*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Emirates Marketing Project

[Spur of the moment]

Again, people will lecture me, tell me about bias, but I felt they lost the title when they played City, totally changed their style and clearly were there not to lose. The chance was to show themselves as the side in the PL, not the side that won because City had some off days ..

They were so triumphant about not losing to City. How sweet the irony if that's what lost them the title.

 

[alekaras]

That's what I don't get about this "giving up the CL" argument.

If Villa needed a point at the weekend against a Palace team that's done for the season and probably very scared of injuries to any of their golden geese, they'd have got one.

The same Villa that folded against us in a "must win" game? Or the one that lost 6-2 on aggregate to Olympiakos, of all teams? More often than not, when it has really mattered this season Villa have choked. So yeah, a win or draw against Palace would not have been a fait accompli by any stretch.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Bleep me; it's scary when you put it like that...

That’s what they can do
What are arsenal gonna do
But a CF
Maybe a left back
Then they have to pay for Reya
That’s £200m again I guess

 

[Bedfordspurs]

They were so triumphant about not losing to City. How sweet the irony if that's what lost them the title.

Well even out fans don’t seem to think that cost them

 

[Bedfordspurs]

They went the previous season with even less pressure (they were still ahead in the table, but just in bad form) and they played to wion and got absolutely battered. They learnt that lesson at least.

You are right that it might effect them that they spent a fortune and still won nothing (assuming City win on Sunday of course) but i think their owners (if not maybe some of their fans) will be happy to continue to back him. We can only but hope that they start next season with injuries to the likes of Saliba, Saka, Rice etc. Then we'll see how really good they are...

They won’t have a another season with so few injuries
They also have all their team at the euroso this summer

It’s well worth looking at the year we finished. Second
The similarities are huge

 

[90291Spur]

What a genuinely bricky article. I’ve read some crap in my time but this is pretty spiteful.

Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs project is a magnificent act of misdirection | Tottenham Hotspur | The Guardian

There is no shame in losing to the champions and Tottenham manager has made the same failure taste much better

amp.theguardian.com

I couldn’t read past the headline and the byline. Liew is a bitter Gooner (not as much as Ames). Cry more, the lot of them.

 

[Robbo]

Ref gave it straight away, so VAR can only get involved if they consider it and clear and obvious mistake, or if there was violent conduct to address.

I don't know the rules in detail, but it really should only be about getting the decison right, not about interpreting whether the on field ref could've or should've spotted his mistake.

 

[harr1984]

I don't know the rules in detail, but it really should only be about getting the decison right, not about interpreting whether the on field ref could've or should've spotted his mistake.

I think it was a penalty and didnt see anyone including Porro kick up much of a fuss. But I completely agree with you, the 'clear and obvious' error thing seems to be the yardstick. Rather than it being judged on simply does the evidence show it was a foul or was it not a foul, it's judged on was the ref just a bit wrong, or so wrong that we HAVE to overturn the decision....

 

[Mcfee]

They won’t have a another season with so few injuries
They also have all their team at the euroso this summer

It’s well worth looking at the year we finished. Second
The similarities are huge

It’s about what happens next - and obviously we don’t know about next season. In our case we finished second on 86 pts but had to move to Wembley the following season. Plus was that the summer we didn’t buy anyone? As it happens Pep/City were about to click and they got 100 pts the next season. Not sure if we could’ve bettered that whatever we did. Some things are beyond our (and Arsenal’s) control.

 

[scaramanga]

We've seen bigger "surprises" in fotball than Villa not getting a point off Palace when needing one...

Either way we didn't give up, we tried, but lost out.

We often see far bigger ones. But that's usually when the underdog has something to play for - like West Ham desperately wanting to beat us.

 

[alekaras]

And with the stadium dead silent. Honestly, I think it was embarrassing, and it tells a lot of the (fans of the) club that we'd rather lose because of Arsenal, and miss out on champions league, than win and go for our own opportunities. And Ange was visibly disturbed, hurt and furious about it! And rightly so! No wonder we win fudge all!

We should care fudge all about Arsenal, other than beating them, home and away. That should be our priority!

We put in what was arguably our best performance against City since early Pep and I was fully expecting him to come out and say how proud he was of how we played and how we took the game to City, but were unlucky in the end. Yet in his post match interview he was visibly very very angry. And why wouldn't he be? This small club mentality that was fully manifested in the reaction of many fans (and maybe within the club too?), in spite of the fact that we have been consistently one of the top 5 teams the past 15 years, must be driving him bananas.

And he is absolutely right. If we want to become a winning club, we need to focus on us. Not what our rivals are doing, but what we are doing. Measuring our success on whether we finish above a particular club, or whether said club doesn't manage to win a trophy, is about as small time as it gets. Especially for a club with our resources and potential. And based on his reaction last night, if there is one person that can turn this around, that's Ange. More than systems, tactics, set piece defending, whatever, it appears to me that what he is looking to do, first and foremost, is to instill belief in the players. Until that happens, it doesn't matter who is on the pitch, the results will continue to be patchy.

 

[glorygloryeze]

We put in what was arguably our best performance against City since early Pep and I was fully expecting him to come out and say how proud he was of how we played and how we took the game to City, but were unlucky in the end. Yet in his post match interview he was visibly very very angry. And why wouldn't he be? This small club mentality that was fully manifested in the reaction of many fans (and maybe within the club too?), in spite of the fact that we have been consistently one of the top 5 teams the past 15 years, must be driving him bananas.

And he is absolutely right. If we want to become a winning club, we need to focus on us. Not what our rivals are doing, but what we are doing. Measuring our success on whether we finish above a particular club, or whether said club doesn't manage to win a trophy, is about as small time as it gets. Especially for a club with our resources and potential. And based on his reaction last night, if there is one person that can turn this around, that's Ange. More than systems, tactics, set piece defending, whatever, it appears to me that what he is looking to do, first and foremost, is to instill belief in the players. Until that happens, it doesn't matter who is on the pitch, the results will continue to be patchy.

But 99% of the time fans ARE only interested in what WE are doing...such as why we are losing 5 out of 6 games near the end of the season which hasn't been anywhere near as heavy from a fixture perspective compared to our rivals, such as why are we continually conceding from set-pieces, leaving ourselves open to counter-attacks etc etc

 

[Bedfordspurs]

They won’t have a another season with so few injuries
They also have all their team at the euroso this summer

It’s about what happens next - and obviously we don’t know about next season. In our case we finished second on 86 pts but had to move to Wembley the following season. Plus was that the summer we didn’t buy anyone? As it happens Pep/City were about to click and they got 100 pts the next season. Not sure if we could’ve bettered that whatever we did. Some things are beyond our (and Arsenal’s) control.

Agree
People seem to think that Arsenal will improve and maybe others won’t
Worth noting that they will end the season with potentially 5 more points after investing £200m and having no injuries
They will likely need another 5 to get on to of city assuming city improve a bit
But then we may improve… pool may… United may
The league gets harder every year

 

[alekaras]

But 99% of the time fans ARE only interested in what WE are doing...such as why we are losing 5 out of 6 games near the end of the season which hasn't been anywhere near as heavy from a fixture perspective compared to our rivals, such as why are we continually conceding from set-pieces, leaving ourselves open to counter-attacks etc etc

You say "we lost 5 out of 6 games" as if it as Palace, Bournemouth, Brentford, etc that we lost to. We were playing the top 3 teams in the league and the 2 teams right below us (who have a lot to play for) at their ground. While at the same time being in year 1 of our rebuild. That's why we lost 5 out of 6.

 

[glorygloryeze]

You say "we lost 5 out of 6 games" as if it as Palace, Bournemouth, Brentford, etc that we lost to. We were playing the top 3 teams in the league and the 2 teams right below us (who have a lot to play for) at their ground. While at the same time being in year 1 of our rebuild. That's why we lost 5 out of 6.

Poor form is poor form, whichever way you look at it. It is a bit worrying that the more time we've had between games the worse we've looked. It's already been said how we had two weeks to prepare for Arsenal's methods but looked so unprepared for their set-pieces despite the world and their dog knowing how they would use them.

I could talk about how many injuries Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Chelsea had in their teams when they played us but i think perhaps the simplest way to show our regression is to show how far back we have to go to find the last time we won a game against a team that was NOT a relegation candidate...

 

[Bishop]

You say "we lost 5 out of 6 games" as if it as Palace, Bournemouth, Brentford, etc that we lost to. We were playing the top 3 teams in the league and the 2 teams right below us (who have a lot to play for) at their ground. While at the same time being in year 1 of our rebuild. That's why we lost 5 out of 6.

If you want to finish in the top 4 or higher you have to draw and sometimes beat those teams. It's season under Ange so I'm not overly concerned as we are ahead of schedule but whenever those types of games are scheduled you have to get something in them if you want to finish higher up the table.

 

[DeanoAustin]

We put in what was arguably our best performance against City since early Pep and I was fully expecting him to come out and say how proud he was of how we played and how we took the game to City, but were unlucky in the end. Yet in his post match interview he was visibly very very angry. And why wouldn't he be? This small club mentality that was fully manifested in the reaction of many fans (and maybe within the club too?), in spite of the fact that we have been consistently one of the top 5 teams the past 15 years, must be driving him bananas.

And he is absolutely right. If we want to become a winning club, we need to focus on us. Not what our rivals are doing, but what we are doing. Measuring our success on whether we finish above a particular club, or whether said club doesn't manage to win a trophy, is about as small time as it gets. Especially for a club with our resources and potential. And based on his reaction last night, if there is one person that can turn this around, that's Ange. More than systems, tactics, set piece defending, whatever, it appears to me that what he is looking to do, first and foremost, is to instill belief in the players. Until that happens, it doesn't matter who is on the pitch, the results will continue to be patchy.

I think it's a bit unfair to label what happened last night as "small time mentality". Firstly, it was a small/miniscule minority actively supporting City. It was a larger section but still a minority who were supporting us but sang "Are you watching Arsenal" and it was a vast majority who supported us but were conflicted which manifested itself in a muted atmosphere.

Ange is looking at this logically. Fair enough. But, for fans, football is emotional and there is something in most Spurs fans that doesn't want Woolwich to win the league. That would have been true if you dropped Man U and Liverpool into our situation. Can you imagine if Celtic were playing Aberdeen in that situation with Rangers winning the league if Celtic won. What do you think would happen? Or Real Madrid and Barca.

That rivalry is what makes the atmosphere at big games. That's why derbies are a thing. Not just because you want your club to win but because you want your rivals to lose. It's the very essence of football whether he likes it or not. Unfortunately, last night, we got a very unusual manifestation of it because of the circumstances around it. But, like it or not, that wasn't specific to Spurs - it would have been very, very similar for most clubs in our position.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I was there, and almost got in a fudging fight because asshats were cheering fudging City and cheering even City subs .. absolute small club mentality .. are we Everton/West Ham that our only accomplishment is "sticking it to our rivals" ??

It’s the fact that 4th wasn’t even in our hands anyway that was the showstopper for me. Cheering us on for an outside chance of somehow, maybe getting 4th AND we hand our rivals a great chance to win the title? No thanks. What good would it have done if we had won last night and Villa won on Sunday anyway?

 

[90291Spur]

You say "we lost 5 out of 6 games" as if it as Palace, Bournemouth, Brentford, etc that we lost to. We were playing the top 3 teams in the league and the 2 teams right below us (who have a lot to play for) at their ground. While at the same time being in year 1 of our rebuild. That's why we lost 5 out of 6.

Both Poocastle and Cheat$ki had massive injury lists and we should have got something out of those games.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I agree with a lot of that. Certainly it will be interesting if City win on Sunday how it affects Arsenal next season....from what we see of Liverpool and Klopp it takes a heavy mental toll to be so good in a season but still fall short by a couple of points. I worry their board will back Arteta more than Poch when he got us punching in a similar way (yes i know we had a stadium build but sometimes it's easier to take risk when you are in a very good position, but i digress)

The worry i would have is that if City get found guilty and are stripped of their titles, Arsenal potentially get two by default....

I don’t really care if Arsenal get awarded titles based on city getting stripped of them. I’m more concerned of Pep walking away and Arsenal being best placed to dominate/take advantage as a result of him leaving.