Spurs visit the Liberty Stadium this weekend. The equivalent fixture at White Hart Lane finished 1-0 to Tottenham in August but was one of a number of early games where we struggled to create chances and the points were only secured after a 58th minute penalty from Roberto Soldado.
Reports in the media suggest Tottenham are preparing to offload Etienne Capoue barely five months after signing him. He arrived as part of a raft of new signings triggered by the sale of Gareth Bale. At the time these signings were hailed as a coup, turning the potential negative of losing our best player into a positive.
I was sitting down relaxing and reading the Guardian website this weekend when I came across the following article: goo.gl/ix694e. As I started reading my irritation levels rose. To quote:
We may have changed manager but a lot of the same problems persist. Is this because Sherwood needs time or is it an issue with the players?
As in so many games against “lesser” opponents at White Hart Lane, we dominated possession but couldn’t turn this into chances. Things improved in the second half but even so, by the end of the game we had 10 shots to Palace’s 14 despite enjoying 68% of the possession. The passing still seems slow and laboured at times but at least now we are playing a consistent team each week, giving them a chance to get used to playing together.
This weekend sees a repeat of the fixtures on the opening day of the season. A lot has changed at White Hart Lane since then, and it is two different managers who meet in the game this afternoon.
Before the season began, much was made of the success of Spurs’ transfer strategy. The conventional wisdom was that Daniel Levy had turned a potentially disastrous negative – the loss of Gareth Bale – into a positive. We may have lost our best player, but we had ended up with a much more balanced squad. Well at least that was the narrative the media had chosen.
Anything But Penalties 