Time for Reflection

With a much needed 9 day break between our Europa League defeat and the match with Man City, there was a lot of time to think about our recent form and the conclusion of the Premier League campaign.

We have had a lot of time to watch the Premier League and see how our rivals held up over the break. One thought that kept coming across my mind is that with great teams, you just knew that they were going to win or pull out a result when they needed it. Arsenal had that awful corner kick given followed by the awful penalty but then they put 2 more in to win 3-1. Man City battled with Wigan and were outplayed, but they pulled out the win as well. I don't feel the same confidence about us and I hope to be proved wrong and punished for my cynicism. There was a bit of that belief in the Europa League against Lyon & Inter but every Premier League game makes me nervous. Great teams win when they need to and the last handful of games is our chance to prove that we are worthy of that distinction. Qualifying for the Champions League would allow us to exorcise our past ghosts of failure and collapse.

 

Some thoughts on current players:

Gylfi Sigurdsson- Our Icelandic talisman's impact in the past 2 months cannot be understated. He has proved to be an outstanding foil for Bale when Gazza is healthy and our leading attacking player when Gazza is out. It's a beautiful sight, Gylfi drifts in from the left, dips his shoulder and unleashes one of those long range curling efforts that has started to find the goal more recently. He has also showed his ability to "pick a lock" in the defence and has provided some great passes and assists. The decision not to sell him for profit to Reading in January has proved to be the right move and he has a big part to play for the rest of this season and beyond. Strike vs. Basle & Starring for Iceland

 

Mousa Dembele- Mousa is the engine that makes this team go. It is very difficult to say that he is the signing of the season because Jan and Hugo are equally classy but Dembele has definitely been one of the most important players in the Premier League this year. I would like to see him paired with Lewis Holtby more often because they have showed glimpses of a very promising partnership. He has too much on his plate as he is covering for the loss of Sandro and now for the loss of Bale. He never shies away from a midfield battle and always makes his mark on the game.

 

Scott Parker- If I never have to see a counter attack stopped by a pirouetting Scott Parker again then I will be a very happy man. When Sandro went down, I thought that we had a seamless replacement with Parker, who recently recovered from his injury but boy, was I wrong. Parker looks to be a shell of his old self and a huge drop off from Sandro. While his form has picked up a little lately, with Parker in the midfield, the burden is all on Mousa to transition from defence to attack and vice versa. He is just a step slow on defence and contributes virtually zero offensively. Awful miss vs. Basle (notice the great pass from Gylfi and run from Holtby). He may not be sold this off-season but he needs to be replaced and knocked down a few pegs in the pecking order. Sandro's return cannot come quickly enough.

 

Lewis Holtby- His commitment to the team is inspiring. There were rumours that he was crying after the shootout loss to Basle. He never stops moving on the pitch, makes himself available for every outlet pass and has started to feel more comfortable and flash his creativity and flair. He is going to get better with each runout and next year he is going to be a major player for us. Be very excited.

 

Last but not least, it is interesting that Arsenal's domestic form rose as they were eliminated from European competitions while our form dropped when we hit the peak of the Europa League campaign. Chelsea are still in the Europa League and will be playing twice a week for the rest of the season. Hopefully, now it can be our turn to focus on our domestic objectives while a rival (Chelsea) can fatigue and experience a drop in Premier League form.

Bale is a doubt this weekend but Lennon is expected to go, there is no reason why we can't earn points. Come On You Spurs!

@MarcAron22

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Marc A. Ashed

 

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