It (childishly) amuses me that Martin Jol has two brothers named Cock and Dick, lol. I wonder how Martin avoided being named something similar to what I presume are traditional Dutch names given to his brothers? I'll always have a soft spot for him due to his time at Spurs where it could be argued he started the turn around in fortunes from mid-table underachievers. I'll give you that he is prone to making some rotten signings though! Both players you mention - Mido and Atouba played for Spurs and whilst I am prepared to accept Mido (he wasn't too bad for a season or so), but Atouba makes a great case to be in our top 10 worst ever signings.
Mino Riaola... That's Zlatan's agent isn't it? I had no idea Martin Jol also had him as his agent. I can understand now why things turn sour for him with chairman... As for Stekelenburg, I have to say I haven't heard too much on his Fulham performances. But that's probably a good sign, as if he was playing poor, you can bet there would be more news about him ;)
I will certainly keep that in mind for the November edition of goal of the month! Interesting that my number one didn't make your top three. It just goes to show how many wonderful goals there were last month. Let's hope November treats us too :)
Yep, Arsenal are now 5 points clear at the top after Chelsea's surprise 2-0 defeat to Newcastle on Saturday. After the game, Jose was in his typical humble, gracious mood and stated that he had made 11 mistakes picking the players he selected. The truth is, Newcastle were actually very good and nullified Chelsea perfectly. Now also is a good time to inject a rather humorous story regarding Newcastle and in particular director of football Joe Kinnear, whom you should remember from the calamitous radio interview during the summer where he habitually mispronounced numerous player names and his outgoing boss... Well, apparently back in September Kinnear watched a Birmingham City match and was impressed by Shane Ferguson, so much so that he promptly made an enquiry as to what price Birmingham would sell him for. Birmingham responded by informing Kinnear that Ferguson is currently only on loan to them... from Newcastle!
I too saw most of the Arsenal v Liverpool game and have to say how disappointed I was in Liverpool. They defended terribly and completely out of character to their previous 9 games. All credit to Arsenal for taking advantage though. I still stand firm in my belief that they cannot maintain this level for long enough to win the title. It will be interesting to see if the midweek Champions League tie against Dortmund has any effect to the following weekend's match against Manchester United.
Spurs match report: Well, plenty to talk about here considering the match against Everton finished 0-0! First up, as with the previous match against Hull, we totally dominated the first 45 minutes. Only this time we couldn't get ourselves an opening goal and you got the feeling we would live to regret that. That almost came true as Everton came much stronger after the hour which coincided with us having to substitute Sandro. 'The Beast' had been outstanding all match, completely controlling Lukaku and giving us a much needed solid centre due to playing with two wingers in Lennon and Townsend (more on them soon). After his (enforced) substitution, it allowed Everton to become the dominant side and only for Hugo Lloris and some fine defending from Vlad Chiriches did we hold in there.
Then came a big talking point: The collision of Lukaku's knee and Lloris' forehead which instantly knocked him out cold. There is no question that when he finally came too, he should not have even been given the option to stay on the pitch, but he quite literally ran back on and ignored all medical advice. We've come under a lot of criticism from various charities to even FIFA and that's sort of understandable albeit very short sighted. However, to suggest our medical team were irresponsible is disappointing in the least - lest we forget these are the team who helped to save Fabrice Muamba's life on the White Hart Lane pitch.
As it turned out, we finished much the stronger team but in the end, a draw couldn't really be argued with by either side. The point took us to join 2nd in the league (4th on goal difference) and it seems crazy that we can have any complaints... but I do ;)
There is a lot of talk about the lack of goals for Roberto Soldado - just 4 league goals including 3 penalties, which isn't great. However it is driving me crazy how we are not picking the players around him to play to his strengths. You know I like my stats, so here is one that perfectly illustrates my point: Last season Soldado scored 24 goals in 35 league games for Valencia. Not one of his goals came from outside of the box. So it's obvious this is a striker that thrives on receiving the ball inside the area. Yesterday, guess how many times Soldado touched the ball inside Everton's penalty area? Answer: Once. Now, I think that is fairly obvious he is not getting the correct service from the midfielder behind him. Yesterday we played with Lennon Holtby Townsend with Sandro and Paulinho behind them. I like Holtby, but he is to defensive minded for a supposed number 10. And playing with two genuine wingers - especially ones who can't/won't cross, nor have the vision to play decisive passes is tantamount to footballing suicide when playing with a striker like Soldado.
It's driving me potty to see Eriksen, Lamela and Sigurdsson left on the bench instead of those three. To compound this, if AVB stays true to form for the Thursday Europa League game, he will pick those three players, which almost certainly rules them out of starting the game on Sunday. Unless of course any of them has a brilliant game and forces their way into selection, but then they will be too exhausted for a Premier League match and fail to perform! It's really frustrating me and I worry that we can't keep these narrow wins up for much longer. Having said that, apparently we have now only lost 4 of our last 32 league games, which is quite startling really!
Speaking of winning records, I saw that Roma were held to a draw against Torino which meant they failed to match the current record of 11 straight wins to a top flight European league season. Which made me happy, considering the current holders of that record are, yep, Tottenham Hotspur
One final bit of news to leave you with and one that I'm sure we will hear a lot of over the next year or two if it comes to fruition as expected: Martin O'Neill is all but signed to become the new Republic of Ireland manager - with Roy Keane as his assistant! A match made in heaven or a match made in hell... only time will tell! But it will surely give plenty of talking points :) On Friday/Saturday This was all but confirmed but since yesterday and the almost certain departure of Jol at Fulham, it seems they are preparing to make a last ditch bid for O'Neill. Watch this space.
Oh almost missed you mention Halloween. I presume you are talking about the
Spurs prank video? If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do
The reactions of Sandro, Townsend and Vertonghen are brilliant :)
;)
I'm glad for him now though, as it would have been a shame to see a player I idolised at Spurs flop spectacularly (ok it would have been pretty nice, but not if he then went to an English club rival on the cheap).