West Ham v Tottenham

[Biggs]

West ham

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v

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Tottenham

Barclays Premier League - 25th Feb - KO 20:00  - Ground: Upton Park

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[Metalanimal]

3rd place is up for grabs hope the lads are up for it!

[Glenn R]

3rd place is up for grabs hope the lads are up for it!

Actually after United the top 3 spots are up for grabs. Anybody from City, Chelsea, Spurs, Ars*nal and outsiders Everton. City might get into the top 4 but second place isn't guaranteed for them.

[spursjoolz]

And we are 3rd. Well done lads!

[Metalanimal]

We are showing terrific spirit right now, fighting till then end!

Same again please!

COYS!!

[RSS61]

And we are 3rd. Well done lads!

Well done Bale to be more precise, once again.

[RiffHard]

Terrific result! I didn't see the game, but it seems that it was a real derby match at its best.

[RSS61]

Terrific result! I didn't see the game, but it seems that it was a real derby match at its best.

A terrific result yes, but to be brutally honest I thought much of our play was poor. Adebayor was completely hopeless. Lennon was OK in fits and starts. Holtby was again good 1st half but faded. Parker I thought was very poor. He was slow in the tackle and gave away a bad penalty that re-ignited a West Ham side that were ready to collapse at the time. Yet again his end product was nonexistent. Dembele I thought was also poor.
Verthonghen did his best at left wing, which he clearly isn't. Caulker and Walker were good going forwards, and Caulker could have had a couple of goals on another day. But as a back 4 they were caught out a few times trying to play the offside trap. I really dont like this continual rotating of the back 4. Sigurdsson I thought looked lively, and had a great shot turned onto the post, which Ade somehow managed to miss the rebound. And lastly, Bale was Bale, yet again. He's winning tight games which is good. But in all honesty, if we are aspiring to top 3 / 4 we should be beating teams like West Ham out of sight without the need for Bale to rescue the team in injury time.

Our real test at this level will against Ars*nal, Chelsea, and Man City. We will see if what I am saying is near the mark or not. As AVB rightly said, we need to beat Ars*nal to make the gap 7 points, and that will still not be enough, it will not be over even then.

[Metalanimal]

Our game against Ars*nal IMO could define our season.

What I take from our performance is that we won whilst not playing great again, a win is a win and we are third.

We dont get to third and stay in the top four most of this season due to luck.

I think Parker is not the player he was since injury and we miss Sandro greatly in midfield, Holtby seems not to be match fit but contributes very well until fades.

Finally when I saw our selected back four I was shocked it wasnt our strongest available and JVT not in his greatest position when we have BAE available.  I have faith in AVB as so far we are on target but I cant see how always rotating our back line helps in anyway?

[spursjoolz]

You both have it right. we didn't play weel at all and a few key players wenr AWOL. Unfortunatly we play the same in Lyon and still won. The worry her is that if bale gets injured or has an off game we will at best draw.  This was a win by Lloris and bale without a doubt. Caulker was unlucky not to have scored at least once.

The rest of the team will have to lift their game on Sunday because believe me, Ars*nal will be ready for us with guns blazing!

Adebayor was totally useles and even comical at times. Perhaps he is saving himself for the Gooners on Sunday.

[yidmafioso]

All valid points but lets be honest , if juskelinan or whatever he`s called hadn`t been so good it would have been a cricket score .

[RiffHard]

All valid points but lets be honest , if juskelinan or whatever he`s called hadn`t been so good it would have been a cricket score .

Jussi Jääskeläinen is his name.

[Metalanimal]

All valid points but lets be honest , if juskelinan or whatever he`s called hadn`t been so good it would have been a cricket score .

This is true, JJ is a quality keeper always has been.  He kept the score down via some amazing saves, however this doesnt escape the fact that our general game was poor but we won! and that for me is what matters!

Somehow I think the Gooners arent to concerned about Ade at all, if fact they probably hope he acts a twat like last time and helps them win the match!

[Glenn R]

I think we must remember that even though Gareth Bale is a great player, and he is, for great players to perform well they need a great team behind them. Bale would never have achieved what he has done (or as much) if it wasn’t for the players behind him and the mangers guidance then things would have been different.

As for the match; brilliant performance by Bale, brilliant team work. I remember a time when watching Spurs that if they went behind they would have given up. Today there is a new resolve; it is not over until the fat lady sings. That has been shown in the last couple of games. Even when we’ve been in front we used to lose matches in the last couple of minutes, now we are winning. AVB must be given some credit for our third place spot. There is still a long way to go but the signs are very good.

[ugs]

Terrific result! I didn't see the game, but it seems that it was a real derby match at its best.

A terrific result yes, but to be brutally honest I thought much of our play was poor. Adebayor was completely hopeless. Lennon was OK in fits and starts. Holtby was again good 1st half but faded. Parker I thought was very poor. He was slow in the tackle and gave away a bad penalty that re-ignited a West Ham side that were ready to collapse at the time. Yet again his end product was nonexistent. Dembele I thought was also poor.
Verthonghen did his best at left wing, which he clearly isn't. Caulker and Walker were good going forwards, and Caulker could have had a couple of goals on another day. But as a back 4 they were caught out a few times trying to play the offside trap. I really dont like this continual rotating of the back 4. Sigurdsson I thought looked lively, and had a great shot turned onto the post, which Ade somehow managed to miss the rebound. And lastly, Bale was Bale, yet again. He's winning tight games which is good. But in all honesty, if we are aspiring to top 3 / 4 we should be beating teams like West Ham out of sight without the need for Bale to rescue the team in injury time.

Our real test at this level will against Ars*nal, Chelsea, and Man City. We will see if what I am saying is near the mark or not. As AVB rightly said, we need to beat Ars*nal to make the gap 7 points, and that will still not be enough, it will not be over even then.

You are absolutely spot on RS your evalution is accurate and also fair. AVB is playing players out of position to accomadate the fact that we do not have a decent striker to play upfront !! Defoe injured Adebayor now has a contract and is in who gives a s**t mode and Dempsey just isn't good enough... so he is playing Bale through the middle to compensate !!!!
This is great while Bale is in this form and fit but what happens if he gets injured or goes off the boil ? The fact that we didn't buy a decent striker in the window is still potentially our biggest problem and could still come back to bite us big time !!!
Let's make no bones about it Wet Spam are a mediocre team at best and we had to rely on a wonder goal from Mr Bale to get us 3 points, admittedly Jaskellion was MOTM but this just goes to show that we lack a cold clinical finisher up front theres a long way to go yet and we have built on shaky foundations hopefully they will take the extra weight without collapsing.
But we are 3rd and AVB is proving me wrong, which I am quite happy to admit he still hasn't won me over completely and to be honest I don't think he ever will but credit where credits due keep it going AVB....COYS !!!!!