The Race to the Title

Amo · May 2, 2016

davidmatzdorf said:
Two things:

1) I swear it's the same people who have been posting for years - even on this thread - about the "Sky 4" - how Sky manipulate fixtures and results to prevent anyone other than the same 4 [richest] clubs from winning the title - who are now insisting that Sky are manipulating fixtures and results to prevent anyone other than Leicester City from winning the title. It can't be both. What they are actually doing is manipulating fixtures to maximise viewers and advertising revenue.

2) If we were in our customary April/May position of scuffling trying to get into the Europa Leaguie and trying to keep fading hopes of a Champions League place alive, while Leicester City were unexpectedly marching off with the title, threads like this would be full of angry, frustration-filled Spurs supporters, demanding that we emulate them, poach their best players next summer and play next season on the counter-attack. We'd all be measuring up Pochettino against Ranieri and wishing Levy had infuriated every Spurs fan in the world by hiring Ranieri after Sherwood was let go.

If we were 7th we'd be delighted for Liecester and would laugh at those Man City and Arsenal fans who cooked up conspiracy theories and used any excuse to question the legitimacy of the Premier League.

nightgoat · May 2, 2016

lukespurs7 said:
Bottom line is Leicester have performed the WHOLE season. We took 10 games to get properly into our stride as Potch has said. I'd say from the point onwards we've been better than Leicester but in the big games they've made it really count. They beat us at the Lane and for me that was the day we lost any hope of the title. We have had some mightily impressive title winning games such as last minute winner vs Watford away, beating man.city away and when the pressure was on Stoke away and man.u at home but we have also not finished teams off like arsenal at home when they had 10men and west brom the other night. I have been so so happy and impressed with us this year I just really hope we can at least cling on to 2nd because I don't think anyone could argue that we've certainly been better than Arsneal and Man.City and it would be really harsh to finish below either of them.

While there is still hope we dare to do and dare to dream but realistically we weren't ever in with a good chance of the title and Leicester will be deserved winners. That having said if we win our next 3 games and somehow win it well fully deserve it also.

If we can win tonight that would put the icing on the cake if this season for me and we'd be 1 pt off securing 2nd.

COYS

You're right about our slow start - had we beaten Stoke and Everton at home like we should have we'd only be four points behind with tonight's game in hand. But actually we've done better in big games (bearing in mind they have no derbies) - against last season's top four we've got 12 points from seven games, Leicester have only 9 from the same fixtures.

It's easy to point to the Leicester home game as decisive, but that left us seven points behind them - only one less than we are now with a game in hand. We made up more points than them over the next eight games to the extent that had we beaten Arsenal (and had Giroud correctly been given offside about 20 seconds before Sanchez equalised) we would have gone top.

The decisive period for me was the run of four games after where Leicester played poorly against four bad teams yet won all four of them, three with significant help from extremely bad refereeing.

ajspurs · May 2, 2016

SSN is unbearable at the moment, actually seems like every time I turn on to it they're talking about Leicester.

Roynie · May 2, 2016

nightgoat said:
Yet he was one of several Chelsea players clearly playing within themselves because they wanted Mourinho sacked.

But when the manager has gone, he's gone. A players international team mates are there for a long time and if one of them was believed to have thrown a match he would never hear the end of it. I do not believe that Hazard would do something to throw the game. That said I also do not think it will go to the last game as Leicester will beat Everton.

Veuve Clicquot · May 2, 2016

Saoirse said:
Anyone who thinks Sky cared about anything other than their viewing figures with the scheduling is deluding themselves. If anything they'd have an incentive to want the title race to go to final day.

While I agree that Sky didn't deliberately arrange the fixtures with the intention of favouring Leicester, the fact remains that it is always better to be the team playing first with points already on the board than being the team always having to play catch up and feeling the pressure of closing the gap.
It is also unprecedented in any title chasing run in that one of teams has had to play second 5 games in a row.
As you say though, Sky have actually shot themselves in the foot because of the disadvantage it has given Spurs and the fact it probably won't go down to the last game.

lol · May 2, 2016

Roynie said:
Just because Hazard and Fibreglass said they would rather Leicester win the title it doesn't mean they are going to throw the game. Let's face it, if we are still in the race when it come to the last game, the media are going to be all over Chelski like a rash. Having come out publiclity with that shit they have put themselves right in the spotlight and it's not as if only Spurs fans have seen it, everyone has. Any mistake they make in that game will be viewed as an attempt to throw it and by saying it they have made it very, very difficult to actually do.

not really. they threw every game to get mou sack. I'm at peace with 2nd. Its crazy how many excuses our fans come up with instead of manning up and admit that our team didnt deliver when it counts, eg. losing to leicester last minute, draw WB etc. leicester was more consistent and they delivered when they had to. props to them

nightgoat · May 2, 2016

Roynie said:
But when the manager has gone, he's gone. A players international team mates are there for a long time and if one of them was believed to have thrown a match he would never hear the end of it. I do not believe that Hazard would do something to throw the game. That said I also do not think it will go to the last game as Leicester will beat Everton.

The point I'm making is that if Chelsea's players were willing to put in less than 100% effort because they wanted their manager gone, then they're certainly capable of putting in less than 100% effort on the last day of the season if their own fans are wanting them to lose to stop us winning the league.

Japhet · May 2, 2016

nightgoat said:
The point I'm making is that if Chelsea's players were willing to put in less than 100% effort because they wanted their manager gone, then they're certainly capable of putting in less than 100% effort on the last day of the season if their own fans are wanting them to lose to stop us winning the league.

I think it will be over by then in which case I hope little Leicester fuck them over big time and we'll see how well that sits with them. Be nice for Ranieri to stick it to them.

glacierSpurs · May 2, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/football...-party-host-leicester-players-tottenham-match

Peace....

nedley · May 2, 2016

millsey said:
We do if we finish below them. There can be no doubt wherever you finish after 38 games, you deserve to be there

Agree to disagree.

I'm on the Big Sam bandwagon.

It doesn't even itself out.

Lighty64 · May 2, 2016

just checked past results Leicester v Everton and Leicester last beat Everton at home in 1998, thought the 5-6 results were all draws, clutching just in case we win tonight, though we would then need to beat Southampton, and hope Chelsea beat Leicester.

I'm 1 of a few that believe Chelsea won't put enough effort into beating Leicester, and if they were to draw they can get away with the "we didn't throw it" especially with their home form this season.

millsey · May 2, 2016

nedley said:
Agree to disagree.

I'm on the Big Sam bandwagon.

It doesn't even itself out.

Yes but so what shall we do? The best team after 38 games wins the league, let's not get away from that

kendoddsdadsdogsdead · May 2, 2016

millsey said:
Yes but so what shall we do? The best team after 38 games wins the league, let's not get away from that

But you also have to take into account the performance and desire of the opposition you play. There is no denying we play more derbies, more teams/fans in general will see us as a bigger game as we are a more established premier league team. Leicester haven't built up any rivalries or bad feeling with any clubs let alone playing any derbies. So in that sense I don't think it's as straight forward as saying the best team wins the league. But you're also right we can't do much about that we just have to get mentally stronger as well as adding more quality

Lighty64 · May 2, 2016

nightgoat said:
You're right about our slow start - had we beaten Stoke and Everton at home like we should have we'd only be four points behind with tonight's game in hand. But actually we've done better in big games (bearing in mind they have no derbies) - against last season's top four we've got 12 points from seven games, Leicester have only 9 from the same fixtures.

It's easy to point to the Leicester home game as decisive, but that left us seven points behind them - only one less than we are now with a game in hand. We made up more points than them over the next eight games to the extent that had we beaten Arsenal (and had Giroud correctly been given offside about 20 seconds before Sanchez equalised) we would have gone top.

The decisive period for me was the run of four games after where Leicester played poorly against four bad teams yet won all four of them, three with significant help from extremely bad refereeing.

they have 2 derbies, Leicester is in the Midlands. they play WBA and Villa even if they are not close distance wise like ours, the Midlands is a bigger area than London.

football wise/style we are the best team, points wise Leicester are the best team, and unfortunately you don't get extra points for playing better football.

what has cost us was our 1st half of the season, too slow out the blocks, too many draws. out of our 4 loses, I don't remember anything that went against us that was controversial in those matches, even if Leicester have had plenty of luck with decisions we have had a few times it's gone our way.

jimmy-jojo · May 2, 2016

davidmatzdorf said:
Two things:

1) I swear it's the same people who have been posting for years - even on this thread - about the "Sky 4" - how Sky manipulate fixtures and results to prevent anyone other than the same 4 [richest] clubs from winning the title - who are now insisting that Sky are manipulating fixtures and results to prevent anyone other than Leicester City from winning the title. It can't be both. What they are actually doing is manipulating fixtures to maximise viewers and advertising revenue.

2) If we were in our customary April/May position of scuffling to try to get into the Europa League and trying to keep fading hopes of a Champions League place alive, while Leicester City were unexpectedly marching off with the title, threads like this would be full of angry, frustration-filled Spurs supporters, demanding that we emulate them, poach their best players next summer and play next season on the counter-attack. We'd all be measuring up Pochettino against Ranieri and wishing Levy had infuriated every Spurs fan in the world by hiring Ranieri after Sherwood was let go.

1) Of course you can have both. They manipulate the fixtures to fit the narrative they want to play out in any given season. Do you really believe that if one of the likes of Utd, City, Chelsea or Arse had been in the fight with Leicester, instead of us, the fixtures would have been organised in the same manner?

2) Don't think much of your fellow Spurs fans, do you? Everyone knows that Leicester winning the title is a 99.9% probability of being a once in a generation type occurrence. Do you think Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton fans are doing what you described? Do you think any of those clubs would want their current managers replaced by Ranieri?

nightgoat · May 2, 2016

Lighty64 said:
they have 2 derbies, Leicester is in the Midlands. they play WBA and Villa even if they are not close distance wise like ours, the Midlands is a bigger area than London.

football wise/style we are the best team, points wise Leicester are the best team, and unfortunately you don't get extra points for playing better football.

what has cost us was our 1st half of the season, too slow out the blocks, too many draws. out of our 4 loses, I don't remember anything that went against us that was controversial in those matches, even if Leicester have had plenty of luck with decisions we have had a few times it's gone our way.

They're not exactly fierce derbies though. Leicester v West Brom is like Spurs v Charlton.

You're right, we haven't had many obvious bad decisions go against us (Sanchez equaliser should have been disallowed for offside, McClean not being sent off at West Brom, Dawson elbowing Dier in the head last week spring to mind immediately), Son's goal at Watford and the offside goals at home to Man City (but then their goal was offside as well and we won 4-1) being the only clear ones that have gone for us.

But Leicester have probably taken at least 11 points as a result of awful decisions, and that's just in the last month and a half!

nedley · May 2, 2016

millsey said:
Yes but so what shall we do? The best team after 38 games wins the league, let's not get away from that

Moan. A lot.

Lighty64 · May 2, 2016

nightgoat said:
They're not exactly fierce derbies though. Leicester v West Brom is like Spurs v Charlton.

You're right, we haven't had many obvious bad decisions go against us (Sanchez equaliser should have been disallowed for offside, McClean not being sent off at West Brom, Dawson elbowing Dier in the head last week spring to mind immediately), Son's goal at Watford and the offside goals at home to Man City (but then their goal was offside as well and we won 4-1) being the only clear ones that have gone for us.

But Leicester have probably taken at least 11 points as a result of awful decisions, and that's just in the last month and a half!

from where I was stood Dawson if he was the 1 catching Dawson, it was on the way down.

if the De Bruyne goal had been disallowed, none of us know what the result would of ended up, as the passage of play would of changed

McClean should of seen red, so could Alli on a few occasions really. I missed the bit that lead to the Arse goal.

Hoowl · May 2, 2016

A point today means we are guaranteed second if we win at home at the weekend.

UpTownSpur · May 2, 2016

An inability to defend corners cost us the league.

Newcastle, Leicester and West Brom at home, and West Ham and Chelsea away. That's 10 odd points thrown away. And most of those won't even good corners, just terrible defending

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