Subscribe to the e-Spurs Podcast on iTunes for FREE (Click Here)
It's not so often we associate such words with our performance in a game facing Aston Villa. In recent times, we've usually beaten them soundly, scoring freely and playing expressive, attacking football. On Sunday, though, things were so very different. In what was expected to be an open, enthralling match, Spurs literally failed to produce anything significant, and paid the price.
With Tim Sherwood coming to town for the first time after his brief Tottenham tenure, most of us firmly believed that the players would be up to the task of dismantling Aston Villa and showing him what they (previously described as a much of muchness) were capable of. What ensued was a turgid display, one that proved his description wasn't far off the mark, instead of dispelling it. Eriksen, Townsend and Chadli, who were once so scintillatingly brilliant against the league's best, looked barely average, struggling to perform against an ordinary Villa side.
While Villa started off the more positive side, we grew into the game and could have been 1-0 up when Danny Rose forced a smart save from Guzan in the 25th minute. Bombing forward at regular intervals, he looked like our most likely goal threat. It must be noted that Eriksen is clearly out of form, as was displayed by him missing at least 3 chances. While these chances weren't clear-cut, an on song Eriksen would certainly have put atleast one away.
While our attacking play contined to flouder, in the 35th minute, our questionable defence came to the fore again when a misplaced Chiriches pass was met by Cleverley who easily found Bacuna. Bacuna was inexplicably allowed to make the cross by a backing-down Rose, and Benteke easily outmuscled Fazio to place a net header into the net. 1-0 to Villa, with our defending proving to be putrid yet again. As such a tall, towering leader, Fazio should have done much better against Benteke, being well-aware of his goal scoring prowess.
Being 1-0 down is virtually routine to Spurs and expectations remained high that one of our usual comebacks would steer us to victory (as it had in the reverse fixture). It could have been worse, however, when Agbonlahor hit the post in the 46th minute. Going into the break at 1-0 was a relief at this point, but with 45 minutes still to come, it was almost expected that we would improve our 1st half standard vastly and emerge with a far more potent attacking threat.
The 2nd half though was void of any worthy chances with only Kane brushing the top of the net in the 59th minute. Despite Pochettino first bringing on a 2nd striker with the addition of Soldado and then making a double change in the 79th minute with Lamela and Yedlin coming on for Townsend and Chiriches respectively, there was to be no typical, late excitement so evident from Tottenham this season. Instead, the game petered out to a limp end, without us creating anything worth mentioning in our famed "last 10" minutes. Thanks to the pathetic performance and result, we had to bear the ignominy of Sherwood celebrating getting one up on his old club.
Unfortunately, it seems as though our season is stumbling to a rather stoic conclusion. We look listless in possession and the number of passes we misplaced was countless. Our once energetic, youthful midfield pairing looks lacking in experience and solidity, both Bentaleb and Mason displaying their naivety often. That brilliant vigour we witnessed and revelled in earlier in our campaign is completely absent and the players already look as if their minds are clearly elsewhere when there's still 6 games to go. 6 games which now look like merely deciding when we start the qualifying stages of that cursed Europa League (could be as early as July if we finish 7th!)
We still have to face Newcastle (A), Southampton (A), Manchester City (H), Stoke (A), Hull (A) and Everton (A) and on the evidence of our last two displays, it's going to be a lot tougher than we initially anticipated. If we continue in this dreadfully lackadaisical manner, our return from these matches could be minimal. Ending what has been a largely entertaining season with such a whimper and on such a sour note is largely infuriating for even the most optimistic of supporters!
© e-Spurs 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Spurs
Harry Kane found in Concrete Ron's back pocket
ReplyDelete