 2 6
3. Spurs 2 2 0 0 2-0 2 6
4. Man Utd 2 1 1 0 4-1 3 4
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5. West Ham 2 1 1 0 2-0 2 4
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6. S'hampton 2 1 1 0 2-1 1 4
7. Man City 2 1 0 1 6-3 3 3
8. Arsenal 2 1 0 1 4-4 0 3
9. A. Villa 3 1 0 2 4-4 0 3
10. Stoke 2 1 0 1 2-2 0 3
11. Cardiff 2 1 0 1 3-4 -1 3
12. Fulham 2 1 0 1 2-3 -1 3
13. Hull 2 1 0 1 1-2 -1 3
14. Everton 2 0 2 0 2-2 0 2
15. Norwich 2 0 1 1 2-3 -1 1
16. S'derland 2 0 1 1 1-2 -1 1
17. West Brom 2 0 1 1 0-1 -1 1
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18. Newcastle 2 0 1 1 0-4 -4 1
19. C. Palace 2 0 0 2 1-3 -2 0
20. Swansea 2 0 0 2 1-5 -4 0
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· This week last year
