Spurs vs. Cottagers 0-0…

By: Drew | December 26th, 2008

Although this year may have brought me a lucrative raiding of holiday bird and presents, There was one thing that I asked Santa for that was missing this Christmas. That being the assurance of 3 points at home vs. Fulham(who’s away form isn’t exactly stunning). Alas I suppose metaphorically speaking I asked for an Xbox and got nice pair of socks instead.

Our starting 11 in our standard 4-5-1 looked like this:
Gomes
Corluka, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto
Lennon, Zakora, Huddlestone, Bently
Modric
Bent

Our Boxing day match saw the Return Of Darren Bent after a spell our with tonsillitis, but if you ask me it didn’t really see him all that much. Too put it frankly he just looked a bit rusty from being out sick. If I were Harry(which i have found myself saying these past couple of games) I might have had him sit this one for the start.

The game started with fairly even possession between the two teams, Spurs were definitely the dominant team in going forward, and created the majority of chances in the first half. Then at the twenty minute mark Huddlestone landed awkwardly on his ankle after a challenge in mid-field and was subbed out for Jermaine Jenas. Again not a decision I entirely agree with, as Jamie O’hara has been in top form as of late and we could have used a bit more forward motion in behind Modric. Regardless of who was put where, another injury is the last thing we need in our squad and Huddlestone’s passing ability is not something we want to be missing in our next couple of games.

Our best chances of the first half came not so surprisingly from Luka’s gorgeous left footed strike after turning Fulham’s defense inside out, and Aaron Lennon’s cross into Ledley King that went just wide of the post. Other than that David Bently(who is still looking like Spurs’ worst player on the pitch) had one of his “Maybe if I kick it straight at the keeper it’ll go in” moments.

Just before half-time Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard seemed to have strained a muscle in the back of his leg and was subbed out for Dickson Etuhu. After 2 minutes of stoppage time a very lack luster Spurs side went into the locker room to reflect on the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly (blonde streak in the afro that BAE was sporting).

The second half went much like the first, until Harry made a good decision by taking Bently off, but put in Fraizer Campbell as a second striker. Dropping Modric back to play wide-mid, Again not a decision I entirely agreed with. I would have put Gareth Bale in the left-mid position after he more than proved his crossing ability with his assist in the Spartak game.

After moving into the 4-4-2 our only chance still came from Modric meeting with a cross from Assou-Ekotto and his afro, but the ball went wide of the post. At the 72nd minute I think Harry finally realized that Bent shouldn’t have started and subbed him out for Roman Pavlyuchenko to partner up with Campbell up front. Oddly enough after less than a minute Pav gets his first touch on the ball with a decent strike but is denied by Fulham’s keeper.

The game saw a good performance by Gomes with 3 rock solid saves, and the prevention of a corner right at the end to keep the Spurs attack forging on.

After three minutes of stoppage time, and continuous attempts at goal by Spurs, the whistle finally blew for another game that was there for the taking and squandered by missed chances. The only upside was this one stayed a draw the whole game and wasn’t snatched from us at the last minute.

Man of the match award goes to Luka Modric again, to no ones surprise. He is always at the heart of every chance that we have had in the past few games, and if we can get a toothy striker next month to link up well with him I see us scoring many, many goals. Runner up is definitely Aaron Lennon, he continued to drive into the box from the right side and cause trouble for the back line.

Needless to say December hasn’t been a good month for Spurs as far as points go, a win over the Hammers, a draw with ManU, a last gasp loss to Newcastle, and now another draw at home to Fulham leaves us with 5 points from a possible 12. Luckily enough other team’s results have gone our way this month and we’ve managed to stay in 16th place based on goal differential, with Borough and Stoke below us both with 20 points as well. With a trip to WestBrom on Sunday I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to get a win and move safely up the table, as we are treading in dangerous waters right now.

Here is what Harry had to say about the game…

In other news it would appear our bid for Craig Bellamy was denied as it has come out that he his a pivotal part of Zola’s plans. I was pretty much on the fence as far as how I felt about Bellamy coming to Spurs. I agree about needing a striker, but his history of attitude problems, his nomadic tendencies (8 teams in 8 years!), his history being injury prone, and the fact that he’s 29, makes me kind of glad that we didn’t get him. Although I was impressed with his two goals against Portsmouth today, I’d rather look for more of a long term solution to our problem.

My vote is for Fernando Cavenaghi from Bordeaux, you can say all you want about him not being a proven goal scorer in the EPL but his style, and his track record are enough for me to give him a chance. He currently has 25 goals in 46 appearances for Bordeaux and prior to that he scored 55 goals in 89 appearances for River Plate. He can have Gilberto’s #11 shirt. Word on the street says we have made it known that he’s wanted at WHL. In case you haven’t seen him in action here is a little taste…

If we had the cash to splurge Marc Janko, and Andrei Arshavin would be people on my wish list too, but I think getting another CB and Keeper are more pressing issues than spending just for the sake of spending. Only 5 more days till the transfer window opens up! And i anxiously await to see who we pick up.

Finally, a little comfort can be taken in the fact that Aston Villa denied Arsenal a victory with 2 late goals today. Which at least gives us some comfort that there is justice in the world. HaHa… see you all after the WBA game on Sunday.

COYS!!!!