Man Utd 3-1 Spurs - One big game too far

I had the suspicion that this might prove to be one big game too far, after the amazing displays that saw us beat Arsenal and Chelsea last week. And so it proved, but while we can have no real complaints about the result or the way it came to be, there was certainly a period in this game when we were sniffing the possibility of another famous win.

We’ve had some rough decisions at Old Trafford in the past, but we couldn’t really argue with the two penalties that were given in this game. For the first Benoit Assou-Ekotto rashly dived in to bring down Patrice Evra; for the second, makeshift full back Wilson Palacios was clumsy in impeding Nani with four minutes left.

In between these two goals, converted by Ryan Giggs, was a headed equaliser by Ledley King, and a goal of real quality by Nani. That moment alone was fit to settle any game. The Spurs performance was a long way below the level that was achieved and maintained against Chelsea last week – a performance that sets a new benchmark for this team.

This week the midfield just didn’t function. Gareth Bale was unable to affect matters from left back as he has been doing from left midfield, and we were just too careless in possession, which is usually fatal at Old Trafford. Consequently, little service of note found its way to the front two. We were still pretty solid apart from those moments of carelessness, and Gomes certainly wasn’t being overworked.

I guess you’d say that overall Manchester United displayed the kind of stuff that wins titles. For Spurs, it was a setback certainly, but after great recent wins we’re still in the driving seat for fourth place. If we win our games, we’ll qualify for the Champions League play-off. It’s as simple as that.

Star man: Ledley King – the man is a sensation really. He’s got no knees but he’s still the best defender out there. Witness his brilliant block to thwart Dimitar Berbatov in the first half. Scored the goal too.

Worst performer: David Bentley or Benoit Assou-Ekotto – the former, slow in thought and action; the latter, played out of position, but made rash decisions.

Best moment: Ledley King’s equaliser and the period that followed it, until United scored their second. Up to that point we were fancying a possible win.

Tactics: Wilson Palacios returned after suspension, which saw Modric go to the left in front of Bale. Assou-Ekotto switched to right back – never a comforting thought!

Opposition fans: They seemed pretty happy with the way it turned out.
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Manchester United 3-1 Tottenham Hotspur

So the improbable hat-trick wasn’t to be and viewing from a pub in east London, it didn’t look as though there were many periods where it looked at all likely. Man United didn’t have to play very well to see us off yet again, our 14th defeat in 18 games against them.

After an even first twenty minutes of shadow boxing their pace down the flanks and Scholes’ know-how in the middle were the dominant influences as we struggled to keep possession and get the ball to our ‘big’ players in attacking positions. Modric, Bale, Pav, Bentley and Defoe were all anonymous going forward and there was a notable lack of quality about our delivery from almost every position. Having said all that, Gomes had few saves to make but Van der Sar had even less. It was a poor game.

Their goals game from Giggs’ penalties in the 58th and 86th minutes plus a cool finish from Nani in the 81st minute following Ledley’s 70th minute headed equaliser. Their pens were both down to poor challenges by players playing out of position at right back. Redknapp obviously hasn’t been happy with Kaboul playing there instead of Corluka and gambled with replacing him first with Assou-Ekotto and then Palacios, decisions which didn’t come off.

The only time we looked like our normal selves was when Lennon came on for Bentley and Bale was pushed forward on the left. We scored and then attacked fluently for a short while. It was only five or six minutes but it was a nice five or six minutes. United regained their composure and scored an easy goal in the 81st minute after Nani ran through from midfield untracked.

All a bit disappointing. Only Dawson, King, Gomes and possibly Huddlestone came out of the game with reputations intact. All the others need to wonder why they went missing for long periods (though the service to the front two was appalling so they might have plead mitigating circumstances).

Still, never mind. Six points from three games against the teams above us is a superb return and only a shock result in the City game (at the time of writing outcome unknown) puts us in a worse position than we were this morning.
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All about now - Harry

Harry Redknapp will discard the history books as we prepare to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.

We haven't won at Old Trafford in the Premier League and you have to go back to 1989 for our last victory at the 'Theatre of Dreams'.

But those statistics mean nothing to Harry as we continue to bid for fourth place in the Premier League.

"That's years gone by," said the boss on Friday. "It's different teams, different players. I don't buy into all that.

"We hadn't beaten Arsenal for 11 years but beat them this season. We also drew with them twice last season. Chelsea very rarely got beaten, but we beat them again this season.

"It's all about now, not the past and those records count for nothing."

We're after a spectacular hat-trick of scalps in the space of 10 days having beaten title-contenders Arsenal and Chelsea at the Lane.

But Harry feels this is the toughest task of the lot against a United side just a point adrift of Chelsea in the race for the title.

"We've got to go to Old Trafford and play even better than we did against Arsenal and Chelsea to get something out of it," said Harry.

"United are a top, top team. I'm sure they would have beaten Bayern Munich in the Champions League but for that sending off. They got beaten by Chelsea, another great side, who went to Old Trafford and played well and then needed a result against City and scored in the last minute.

"That was real pressure game but they came through it and that's typical United.

"But we're playing well, we're full of confidence and we'll give it a real go."
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Pavlyuchenko wants to stay with Spurs

Roman Pavlyuchenko has issued a statement saying that any thoughts of leaving Tottenham are now a distant memory as he is more than happy at the club.

Prior to February, Pavlyuchenko had looked set to leave the club, seemingly out of favour with Harry Redknapp and unsettled with his lack of first-team action.

But he has battled his way into the team again, having moved ahead of Peter Crouch in the pecking order, and is now very happy with his role at Tottenham.

“When the team wins and I am constantly playing, the relations cannot be anything but good. Now I feel the manager’s trust and do my best not to let him down.

“I have dropped all my previous ideas about leaving Spurs in the summer and I am concentrated on one thought only - what we need to do to finish fourth.”

Pavlyuchenko has played a major role in the consecutive victories over Arsenal and Chelsea and accused the latter of over-confidence as Spurs impressed.

“During the whole game against Chelsea, it looked like us who were favourites for the title.

“I hadn’t expected that we would be so much stronger than them. Many Chelsea players were too confident of victory.

“I noticed during the warm-up that they looked too relaxed, while we were set for a serious battle.

“It was a successful game for us, and had we converted just half of our chances, we’d have won 6-1.”
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Gareth nominated

Gareth Bale has been nominated for the E.ON Player of the Round award for the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Our Wembley defeat at the hands of Portsmouth may not have been a memorable occasion but the Welshman was one of our outstanding performers on the day.

His familiar surges down the left flank were the basis of most of our attacking play and nearly resulted in an extra-time equaliser when his cross fell to Peter Crouch to ram home.

As we know, the goal was ruled out and Pompey were left celebrating at the final whistle, but did Gareth do enough to earn your vote?

He's up against Pompey heroes David James, Aaron Mokoena and Ricardo Rocha, as well as Chelsea's Didier Drogba, who starred in the Blues' win over Aston Villa in the other semi-final.

Gareth has already picked up one Player of the Round award this season for his Fifth Round performances against Bolton Wanderers.
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The dream derby double!

Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale completed a dream week in the Premier League as we deservedly beat Chelsea on Saturday.

After putting Arsenal to the sword on Wednesday, few pundits gave the lads a chance of repeating the trick against the leaders and title favourites.

But if anything, this was an even better display.

Bale's raids down the left immediately put Chelsea on the back foot and, just like against the Gunners, we struck the first blow when Defoe converted from the penalty spot after 15 minutes.

And again, just like Wednesday, we followed up with the second goal and it was Bale again, this time a right-foot strike from the edge of the box.

Defensively intact and marshalled superbly by Michael Dawson, Chelsea didn't seriously threaten in the second half and when John Terry was sent off for a second yellow card in the 67th minute, it was all Spurs.

It really could have been a cricket score but a combination of wayward finishing and the brilliance of Petr Cech kept it to 2-0.

Hearts were in mouths for a few moments when Frank Lampard slid home for 2-1 in the second minute of added time but, thankfully, we held on.

And with United beating City in the Manchester derby, it was the perfect day in terms of the fight for fourth place - we completed it in fourth, two points ahead of City.

Harry Redknapp made two changes from the win against Arsenal. Ledley King, hopeful of playing twice in a week, didn't make it so Sebastien Bassong was back to partner Dawson. Danny Rose, hero against the Gunners, was on the bench with David Bentley starting on the right.

Ferreira was soon on the backfoot as Bale took the fight to the leaders - the full-back would be replaced at half-time.

Gomes made the first save of the game to deny Malouda's stinging effort but we then enjoyed a purple patch.

Bale's teasing cross was slid away by Alex, Defoe almost broke through centrally and Bale beat the outrushing Cech to Assou-Ekotto's pass but Alex was there to clear.

We'd built up a head of steam and were rewarded in the 15th minute as referee Phil Dowd pointed to the spot when Bentley's cross appeared to strike Terry's arm.

Defoe had missed his last two spot kicks against Leeds and Everton but didn't shirk the responsibility - this time he went with power and almost took the net off for 1-0, a deserved lead.

Taking the lead lifted us. Cech had to be at his best to turn away Pavlyuchenko's 20-yarder in the 25th minute and then Modric ghosted past three players before pulling back for Bentley, his shot deflected wide by Terry.

Kaboul powered a free header at Cech from Bentley's corner but there was a warning soon after as Malouda slid home Zhirkov's cross, the goal ruled out by the assistant's flag.

The second goal was always going to be vital and Bale was there to deliver. This time, Pavlyuchenko played the perfect pass in behind Ferreira and Bale got onto the ball, cut inside the full-back and drilled home with his right foot.

Chelsea's best chance arrived a minute later as Zhirkov picked out Lampard who connected fully with his volley from 16 yards only for Gomes to produce a now trademark reaction save diving to his right.

Carlo Ancelotti responded with two changes at half-time. Nicolas Anelka and Branislav Ivanovic came on for Joe Cole and Ferreira. Anelka went up front with Drogba, Ivanovic no doubt expected to try and put the brakes on Bale.

It could have been 3-0 within minutes of the restart, however, as Pavlyuchenko sent Defoe clean through on goal. The striker steadied himself and aimed for Cech's right - this time the keeper came out on top.

As Chelsea tried to get a foothold in the game, there was always the threat of a break and the game's next key moment came exactly that way as Bale was upended by Terry. The Chelsea skipper had just been booked and his second yellow meant an early bath, 67 minutes on the clock.

It was all Spurs from there as Cech stood between us and a runaway scoreline.

The keeper acrobatically tipped Kaboul's deflected cross over, backtracked just in time to turn Bentley's clever chip over and then saved one-on-one from Bale.

In-between, Ivanovic's shot skimmed the roof of the net and Dawson produced a goal-saving tackle to deny Drogba, but the 10 men could never build a head of steam - let alone stop the tide of Spurs attacks.

Kaboul sent Bale away one-on-one but his effort went agonsingly wide, Bale then set-up Pavlyuchenko, who missed the target.

Would the misses be costly? Surely not...but then, out of nowhere, Lampard slid in from close range in the second minute of five minutes of injury time.

Still we broke forward.

With four minutes of injury time gone, Gudjohnsen released Bale who had Assou-Ekotto and Pavlyuchenko in support - only for the Russian to miss the target from 12 yards.

Thankfully, it wasn't costly as we made it a derby double to remember.

Spurs: Gomes; Kaboul, Bassong, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto; Bentley, Huddlestone, Modric, Bale; Defoe (Gudjohnsen, 77), Pavlyuchenko. Subs: Alnwick, K Walker, Livermore, Rose, Townsend, Crouch.

Chelsea: Cech; Ferreira (Ivanovic, 46), Terry, Alex, Zhirkov; Malouda, Deco, Mikel (Ballack, 33), Lampard, J Cole (Anelka, 46); Drogba. Subs: Hilario, A Cole, Kalou, Sturridge.
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Lads 'outstanding' - Harry

Harry Redknapp paid tribute to the players after recording back-to-back wins against Arsenal and Chelsea and beamed: "I couldn't have asked for more."

It was the stuff of Spurs fans' dreams as the lads followed up Wednesday night's memorable win against the Gunners with arguably an even better performance and 2-1 win against title-favourites Chelsea.

To cap the day, United beat City 1-0 in the Manchester derby in the early kick-off so we moved back into fourth place in the Premier League, two points ahead of City.

Jermain Defoe hammered home a penalty, Gareth Bale struck a 20-yarder with his right foot for a 2-0 lead at half-time. We then missed a host of chances as Chelsea went down to 10 men - John Terry sent off - only for the Blues to grab a late goal through Frank Lampard. Thankfully, it was no more than a consolation.

"It's been an incredible week," said Harry. "To start the week with such a disappointment at Wembley but come back and show the character to beat Arsenal and Chelsea has been amazing.

"The lads have produced two fantastic performances and we thoroughly deserved to beat Chelsea, we created so many chances.

"I thought before the game we might be under the cosh because of the way we play. I could see them getting control of the game. Not many teams play with two men up now, United went to City and played with three in midfield and got control of the game that way.

"We play with two front men and that can be difficult (in midfield) but we got after them. When we lost possession one of our front men got around Mikel and did a job in there and that was important for us.

"In the first 30 minutes we got on top of them and were much the better team. Look at the chances we didn't score, we had so many opportunities.

"United did us a favour earlier in the day against City but we had to take advantage of that, we had to make sure we won to reap the benefit of that and it's a tough task to beat Chelsea, not many teams do it.

"We've lost so many key players but whoever has come into the team has stepped up and done the job. It's been a fantastic team effort.

"We're still in there, we've won seven out of the last eight league games and you can't ask for more than that."
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