Archive for the ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ Category

E8702128-08F8-4A62-8B13-9192E86D2093

Europe’s “top” coaches who, apparently, don’t include Pep Guardiola who is probably the toppest, but do include Arséne Wenger who is neither a coach nor was he, latterly anyway, one of the top ones, have requested that UEFA take another look at the away goals rule. You know the one, it’s when a cup tie finishes level and the win is awarded to the team who scored the most goals in the away leg.

We were always under the misapprehension that the rule was introduced to stop teams boring supporters to death by defending for ninety minutes in the away leg of a tie, usually having won the home leg 1-0. It was to replace the coin toss and encourage the away side to play attacking football, or so we thought. (more…)

gs

England’s superiority complex is what had held them back over the years. They have actually had some half-decent teams since winning the World Cup in 1966 but have usually gone out of tournaments meekly every time.

It is fair to say that this complex has become inverted and England have gone into most competitions expecting to be leaving for home early. They had, for many years, an inferiority complex, despite their supporters expecting them to win everything in which they have been involved for the last 52 years.

Now it is becoming clear as to why this has been happening. Using completely irrational logic they now think that LOSING a World Cup semi-final to a team ranked eight places below them in the world order is a successful tournament. (more…)

69766110-DE0C-4310-902C-8C7CB4912EF1

The impending international injury window has already seen Raheem Sterling pull out of the England team for the two utterly meaningless games against Spain and Switzerland.

It shows a little forethought from a player not deemed to be blessed with one of the higher IQs in the game because he obviously knows that he is not really good enough to play for Manchester City so, the last thing he wants, is to be injured whilst with England and then fail to get his place back in the City team.

In our book he would be behind Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Leroy SanĂ©, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Pep Guardiola, Mike Summerbee and uncle Tom Cobbley in the pecking order. Yes he really is that average. (more…)

iD57E9516-21F4-432C-A21C-0C6F642CE5B6

Having boldly predicted that Manchester City would be the team to catch this season we also boldly predicted that Liverpool were probably the best equipped to catch them.

Having also written off Chelsea and Arsenal because of “new manager syndrome”, whatever that may be, and Tottenham Hotspur because, well, they won nothing last year and they have the same players this year so how can they win anything with that blasĂ© approach to life in the Premier League, we were left with Manchester United as the only other possible challengers to City’s crown. (more…)

C7D02979-5FDE-4CCA-9200-6250E07A5085

Continuing our look at the Premier League games involving the big six and today was the turn of Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsenal and Manchester United have both managed a paltry three points from their first three games whereas Spurs have an impeccable record with three wins from three, although their game against Watford who also had three from three would see the end of one or both the 100% records.

First up was Arsenal who were in Wales playing Cardiff who somehow, along with Swansea at one stage, managed to escape the Welsh League and find their way into the English Premier League. We are pretty sure that both Celtic and Rangers would like to know how this was achieved! (more…)

0899E0CD-08F3-434E-9EC6-6768AFD55BFD

The Premier League weekend started with an early game at the King Power stadium between Leicester City and Liverpool with the visitors looking reasonably comfortable when taking a two goals lead into the interval.

Sadio Mané and Roberto Fermino had scored the goals with the other member of the trio, Mo Salah, missing a great chance and, eventually, being substituted in the second half.

Leicester certainly chased the game and the referee didn’t appear to be of much assistance when giving free-kicks to Liverpool every time one of their players fell over. (more…)

cl

The first thing we must do before looking at the draw itself is congratulate the northwest clubs for almost monopolising the Champion’s League places.

This year we will be looking for improvement from Everton and West Ham and, if we are going to have another London club this time, we would quite like West Ham to be it. So goodbye again to Arsenal and Chelsea and, with a little luck, Tottenham Hotspur. Welcome to the Europa League AGAIN!

Anyway, the draw has been kind to Manchester City, reasonable with Manchester United and Liverpool and quite tough on Tottenham. Here are the groups which contain the English teams. (more…)

am

So the board at Manchester United which, effectively, appears to be Ed Woodward, have decided to reward Anthony Martial’s poor performances, petulance and disobedience by offering him a new contract until 2023 with the usual raise in pay.

This is despite manager José Mourinho wishing to sell him and the player expressing a desire to leave the club.

Either Ed Woodward himself or the Glazers seem to have bestowed upon the diminutive marketing man from Chelmsford, a power of attorney which gives him the final say over everything at the club. He has proven on several occasions that his knowledge of football is, at best, dodgy, when he has preferred to look at transfer targets with a high marketing value rather than their potential benefit to the team. (more…)

jm

All of those Manchester United “supporters” who want José Mourinho to be shown the door marked “do one”, should be careful what they wish for.

We here at WSA are United through and through and it is difficult to watch this team most of the time, but patience is required.

We also found it very difficult to watch teams assembled by Wilf McGuinness, Frank O’Farrell and Dave Sexton. The team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson for the first five years of his tenure was an awful sight to behold and lost regularly.

Then we got David Moyes and Louis van Gaal so, if you think this is bad, where have you been for the last 50 odd years? (more…)

jm.jpg

So what is it then? The players aren’t good enough? They are overpaid and lazy? The manager is not good enough? Would the players, for example, get away with this standard of performance if Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge?

Many excuses and reasons have been offered for the downturn in form of Manchester United. Remember also that this is José Mourinho’s third season and we all know what happened to him at Chelsea when he supposedly “lost” some of the players and was sacked.

There aren’t too many examples of what has happened to him in the third season at other clubs but that is mainly because he usually only sticks around for two. (more…)