As Spurs’ title tilt finally ended in mayhem at the Bridge last night, what stays in the memory is not the inability to catch the champions but the fact that Tottenham were there in the first place. Nothing can detract from this season of remarkable achievement. All this guff about Spurs reverting to type and choking is so much hot air. Spurs fans know what’s right, that the very opposite is true. Against what we have sadly come to expect over the years, the youngest side in the Premier League has vastly exceeded expectations and we of all the challengers are the only ones to fulfil potential and punch above our weight.
This was supposed to be a season of consolidation, progress and potential, where the manager schooled the squad into the ways of a winning team. That’s what happened, only four times faster than anyone expected. Remember August, promise shown but losing to United and dropping a two-goal lead home to Stoke? Or an autumn with a few too many draws then hitting the buffers at home to Newcastle? It feels a world away – that’s how far Spurs have come.
Tottenham Hotspur – the team the nation wants to see defeated. A point and the entire country rejoiced. Phenomenal pressure to carry as players take the field, a burden made heavier by the behaviour of our opponents. I’m struggling to think of anything that compares in my time. Everybody, but everybody, wanted us to lose and you can’t protect the players from that entirely. By the end, it showed.
Sincere congratulations to Leicester. The fairytale narrative grates but that is not their fault. It detracts from their genuine triumph, accomplished by hard work, insightful scouting and a manager able to make the very best of the talent available to him. The football landscape is supposedly changing as it becomes oh so contemporary but these are the values behind every successful team in the last 150 years and they are no different from what Pochettino is doing. Only the style of play differs. Reassuring for an old guy like me.
There’s still a way to go in a league that can be as brutal and unforgiving as it is at times uplifting. So let’s put last night down as a learning experience, bearing in mind that we all learn best from our mistakes. From the kick-off Spurs’ determination to impose themselves was evident, not only in the familiar team press but also with a series of tackles, some fierce, others niggly. The real issue in the run-in was not the result of this match but the two points dropped against West Brom, where we allowed them to dominate in the second half. That wasn’t going to happen twice in succession. Before the match our opponents declared their lofty ambition to lay down against Leicester and on their behalf beat Spurs. Players and manager weren’t having any of that and quite right too.
After early skirmishes Spurs went into half-time two goals to the good. Both were well-worked products of our pass and move style, both were impeccably finished. Kane rounded the keeper for the first after Lamela’s through-ball sliced the defence open. This was the Argentinian at his best. It’s not about his workrate, welcome though that has become, it’s about his touch 25 yards out, another perfect angled ball to Kane’s feet. Son, who was peripheral, got himself together for the second, slotting home Eriksen’s pass. Both goals came from trademark Tottenham tactics that enable the forward three to come inside to outnumber their markers.
Spurs had other chances too. However, this classy football became increasingly at odds with a match that descended into a bitter, nasty affair. Both sides were culpable but our inexperience showed itself in another way. Over-compensating, Spurs were putting too much into it and in their determination to avoid being intimidated went over the top. In the long-run, it is a good thing. All successful teams can hold their own physically and refuse to give ground. Like I say, all part of the learning process. It’s just that the experienced, hard teams learn the dark arts of controlled aggression. By the end of this one, frankly Spurs had lost it.
By half-time three of the Spurs back four had been booked, Rose, Walker and Vertonghen. Rose and Walker in particular were playing well but the fouls were needless, ploughing in or in Walker’s case slyly kicking out. The ref missed the worst – Dembele’s attempt to gouge Costa’s eye was disgraceful and I don’t care that I’m saying this about one of my favourite Spurs players.
Hazard’s arrival after half-time changed the game. Spurs were always threatened by his skill at running at defenders who had to be careful because they had already been booked. Standing off gave him a half a yard, although to Walker’s credit he judged his challenges very well. Old failings – the two wide forwards did not come back often enough to offer more protection.
Toby Alderweireld has been outstanding and sewn up my player of the year vote by Christmas. Last night, he made errors for both goals conceded. His weakness is marking tightly and with strength at corners. All game he allowed Cahill too much room and from one corner the ball ran loose for the England man to slam it in. Spurs weathered the storm and indeed made further chances to extend the lead with Kane peerless yet again. However, we could not keep possession long enough and it kept on coming back at us. The blues equalised when Toby came forward to challenge as we have seen him do so often this season. This time he misjudged it and was easily turned by Costa who put Hazard in. A point at the Bridge was all part of the plan a few weeks ago. To repeat, the two dropped against WBA were the problem.
I say all this in the cold light of day. Last night, watching the second half was a deeply unpleasant experience. Spurs ended up with 9 bookings and could easily have had three sendings off in a frenzied finale. Think of it as a history lesson. Kids, this was what big games were like in 1986, as Dier scythed down anything in his path and Lamela launched himself into shins from distance. Dembele will be banned retrospectively, Lamela and Dier somehow escaped dismissals for two bookable offences.
So the winding-up worked. Lamela in particular fell for it – one unnecessary foul then treading on Fabregas’s hand. If Hazard and Fabregas had taunted opposition fans as blatantly on the pitch they would have been disciplined. Off the pitch pre-match – nothing. Their actions inflamed fans both home and away. Add a bitterly fought derby being played at 8pm on a bank holiday at Sky’s insistence and you have an incendiary situation that puts supporters at undue risk. Yet there are no consequences.
Above all, Spurs wasted ten minutes when they could have pushed for a winner by kicking their opponents. I feel sad but not angry – this is a step towards developing the focussed aggression that if added to our game will serve us well next season as our rich promise unfolds. On the night, it stopped us playing more effectively than anything our opponents could offer. Dembele was well up for the fight – and was largely ineffectual.
As for the blues fans, taking the time and trouble to write banners praising another team and the manager they got rid of because he wasn’t good enough for their lofty ambitions shows a small-mindedness unbefitting a side that have won the CL. I’ve never seen anything like it and betrays a deep anxiety that pays Spurs the ultimate compliment. They fear us because we are the coming force in the English game. Let’s focus totally on Sunday and beating Saints – make second place ours, we deserve it. Stay proud, we are forever Tottenham and go again.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Always found it funny that there’s Chelsea, owned and run by a criminal, staffed by precious mercenaries and supported by racist morons, yet WE are the team everyone wants to lose. Baffling.
I’m being bombarded with Chelsea/Arsenal fans, crowing at how we’ve blown it. Which seems like laughing at your neighbour for having dog poo on your lawn when their house is on fire.
Maybe next season, one of them will join in the title race.
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We’re only 3 points behind you wankers 🙂 Hahahahahahahahaha
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We’re only 3 point behind you wankers 🙂 hahahahahahaha
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You mean there’s a gap? Careful.
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Ah yes, that’ll be the Woolwich team whose supporters want to sack their manager because they’ll finish third or even second (over my dead body) this season, and have consistently qualified for the Champions’ League for over a decade…and they say Spurs’ fans are delusional?
I really hope you lot get your wish and Wenger goes. Good luck with finding a manager that can compete at the highest level straight out of the gate. We’ve got one. Surprisingly they don’t grow on trees. Ask CFC, City, United, Liverpool…
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Cheers Alan, It’s a grand onl team… Yes thegame last night was not pretty to watch and Dembele may well be out for afew games next season, but saying that Southern Softies tag has been put to bed. Hopefully the FA don’t revive spursy by taking points off us. COYS!
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While the dembele eye gouge in indefensible i’m happy that we went down swinging for once instead of meekly surrendering. I love the pride the players showed, fighting till the end. As you said if Chelsea weren’t so inflammatory in the build up then it probably would have been a different more docile game but people seem to be glazing over that.
Shame to not win but best team in London this year by far and hopefully can wrap up 2nd on Sunday and go again next year.
Chelsea and Arsenal clinging onto us ‘choking’ to justify their pathetic seasons. Fuck them. We will have boasting rights this year.
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It makes me smile (aside from their racist/anti-semitic preoccupations) just how much we mean to Chelsea. I’d rather beat Arsenal then West Ham before even considering them.
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A good reflection on a challenging night. I agree with your perspective almost entirely. CFC behaved disgracefully and how their supporters can take any pride in their players turning up against us when they haven’t bothered all season is beyond me. A draw was a reasonable result, although surrendering a two-goal lead is unacceptable.
I wasn’t happy that we played such an ugly game: I expect it of CFC, but our season has been characterised by playing the way we always dreamt we should play and not allowing other teams to dictate terms to us. It was collective immaturity, but it was also unprofessional as it did nothing to further winning the game and if Dembele is banned retrospectively as is likely, might even jeopardise second place with Alli also out. Lamela should have been sent off too, it’s just luck that he won’t miss the next game. Kane emerged, yet again, as the model player – a goal on the night and didn’t get seduced by any of the nonsense. Lessons hopefully learnt and all that.
I actually think that Poch made a significant error in opting to defend what we had so early in the second half: Mason for Son was premature. I wasn’t alone in shouting at the substitution when it happened and, as we know, pub crowds are always right and always know more than the manager. It allowed CFC to worry less about containing our attacks and focus on theirs. When they equalised we couldn’t respond and without pointing too many fingers Mason had two decent chances in front of goal.
Second will be a massive achievement and that’s all that’s available to us now. No room for crying over spilt milk. COYS!
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There was that week though. That week you’ll always think about. That week where you just had to win one game, either against West Ham or Arsenal, to go top of the league. And you lost to West Ham and let a lead slip against 10-man Arsenal. You’ll think about that a lot. You will.
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You are right – that was a bad week, and a decent opportunity. But those 2 games were similar to last night. A young team up against highly motivated London teams in a derby. Hopefully we can learn from it- and learn to adapt and play in different ways. It feels like we don’t know how to play the Chelsea/Leicester way in defending deep and not providing space. We need a plan B or C when needed, and hopefully in future we can win against Arsenal, West Brom and Chelsea in the same situation – and get a draw against West Ham. That is 7 points!
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No, because there was the first four games of the season, there was the Newcastle game, there was the Leicester defeat at home. Oh wait…. there are 38 games in a PL season? So I’ll think about the whole season including, when we did Man City home and away, Man U at home, Kane’s equaliser against Arsenal, Trippier winner’s, Son’s winner, Eriksen putting one past Hart, the list is endless. Great moments.
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we should not play on Monday nights. The games ends around 11pm in my time zone, and I can barely sleep for the next 2 hours. Last night must have been at least 3 hours. I need a good 6 hours to recover from a Spurs game. Last night was something else. In retrospective – we have a young team (but still reasonably expensive) playing away from home – at the home of the champions, and a very expensively assembled squad (they could put Hazard and Oscar on as subs). Chelsea were more motivated then virtually any other game this season (and honestly this is not something Leicester have to deal with – no crazy London derbies for them). Overall we did ok last night – and a pity to see Toby make those mistakes. some of the actions is not something I would like to see of my beloved Spurs. but as a human being – I can understand it. Emotion and heart overtook reason. I sincerely hope we can get at least 4 points from the last 2 games, and really build upon this. Our first 11 is fantastic, but do need more strength in depth – imagine an Eden Hazard type player coming on for us. Overall, an amazing season – and for the first time since supporting Spurs from the early 80’s, we were still in with a chance in May.. Who would have thought that. Now if only we played a full team against palace, we might have been in the FA Cup.
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The best of all the blogs I’ve read but as I’ve said on other blogs, I can’t condemn anything from last night, including Dembele. Proud of this team and can’t wait to show it on Sunday. So looking forward to Sunday, so looking forward to next season
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Thanks Alan,
Congrats to Leicester, amazing consistency.
Well, we choked a great deal later than chelsea, arsenal, and the rest. The league table on 2 Jan is instructive. We were 5th, I think, 7 points behind the then leaders, poor divided, confused, salad arsenal.
It would have been nice to have defeated chelsea, but we all know which is the better side this season, regardless. It was OTT by the end, but we have been unlikely to catch Leicester for weeks; they have simply rolled on and huge credit to them. So, I’ll be very honest: strictly as a one time offer, I was fine with us giving a Chelsea side so lacking in moral courage a good shoeing. In the longer term the experience may prove to be more beneficial than winning on the night.
We still had good chances to put it out of the sight second half.
Let’s hope we are back to our controlled best on Sunday.
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I needed some time to calm down from the fight of the century and it’s strange how a bit of time can change one’s perspective. It was one of the more inept reffing performances by Clattenberg in modern times. A lot of people missed an obvious foul on Harry just before Hazard scored. Three defenders converged on Harry just outside the box and he was illegally crunched by two of them – then Clattenberg let Chelsea play on, claiming the third player picked up the loose ball fairly!
But today I am proud of our young boys for sticking up for themselves. The youngest team in the league didn’t back down and sent a real signal for next season that if anyone wants to scrap, then they’ll come off second best. It was a battle against a horrible team, a one sided ref and away from home, but this Tottenham team stood up for us and showed us that we are up for the fight next year.
But any inquest on the season has to address the loss of valuable points when in winning positions. Alli would have toughened things up, no doubt, but we need more experience and muscle to hold onto what we have. A well deserved point and the way we stared them down was an equally important step in our growth.
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I don’t think you understand the difference in standing up for yourself & outright clumsy thuggery. Next time you won’t have such a one sided ref who is so reluctant to give out just punishment. Standing up for yourself against what exactly? Chelsea weren’t doing anything to you for you to stand up to.
The bottom line is you were fine in the 1st half but as soon as Hazard starting ripping you apart you couldn’t handle it.
As for getting all hysterical because another player expressed his honest feelings in not wanting to see you win the lge—well, come on, are you really claiming that bothered you? If it did then your players need to grow up.
A horrible team of thugs, highly overrated & only finished in the top 4 because it was a freak season, let’s see if Leicester & Spurs can repeat it next season when the big boys return to the challenge.
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Thanks for the therapy Al.
Congratulations to Leicester. If it isn’t us I’m glad it is you.
The Manchester clubs, Ars*nal and Chelsea should all be deeply embarrassed by their failure to come close to Leicester this year.
And if Chelsea had played like that all year they would have retained the title and kept Maureen as manager.
When he was sacked weren’t their fans blaming (among others) Fabregas and Hazard?
Money can buy you a lot of things except class, as we see judging from the reaction of many fans of Ars*nal and the blues to last night’s game.
What an evening.
We are a young team and the pressure got to us.
The nationwide expectation and hope that Leicester would take the title. Outrageous pre-match conduct by Chelsea players. The idea that Chelsea were playing ‘for’ Leicester.
We lost our heads.
Some terrible tackles and behaviour by our players which, in the end, probably cost us the game.
We should have cooly and dispassionately sent them packing.
This said, I’m still proud of the team. At least they showed spirit and guts.
Would have preferred a win but a draw is respectable. As you said, it was West Brom and Newcastle that did for us.
But I would still have preferred our season to anyone’s but Leicester.
The players must be mentally and physically shattered.
Let’s finish the season strong and with pride.
Leave the booing and half-arsed protests to fans of other teams and sing our hearts out for the players at the weekend in their last home game. (Will we have a team?)
COYS
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Agreed, Alan.
At least we went down fighting!
As Poch said, firstly congratulations Leicester. Had it been Spurs merely jostling for 4th/5th as we hoped back in August (even at Christmas), we’d have all been willing Leicester on if they were being pursued by, say, Man City or United. It is a remarkable achievement by a good manager (and apparently charming man), at a “small club”, with a team of unheralded players. I think calm analysis in the days ahead will show that they deserved it (just), despite our better stats in every area but points gained.
Yes, Leicester’s football is limited in ambition. But they executed a narrow strategy perfectly over 38 games. Yes, they were lucky, during the run-in in particular, but all champions need luck.
It does seem typical Spurs misfortune that, in any other Season, for neutral fans, the media and perhaps even Sky, we’d have been the “story”. But, instead, Leicester were cast as Cinderella and Spurs got to play the Wicked Witch; a great pantomime part, all the best lines, but doomed in the final scene. We had to fight not just our opponent but the entire global audience willing us to fail. 5000 to 1 and all that.
Still, it was a much better role than Liverpool and United played, and Chelsea who got a walk-on part. When Willian declined to shoot to win in the 95th minute and passed to the corner flag, I wonder if there has ever been a more pathetic handing over of a league title than that? Chelsea were, after all, reigning champions until that moment.
One thing I’ll never understand is what Spurs did in a previous life to nourish such animosity and vitriol in Chelsea, West Ham and Arsenal. Why should all three major London Clubs hate us more than any other?
We took only 7 points out of 18 from our “derbies” (3 from W. Ham, 2 from Arsenal, 2 from Chelsea). Put another way, we dropped 11 pnts. We should have taken more but undoubtedly those teams raised their games against us, particularly West Ham away and Chelsea last night. Meanwhile Leicester’s local rivals include Coventry, Birmingham City and Notts Forest ! From what I saw, few Premiership sides shifted up a notch in matches against Leicester.
However, they undeniably handled the run-in better than we did. We had glorious moments (3-0 United, 4-0 at Stoke) while they simply ground out narrow wins. We did have a poor start to the Season but the fact is that we topped the table on 5th March for 13 minutes until Sanchez equalised. Dropped points on the run-in were the difference. The gap grew rather than narrowed. Credit where it’s deserved.
The exuberance and grit of our young players gained us the most points from losing positions. But that statistic is a double-edged sword. We got into losing positions more often than Leicester. And worse, we dropped too many points from winning positions (last night above all). Somehow we contrived to have the best attack, best goal difference and best defence, but we still struggle defend a lead.
Let Leicester have their moment. It’s deserved. And I’m over the disappointment. I’m going on Sunday and I truly hope the players can get over it too, put on a show against Southampton, enjoy a post-match parade and secure 2nd place. Would I have taken that at the start of this Season? You bet I would.
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I can’t say I enjoyed the performance last night. There’s standing up for yourself and losing it completely. Having said that, what were Chelsea and their fans on? They’ve had a terrible season and the sight of Hazard heading to corner flag to waste time for a 2-2 draw was bizarre.
The suspensions will make it more difficult in the last two games will make it more difficult but hopefully now with a bit of the tension gone, we can get that win to keep us above the Woolwich.
Last night though shouldn’t take too much gloss away from what has been a fabulous season for both us and English football. Leicester and Spurs have shown that great teamwork can compete with large price tags.
We should be proud of the team and ourselves. We’ve taken enough stick over the years.
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Brilliant piece. Thank you for writing it. I agree with everything you have said but you have expressed it better than I could have.
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Oh well Alan. It was good while it lasted and have to be honest, I’m now worried holding onto 2nd place with Dembele and Deli Ali out for the rest of the season.
To be honest I was shocked (although I kind of liked us giving them a kicking) that we stooped to their level and lost our focus on the game, which we could of won had we just kept our nerve and played our game.
Teams are now learning to wind us up and we are taking the bait, just hope Poch instil’s some discipline and focus into this young team.
Keep up the good work Alan 👍
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Superbly written piece a really great analysis of the match and season. Lessons in controlled aggression during the summer a must for the whole team. And perhaps our media department can in future fire some sort of put down reply to any nonsense being spouted by opposition players . Hazard and Fabregas desperately trying to endear themselves to the cheatski fans ; how pathetic.
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So very well written.
Don’t know how old you are…I am sixty,and I guess a similar age…so your writing and emotion resonates.
Leicester,despite the baggage,are worthy,
We weren’t ready…but soon we will be. But,please God…lets get second!!
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As you say, the dream more or less ended last week so the concession of any chance of the league title was pretty much secondary for me, the big disappointment was not holding on for the three points away at Chelsea, if for no other reason than to stop the media repeating the same guff every season as the fixture approaches ( the fact the guff is factual being the real sore point!).
Last night at times threatened to turn into something like a YouTube video of a 1970s Leeds game, and much of it in the cold light of day is hard to defend; but, while no-one would like to see their team resort to such Mourinho like tactics regularly, as a one-off I don’t think it’s such a bad thing after the ‘soft Spurs’ jibes of my pretty much my whole Spurs supporting life. Dier though , how he escaped a red card I’ll never know, Graham Roberts may even have thought twice before jumping into that last, inexplicably booking-free , challenge!
I wonder did the lack of discipline come from being so worked up on the night, or were they lashing out because they know they had a great chance to win the title but also knew it had slipped away and were maybe most frustrated at themselves? Whatever, I think we deserve second and hope we can seal that spot on Sunday. In fact I think we deserve first but it didn’t quite come to pass!
One last thing, you know your team is now one of the big scalps when it appears everyone you meet is giving you a hard time because Spurs didn’t quite manage to win the league – but this is as good as its ever been for me so I’m quite happy to take, and return, the abuse ( some of it surprisingly bitter from previously rather patronising fans, which is great news!)
Thanks for another good read and providing an outlet for us lot to air our views too each week.
PS. Kane really is magnificent.
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Brilliant season for our Lilywhites, and unexpected by most I suspect. The positives are all there, youth, commitment, strength and most importantly teamwork. Last night and WBA, are small growing pains, what we have derived positively from the high press and pressure game, has also popped up as weakness. Leads in both flittered away because of loss of concentration and unfortunate a lack of leadership, Poch deserves a little negative pop here, I think his sideline demeanor the past few weeks has become a bit disjointed. Athletico model should be our guide to defending, pressure when needed but banks of four getting back and no giant midfield gaps, like we saw last night in the last 20 minutes. The last goal by Hazard derived purely by him beating three men pressing and acres of space subsequently opened up. The swashbuckling attacks of the Stoke and United games were brilliant but maybe gave us a touch of arrogance?
I personally was not bothered immensely by the yellow card barrage, Clattenburg decided right out not to early book, his choice, hence both teams responded with aggressive fouls. The disparity in number of cards and fouls was not an accurate reflection of the match, the lead up to the final goal could have easily been flag a foul on Kane, in retrospect a tighter called contest might have help keep the boil down, and ultimately helped us I believe. Both teams likely would have finished with less than 11.
One note about the Bridge,and that crowd, usual embarrassment, reacting like they won the league, and adoration for players who have shown zero heart and commitment this season, worst title defense in EPL history. “There only one Ranieri” chants ridiculous, they ran him out on a rail, they are a joke! Nothing new here.
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Hi Alan
Although gutted that we couldn’t quite make it this season I do find it quite amusing that both the Woolich wanderers and the charmless oiks from cheatski feel that their best result from this season was a 2-2 draw with us. Its nice to know that they both hold us in such high esteem
Having been a regular down at The Lane since the mid 1960’s and a season ticket holder since 1980 this is the first time I can remember us still being in with a shout of the title into the first week of May and have enjoyed this season immensely. I feel that with 2 or 3 good signings this summer we can push on and hopefully finish on the top step next year and then maybe, a few more teams will regard a draw with us as their best result of the season !!!
Up the Spurs
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Thanks Alan and others for your words. Whilst we would have loved to have won it has been a fantastic year.
CL next year with our youthful team and a couple of signings we could be anything.
Two games to go. Let’s finish above that Arse scum. Second would be nice.
Go Us COYS!!😀😀
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The whole world rejoices, let alone England, Alan. And let them too. I can understand the Foxes’ fairy tale, and it may prove a damn good thing for football as a whole. But as for this game, the point was missed by all the neutrals. Spurs have pretty much known for some time that the football gods have smiled on Leicester. Too many drawn games, including the ones at home against Arsenal and WBA, finally nailing our hopes of 1st. No ..we went into this match with the thought of pulverizing Chelski, and that alone, following the words which went before. Leicester’s crown would have just been delayed a little longer. We deserve to be hauled before the FA, but by God so do they ..for their weasel behavior and words before and after the match, and their sly activities during it. Typical of Chelsea that, despite their clear superiority and success since the millenium, owing to the riches of a Russian magnate, they still loathe Tottenham! That’s OK (I recall the jealousy of the Blues in the 1960s despite them being the supposed darlings of ‘swinging’ London) but they’ve shown no class in aiming for the cheap appeasement of their fans ..promising to get Leicester over the line as some sort of distraction to their own miserable season. The banners supporting Leicester and Ranieri were so sickeningly pathetic, I laughed out loud that this awful club should seek to share in another’s glory because they themselves came up so short! Oh well, if Chelsea and their fans are so easily pleased ..bless ’em! To all Spurs fans out there, take it as a huge compliment that despite our loathing of Arsenal alone, there are THREE frightened London clubs who hate us with a passion.
Good! Long may it continue from this day on.
Our players made their point at the Bridge ..but leave that type of behavior behind now! In any other game I would have been ashamed of what our players did, but part of me found it wholly understandable, if not acceptable. Let’s hope the FA consider the actions of both clubs and players ..during, and around, the entire match.
Moving on, we have to beat Southampton this weekend to ensure 2nd, before the Man City v Arsenal game kicks off. We may be missing a few key players due to suspensions but it will be a chance for fresh cover to step up and sign off this heartwarming season at the Lane. It should be our best finish since 1963 ..which at least is something ..but I really feel that even better times lay ahead next season.
Just let your football do the talking in all future games, Tottenham ..and let the officials spot and deal with the infringements of our opponents alone. We would have beaten Chelsea if we hadn’t had ‘murder’ on our minds for much of that second half, and Chelsea knew (despite them playing the game as though it was the FA Cup Final) that they were playing a far superior team!!
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We all would have been happy if we knew we could be top three,it’s just that finishing above the sky favourites and then Leicester come from nowhere is obviously disappointing.We didn’t exactly blow it because we were never in first place anyway,on the other hand Arse were top weren’t they?
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Just a line echoing a few others comments – the behaviour of Chelsea in general, their loathsome fans, and Fabregas and Hazard in particular is what annoyed me most. I secretly enjoyed Spurs putting the boot in after the “let’s hand the title to Leicester” shenanigans of the past week. Chelsea fans, instead of crowing about “One Ranieri” should have vented their ire at a team that seemed to believe this was a Cup Final after spending the previous 8 months fannying about with minimal effort – one or two obvious names spring to mind (are you reading this Hazard and Oscar ?). Oh… and on the One Ranieri theme – you thought he wasn’t good enough a year or two back, remember ? I also console myself with the fact that even if we had taken the three points on Monday, there is NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that the final game would have become a Chelsea – Leicester Love-In and the end result would have been the same anyway. Let’s do it for real next year. COYS
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I disagree that the whole country / world wanted Spurs to lose the EPL. It’s less “Spurs cant win” and much more of a “Leicester should win”
I believe that the more neutral supporter wanted Leicester to win the EPL and to do that Spurs had to lose that game. This is why the focus was on the ‘battle at the bridge’
Forget what the Woolwich and Scum plastics say. Chel$ea finished Ninth as defending champions. They carried on like the Gooners did when they claim they “won it at WHL” but in reality, it was all but sealed before the kick off.
If you were a betting man, You’d not only bet on Leicester to beat Chel$ea’s record title defence choking record next year, You should consider throwing the house on it.
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