I was certain we were going to lose this one about 55 minutes into it. Wouldn't it be so Spurs to dominate the first half only to fail to complete the moves to score and then lose the grip on the game and capitulate? We almost had that trademark "wonder goal" against us when Gosling half-volleyed from just outside the box and hit the post.
There were plenty of positives to be taken from the first half. We controlled possession and made some good looking attacking moves, started by Huddlestone and Bale especially.
Another solid performance from Corluka/Woodgate/King who are becoming paragons of consistency. Add in Dawson and we should be set at centre-half. Less impressed with Hutton. I could help but start to dislike him when those reports of his near-patricide emerged. I'm sure his dad isn't a great bloke but how do let that kind of an argument escalate like that? especially in a pub? Usually I don't really take notice as to what players do on their own time, but this kind of thing fits into my exception category, along with Ledley King's performance hours after the Carling Cup Final and Giovanni's drunken escapade earlier this season (hmmm i sound suspiciously like a Sun reader, but when you get your spurs news from NewsNow, what can you expect?). Anyway, Alan Hutton could not seem to hold onto possession today. I think it's clear that he's no Gareth Bale in the sense that, despite being good going forward from the right back position, he'll never make it as an out and out right winger. No scandal there, but today he was exposed as being somewhat clumsy with the ball at his feet for too long. He also looks like a bastard.
Corluka has a suspiciously awkward style of running; it's like watching Jar Jar Binks running on cocaine. Pienaar had a good game today, but it never looked like Corluka was flustered by his speed. You always read about Vedran's superb positioning sense (or maybe I just did on Wikipedia), and I suppose we saw it today.
Keane, oh Keane. I feel like we're a bit like Dr. House and his vicodin with this one. It's clearly not good to be addicted to something, but will the withdrawal process screw up our rhythm too much? That is to say, Keane is not being super effective scoring-wise right now, but he does seem to cover a lot of ground, and you always notice him doing something, unlike Bent or Defoe who are notorious for disappearing for long stretches. I've read a couple blogs suggesting that we should've started Defoe and Pav today, just to see how it would work. Defoe had our best chance despite having a bit of a subpar game. Is it worth keeping him on there in the hope that he'll come up with one of those brilliant turn-and-shoot moments like he did in the second half? Most of the time he's larking around in offsideland, so it's a bit of a dilemma.
Pav wasn't too impressive today, as he didn't show much bite or fire when he came on. I guess it doesn't really matter with summer coming up and a new striker sure to be added. I for one hope we get to see the fully-charge version of him next year. I think he's had some great games this year, deserves a proper run at it from the start next season.
Gareth Bale? great game if you ask me. Apparently he's admitted to needing work on his defensive game. If so, that shows some maturity distinguishing him from Giovanni and Taarabt who think they've got the skillz to be first teamers despite their shocking lack of positioning sense which makes them a liability to have on the pitch in long stretches. I think pretty much everyone is rooting for him to rise to the position and supplant Assou-Ekotto on a permanent basis, which is sad since the latter has worked hard to come back from injury and has played pretty well this year, if unspectacular and prone to some bad passing.
Last point is on Gomes. I'm worried that the man will be plagued by the memory of his calamitous beginning to the season. Everytime he makes even a minor mistake (like dropping the ball - looked like he was pushed to me) people will roll their eyes and throw their hands up in the air (much like Redknapp did today). Okay so his Ronaldinho delusion moment was a tad bit tense, but how many times did you see Lehman do that? I jest; that's a horrible example. I think he's a bloody good keeper and he's clearly well-liked by everyone. Keep cudicini for as long as he wants to stay, but Gomes should always be the number one. He's saved a lot of points for us this season, more than his errors cost us by a large margin - go back and look at it.
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