Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[KRS]

Any news on Heskeys injury? Didnt see any incident.

Once again, the highlight of the game was Heskeys work for the goal...everything else very average.

Going to take time for GH and co. to change things. Need a striker more than ever.

[AVFCRob]

Heskey got injured setting up Albrighton's goal in which he did brilliantly. Can hardly accuse him of being injury prone in this instance, surely?

[Olneythelonely]

As good as Heskey has been recently, he's never far away from a niggley injury.

I'd have left an injured Heskey on ahead of the absolute bollocks that replaced him. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Lots of positives to be taken from today. We deserved a point but we really look weak up front. Carew needs replacing and we badly miss Gabby. Heskey was great for the short time he was on and our midfield looked the best I've seen it for years. NRC was excellent, unquestionably MOTM although Downing had another good game.

Dunne was at fault for ball watching for their first goal and sleeping for their second. We really handed it to them today. When you only have four bloody shots on target all day, you can't really expect to win games.

The big difference today though was Van de Vaart.

[sfx412]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.
Another good game for the 2 O'Neill caste offs, Petrov did very well in the first half, then faded but he wasn't on his own. Can't see the point of Carew any more, not that I thought he was much use anyway apart from scoring against poor sides.
Houllier must be desperate with the lack of alternatives in midfield and attack, but then if he'd had 150 mill to spend like some he might have.
Generally not a bad performance, worth a draw, pity its 3 points dropped and its 9 months before he can sign anyone seriously. I don't see the youth stepping up, Albrighton faded again, Bannan did little, Ireland doesn't fit and will soon get fed up.
Why he played Dunne I'm not sure, he couldn't cope with their front line, his concentration wandered too many times again.
Perhaps in the 2 weeks before Chelsea visit he will have sorted more out, I wish him luck, the depth of the problem left by the previous manager was exposed for all to see, today. All that money spent and few no options.

[PaulWinch again]

Gypsum your summary of Dunne's performance is bang on. Terrible that Carlos was dropped for him.

[Chris Jameson]

I'm confused, has Heskey suddenly remembered he's a footballer or have Villa suddenly become very, very rubbish because once he went off they seemed to fall apart.

[Monty]

It's going to be very tempting for many to make Petrov the 'escaped goat' as Karl Pilkington would say, but he put in his best performance since the West Ham game and was not responsible for our general capitulation - that was Dunne and Collins being seemingly desperate to be as close to Friedel as possible. Besides, they scored their second when we had come back into it and were running the midfield. Added to NRC's continued excellence and Ireland's decent cameo, I think it would be fair to say that the problems were at the back and the front in the shape of Big Fucking John Carew, not the midfield.

[AVFCRob]

You just don't feel that Villa can hold the lead at the moment. It's Groundhog Day week after week. Even at 1-0 up the recent performances suggested what was going to come.

This is when we find out what GH can do for us.

[sfx412]

Big changes needed on the personnel side, which really isn't going to happen until next season. This one is all but wrecked already.   

Its been on the rocks since that bastard ran off, but with over 30 games to go and lying with just 2 defeats, I would say that's a bit hasty.
Would you bet against Everton reaching Europe I wouldn't and I would say a close defeat at Spurs where we rarely do well in Houlliers first few weeks is not the time to start crying and bringing out the sack clothe and ashes, unless you know where Mon is.

[Fin Feds Dad]

Carew is finished.

A lot of people seem to be saying this but it's a bit simplistic.  At the end of last season, he had his best spell since he joined.  He's just out of form and confidence, and it cost us today.

Couple that with a shit fucking attitude = carew.

[Olneythelonely]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.

Good job we only used one kid for 80 minutes and another for 10 then isn't it. Although, Gareth Bale is the same age as both of them.

[Muscle-Dolphin]

A spine of:

Overweight Dunne
Over the hill Petrov
Overrated Carew.

Are we really surprised that we got beat by a very enterprising Spurs team?

Houllier should never have dropped Cuellar for Dunne, Petrov needs dropping, Carew is just shite.

rant over

I second your rant.  Carew has no enthusiasm.  On a positive note, it was nice to see Albrighton get his first goal.  Carew is a bad influence on the club.  Petrov is pretty much mediocre at best.

[Monty]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.

Good job we only used one kid for 80 minutes and another for 10 then isn't it. Although, Gareth Bale is the same age as both of them.

Different players bloom at different ages. It depends on the position as well, and Bale is electric quick and a left-winger, two attributes which help him stand out at an earlier age.

[richard moore]

A really excellent first 30 mins. We had some nasty, we had some pace, we had no shortage of skill and an ability to play the ball on the deck. That Spurs were still running hard at the end of the game says to me that this first 30 mins wasn't a result of them being knackered from their midweek CL match, but that we were playing really really well! Heskey was, once again, bloody marvelous! Great running from Albrighton to sense the opportunity.

Spurs only seemed to really come into it just after the half-hour mark when we seemed to concede an easy 15-20 yards of the pitch. Coincidence that that was the time Heskey went off?

NRC did an excellent job on Spurs midfield, especially Modric who only dared to venture into the Villa half on (I think) 2 or 3 occasions. But, as usual, Petrov's fading on the hour meant NRC had twice the work to do and Spurs really had the best of the 2nd half.

Disappointed to see Carlos not in the starting line-up. Dunne left VDV for the first goal and for their winner. His distribution was ok but no way should he have been in there ahead of Cuellar.

What the fuck was going on in Carew's head today, I'll never know. His lack of any decent decision making and poor efforts on goal cost us 3 points today. Literally undoing all of the good work that went before he came on.
If he can be arsed to fucking well switch on, then he can fuck right off! I'm totally pissed off with him. I hope I never hear that "Bigger than me and you" song again. He no longer deserves it.

I've felt he hasn't deserved it for ages to be honest. Even when he was knocking in a few goals, I thought his all round game was letting us down very badly on far too many occasions. He needs to be kicked out in January big time...