Wembley, Palace and God knows what else!
A couple of days ago I visited the new stadium, and it has come on unbelievably well in the last couple of weeks (since I last saw it). We (the staff) all agreed that the punters will enjoy the experience once they – finally – get into the ground.
As some of you have already read, the club has been given the run of Wembley until we finally move into our new stadium. But with a catch; capacity will be set at 51,000 (surely a stocking filler; i.e. that capacity should be easily reached). Granted, Spurs could apply for it to be increased, but we will have to cap in hand to the local council. But as I said in my previous article, we should be moving into our new ground in January, providing all goes well (The United game is earmarked). Another announcement will be made in December. The Spurs shop – attached to the new stadium – is already up and running.
Now to the Palace game. The day was a very pissy-shitty day and not a day to be out in, other than having pre-arranged commitments (like going to the Palace game). As we did at 5.30 on Saturday 10th.
The players went through their usual good luck procedures and then the moment was here and out to the pitch they went.
As people are aware, it was Armistice Day on 11 November, which is also known as Remembrance Day. It marks the day World War One ended, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, in 1918. ... Because of the Great War Remembrance Sunday, clubs that weren’t playing on that day, went through the procedures at an earlier convenient date/time. Palace played Spurs on Saturday before, so before the kick off we showed our respects; laying of a wreath, a minutes silence etc.
The silence respected, the minute past and the whistle went, and the cheers went up. The ball was kicked, and we were underway.
The first half saw us trying to get that all-important goal, with Lloris doing his magic and holding off the home side. But we couldn’t break through. The only notable events for the first half, apart from Lloris’ saves, was one of their players being booked (Tomkins), but more significantly Trippier was injured and had to be replaced by Aurier.
The whistle finally went for the ending of the first half, and then the players marched off the pitch, we walked to the place where food and drinks are served, had a chat and then it was time for the second half to begin.
We took the fight to them, but on occasions we clumsily gave the ball away when we had possession (this is a habit we’ve been doing too much lately). Palace ended up getting three players booked, but the good news for us was that the young Foyth got his first goal for us after 66 minutes. Son eventually placed Mura, while Winks replaced the injured Lamela. We tried for that second goal, but it eluded us. Never mind, we won, in a game where we had most of the possession. I must give credit to Palace for keeping the score down. They are a good side who should be achieving more than they have done. Not that I wanted Palace to show their potential against us, that could wait for another day, hopefully when they are playing a top side, either Arsenal, City, Liverpool or Chelsea (beat them all..). That is the time to show what they are made of. I am sure Palace fans would love to see that, and in the process help us out (oh, we would laugh and cheer!)
As for Foyth; he was highly praised by Pochettino. He joined us from Argentine club Estudiantes in August 2017 in an £8m bargain transfer. He had only played in cup games before making his poor league debut at Molineux last weekend. Poor, because of the two penalties he gave away. Beyond that, he had a good game. He was not in the 18-man matchday squad for our win over PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday, but a hamstring injury to Davinson Sanchez gave Foyth another chance on Saturday. It won’t be long before he is a regular in the team.
Just a matter of interest: Juan Foyth is the third Argentine to score for Spurs in the Premier League, after Erik Lamela and Mauricio Taricco. Our club has happy links with Argentine, this is going back to the 70s and Villa and Ardiles.
So we won, and even though Liverpool beat the hapless Fulham 2-0 (on Sunday), Chelsea only could get a draw against Everton. Which means they are just a point above us. Can we leapfrog them? Our next game will be against Chelsea in two weeks time. A win for us will put us above them (and show how far we’ve come since the beginning of the season). Don’t forget that Chelsea, along with City & Liverpool, are undefeated. So let us put a stop to Chelsea’s run.
In the other two matches, City beat United 3-1 to go on top in the Manchester derby. They are five points above us. Arsenal only could manage a draw against Wolves at home (hooray! But the jammy bastards did equalise near the end of their match).
This leaves the Premier league table and us like this:-
1. City on 32 pts (five pts above us)
2. Liverpool on 30 pts (3 pts above us)
3. Chelsea on 28pts (One point above us, and who we face next)
4. Spurs on 27 pts
5. The Arse on 24pts (3 pts below us)
We go into the International break in a healthy position.
Don Scully
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