Game Recap: Chalton Atheltic 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur

By: Lucas | May 8th, 2007

We won- we didn’t win pretty, we gave Charlton too many chances, but we won. It’s good to be that much closer to European competition, it’s good to see Jermain Defoe scoring again, and it’s fucking outstanding to come back with a clean sheet. Honestly, Paul Robinson must have felt pretty fucking terrible, all those games with goals allowed. Nevertheless, he’s retained his spot in the England set-up, and he’s cut down on the mistakes (somewhat,) so it works for me.

I’ll just go with a list of good/bad performances, starting up front:

Good:

Dimitar Berbatov- Brilliant skill on his goal, and a classy finish past Scott Carson. I really, really hope we don’t sell him off this summer.

Didier Zokora- He’s been coming to the good at about the right time, and he did an excellent job of staying back a little bit more, picking his runs forward more carefully. That, for me, is the focal point of Zokora as a player- when he finds a balance between attack and defense, he’s perfect for us.

Ledley King/Pascal Chimbonda- Didn’t let Darren or Marcus Bent have anything, really, with Chimbonda finding the same good balance between attack and defense as Zokora. For King, his first quality performance since his return.

Anthony Gardner- Anthony Gardner? Holy shit. The man-child put in a surprisingly solid performance as a sub at left fullback, and I will say that if he wasn’t so outright terrible at his natural position, I’d suggest we keep him.

Jermain Defoe- One chance, one goal. I’ll be sad to see him go to Aston Villa or Manchester United, because quite frankly Martin Jol does not play him nearly enough.

Bad:

Jermaine Jenas: Another anonymous performance by the ugliest footballer this side of Gary Neville, Jenas managed to throw his recent good form away by appearing on the ball something like four times all game. I’m told he’s capable of better (the goal against the scum, for instance,) but I haven’t seen it.

So basically, solid performances from everyone except Jermaine Jenas. That seems about right for a Spurs win. Blackburn on Thursday- if we win, we’re into the UEFA Cup.