Well that was unexpected. And by unexpected, I mean of course, completely predictable in the ‘bloody typical Tottenham’ mould of things. Going to Liverpool for the first time in however long not neeeeeeeding the points, and getting the rub of the green and a clean sheet in what was a thoroughly professional and relatively pain-free performance and excursion.
A deflected long ranger and a dubious penalty decision at the home of a SkyTV pet… from Howard Webb? I was tempted to ask Ziggy when I was due to leap, hoping that the next one would take me back to my own universe where that sort of thing never happens to Tottenham. That aside, we were indeed infuriatingly good and were largely untroubled by a team who’s form of late has been nothing short of devastating. They’d be second if the league had started from when Kenny came in you know. You might not have heard every Liverpool fan on planet Earth tell you that, so I’m just letting you know. If you hadn’t heard. 2P8G’s anyone?
Player of the Season elect, Luka Modric and the ever-impressive Sandro were EPIC in the middle, and Rafa’s move from the right to the central support role- you know, the one where he was bought to play in and is really good at when given a proper run- was a roaring success until his withdrawal. Funny that. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of giving him a proper rest, a full pre-season, and a half-decent centre forward to work with. Largely excellent stuff from the rest of the chaps as well, but special large excellence was reserved for the best central defender of his generation. Oh Ledley, not a week after I was ready to put you out to stud, you stroll back in and remind everyone why you’re completely indispensable. It makes me want to weep at what he could have achieved in the game without his problems. The man is just an utter freak of nature- spending the last 6 months on exercise bikes and anti-gravity treadmills, and rocking up with a performance of the highest quality. An utter joy to watch, I take it all back, keep him around as long as we can!
Europa League is beckoning then. Even if we revert back to type and lose/draw at home to one of the Premier Leagues pub sides on Sunday, and Liverpool win their scrap, unless our failure is accompanied by a veritable pool table of reds and yellows, we’ll be there via the fair play league anyway. The big difference being however, that qualification via the fair play league means that we’ll have to start playing preliminaries in about 3 weeks. Finishing 5th means we go straight into the seeded bit. Is there a knockout round before the group stages? If so, we’ll go into that. An achievement or the lesser of two evils?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the ‘idea’ of European football at whatever level, but the reality for this cup-guaranteed season ticket holder is far less cut and dried. Purely selfishly, my Thursday night 5-a-side (which I bloody love) will have to be skipped on match days, shelling out thirty five scheckles for games in the freezing cold against FC Gzskgnfkivbjkfzzz of Albania, and the inevitable domestic’s that will result from me having to disappear to WHL on Sunday afternoons to watch our re-arranged PL fixtures are all things I associate with the Ropey Cup. And on top of that, I don’t think we should be naming any of our first teamers among the European squad to keep them fresh for the Prem. I realise I’m probably in a minority, but I’m going to need a bit more convincing that this Thursday night stuff is any great shakes.
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