By Tony Attwood
I don’t normally watch football on TV apart from the games involving Arsenal that (obviously) I can’t get to. But this weekend has been somewhat different from normal, and I have ended up at home alone on Sunday evening. So with nothing better to do (which basically means nothing to do) I turned on the TV to watch Manchester United and Tottenham Hotts.
And I have to say I can’t recall ever seeing such a load of old turnips since I last watched matches in the Spartan League.
It is, as I write this, still on, and inevitably it is 0-0 unless someone scored while I was asleep. Some players have just hit each other, though.. The commentators are trying to talk it up a bit, but even they have to admit this is tired tripe. Although they do speak of things being better “in the last couple of minutes”.
If you are doing nothing and have access to Sky Sports, you might want to a) pour yourself a stiff drink and then b) excuse yourself in terms of your family and friends and watch this. It is utterly, utterly awful. But set the alarm for five minutes. I am not sure it is safe to watch for longer.
Tottenham have failed to score a single away goal this season. Just thought I would add that they have risen to 18th .
Such an odd match today. Well, perhaps more accurately preformance.
Our first half was very poor. We were a little fortunate to go in on level terms. But, the second half was much much better. Faster pace and more penitration, despite which we conceded the first goal. After that we got straight back on the front foot but could easily of conceded again, before we finally forced the breakthrough. From then on there was only one team in it and the second goal looked inevitable and duely came with a beatufully worked goal put away by Guimareas.
Even though we won I’ve already heard a number of Arsenals fans winging and whining. Ok that’s up to them, but personnally I like to take away the positives, and the positives are that despite not playing anywhere near our best, we still racked up:
Poss: 58%
xG: 2.58 (0.68)
Shots: 13 (11)
O/T: 6 (5)
Big chances: 4 (3)
T’ch’s in box: 34 (16)
So, despite what it may of looked like, in the end we ran out deserved winners. They are not bad numbers, against a team that had the = best defence in the league prior to kick off.
For comparison the Chelsea cheats racked up 5 goals in what on the face of it looked like a very dominant performance, but their numbers read:
Poss: 50%
xG: 1.08 (1.46)
Shots: 10 (9)
O/T: 6 (4)
Big Chances: 2 (3)
T’ch’s in box: 19 (21
The brackets are the oposition numbers. If you didn’t know the scores, looking at those numbers you would of thought it was Arsenal that scored 5 and not chelsea. In fact the numbers suggest a tight game at Stamford Bridge. And as I say, we created those numbers against the team with, before kick off today, the = best defence in the league.
Okay, I know, it’s something and nothing, but my point is, despite not being at our best for quite a lot of this game, in the time we were, we created more than a team that by all accounts ‘hammered’ their opponent. I choose to take that away from this game.
We are not quite firing on all cylinders yet, but I have seen enough to believe there is still a lot lot more to come from this team.