Rayvin

Could do with a second before half time just to take the sting out of their probable second half surge.

I think, 3 years ago, if we'd all known that the consequence of that screamer of an equaliser against Arsenal was that Tiote would be wasting shots from a million miles out at least once every 2-3 games...we'd all still have taken it.

I'd go HBA, seems like the sort of game he'd do well in. If he, y'know' feels like it.

I'd love to see us win by 3 or 4 for once...

HAHA!! Awesome!

Just to add to that, Fergie never criticised his players in games and always, always made excuses for them. And he's giving lectures at Harvard on people management.

Is it not also fair to say though, that he's striving to relieve pressure? If he tore into them every time they lost, saying that they should have no excuses, he'd probably do far more damage. These are footballers with fragile egos after all. And they're mostly French in our team for crying out loud - the French have always responded well to a dressing down by some Cockney git I'm sure. Does Pardew tell his players that they can't win a game before hand? I don't know, I've only ever heard him excuse them after they've lost.

That's a fair point - and in truth, for me that settles the Europa League aspect. With that said, though, you noted earlier something about a handful of points being a fairly negligible matter in cases such as this. We were only 5 points off 8th last season (although admittedly our goal difference would have seen us in 10th). I think the League last year was a bit of a freak thing - everyone was so tightly packed from 8th to 17th. One more win (say against Wigan or Reading) would have put us 11th.

If AVB was such a psychologically brilliant manager, he wouldn't have lost the Chelsea dressing room in about 4 months, and Spurs would have found the confidence to score more. Pardew isn't great by any stretch, but he has just beaten the master and the apprentice in straight games, and has in general fostered better team spirit than this club has had in a long time. Without actually being in the club, it's hard to say whether or not the Europa League has an effect. All we can do is speculate really - but Swansea certainly seem to have lost their way - I get the point about fitness, but what about things like match preparation? If you normally have 5/6 days to prepare for your next league match, doesn't that go out of the window if you have a game on Thursday? You would only have 1 or 2 full days to prepare for your next league game (i.e. managing tactics and individual player strategies etc).

He's much more likely to be productive against Norwich and WBA as well. Less quality in defence - against teams like Spurs where we can't expect possession, he's just a passenger.

Yeah, I hate thinking like this but had we beaten fucking Hull and Sunderland, we'd be 3rd. I mean come on!! A little consistency!!

Beat Chelsea and Spurs with two clean sheets... what the hell is wrong with us?

Woooo!!!!!!!! Haha awesome!!

there must be something that Pardew expects Obertan to do when he puts him on like this...

Obertan...

Erm...Krul for MOTM anyone?

This is gonna be a siege for the last 20 minutes isn't it... I really hope that this is just a good spell for Spurs and not the rest of the game.

Also carries more goal threat than Shola...

Good decision by Pardew - Anita should shore things up a bit.

Bloody Williamson... he just won't play it on the floor.

Y'know, sometimes, it feels like Pardew might know what he's about.

If we can just get to half time...

From what other teams have done, if we just park the bus it seems unlikely that Spurs will find many ways through us. I can't imagine we'll take a more ambitious approach than that, so I would think that this'll be a poor game...

Superb analysis. The only thing I'd add is that while their midfield is strong and with numerous options, they still aren't looking at all convincing up front. Perhaps if they'd gotten Damiao over the line they'd be a different prospect. Not convinced by Soldado at all. Therein lies my hope for us getting something out of this game.

Sorry yeah, it was more shite relative to what I was expecting when they signed all those good players!