Business as Usual... Finally

And a big milestone for Hugo

Tottenham Hotspur are finally back to playing an attacking style of football week in and week out. And it’s about time! Just when we were starting to despair of ever being rid of the dreaded low block, José Mourinho changed his tactics and allowed Spurs to play to their strengths. Those strengths having the names of Kane, Son, Bale, and… *checks notes* Moura? Sure!

Honestly though, it was so refreshing to go into a game feeling a) confident and b) assured that Spurs would once again be playing on the front foot, not waiting for a lesser team to bring the game to them. It definitely makes for more enjoyable viewing and far less gnashing of teeth on my end.

Gareth Bale was undeniably the man of the match against Burnley, but first let’s give some well-deserved props to the skipper, Hugo Lloris, for his 100th Premier League clean sheet. Only fifteen keepers in the history of the league have bested that number. Hugo’s had a few bobbles this season, but in the last few games, he’s looked back to his old self. Long may it continue!

Back to Bale. The undisputed man of the match, he took the game under his control from the start (quite literally, with a quickfire goal in the 2nd minute) until he was subbed off in the 70th minute. He netted two goals, both assisted by Son, and gave an assist of his own to Kane. He was also involved in the buildup to Moura’s goal. Maybe we don’t have to be tentative anymore about saying “Bale is back”? If this isn’t Bale already back in top form, he’s going to be downright scary when he does achieve it. You can literally see the fear in defenders’ eyes as it is. It’s hard to imagine Spurs not wanting to extend his loan at this point or re-sign him permanently for next season.

There really wasn’t any single player I could single out for having a poor game against Burnley. They all contributed, albeit quietly in the case of the substitutes—they closed out the game well, and that was more than sufficient with our 4-0 lead. Aurier and Reguilón are both looking good after their returns from injury, and I hope Højbjerg’s knock at the end of the game wasn’t anything serious, because he’s been looking back to the PEH we know and love. And I have to give credit where credit is due, after criticizing him a lot this season so far: Davinson Sánchez gave a superb performance. You could even argue that he was more responsible for the clean sheet than Lloris was, thanks to a few crucial blocks. This was easily his best game of the season.

After the flurry of goal scoring in the Europa League round of 32, I think we were all eager to see how the likes of Bale, Dele, and Moura would slot back in with Son & Kane. Dele only featured as a sub and there were just four minutes of the much-anticipated Dele-Son-Kane-Bale lineup, so too soon to tell there, but Son & Kane worked very well with Bale as part of the front three. Kane was looking a lot sharper than he had in our last two PL matches (both losses, to West Ham and Man City). I would have liked to see Son get in on the goal-scoring action, but his two assists for Bale were nothing to sneeze at. As long as everyone is contributing, we shouldn’t be too bothered about whose name is making it to the scoresheet. Just keep the goals coming!

On that note, it will be interesting to see if Mourinho sticks with Moura in PL games and rotates to Dele for the EL. Moura is certainly in a great run of form. It feels like we’re getting back to the state of things from the beginning of the season when there was strong competition for places throughout the lineup. And having some balance across the squad for the two different competitions is not a bad thing.

Another key area of the lineup that’s still rife for discussion is the center back pairing. Toby did a great job working with Sánchez against Burnley, but with his age, I suspect that Mourinho will be hesitant to play him too many games in a row. I want to see him starting as much as possible, but I don’t want to see him overworked and risking injury. I’m still wondering when we’re ever going to see Rodon again since he’s not in the EL squad. And then there’s the curious case of Tanganga. Even Dier is a major question mark at this point in the season after a strong start fizzled out to a disappointing middle. Although he wouldn’t be a first-choice CB at many PL clubs, he’s not a bad player on his day. Hopefully, the spirit of rejuvenation that’s swept through a lot of players (Bale and Moura especially) will find its way to Dier soon.

I have to say that Mourinho is back in my good books… for now. I trust him in the way that you would trust a pet wolf that never should have been domesticated. I swear that metaphor made more sense in my head, but you know what I mean. There’s always a lurking danger underneath his happy smirk—that he’ll get into another strop with the media, or irreversibly alienate a key member of the squad.

Do you trust that face?

But for now, it seems like team morale is pretty high (the Welsh mafia shenanigans would certainly suggest so), and most of us fans are happy as long as the team is putting in a good effort on the attacking front every game. We’re not getting much help from our rivals for top 4 in recent matchdays, but the momentum is definitely on our side, and Champions League qualification is still within reach—by table standing or by a Europa League title. Things could be (and until recently very much were) worse.

We’ve only got three London derbies to contend with next, so no big deal.

Clash at Craven Cottage

As far as I’ve heard, the only injury for Spurs going into tomorrow’s match at Fulham is Gio Lo Celso—though he might be available for Crystal Palace on the weekend. It will be interesting to see how (or if) Lo Celso slots into the lineup. Kind of feels like an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” situation, unfortunately for Gio, but maybe we’re more likely to see him feature in the EL round of 16 matches against Dinamo Zagreb. Fulham have a couple of injuries, but only squad players, not key players from their usual starting XI.

I think it’s a lucky thing for us that they won’t have their fans supporting them at home, considering that they already managed a draw at our stadium. Fulham have probably also improved since that last matchup in an overall performance sense, though they still struggle for goals and results. But we have a major advantage over them in the improvement department, in that our secret weapon is Gareth freaking Bale.

I would like to see Fulham stay up at the expense of, say, Brighton or Newcastle, two teams that I very much dislike, but we can’t do Fulham any favors tomorrow. This has to be a win, and a decisive one to keep building that crucial goal difference advantage over the likes of West Ham, Liverpool, Everton, and Chelsea (who currently have the edge, but only just). Looking just a little ahead at the schedule, we’ll finally be making up our game in hand with Aston Villa on March 21, so we’ll have a more realistic idea of where we’re at in the standings by then. Of course, the original fixture for that weekend will have to be rescheduled since Southampton are featuring in the FA Cup (sigh).

The real question for the Fulham fixture is: do we rotate against them, or rotate against Crystal Palace? It’s hard to say which team is the bigger threat right now, especially since we don’t know if Zaha will be returning from injury just in time for our matchup or if he’ll still be on the sideline. We drew with both teams in the first half of the season, so both are ripe for revenge. It might just come down to the fitness of our own players (like the ones who just came back from injuries, or those who have played several fixtures in a row). It really feels like all of these games coming up are must-wins, what with our current position in the table. And the NLD is always a must-win… Decisions, decisions. Decisions for Mourinho 😛.

Spurs Women update

The women’s team played at the exact same time as the men on Sunday (hate when that happens), and I was naturally paying more attention to the men’s game since it was on the bigger screen, but I did catch a few moments of the match against Everton Women—like Angela Addison’s excellent goal and Gemma Davison’s equalizer. It was really the two first-half penalties we conceded that made the difference because Spurs were the stronger team for the most part in the second half. Up next we have Brighton Women on Sunday morning, well before the men play for once!

Fun stuff

Here’s your regular reminder to go watch Ted Lasso if you haven’t already. And then watch Jason Sudeikis’ extremely messy Golden Globes acceptance speech for Best Television Actor, Musical or Comedy Series. Bless him. Some vintage Tottenham-related Lasso:

I noticed there have been a few new subscribers recently (hello and welcome!), so I figured I would put this out there: would anyone be interested in a match thread this weekend? It would be fun to chat with y’all in (somewhat) real-time if anyone’s up for it! Mid-week match game threads probably won’t ever be a thing, because although I don’t work during Tottenham matches (the perks of making your own schedule), I’m usually clocking back in right afterward, and I would hate to be abrupt about leaving the thread if there’s a good discussion going on. So just weekends for now, if y’all are interested!

COYS