Man City Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[Led's Zeppelin]

What a beautiful winning goal.

Not just Lamella's confidence, pace, skill and judgement, not just Eriksen's incredible skill and composure and sheer cool under huge pressure in taking that extra split-second to make Hart commit himself before slotting it away, but the thing that epitomises why Spurs are better than almost every other team in the country right now is the way they worked together to mug the ball off City in the first place.

And all this under the unbelievable pressure of having to respond to the other result earlier in the day,

As the man said later, this Spurs team is the real deal.

 

[Always Offside]

Fuck mate, have you got a fricken pulse? Checked to see your still breathing? Enjoy it. It was a sweet victory and hard fought and deserved in front of a hostile crowd at their manor. A pivotal fight that says everything about how tight this run in is going to be. We knocked off one of our main rivals for the title. If you cant celebrate that....Jesus, I don't know what gets you off dude!

Well a rubber glove, an artichoke & .... wait, I'm NOT telling you what gets me off !! I was just surprised at the level of celebrating considering how focused we have been and Poch's comments about not getting ahead of ourselves. That's all "dude"

 

[Typical Spurs]

I have watched the post match celebrations about 20 times this morning. I can't stop watching it. I'm a grown man and every time I watch it I get goosebumps. When they all came over to celebrate where we all were was one of the best things I've seen for years. It was the absolute realisation that we have something special. It's been steadily building all season, and yesterday our team wanted to show us that 'we mean business'. I loved it. If we screw it up we screw it up. But I'd damn rather screw it up giving 200% than screwing it up not believing in the first place.

I thought it was beautiful.

And I think our team believes.

 

[bigfrooj]

You know we didn't beat the Man City shambles that played against Leicester last week but a Man City team close to their best. We had luck for sure but we made that luck with sheer hard work and belief. I love my Spurs.

 

[RichieS]

You know we didn't beat the Man City shambles that played against Leicester last week but a Man City team close to their best. We had luck for sure but we made that luck with sheer hard work and belief. I love my Spurs.

That must have been the first time since the first few league matches that Silva and Touré both turned up for the same game.

 

[easley91]

That must have been the first time since the first few league matches that Silva and Touré both turned up for the same game.

I heard it was the first game since August that Kompany, Toure, Silva and Aguero all started.

 

[fletch82]

I seem to be in the minority here but I still don't see what the big deal is with the penalty...even the city players were only making half hearted complaints to battenberg.
He jumps, turns his back, and blocks the cross with the underside of his outstretched arm, some u get some u don't.

And Pelegrini can fuck off as well, he says they lost the first game because of two offside goals...yet we beat them 4-1?
Cock.

Not only that but conveniently forgets the one they did score was offside too.

Bless him x

 

[robbiedee]

watched the MOTD2 highlights again for 3rd time today...one thing that annoyed me (amongst many) and I'm sure it's been picked up in this thread somewhere...Yaya's freekick that hits the crossbar...the commentator says something along the lines of "Lloris well and truly beaten" except having watched it several times, he wasn't at all. If the freekick was on target - he would have saved it (albeit if he kept his hands and wrists strong)

Result was massive...I'm still buzzing. Our second goal!!!! Fuck...I could watch that over and over again.

Happy Days.

 

[DiscoD1882]

is it over yet? did we win?

 

[14/04/91]

I seem to be in the minority here but I still don't see what the big deal is with the penalty...even the city players were only making half hearted complaints to battenberg.
He jumps, turns his back, and blocks the cross with the underside of his outstretched arm, some u get some u don't.

And Pelegrini can fuck off as well, he says they lost the first game because of two offside goals...yet we beat them 4-1?
Cock.

In real-time it looked blatant and it was just a question of whether it was inside the box.
Sterling gave the ref a decision to make by turning his back & jumping - he had no control over his arms essentially.
If it had been one of our players (Ekotto used to do this a lot) I'd have blamed them rather than the ref.

 

[thinktank]

I want a Poch hug

A Pug.

It's what Poch gives Danny Rose in this clip...

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

I saw that, and I thought Danny Murphy hated us.

Think you need to get out more if you think that.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35575412

 

[Gb160]

In real-time it looked blatant and it was just a question of whether it was inside the box.
Sterling gave the ref a decision to make by turning his back & jumping - he had no control over his arms essentially.
If it had been one of our players (Ekotto used to do this a lot) I'd have blamed them rather than the ref.

Very true, the thing is, the same decision gets given against Norwich or Villa it'd barely even be commented on...as its against one of the big clubs in a crunch match it gets media attention.

 

[NorthSide]

Interesting that Pelli thinks they deserved more.

Its true that they created more chances, yes. Problem is that their top striker (and some others) messed up their chances. Lloris was good as always, but for most of their chances he didn't need to do anything coz they missed them. The result was totally fair, I say. We took our 2 good chances. Superbly. They had plenty of chances but didn't even test Lloris most of the time. That is always the difference between winning and not in professional football. (I'd put the blame on those working for city who are responsible for finding and signing players that can take their chances, as it amuses me).

City can't blame anyone for losing, and must look at their own performances. They will always lose when they can't keep clean sheets, and can't take the chances they create. It wasn't bad luck or the ref. They missed plenty of good chances, and that's why they lost.

I don't think this diminishes our performance by the way. We buried 2 chances. Clinically. (Yes, I'm using the word clinically relating to Spurs). They couldn't. If that is against the run of play then remember that this is Professional Sports. See all of Leicester City's matches won with hardly any possession and a couple of chances expertly taken.

We beat the team we were playing by scoring more than them.

Also, Thierry's comment about us was really interesting. He said we are the only team who always look in control. That's not faint praise. That was reluctant, but honest. Its a really fulsome compliment as well, and I agree with it. We do look in control of our games from what I've seen.

I remember watching us chasing shadows against good teams, loads of times over the years. Not now. Now its a surprise if the opposition string a few passes together without getting tackled or intercepted or pressured into passing it back to their keeper to be booted straight to Toby, or pressured into otherwise kicking it into touch.

We are the team that had 4 or 5 players surrounding Yaya in the 85th minute. 4 or 5 still with the energy and determination to press together on their strongest player in the 85th minute. They weren't doing that to Dembele. That is why we look in control, and its why we scored the winner.

Really strong performance. Really strong team. Never seen this from Spurs before.

 

[yiddopaul]

I heard it was the first game since August that Kompany, Toure, Silva and Aguero all started.

Big compliment to us. Playing most other teams, they may not have used them all so soon.

 

[spursfan77]

You know we didn't beat the Man City shambles that played against Leicester last week but a Man City team close to their best. We had luck for sure but we made that luck with sheer hard work and belief. I love my Spurs.

I thought we looked like one of the teams that usually beats them in the champions league. Like we were completely professional, focuses, had a plan and knew how to beat them.

It was interesting that poch, dier, chadli and Davies in the build up to the game mentioned we had a plan for this game. Looks like we were right up for it and prepared.

 

[mark87]

Think you need to get out more if you think that.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35575412

What's me needing to get out more got to do with anything?

 

[RichieS]

Interesting that Pelli thinks they deserved more.

Its true that they created more chances, yes. Problem is that their top striker (and some others) messed up their chances. Lloris was good as always, but for most of their chances he didn't need to do anything coz they missed them. The result was totally fair, I say. We took our 2 good chances. Superbly. They had plenty of chances but didn't even test Lloris most of the time. That is always the difference between winning and not in professional football. (I'd put the blame on those working for city who are responsible for finding and signing players that can take their chances, as it amuses me).

City can't blame anyone for losing, and must look at their own performances. They will always lose when they can't keep clean sheets, and can't take the chances they create. It wasn't bad luck or the ref. They missed plenty of good chances, and that's why they lost.

I don't think this diminishes our performance by the way. We buried 2 chances. Clinically. (Yes, I'm using the word clinically relating to Spurs). They couldn't. If that is against the run of play then remember that this is Professional Sports. See all of Leicester City's matches won with hardly any possession and a couple of chances expertly taken.

We beat the team we were playing by scoring more than them.

Also, Thierry's comment about us was really interesting. He said we are the only team who always look in control. That's not faint praise. That was reluctant, but honest. Its a really fulsome compliment as well, and I agree with it. We do look in control of our games from what I've seen.

I remember watching us chasing shadows against good teams, loads of times over the years. Not now. Now its a surprise if the opposition string a few passes together without getting tackled or intercepted or pressured into passing it back to their keeper to be booted straight to Toby, or pressured into otherwise kicking it into touch.

We are the team that had 4 or 5 players surrounding Yaya in the 85th minute. 4 or 5 still with the energy and determination to press together on their strongest player in the 85th minute. They weren't doing that to Dembele. That is why we look in control, and its why we scored the winner.

Really strong performance. Really strong team. Never seen this from Spurs before.

The first time this season I felt like I was seeing something new and different was the game away at Arsenal, and it was the level of control and composure that really stood out. Ok, ultimately they dominated the last 15 minutes but we were so in charge of the game before that that I wasn't sure it was real.

 

[Dazza86]

I thought we looked like one of the teams that usually beats them in the champions league. Like we were completely professional, focuses, had a plan and knew how to beat them.

It was interesting that poch, dier, chadli and Davies in the build up to the game mentioned we had a plan for this game. Looks like we were right up for it and prepared.

How controlled our performances are lately is what makes me more confident this year more than any other about winning the EL. We look like a team that can win domestically and in Europe. I really don't want us to throw that away.

If we use the squad like we have all year - mixing it up and keeping all of our players involved - I see no reason why we can't compete on all fronts.

 

[llamafarmer]

Absolutely love it.

Sherwood used to talk about passion. Poch inspires it.

It's funny that before Poch joined we were all so downbeat and spoke about how we didn't care about our players anymore. Felt that we'd lost our identity (there were a few threads on here of that nature).

Now look at us. The following players were in that previous group that we didn't care about, and that we felt didn't have an identity: Lloris, Walker, Vertonghen, Rose, Bentaleb, Mason, Dembele, Eriksen, Lamela, Chadli, Carroll, Kane.

What our manager has done is remarkable.

That's so true, the difference Poch has made in a season and a half is nothing short of incredible. He's identified and cleared out the players who don't meet his demands and built the ones that remain into this incredibly tight unit. Our team is so well drilled now, they work so hard for each other and they look like they're loving their football. He's improved every single one of those players and I really hope we get the trophy that he and they deserve this season.