A week in the life of Tottenham Hotspur

I've been resting my shoulder hence three blogs in one covering Spurs' last three games...

West Ham 1 Spurs 1 (25th November)

It was never likely to be a repeat of last season's classic 3-4 win at Upton Park, and it wasn't.
Two mistakes from either team secured the 1-1 scoreline. Kaboul, ever becoming a bit of a liability in defence hesitated on the ball and instead of making an easy clearance, it was charged down leaving him one on one, then a neat pass across the box left Robbo stranded.

Robert Greene was the villain for Spurs' equaliser when he came to punch the ball but missed it by miles, leaving Dawson to head it into an open goal. The big debate of the day was the refereeing decision when Keane just had Greene to beat, lobbed it over his head but was brought down by the goalkeeper's trailing leg. If there wasn't contact then why would Robbie fall over when a goal was looming? Riley wasn't to be convinced despite all of Robbie's flapping and it felt like we'd been robbed yet again. More drama followed when the ref did give Spurs a penalty in the dying minutes for a bit of a lame tackle on Defoe. I wouldn't have given it personally but as we should've had the first one, I think it was fair. This was probably in the mindset of the referee as well. However, with Keane already substituted by this time, JD was left to deal with the penalty but sadly it wasn't good enough and Greene parried it onto the post. What a chance spurned! So just another point earned.

Spurs 3 Aalborg 2 (29th November)

Truly a game of two halves. The opponents took the lead within two minutes of the start and stunned Spurs. It didn't get any better when they went two up and it looked like a shock was on the cards. However, Mr Ramos got his tactics right and brought on Huddlestone and Bent for Jenas and Kaboul in the second half which made an immediate impact. Berbatov, Malbranque and Bent scored the goals which made for a classic comeback and immense relief.

Spurs 2 Birmingham 3 (2 December)

I was back at the Lane for this fixture, and very much looking forward to a good win following on from Thursday's great comeback. The area when we were sitting had a great atmosphere - loads of singing and ranting, just how I like it!

Oh man! (there it is) - yet again, it was a quite unbelievable outcome...or should I say believable knowing what Spurs are capable of? For once, the boys came out straight away looking up for it and actually showed us that they can play attractive football. They created heaps of chances and it was all one way traffic; it could easily have been 4-0 in the first half and would've killed off the game. But no, that is not the Spurs way. Of course, we let the opposition score first, totally against the run of play...although to be fair, it was a very soft penalty which lead to their goal. Kaboul was adjudged to have tripped the opponent but upon seeing the highlights on tv, it really was a poor refereeing decision. Sound familiar?

We've quickly learned that if you don't play well, Ramos will whip you off the pitch and that happened again with Kaboul. He was the only one letting the side down in the first 45 minutes, and a replacement central defender is getting desperate now with Ledley's comeback being put back constantly - to be honest, I don't think he'll ever be fit again. Dawson isn't the player he was last season and Gardner is injured and I have no idea what's happened to Rocha. I wonder how much dosh Mr Ramos will be given to play with in the January transfer window but honestly, the way the team are playing at the moment, I'd say they need to replace half of them.

Anyway, back to the game. Huddlestone and Defoe came on for Kaboul and Bent. Not sure I would have replaced Bent so early and it proved so, as JD hardly made an impact. The tempo was lost a little but it wasn't long before Spurs also won a penalty when Berba was tripped. Keano scored with confidence as per usual. A few minutes later, Spurs went 2-1 up courtesy of
Robbie Keane again. If only they had kept up the momentum and scored the third it would've killed the game off and everything went pear-shaped from then on. Bale got an injury to his foot/ankle and hobbled off - Lee the replacement. Birmingham scored an unexpected equaliser when the defence was found lacking again. Robbie was then adjudged to have gone into a tackle with studs, after the ref consulted the 4th official Mr Uriah Renny and gave him a straight red. Absolutely ridiculous! Even if it was a distance away from where we were sitting, I knew in my heart that Robbie would not intentionally try to hurt another player - upon seeing the tv highlights I was livid! It was clearly not a malicious tackle by any means, there was only one leg involved not two and it was a ridiculous decision. Stitched up like a kipper yet again! The club have since confirmed they will be appealing against the red card. The worse possible scenario happened in injury time, when a long range effort from Larsson gave Robbo no chance at all. Just how many times has this happened to us? It's getting to be such a regular occurrence, can we consider ourselves to be the unluckiest club in the league or it is always the slack defending that let's us down? We are already officially the most stressful team to watch in the Premiership.

I must say I am impressed with the new manager's ethos so far, but why are players still not closing the ball down quicker? For me, this is the most fundamental problem and it is causing us to let in so many goals. It's not as if it's a hard problem to solve - just do it!!!