Its a big ‘un today, Spurs v Citeh in the Premier League and a real cup final feeling to this one, as the winner will likely bag that 4th spot and a place in the Champions League next term. For City, that fourth place will mean that they spend BIG over the summer, and bring some movers and shakers to the EPL as they seek to become a big club.
For Spurs, the next step awaits– they have been on the fringes of that 4th spot before and nabbing it this year will show real progress as a club. Who will be able to call themselves the ‘Kings’ of 4th place? Come on in, lets find out…
Alright folks, I’m at work like many of you, but have access to the game and didn’t want you lot to miss out so here we are…Shhhhhh!
This one has some added spice, after Harry Redknapp claimed today, that City warned him off signing Bellamy, by threatening to sign Palacios from Wigan out of spite.
So, how much is that 4th spot actually worth? Dan Roan can tell you HERE.
Team News: Sunderland’s second choice stopper and City loaner, Martin Fulop is between the sticks for Mancin’s men to replace the injured Shay Given. Lets hope he is fit for the World…Oh wait. Joleon Lescott is missing for the last two games of the season, like Given.
Spurs have beaten Man City in 10 of the last 11 Premier League encounters, so the stats are with the travelling yids, for sure. But Tevez may have other ideas–Today’s game is his 100th in the EPL.
Teams:
Man City:Fulop; Zabaleta, Toure, Kompany, Bridge; Adam Johnson, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy; Tevez, Adebayor.
Subs:Nielsen, Richards, Onuoha, Wright-Phillips, Santa Cruz, Sylvinho, Vieira.
Tottenham:Gomes; Kaboul, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon, Huddlestone, Modric, Bale; Crouch, Defoe.
Subs: Alnwick, Bentley, Jenas, Pavlyuchenko, Palacios, Gudjohnsen, Bassong.
Assou-Ekotto is back in the Spurs line-up, he who plays football ‘for a job’. Lucky git, many would love to have his job, its a dream and yet he doesn’t like football. I knew of a Norwich player in the 90′s who was just the same. Still works at the club so I promised I’d never share that name.
Gomes passes a fitness test and starts and King is also passed fit. 10 mins to go!
Europa Cup finalists (suck it Benitez) Fulham are at home to Stoke this afternoon, so I’ll keep my peepers on that one too.
Five minute’s to go and I’m pretty excited–Well who isn’t?
Ricky Hatton is in his box and looking pretty large these days. Top bloke.
Spurs are in a huddle (stone), Crouch has to bend his knees to hear whats being said. Paul Walsh is today’s color man, he ain’t gonna be biased much is he?
and we’re OFF! Woot!
3: This one has started at full pelt, at a high tempo and Eastland’s is rocking.
How’s class Ryan?
5: Bale is playing pretty high up the pitch on the left and Modric tries to find him, but City cut the pass out.
Kaboul clatters Bellers from behind and gets a talking to from the ref.
6: Johnson twists and turns on the right and tries to find Bellamy in the box wide left, but Kaboul cuts the pass out and starts Spurs up the field.
7: Spurs are defending high and Tevez catches them out and skins Dawson to set himself free, BAE races back and challenges–putting Tevez off his step. The little Argie still gets past his man and fires a shot from a tight angle on the left, Gomes saves. Lucky escape, I wouldn’t be holding a line as high as half-way with Tevez running off your shoulder..Risky.
11: Great atmosphere at Eastlands and City are bringing this game to Spurs now, Tevez looking lively on his 100th EPL appearance.
12: Johnson and Zabaleta share passes and Zabaletta gest round the back, but Bales blocks the cross.
14: Spurs get their first corner and….Its sent long by Modric towards Kaboul, but a City head gets their first, Kaboul recovers but City regain possession and bring the ball away through Adebayor.
15: Spurs are defending too high and Dawson gets lucky; Johnson sends a ball diagonal to Adebayor and the English defender gets a foot to it at a full stretch, denying the big striker a one-on-one opportunity. City will catch this back four out soon, mark it.
17: Spurs free-kick for a push bu De-Jong, but Modric’s high ball is dealt with.
OHHHHHHHH WOWSER. A second free-kick, wide right is whipped in and misses everyone, arriving at Crouch, who stoops to slam a header against the left upright. Let off for City and Spurs have just turned it up a notch.
21: Another Spurs corner and King has the ball in the net but it won’t count. King was all over Barry, both hands on his shoulders, forcing him down as head headed the ball.
Spurs are looking dangerous now. Tails are UP!
25: It’s end to end stuff now, and a pretty good game. Spurs have had the better of the last 10 minute’s, doing a good job of forcing Tevez away from goal to retreive the ball.
27: Man City corner comes to Adam Johnson 30 yards out, and his strike is through the pack, Gomes sees it late but pushes it away from his goal for another corner…Which comes to nothing.
29: Spurs free-kick lands on the head of Dawson 15 yards out, Bridge returns his header with one of his own, and clears.
30: Kaboul is given a yellow card for a foul on Bellamy and the free-kick is wide left, 35 yards out. Bellamy lifts it in but Spurs clear.
Tottenham are no longer defending at the half way line and now Adebayor and Tevez seem starved of the ball.
@TNO He was perched on his shoulders holding him down. Deffo a foul.
33: Game has slowed in pace over the last few minutes.
34: OMG great save from Gomes! Man City enjoy a spell of p0ssession and probe the left and the right as Spurs clear crosses from both sides, but Adam Johnson meets a cross on the right and heads it down, goal bound from 8 yards– Gomes reacts qucikly and makes a super save to keep the score 0-0.
38: Tevez has spent the last 10 minutes, behind Adebayor looking to gain some possession, and when he has it, he looks dangerous.
Huddlestone finds Lennon on the right and he pops up a high ball to the back post where Crouch nods down for Bale in the center, who hits a left foot volley at waist height wide left. Good chance.
42: Good work by Johnson after Tevez finds him on the right, his attempted cross is blocked and out for a corner via BAE. That corner is claimed with ease by Gomes.
45: Crouch is getting treatment after landing akwardly from challenging Kompany in the air.
3 added minutes are on the board as we look at Shay Given’s tasty wife; She has lots of shiny jewelery around her neck, displaying the Irishman’s crazy wages in public. And why not! If you’ve got it? Flaunt it!
Man City are looking to finish the half strong and are all over Spurs at the moment.
Half-Time!
Ryan, you should have dumped class for this one, it’s been entertaining!
Both teams have had good chances and quite frankly its been even for me; Spurs started slow and allowed Man City some decent possesion before having a decent spell themselves. City ended the half stronger as Spurs looked to get to half time with a clean sheet. Gomes saw more action and made a couple of great saves, and Spurs had a goal disallowed and hit the post.
Back in a few.
Still 0-0 in London as Fulham and Stoke are playing that one out…Yawn.
Here come the players for the second half, old onion bag is imparting some wise words..”Get da ball out to Aaron Lennon, get it to Crouch”
Back underway….Spurs kicking left to right.
47: Johnson weaves his way into the Spurs box from the right and passes to Tevez, but the little Argie whiffs his shot.
48: Tevez lets his Argentinean side out for a moment as he controls the ball with his hand in the Spurs box.
50: Barry gets round the back on the left side after some good work from Adebayor and Bellamy, and the middy crosses from a tight angle, beating Gomes, but Dawson clears.
Man City have started this half how they started the first.
52: BAE takes a wild shot from 40 yards and Fulop watches it cut the grass as it wizzes across him wide right.
53: Lennon cuts inside from the right with a long run and unleashes a left foot shot from 20 yards. Zabaleta blocks.
Patrick Vieira is warming up–He’ll be popular with the Spurs fans if he comes on.
56: Dawson has been very good today as he cushions a header into the midfield and sets Spurs away with Modric.
OHHHH-Phew. Breathe a sigh of relief City, Defoe– who has been a ghost all night, receives the ball in the box on the left and he blazes his shot wide across the goal. Great chance, he should have hit the target there.
59: Huddlestone is booked by referee, Steve Bennett. The Spurs man stomped on De Jong after a 10 second period of frantic tackling, involving 3 sliding efforts. De Jong was no angel himself as he slid in legs up, but you can’t stomp on a dude. Yellow card.
61: End to end stuff now and the Eastlands crowd is appreciating the action. Very noisy indeed.
66: Cracking game now, and both sides enjoying possession but neither side can find a way through to fashion a clear chance this half. How’s that class Ryan?
67: Crouch and Modric share passes just inside the box but the little Croat is crowded out by City defenders.
70: Game opening up now….Bale whizzes a shot across the box from the left and City were toast, caught out– but neither Defoe (full stretch) or Crouch (full stretch) could slam the ball into the empty net.
72: SWP is on for Johnson I think? I’ll come back to that. Bentley is also on and I missed the outgoing player while typing…I suck!
76: Right, Bentley was for Lennon and SWP was for Johnson, straight swaps. Still end to end and very exciting stuff. Modric tries a wild shot from around 40 yards but its high into the stands above Fulop.
78: WOWWWWWWWW. FULOP. Crouch is on the end of a Bale cross from the left and he heads the ball low and to the right from 8 yards, surely it’s in? NO. Fulop gets to it and City clear. Phew. Thank Steve Bruce for that one City, Nielsen would NOT have saved that.
80: Tevez weaves his way through the midfield, left to right, and unleashes a right foot shot from 22, but King’s nogin stops it getting through on goal.
81: Defoe (who has been quiet, no silent) is OFF and Pavs is on to join Crouch. Long ball for Spurs now!
82: GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL
CROUCHALDINHO……Bale’s cross from the left is too high for Pavs but Kaboul gets the ball on the right and he’s round the back. Fulop pushes Kaboul’s cross away and Straight to Crouch. BOOOM. Noggin. Goal. Champions League, meet Tottenham Hotspur?
Who says the big man doesn’t score in big games?
Manchester City 0 Spurs 1
87: Man City need to commit now, what they got? 4 mins and stoppage to start with.
88: The Man City faithful are urging their side on as Tottenham look to defend this game now. Harry wastes no time in wasting time as he makes a sub. Palacios for Modric.
90: Spurs playing keep ball now and frustrating City. Harry looks like he is ready to explode as Mancini is up, on the touchline and looking a tad confused.
4 minutes of added time is on the board. Can City save their season?
92: Spurs fans are going mental in the away section. They’ll have a pleasant 4 hour drive home if this score holds.
93: Two on two…Crouch feeds Pavs between the Man City defenders and the Russian hits it first time. Fulop saves and its out for a corner.
Spurs are keeping the ball in the corner. Time is running out.
Stoke have scored at Fulham. 1-0 Potters. And thats a final– Stoke win.
The final whistle goes and Spurs have done it. Champions League football at White Hart Lane… wait, hold on..They could even catch Arsenal and head straight to the group stage without a play-in game. Watch out Gooners!
Crouch has been slagged off, left, right and center this season and yet, its the big man with the crucial goal to secure Champions league football.
Sorry Ryan, I hope there are hot chicks in your class, to help ease the pain.
FT: Manchester City 0 Spurs 1
Thanks for joining me. Laters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgomX3qD-iA&feature=player_embedded
YESSSSSSSSSSSS. COYSCOYSCOYS.
Congrats, Spuds. And you still have a shot at third!
/shivers, throws up bile
How soon till Spurs are flogging DVDs of this one?
@ef:
Based on current form, MORE than just a shot. You have to believe they are going to overtake us on Sunday.
EAT A OIL SOAKED DICK CITEH
@Jape, So true, they should be trying even harder to impress the manager, and not coasting by because they wear the shirt.
@Keith – ‘boss’ may be the wrong word to use, but the greater picture remains the same. show initiative, intelligence, think on your feet, and get to the point. That itself is problem solving. It’s how you move up the ladder (any ladder). You know where I’m going…but your point is noted.
Unless we can petition the FA to allow us to use Chamakh v. Fulham…
Where are all the Crouch bashers eh? Where are they?
@Hocks: I still maintain faith that we’ll turn this around and put on a good display at home. We only need a draw to consolidate our position.
Still, St. Totteringham’s Day has come too late this season, if it will come at all.
AS perhaps the biggest Crouch detractor, I must say: Thank you, Peter. Thanks you, thank you, thank you.
@ wac: That’s exactly what I’m saying, though. Students aren’t being taught to exhaust the available evidence to support their theses. They’re being taught to write to arbitrary numbers (i.e. a paragraph is only 4 sentences, and a basic essay should be 5 paragraphs), which leads them to say, “I don’t need to take all this space to say this,” which leads to ever truncated writing, which leads to douchebags like a younger me (I’ll admit having the same flippancy toward bluebooks), and the guy in Goat’s class, to walk out after 30 minutes of a written exam. And I say this as someone whose most useful higher education credits came from a news writing class.
Oooooof. This is why you go for the win at Arsenal Roberto!!!
Congrats to Spurs. Have fun losing to Zenit in the qualifying round.
/Couldn’t resist.
@wag: exactly. What I’m saying is that the numbers/bare minimum is what’s being taught, not the critical thinking skills. Part of it is there aren’t enough teachers; the other part is that there aren’t enough GOOD teachers.
Thanks, Ryan. Let us know how the Euro Disney League is next season.
See ya in Europa league, Gareth!
@Anonsters:
Iiiiiiiiit’s a small cup, after all! It’s a small cup, after all! Iiiiiiiiit’s a small cup, after all! It’s a small, small cup!
/still celebrating the frigging PEACE CUP.
as much as it makes me sick to say, I prefer to see spuds in 4th than Citeh with their checkbook and champions league football.
That said, arsenal better not f**k this up on sunday!
Zenit didn’t qualify for the Champions League.
@Anonsters Honestly, I know this is terribly reactionary, but I would rather have us play all kids in the Europa next season, wouldn’t mind if we pulled a Villa either honestly.
@Keith, yeah, but it works both ways. In my class, I’m legitimately regurgitating notes until I’ve reached 2 pages to show that I read the chapter. I find the main ideas, but then I find other things to talk about just so that I fill up space.
This is a far cry from my Soc Theory class, where I wrote 4 pages (with the period trick, so more like 3.5) on Marx and my job at TGI Fridays. The requirement was 5 pages, but my teacher liked my content/writing style and I got an A-.
@Ryan: You bastard.
Ryan that’s exactly what I said for us. Nothing wrong with it really.
If you can say in three pages what you can say in five, writing five is a waste of everyone’s time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgomX3qD-iA
enjoy it, friends!
@Georger Really? I’m just going off of this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_UEFA_Champions_League, but it looks like they’re in.
Oh I was going off Soccernet’s table, which says that the third team goes to Europa. Shocking they’re wrong.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/tables?league=rus.1&cc=5901
@wac: tl;dr
Seriously, though, in that case, if the page limits are forcing you to do a super close reading of the chapter, there’s a benefit in that exercise, too.
I find, looking back over my educational experience, that writing longer at young ages cannot be a bad thing as you come into working out your critical thinking capabilities. I do think that should be balanced out by a GOOD newswriting class somewhere in college, though, to teach you how to self-edit and go from a mass of information to what’s important. But having the ability to generate that mass of information in the first place is a valuable skill.
From Isaac, Manchester, via text: “You got to have some sympathy for Man City. Match after match, year after year, their hopes and raised and dashed. It’s like waiting for the Messiah and constantly getting Brian.”
AB-solutely brilliant.
Garry Cook, fly to Milan, prostrate yourself at the foot of Mourinho, beg him to come to Manchester with you. Have a deal done by morning or you’re fired.
At least Gareth Barry won’t be in the Champions League.
@whizalen – now you’ve said it. I wouldn’t even bother watching Arse this weekend, except they’re playing Fulham (and of course, I like Fulham).
@Georger – Exactly. If you can say what you need to in less time, and still explain/argue a point thoroughly – fair play and well done. I’m tired of the time wasting but for the work just for “work’s” sake. No different than us all sitting around blogging at work all day. We could have worked hard half a day, left and been happy, but everyone continued the charade to just leave work now after not doing anything for the past two hours.
hear, hear, Georger!
@Ryan: Yup. Mourinho to Citeh. Done aaaaaannnnd done.
City are going to need to rework their entire roster to fit Jose’s system. Not that they don’t have the money to do it.
@Georger: honestly, other than Ade and Tevez, who stays of that lot if Mourinho comes in? Barry? Zabaleta? de Jong?
I seem to recall Jose loving Micah Richards. I think Ireland and Johnson would stay sadly.
@ef Can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or not. I don’t think we’re 1st on his list though. Seems to me the Madrid job is more attractive (of the clubs that can afford him). If money were no object, I’d say Liverpool is a more appealing place as well.
You win at Citeh, you’re an icon. You win at Liverpool, you’re a legend. Not to s**t on your club, Ryan, just the history of it – you were in third tier a decade ago.
But Mourinho chases the big money clubs, and Citeh has that moolah, that gwap. Liverpool? Sure, they have cash, but enough to woo the Special One?
Well done Spurs!
@ef I think you just repeated what I said:-) If money were off the table, and the Liverpool and City jobs are side by side, Liverpool wins out every time. I get it, and agree with it.
But like we’ve said, money is most definitely on the table, and City have a bunch of it. So hey, maybe we can woo him over. If not, push on with Mancini I guess.
Chelsea won the league all of what, one times?, before Jose came in. The man likes to be THE man of a club. He could do that by leading City to European success. He would never be able to surpass the Anfield legends.
THAT BEING SAID PLEASE SAVES US JOSE!
@Ryan: I’ve always thought that the manager position was the weakest part of Citeh’s organization. Mancini was somewhat of an upgrade, but Mourinho would provide he massive continental experience and swagger the squad lacks.
Hopefully Jose isn’t a stickler for syntax and grammar or I’m f**ked.
@ef Again, you’ll get no argument from me. I would love love love it if he we could get him.
Just saying I don’t think the odds of it happening are real great.
On the flip side, maybe Torres won’t join Citeh as they’re in the same competition as us next season. So that’s nice.
@Ryan
The only place Cook is going is the circus.
@Ned The man’s a clown, no doubts over that.
Thanks for the live blog, by the way.
Finally watched the game. That was the most nerve wracking 90 minutes of my life. I love Peter Crouch. I want to have a daughter just so I can let him marry her.