Spurs.....WTF is going on with all this diving?

I've always thought that they play very nice counter-attacking football....but today I've seen a team that has been sent out to dive at every opportunity to get free-kicks so they can pump the ball into our box.....and it's pretty embarrassing.

Poor defending at set-pieces by Yaya again and Kolorov allowing Caulker to get in front of him had cost us so far...so has the final ball and the finishing.......but overall, we've looked comfortable up to half-time.

We need to make sure that final ball comes from Silva, as he seems to be the one that is splitting their defence..........and as for the hand ball by Gallas??

Looked as if the ref was caught blind-sided and didn't see it, otherwise, I'm sure he would have given it.

Second half, much of the same, but more clinical.

Come on City.

No silly second yellow cards!!

Right, where to begin?

Ah yes, Andy Townsend's initial half time comments: Adebayour is muscling this City defence and it's causing them all sorts of problems...they really haven't got in gear.

When he got the ball, Ade was on one of his missions granted, but they didn't end up amounting to anything more than one outside the box hope to mis-sight the keeper opp which went wide anyway. Aside from that (bear in mind I didn't see the first 24 mins) I thought yes, we looked comfortable, and would rip Spurs a new one second half due to the fact that 'without getting into gear' we had created 3 or 4 clear scoring opportunities plus been refused 2 good penalty calls.

Second half - re: how to play football, yes we did rip them a new one even though they had backed up somewhat to protect their lead and try to catch us on the counter. Having that little bit of discipline at the back coupled with slick, fast manipulation plus runners making themselves available resulted in our bossing practically every area on the pitch (especially the middle of the park) and never giving them the chance to get a clear counter going. It opened up everything else, and bar more profligate finishing/good saves & tackles it could well have been the murder scene I was predicting again.

Fantastic display, spirit of Champions shown in the face of at least in first half what I thought was some crappy reffing.

Yes, after the last few games, I am tempted to climb back into the conspiracy boat ( , but today was about showing like last year that no matter what they throw at us, we will eventually smash'em and Blue almighty will win through.

Raaaaahh!

well said ....and 'super-sub ' does it again!!

oh how we have missed David.

well done boys...........thought Clichy was immense today, my MOM.

Chelsea held to a draw, back up to 2nd, breathing down Utd's neck......
Looking forward to seeing this on MoTD, see what Gary L has to say, the Beeb actually have had some more balanced comments with Lineiker and Shearer both chipping in on our favour of late.
After a hard session on the bike trainer this afternoon, I deserve to replace all calories burnt with a few beers while MoTD is on.....!
I see the 3 at the back worked today too!!!!

There has been a lot of criticism on Maicon recentlly but on todays performance he is okay for a free transfer,some of his crosses into the box are what we have been missing,Dzeko is immense,and the team as a whole seems to be coming together now we have Silva back.Even Kolarov is looking good.Two points behind the rags,can't wait till they blow up:)

coolenglishbob wrote:There has been a lot of criticism on Maicon recentlly but on todays performance he is okay for a free transfer,some of his crosses into the box are what we have been missing,Dzeko is immense,and the team as a whole seems to be coming together now we have Silva back.Even Kolarov is looking good.Two points behind the rags,can't wait till they blow up:)

Thought Maicon cost us £3m?

£1m per cross.........value!!

coolenglishbob wrote:Dzeko is immense

What worries me is he is immense at what he is doing now, ie SUPER SUB

He is not as effective when starting games. Now this worries me as I see Arsenal sniffing around him in the gossip columns today. I think an offer of guaranteed 1st team footy and we will lose him.

PS. Try telling the spuds about the diving on JA606, they think we are dirtier than Stoke

We will only lose him blistering if:

(a) RM is willing to sell him.

(b) Arsenal are willing to match our valuation of him.

If they are willing to pay upto £15m for Zaha, then i'd be expecting £20m+ for Dzeko........i'd take that.

I guess, but I've given up trying to second guess Bobby.

We were so effective yesterday playing out and out wingers and Silva controlling the middle. Out and out wingers needs Dzeko, we can't seriously be thinking of letting him go.

Tevez and Sergio knacker the defences after 60 mins, then it's cannon fodder for Edin. It's not rocket science he is scoring so many late winners but you can tell from all the interviews he doesn't like it.

IF we do go for Falcao as has been suggested, I can't see Dzeko staying to be 4th striker (if we sell bell end Mario).

Totally agree mate.

But Tevez and Aguero are too alike to really start together, we get no height in the box or strong hold up play with both them playing, that's why I think we need two lots of little and large pairings, Tevez can always drop deep and operate there, Aguero is best playing on the shoulder.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, Edin isn't as effective from the start, he scores because he can finish with head and feet, after playing for 3/4 of the match against 2 small strikers, Edin came on and suddenly we had double the potential scoring positions, as Edin nearly demonstrated with his header, when the FA Cup starts up, let him have a run in that, even the Europa ( if we don't finish bottom) it's a long season, injuries will happen.

Ah, this was the article I was replying to when the site disappeared, and my eloquent rant has gone forever.

Yes, it WAS eloquent!!

Anyway, my thoughts on divey spuds was basically that they couldn't get past us by playing football, so resorted to falling over in order to get free kicks. And the ref, being a bit of a prat, fell for it every time. Even to the extent that Yaya concedes a free kick for getting an arm across his throat. (Was it Sandro that did that?)

The other part of my rant was about the 13 year olds making JA606 a place I no longer go to, the irony being that after losing this place, I went straight there to see if I could find someone who knew what had happened. So I shan't bother repeating it, except it's nice to be here where there are no diva smileys!