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Wednesday
13th March 2002, 7.45pm |
FA Premiership, Stamford
Bridge |
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CHELSEA04 Hasselbaink 3 (25,69,81) , Lampard
(90)
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Cudicini , Babayaro , Desailly , Le Saux , Gallas
, Melchiot , Gronkjaer (Stanic 78) , Lampard , Petit , Gudjohnsen (Zola 73) ,
Hasselbaink (Forssell 83) Subs
not used: de Goey , Dalla Bona |
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Sheringham |
Ferdinand (Rebrov 84) |
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Ziege |
Poyet |
Sherwood |
Davies |
Thatcher (Gardner 68)
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Richards (Perry
46)
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King
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Taricco
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Sullivan
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Subs not
used: Keller, Etherington |
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TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0 |
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Referee: - A.G Wiley |
Attendance: - |
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The season is falling apart by the minute and is in danger of turning into a shambles as we crashed to our third consecutive 4-0 defeat & while in the morning I’m sure the wider issues of happier times at the Lane and things generally getting better – this was a desperately disappointing sequence of results and is enough to deflate, albeit briefly the enthusiasm.
Irrespective of the result, Chelsea is the by a long way the worst away game of the season – expensive tickets, a crap ground and a racist hostile atmosphere all around the ground. The topspurs representatives – Jacob, Lee Dumont, along with Boris and his friend over from Macedonia - met in a boozer well away from the ground up by Earls Court. After the trouble after the match on Sunday virtually all the Spurs were without Colours to avoid identification, a case not helped for some of us by having the Spurs team on the DINKT quiz shown on the TV in the Pubs at 6pm & Danny Keane called to say a Chelsea mate had identified him! In the end there was no trouble and after a couple of pints we headed for the ground more in hope than expectation.
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Le Saux celebrates his "union" with Petit and the fact that he is now the 6th best English left back in the country |
Chelsea is unsporting and snide environment, and after Bates moaning about Spurs apparent gloating after the 5-1 battering we gave them in the Semi, they wasted no time to have pictures from their Cup win at the Weekend all over the programme, which contained the usual unprofessional digs at all of our players. If ever a team really needs a Football battering it is Chelsea – they are utter Scum – and the sooner their debt strangles the life out of them the better. Gardner was relegated to the bench after being one of the few players to come out of Sunday with any credit as Hoddle switched to a 4-4-2 – with Treacle and Thatcher coming in as full backs. Chelsea – a team of wankers, maintained in their high position by a collection of excellent forwards. Fresh from learning a new song at the weekend, Mr Dumont
was in like a shot with “Have you ever done the double, have you fuck”, and
we managed to get a small pocked of resistance to Chelsea’s “We hate
Tottenham” with the only credible reply “We hate Arsenal” – the song to really
put them in their place. |
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Spurs started ok in a game lacking the intensity and passion of the cup game, and I wonder if the old bill and FA had been in contact with the clubs to calm it. We had a shout for a penalty as Sheringham and Ferdinand combined in the box, while at the other end Gudjohnson smashed the ball high and wide after getting in behind Thatcher
With low expectations before the match, our ok start was refreshing and while we were not looking world beaters, we were comfortable in the game until a moment of bad defending let Chelsea in. Hasawank received the ball just inside our half and ran towards the goal, with Richards obligingly backing off before he curled a right foot shot beyond Sully to give them a 1-0.
This was a desperately bad bit of defending from Richards. When we signed him in September, I was not pleased that we were signing an uncapped 27 year old with only 2 seasons premiership experience for £8m – he was just another Perry, a decent player around the crap at SCBC (a team that gave Francis Benali a home for 10 years!) but not the sort of player to get us to or cope in the Champions League! Along with the sometimes poor use of Rebrov, this is the only thing I think Hoddle has got wrong in his otherwise great time at the Lane – but at least he had the strength of character to remove him on Sunday when he wanted to take off a centre back (leaving the better pair of King and Gardner on the pitch) . Richards is not rubbish – he just is n’t the top notch player we need – and I wait in vain for him to make me eat my words about him, which I would be glad to do if he suddenly morphs into a top defender.
At 1-0 – things did not look good for a win (although it could have been a lot worse if Ledley had not cleared off the line from Gudjohnson soon after), but if we could hold them at this score line for a while, we had a chance of nicking something as long as we scored the next goal.
Our best chance of the half came when a long ball was played in to the box to Ferdinand. A month ago, Les would have headed for goal with some confidence – but a month is a long time and he chose to head across the box for Sheringham, but the ball was cleared before he could reach it. It is often mentioned that we should be behind all the players all the time during a match – giving them stick in the pubs and message boards afterwards if required – and this was a perfect example of someone who has lost a bit of confidence after missing vital chances in recent weeks. On cue, the shouts of abuse for Ferdinand, and Sheringham, Ziege and Sherwood for good measure came from the Spurs fans – although not from me.
Sherwood – on the ground that re-launched his Spurs career in the League Cup Semi first leg was playing ok in the middle but was lacking support with Davies and Ziege wide – and only Poyet at walking pace in the middle. Sherwood cocked up in the Chelsea half and they broke with Speed (remember the last time Spurs did that?) with eventually Hasawank shooting over after Richards again backed off him. Sherwood then had a toe to toe row with Richards with some pushing and shoving going on. Sherwood understandably unhappy about Richards defending, while Richards unhappy that yet again the defence was getting no cover from the midfield. Even so this is not something I want to see Spurs player doing on the pitch, esp. Richards, who now has been involved in two of these incidents in recent weeks.
Maybe the row continued in the dressing room as Richards did not make it out for the second half, being replaced by topspurs favourite Mr Ed, who had a solid and unassuming match in the middle.
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Our best chance of the match, came just after half time
when Sheringham worked the ball back to Poyet a full 35 yards out, and he
smashed a brilliant curling shot just over the bar. It was the Poyet moment
of the match, he invariably only has a moment each match & if his moment
is a goal, much of the 89 minutes of anonymity is forgotten – but like the Cup
Final when his moment is a near miss you have to question what he actually
gives to the team. Much has been made of our old players, but only really
Poyet is struggling cos of his age – Ferdinand is coping ok (despite missing
too many chances), Sheringham is just out of form and does not really rely on
attributes that are affected by aging. It has to be Davies from the start
with Poyet from the bench as a late goal threat next season. |
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The moment that changed the match irrevocably was the Treacle sending off. Over the right wing position well inside the Chelsea half he lunged at Le Saux in what can only be described as a stupid tackle. Within the laws of the game – this was a yellow card offence – just as Le Saux got a second yellow not a straight red for a similar tackle in the Cup game on Sunday. But with all the players kicking off and in front of a load of racist Chelsea fans - Wiley lost his head and got caught up with the Chelsea furore and sent him off. For the second time in a week – Treacle has been sent off with straight red cards for only bookable offences – but the FA have not allowed a possible appeal which is a shocking decision. Despite it not being a straight red card – Taricco is an f**king idiot for going in on Le Saux like that and his dismissal, although harsh effectively ended our hopes in the match. The sending off did provide one moment of light relief when I think Sherwood threw the ball into Gronkjaer’s face, making the Chelsea player fall to the ground like he had been shot in the head, before he realised he had only had the ball thrown in his face and he sheepishly got up, going to prove they are only a team of wankers.
A tactical switch saw Gardner come on for Thatcher and Ledley go wide to cover the gap left by Treacle but if we were already stretched with 11 against them, with 10 it was only a matter of time. The second game from a run down the Chelsea right by Gronkjaer who sent over a run of the mill cross for Hasawank to rise unmarked in the middle of the box, to nod home. When the ball was in flight and you could see Hasawank unmarked you knew it was a goal, in a similar situation with the ball coming to Sir Les or Sheringham you would not necessarily be thinking goal – which is the main difference between the teams – despite what the score line suggests.
We had one chance to get back in the match, when Ziege crossed into the box for the on rushing Ferdinand, but we knew there was no way back when he virtually missed the ball and Chelsea cleared. The 35 year old Zola warming up on the touchline beneath us was greeted with a shout of “Don’t worry, in a couple of years we’ll be up for signing you”. One big fat wanker behind me come out with “Hoddle you don’t know what you are doing” but he was rapidly silenced by the Spurs fans around him.
Daniel Wynne texted me that Hasawank had now scored 6 times against us this season & I thought straight away that was asking for trouble and sure enough his hatrick followed when he ran past a couple of half hearted challenges on the edge of the box before curling a left footed shot into the corner. Make that 7 Daniel! – a truly hideous statistic, but put into context when you think that their previous best striker was Kerry Dixon, a bloke released by Spurs as a youth player.
Lamppost scored a 4th to make the miserable night complete near the end after Davies had cleared off the line after a bit of pin ball in the box and that was that. Sherwood smashed the Perspex of the players tunnel as he went in, injuring a Chelsea steward but it was no consolation as we went home to study the history books to see if we’d even had three 4-0 defeats in a week before.
Glad its over & we can forget about it to next season. Chelsea have now done us 4 times out of 5 this season, with the 5-1 being a notable exception. In all but the last two matches, Spurs have looked good against Chelsea but tired legs and lack of Spirit saw us humbled in the last two matches, and when we were on the ropes Chelsea showed no mercy.
In the two league matches we have lost 4-0, we have conceded 6 of the eight goals while we had 10 men away to top 5 teams in fixtures we have not won since 1989 & 1990 respectively. In the cup game we were hit on the break a couple of times while we pushed to get back in the game. In saying that – we should not have let in as many goals as we have done and need to toughen up to be successful & we cannot afford to let this happen again. ENIC get that wallet out over the summer and back Hoddle just as the fans are doing – cos if you don’t and we are going into the next encounter with Chelsea with the gulf in class between our respective squads there will be trouble brewing. You know what to do – you have been talking a good game, but the period between now and the start of next season is the time for action. You have been warned.
The
Word of Hod
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"I don't
think you can say that, referees have got to make a decision, this game is
this game. He's made a decision possibly off the reaction of the crowd and
the players. "I would
like to have had the options, but the options weren't there I'm afraid. He didn't
play on Sunday because I felt, being at home, we needed two wing-backs who
were going to go forward more. |
Hoddle tries to work out just how fat Hasawank's arse has got |
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"Unfortunately
for us Taricco is going to be banned and we've got injuries as well. Deano had
to come off at half time with a slight hamstring, Ben Thatcher had an injury
and Les Ferdinand's got an Achilles problem as well.
"We're
disappointed at this moment in time, it goes without saying. The mood will be
when we train that we're going to have to work hard and collectively go
forward.
Sullivan (6/10) – No chance with the goals and did ok otherwise
Thatcher (5/10) – Got done a couple of times, and while you cannot complain at his effort, he is lacking in the necessary talent
Taricco (4/10)
– Did ok until a moment of absolute stupidity got us down to 10 men with his
second consecutive league sending off. Idiot- this cost us what little chance
we had
Richards (4/10) – A bad bit of defending let Chelsea in for the first and got involved with an on the pitch scuffle with a team mate – not a good contribution
King (6/10) – A decent performance from Ledley as ever- but not enough to save Spurs
Ziege (5/10)
–
Sherwood (5/10) – Did ok without much support in the middle but should not have got involved with Richards on the pitch, no matter how bad he looked
Poyet (5/10)
– Anonymous apart from a brilliant 35 yard shot that just went over. but that
is him, and today with no goal to his name you start to question his value,
just as you would over look this if he nicks a goal
Davies (6/10) – Ran and battled and generally played ok – but most of all looked the player with most fight – the one that did not want to lose again.
Sheringham (5/10) – Still well below par, but did ok in his link man role
Ferdinand (5/10) – Did not head for goal when he had a good chance in the first half and you wonder if all the recent misses are beginning to worry him. Crowd on his back for a lot the match, and missed a Ziege cross at 2-0 which may have made things a bit interesting in the last 10 minutes
Subs:
Rebrov (5/10) – Had a shot in his 6 minutes – but it was all over long before
Perry (6/10) – Did ok when he came on in his reliable “Gary Neville-esque” way
Gardner (6/10) – Had a solid match and hopefully if he keeps injury free the left centre back slot should be his very soon
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