Title Race

Last weekend, Chelsea extended their lead at the top of the table to six points as they beat West Brom 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, while their closest rivals, Southampton, were held to a draw on Monday night away at Aston Villa.  Manchester City remained two points further back in third place, as they came from behind to snatch a 2-1 victory against Swansea.  By all measures, these clubs have been the best in the Premier League so far; not only are they occupying the top three places in the table, they also have scored the most amount of goals (Chelsea 30, Southampton/City 24) and conceded the fewest (Southampton 6, Chelsea 11, City (tied with Swansea) 13).  Through 12 games, Chelsea look far and away the best team in England, but Southampton and Manchester City have been a class above everyone else as well.

The Blues are unbeaten in all competitions this season and the only two league games they have failed to win have been against the Manchester clubs, both of which were away fixtures.  To say they are title favorites is an understatement, to suggest they could have the title all but wrapped up by next Wednesday is not an exaggeration.  Their next two matches are away at Sunderland – a ground they actually lost on twice last campaign, but this is much better iteration of Chelsea – and home to Spurs in midweek.  Meanwhile their two closest rivals, Southampton and Manchester City, meet at St. Mary’s on Sunday, then the Saints face a tough trip to the Emirates to take on Arsenal, while the reigning champions travel to the Stadium of Light, a fixture they have lost 1-0 in each of the last four seasons.

Relegation Battle

Two games ago, it looked as though Burnley could be threatening Derby’s unwanted record of fewest points ever amassed in a Premier League season (11).  However, they followed up their first win of the campaign against Hull, by beating Stoke 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium.  The Potters, who won away at Manchester City and Spurs this season, have been struggling at home and the Clarets took advantage by scoring twice in the first 13 minutes, both goals coming from Danny Ings.  Although Jonathan Walters managed to pull one back for Mark Hughes’s team before the break, they were not able to deny Burnley their first away win of the season.  The Clarets now sit just a point away from fourth bottom and survival is no longer a distant prospect, but something for which they can fight. Continue reading →

Something happens during the two weeks of an international break.  It is almost like a cleanse for me, as I rarely even follow what is going on with the European Championship qualifiers and never considering watching any of the matches.  However, as the fortnight comes to an end, I realize how much I love football.  I love watching it. I love playing it. I love reading about it, writing about it and listening to podcasts about it. Okay maybe the podcasts take second place on a Thursday when the new episode of Serial comes out – I’m hoping by the end of the season not necessarily for resolution, but that the girl at the beginning learns how to say “Mail Chimp” – but I have listened to virtually every Guardian Football Weekly over the last seven years.  The point is, I love football.  That’s not really a revelation – this site is called Political Footballs after all – but the fact is, every time I watch Tottenham play, an outside observer would say that I actually do not enjoy the experience.  And by outside observer, I mean my wife.  And by do not enjoy, I mean I hate it with every fibre of my being.  But the thing is, much as Spurs have been so pathetic this season and caused me to write this rant just twelve days ago, I have missed watching them since then and I am excited for Sunday’s game against Hull.  Which I am sure we will play badly in and will be beaten when Tom Huddlestone outplays his replacements in the Tottenham midfield and probably scores a cracking goal from the edge of the box.  And I might think to myself “I really don’t enjoy this” again.  But then on Thanksgiving Day, between the turkey, parade, Lions and Cowboys games and pumpkin pie, I’ll find myself watching Spurs take on Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League.

It is a good job that I do have such an affinity for the game, because in recent days it has not just been Tottenham’s struggles that have been putting supporters loyalty to the test.  Wigan Athletic, now in the Championship after an eight year spell in the top flight, decided to appoint Malky Mackay as their new manager, a man who has been revealed to be a misogynistic racist through the publishing of messages he exchanged with his former assistant, Ian Moody, during their time at Cardiff City.  Following on from that, the Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan, showed that it was not necessarily an accident that Mackay had been promoted, as he also made some racist comments, then doubled down on them when challenged.  The details of both cases have been presented extensively on every football news site out there, but this is all I want to say about it. Fuck Wigan. Fuck them and their racist attitude.  I think everyone can agree with that sentiment, probably many of their own fans as well.  I hope they get relegated.

Back in the Premier League, the results from the last round of fixtures that took place so long ago, it was before humankind had landed a probe on a comet, the title race was effectively wrapped up for Chelsea, as they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, while Manchester City were lucky to escape with a 2-2 draw at Queens Park Rangers.  I’m actually understating that, since they got away with a miss hit goal kick by Joe Hart that went straight to Charlie Austin and the QPR striker tucked the chance away, but the goal was ruled out because the ball had not left the penalty area.  That is fine to call it back when it is a defender who is taking possession and the ball does not come out of the box, but why should the opponents be penalized if it comes to them?  By the letter of the law, it was the correct decision, but City should still consider themselves very fortunate not to have been beaten in West London. Continue reading →

This season has ranked as one of the worst in recent memory for Tottenham, with almost no performances of note and some lucky results keeping them from being outside the bottom three through eleven games. To figure out why we are just so bad, I decided to deconstruct the squad, position by position.

Goalkeeper
Hugo Lloris is actually one of the few members of the team whose performances have been beyond reproach. He is a safe pair of hands, dominates his area well, and call pull off spectacular saves – something that has been crucial to keeping Spurs in matches this year when they have been playing poorly. His replacement, Michel Vorm, has only made three appearances so far, but has shown himself to competent.

Right Back

With Kyle Walker injured, the job of right back has fallen to the other Kyle, Naughton, and when he has been injured or playing badly, the youngster Eric Dier.  Neither has performed particularly well, though Dier looks strong going forward he has been caught out in defense several times with people running behind him, most notably at the start of the second half against Newcastle United.  Not too much blame can be placed on Dier, whose natural position is in the center of defense, but there are very few options outside of him and Naughton until Walker is back to fitness, which is supposed to be in December.

Center Back

Perhaps nowhere typifies Tottenham’s failings in 2014/15 more than the center of defense – with the possible exception of the inept strike force – but it is hard to find anyone who has performed particularly well.  Younes Kaboul not only makes the team every week, but has also been made club captain by Mauricio Pochettino, both of which are inexplicable decisions given the Frenchman’s poor positioning sense, terrible decision-making and frequent rash challenges.  There are moments where Kaboul can give the illusion of being a strong presence in the air, or a marauding central defender going forward.  However, on a weekly basis, he is far more likely to get beaten on a counter-attack, or commit a foul in the area, than he is to be a dominating force.  Alongside him has been a combination of: Federico Fazio, who has managed to get himself sent off in the course of giving away two penalties in just 8 appearances; Vlad Chiriches, who is far too casual in possession; and Jan Vertonghen, the best center back at the club but a player who looks ready to move on from White Hart Lane.

Left Back

I only have one question for Spurs at left-back: how does Danny Rose keep getting into the team?  Defensively he is terrible; he gets into spats with opponents often and could have been sent off last season against Stoke and today versus the same team; and going forward his crossing is often wayward, matched only by his awful shooting.  Rose is renowned for a goal he scored on his debut against Arsenal, but that has become such a joke among Tottenham fans that we await the mention of that strike in the commentary, every time he skies another ball into the crowd.  Is Ben Davies really worse than this?

Defensive Midfield

A whole lot of nothing for Tottenham in the holding midfield role so far this season: Etienne Capoue and Ryan Mason have been the preferred pairing in recent weeks, both of whom work hard, but they do not have a strong array of passes at their disposal and are each guilty of giving the ball away too frequently.  There is not much difference between Capoue/Mason or Mousa Dembélé – who looks like a shadow of the player he was when he first joined the club – and Nabil Bentaleb, none of them tend to be the weakest link in any given line-up, but they certainly have not been adding any real positives.  Benjamin Stambouli escapes any criticism merely because I have not yet seen enough of him to get frustrated as yet. Continue reading →

Last weekend in the Manchester derby, United defender Chris Smalling got himself sent off shortly before the break and seriously dented his team’s chances of getting anything out of the match.  His first offense was particularly stupid: attempting to block Joe Hart as he kicked the ball out from his hands, something that always results in a booking; then he clattered James Milner on the left-wing to ensure that his colleagues would have to attempt to keep out the remaining champions for the last 52 minutes of game time with one less player on the pitch.  To United’s credit, they were never over-run despite their inferior number, but they were also fortunate that Michael Oliver seemed determined not to give a penalty, no matter how many handballs or fouls they committed inside their own area.  City were able to grab all three points – and thus win their fourth consecutive derby match for the first time since the 1970s – thanks to a brilliant finish from the league’s top goalscorer, Sergio Aguero.

Had Manuel Pelligrini’s men not managed to claim the win, their hopes of catching Chelsea in the title race would be all but finished, even at this relatively early stage of the season.  That is because last Saturday the Blues racked up their eighth win in their first ten Premier League fixtures this campaign, overcoming a stubborn QPR team 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.  Chelsea took the lead after half an hour of play, thanks to a beautiful strike by Oscar, but Rangers equalized in the 62nd minute when Charlie Austin brilliantly redirected a shot with a backheel and found the bottom corner.  However, a penalty converted by Eden Hazard maintained a 100% home league record for Jose Mourinho’s men and also ensured they stayed four points ahead of the team in second place, which is currently Southampton.  The Saints overcame Hull 1-0 thanks to a first-time shot by Victor Wanyama from 40 yards, punishing goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic’s poor clearance.  On Twitter, I commented that Mauricio Pochettino’s move to Spurs did indeed turn a team into title contenders, but that team was Southampton – something Saints fans loved and they have every reason to be happy.  After being written off by so many (including myself) before the season, they’ve now won nine of their last ten games and are Chelsea’s closest challengers, while they sit eight points above the clubs that have their former manager (Tottenham) and three of their star players from 2013/14 (Liverpool). Continue reading →