| S |
|
63.6% |
| P |
|
68.8% |
| U |
|
58.2% |
| R |
|
63.4% |
| S |
|
52.8% |
| = |
|
61.36% |
Form Guide April 2010
P W D L F-A GD Pts
5 2 0 3 6-10 -4 6
Pos:- 4th
1 Cup Match
· March 2010 figures
· Last year's figures
April 2009
Sunderland 3 Spurs 1
"Spursometer" - 42.6%
Spurs player of the match - Heurelho Gomes
The “Sandra” saga came back to haunt us with a vengeance at The Stadium of Light, when Darren Bent scored a brace against us, with the first coming within a minute of kick-off. Harry Redknapp had famously derided the striker after he missed a sitter for Spurs by saying “My missus (Sandra) could have scored from there”. What was worst about Bent’s goals was the fact that he celebrated with such relish in front of his former fans, who had never derided him whilst at Spurs, and always supported his efforts. Heurelho Gomes repeated a little bit of history with two superb penalty saves to deny Bent a hat-trick, but really there was always only going to be one winner here.
Spurs 0 Portsmouth 2 (FA Cup Semi-Final)
"Spursometer" - 46.2%
Spurs player of the match - Gareth Bale
There were several ironies to consume about this defeat. Former Spur Ricardo Rocha (miraculously recovered from a fractured cheek-bone) was announced as man of the match. Former Spur Kevin-Prince Boateng took great delight in planting Pompey’s second goal beyond Gomes from the penalty spot. Jamie O’Hara is a Spurs player but was apparently rooting for his loan team so he could play in the Final. Perhaps the greatest of them all was that in the preceding weeks, Spurs had been pussy-footing around trying to protect Wilson Palacios from a tenth booking on or before the amnesty day, which fell on the day of the semi-final. Then in the dying minutes of extra time, Palacios gave away the deciding penalty, and saw Mr Wiley’s yellow card. Palacios missed both the Arsenal and Chelsea games, as a result.
Spurs 2 Arsenal 1
"Spursometer" - 81.8%
Spurs player of the match - Heurelho Gomes
It was truly a great, great night at The Lane, and easily the game of the season for Spurs fans as their team produced an outstanding performance to win their first league game against Arsenal this century. The last such win was in November 1999, when the scoreline was the same, thanks to Steffen Iversen’s finish and Tim Sherwood’s free kick. One young man who will never forget the game is 19 year old Danny Rose, who on his league debut for Spurs scored a 30 yard goal that was worthy of this nineteenth anniversary of “St. Hotspur Day”. The goal was so spectacular to be comparable to that marvellous Paul Gascoigne moment. Not only will Danny Rose never forget that moment, but neither will any Spurs fan.
Rose was not the only hero of course, because at the start of the second half, 20 year old Welsh Wizard Gareth Bale popped up in the Arsenal area to finish off Jermain Defoe’s cross to make it 2-0. Incredibly, this was Bale’s first goal for the club in 65 games. He scored three goals in his first five games for Spurs, but hadn’t scored since September 2007. Arguably there were 14 Spurs heroes, but one other player who has to be mentioned is goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who in the second half made three astounding saves in quick succession after Van Persie came on for the gooners, who piled on the pressure to try and keep their title hopes alive. The fact that the players ran to Gomes at the end of the game to embrace him says it all really, and Gomes has to be given the man of the match award, just for those world class saves.
Spurs 2 Chelsea 1
"Spursometer" - 80.8%
Spurs player of the match - Gareth Bale
It was unbelievable four days for Spurs fans as they witnessed consecutive victories over both Arsenal and Chelsea. Those victories were thoroughly deserved too, and against Chelsea, Spurs could so easily have scored five or six goals against the Premier League leaders and title favourites. Gareth Bale scored in both games, and he was all over the Chelsea defence like a rash, making mincemeat particularly of Paulo Ferreira in the first half, leading to one of Carlo Ancelotti’s half-time substitutions. Once again though, there were plenty of heroic Spurs performances to savour, along with the fact that Spurs last beat Chelsea and Arsenal at home in the same season 25 years ago in the 1985-86 season! (They last beat the two teams in the same season in 1989-90)
Heurelho Gomes was not so stiffly tested by the Chelsea strike force, such as it was, and that was partly down to another magnificent Captain’s performance by Michael Dawson, who was acclaimed by the Spurs crowd in the presence of Fabio Capello, who would have heard the repeated “Dawson for England” chants. The effort and application throughout the Spurs team was fantastic, but for me another outstanding performance came from “The Little Magician” – Luka Modric, who exudes quality and class in so many ways. Modric directs operations effectively wherever he is asked to play, and of course he has been required to play from the central midfield with Wilson Palacios suspended. With Bale working so well for Spurs in front of Ekotto, one wondered if Palacios would automatically return to the starting line-up at Old Trafford. Younes Kaboul once again ably deputised for the injured Corluka at right back. Pavlyuchenko and Defoe were full of running and quality up front, putting in all the effort you could desire.
Man Utd 3 Spurs 1
"Spursometer" - 55.4%
Spurs player of the match - Ledley King
Spurs still have fourth place within their own grasp, but in the final analysis, I have to conclude that once again in a big game, manager Harry Redknapp messed up. I expected him to ring one or two changes to accommodate the return of Wilson Palacios and Ledley King, but the replacement of Younes Kaboul with Benoit Assou-Ekotto at right back was a real surprise. Both Kaboul and Ekotto are left footed, but if anything, Ekotto favours his left foot far more than Kaboul, who after all had successfully negotiated the Arsenal and Chelsea games in that position. By moving Ekotto to right back, and Gareth Bale to left back, surely surrendered some initiative to Manchester United at the outset. Spurs optimists will argue that we were level going into the last 10 minutes, but by that time we were already playing for a draw, when with nothing to lose, we could have attacked more vehemently.
Both Heurelho Gomes and Gareth Bale won your player of the match award twice this month, with skipper Ledley King impressing you most at Old Trafford. Bale has now played in 10 more matches than Aaron Lennon, who was the favourite of most people earlier in the season. Gareth is leading the Spurs Odyssey ratings system for Player of the Season with Gomes hot on his heels. Michael Dawson has worked his way into your top three players. With three games to go, it looks like one of these three will be your player of the 2009-10 season.
Your April Player of the Month was Heurelho Gomes!
Don't forget to check out the cumulative appearances and grades for the players as the season progresses - below. The grades are based upon a mark out of ten.
...if you want to remind yourself of the matches played during this month, then See the Fixtures page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over the last 10 years!
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